Xbox Hardware & Games

In the future, guns are less accurate, but it looks so good!

Video: 5
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 4

Despite all the hype about the arrival of the PlayStation 3 (including our own) and its capabilities as a system for high-definition gaming, the best-looking home theater―friendly game of the year actually arrived for the Xbox 360. Sorry Sony, but Epic Games’ Gears of War is going to be the game to show off the capabilities of a nice home theater system this holiday season.

And, since most gamers aren’t going to be able to score a PS3 anyway, getting to lock and load with Gears of War hardly seems like settling. This could also be the start of the true killer-app franchise for the Xbox brand. (Sorry, too, Halo, but Gears has you beat on so many levels.) Part of the reason is that Gears doesn’t really do anything all that innovative, but it does everything so well and looks so good that it’s hard to find any significant faults.

The story is the typical humans vs. aliens in a desolate wasteland, one remarkably similar to Sony’s own Resistance: Fall of Man (which looks strikingly standard def in some parts). Gears features the usual assortment of single-player campaign objectives. The big difference is that the third-person perspective helps immerse you in the experience. As a result, you appreciate the main character Fenix a bit more. You see the damage he takes and the moves he makes, and you get to relate to him a bit more. Plus, this has let the developers do a bit more in terms of interacting with the environments.

The innovations here are the ability to hug the walls and better use cover than with the traditional first-person shooter. It isn’t much—I said that the game didn’t do anything really innovative—but it’s enough to make for a slightly more engaging experience. The biggest criticism of Gears is that it is over all too quickly. Hard-core players will master this game in less than 10 hours, and even less dedicated players will reach the conclusion in about 12 to 14 hours. There are some side quests and even ways to do things differently to extend the replayability, but it is the robust online mode that will keep you from ejecting the Gears disc from the Xbox 360 any time soon. In fact, you could consider the campaign merely training for the rich multiplayer game on Xbox Live.

Visually, this game can’t be beat in the shooter arena this year. There are 1080p titles for the PS3, but Gears of War still looks better (and Resistance is 720p, anyway). The game supports a native 16:9 widescreen perspective with 480p, 720p, and 1080i support. The visual effects really utilize the Xbox 360’s power. The gameplay relies on close-up action, so, if you’re a fan of sniping from a distance, this isn’t your game. In the future, it seems that guns are less accurate, but perhaps it’s because someone saw fit to mount chain saws on them! This makes for very cinematic and, at times, very gory moments that somehow never get old.

With the close-up action, you’re typically in the thick of it. Gears is also seldom a game about stealth, and this is evident in the pounding sound effects and verbose music that accompany this nonstop action. A full surround sound system is required to really get the most out of the game’s audio, and even headphones fail to deliver what the creators intended. Many games are big, loud, and over the top, but Gears of War is on the top of that heap.

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