 |
| |
Preview of: Gears of War | By: Justin Fenico |
05 Jun-2006 |
|
It’s been a few weeks since I experienced the Gears of War multiplayer fracas at E3 and after having plenty of time to digest everything, I have to say it is one of the titles I’m most looking forward to playing, both offline and via Xbox Live. |
 |
Though we can only speculate how exciting the single player campaign will be, the focus at E3 was primarily based on the type of fun and entertainment gamers can expect when hopping onto Xbox Live. Let’s face it, there are plenty of entertaining first-person-shooters that you can play on Live, all of them consisting of 10 on 10, 12 on 12, 16 on 16 or even 32 on 32 massive squad based battles.
Gears of War attempts to do things a bit differently by pitting close combat, 4 on 4 squads against each other. Their aim: to produce a much more realistic, tight-nit, “band of brother’s” atmosphere that compels teammates to communicate and coordinate with each other. Adding to the close proximity style of fighting is the well incorporated “Kill-Zone” style of gameplay. Players will be able to duck and take cover behind corners, walls, broken down cars, and collapsed columns. In the multiplayer match I took part in, the map seemed to offer plenty of areas where players could hide and lay down covering fire for their other mates. This isn’t some type secondary feature put into the title either; Gears of War forces you to stop-and-pop when firing your gun. I found that out pretty quickly as I noticed the run-and-gun style of shooting emits a spray of machine gun bullets that have absolutely no accuracy attached to them. Sticking your head out and going Rambo style will get you killed pretty fast. Now you might be thinking staying covered the entire time would create a slower style of play, but instead it creates a more cautious and realistic mood and not necessarily slower. Working with your teammates, as I found out during our skirmish, provides the basic undertone on being victorious in battle, especially when someone goes down in combat. If quick enough, players will have the ability to revive their fallen comrade should they be shot down during a firefight. On the other hand, should someone from the opposing team see their twitching body on the ground, they may proceed to give them a swift boot to the face, ending their life permanently.
Gears of War is one of those games where I can honestly say, the pictures do not lie! The game is that good looking and I’m beginning to think any title that uses the Unreal 3 engine is one step closer to becoming an instant eye catcher. Though the multiplayer map doesn’t show a whole lot of explosions or chaotic scenarios, I got a nice idea of how the finish product will look. Player models, both human and locust look phenomenal boasting plenty of normal mapping, realistic lighting, and movement. Looking closer you can see sweat dripping from the humanoid’s bulging muscles and even the different ridges on the locust’s body. The map, while a bit small in size, boosted plenty of rubble and nice architecture to convey an apocalyptic look. This will no doubt be one of the better looking (if not the best) games of the year.
Even though I only spent twenty minutes playing, I was extremely impressed. Though the Nintendo Wii definitely has me excited about its possibilities, Gears of War seems to be the perfect title for 360 owners. A lot of people were worried about Microsoft’s plan without Halo 3 being released this year. I think we now have our answer. |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
