Here we have it, the 4th Gears of War game, our Gears of War: Judgment Review, and does it live up to it’s predecessors? It’s all there – Lancer Assault Rifles, locusts, Boomers, Beserkers and all other various enemy types that we’ve become familiar with in the Gear of War franchise, and well, I guess that’s my issue with Gears of War: Judgment, it’s more of the same. That can be either a good thing or a not so good thing. This is the first Gears that Cliffy B hasn’t been involved in and one can only assume that might have something to do with it.
this game looks and sounds fantastic.
Let me get something out of the way to start, this game looks and sounds fantastic. I can’t see how on this gen of hardware, this, or any game could look any better. It’s absolutely stunning with detail everywhere from the debris on the ground to the characters facial expressions. The Gears games have always looked good, but this is most definitely the best looking of them. For that alone, it gets bonus points and is something that Xbox gamers should at least see.
Your ‘performance’ is graded in each of these ‘memories’
Game play revolves around the memories of each of the squad members. Your ‘performance’ is graded in each of these ‘memories’ and it has an effect on the next ‘memory’. This is done with the ‘declassified’ option in each memory. How you preform in one memory can add more enemies / different weapons / alter the conditions of the next battle, which definitely adds to the replay-ability of Gears of War: Judgment.
This was definitely fun.
In regards to the Mulitplayer modes, the one I found myself going to most often was Survival Mode. This involved 5 players fighting off 10 waves of enemies, with each wave getting harder and harder. This was definitely fun. The other modes – OverRun, Domination, Team DM and Free-for-all DM are decent multiplayer modes, but I definitely had more fun in Survival mode.
I just can’t get excited about Gears of War like I used to
So, why the opening paragraph? Well, I’d just come from the high of playing the most recent Tomb Raider game, which had a massively engaging story line, and felt fresh, open and new. I just can’t get excited about Gears of War like I used to. The game play is very linear and you know there’s a very specific path to follow. What I’d really like to see in the next Gears of War game is a more open world that allows for exploration, and hopefully that’s something that will be possible on the next-gen Xbox system.
