GamesRelay

Name: Gears of War

Gears of War is the brand spanking new game from Epic games for the Xbox 360 and marks a slight change of direction from what they are usually known for, the Unreal series of games. Not straying that far from the mark it's primarily a shooting game, albeit a third person affair instead of a first person shooter, however, Epic have utilised the Unreal engine to bring us this game so you can pretty much guess that it's a looker.

The Gears of War universe is introduced as a bleak affair, the action for the game takes place on the planet Sera; the discovery of a new power source for the planet known as Imulsion has caused a collapse of the economy leading to a World War. During this war a previously minor political group, The Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) have emerged as one of the major players in the new world; when a subterranean race known as the Locust attack the surface of the planet it's this power that has the military might to combat their planets latest foe and to help ensure the survival of the human race. Gears of War starts its story 14 years after the initial attack on the surface dwelling humans, now known as Emergence Day or E-Day, we're introduced to Marcus Fenix who is a former COG soldier serving time in prison for abandoning his post in an effort to save his father. Marcus is rescued from the prison by Dominic Santiago, a former friend who has previously served with Marcus in the military, well, we say rescued but its more like a break out. The rest of the prisoners have been pardoned already and it's only due to the fact that the Locust are attacking the area that Dominic (Dom) has been able to get into the prison to release Marcus, however, it's not long before Marcus is reinstated into his former unit, Delta Squad. The player takes control of Marcus and guides him through a series of missions, first of all Delta Squad are tasked with finding a device known as a resonator. This device will allow the top military bods to map the underground caverns the Locust originate from so they can formulate a plan of attack; when this goes wrong Delta Squad must follow new orders in an effort to map the network of tunnels and when they ultimately succeed in this they must then deliver a bomb to the heart of the network to destroy the Locust once and for all.

The action begins as soon as the game begins, from your initial prison breakout you are straight away given the option of battling your way through the Locust to escape the prison with Dom or taking a slight detour along a small training exercise, though truth be known you are still taught the basics of the game even if you choose to fight from the start. You soon learn that to stand any chance in the game you're going to have to make use of the cover system; this involves taking refuge behind any pieces of the fallen prison roof or behind support pillars. Whilst you're in cover you can pop your head out to shoot at your enemy, you take aim by holding down the left shoulder button, pressing the right shoulder button to shoot, or you can just fire blindly by using just the right button and hope you hit your target. A stab of the A button will charge Marcus forward in order to make him move a little faster, doing this drops the camera lower to the ground for a more action like view and really works well in tense situations as you can't always keep an eye on your opponent and it really heightens the tension. Charging into anything you can take cover behind will automatically cause Marcus to stop so you've got something to aim for; the camera resumes its normal position so you can carry on the fight if necessary. The cover system works well and takes little to no time to get used to and before you know it you'll be popping off the Locust threat like a veteran. To help you pop off the invading threat you've got access to several weapons, starting off with just a short burst machine gun and a pistol you'll quickly discover the grenades before moving onto bigger and better weapons, and by bigger and better we mean it. Shortly into the game you'll be introduced to the Hammer of Dawn, this is a weapon not to be taken lightly. The Hammer of Dawn is a weapon in two halves, the first half is a hand held laser which you can use to point at (or paint) a target, pressing the trigger activates the second half, an orbiting satellite. Should the satellite be in an orbit around your general location it will send an energy blast to the precise point of the laser, devastating the target in the process. There are downsides though, the first being the satellite has to be in your general area, the second being that it can only be used outdoors, it's no matter though as sustained use would no doubt make the game way to easy and it just makes it more of a thrill when you do get to use the weapon on the Locust. The weapons in the game also take a novel approach to the reloading system, you've got a reload button like you would expect, but once pressed it will activate a bar underneath your ammo count to indicate how much time the reload is going to take. As the indicator passes over the bars sweet spot, pressing the reload button again will speed it up and give you a small damage boost out of the clip, should you miss this target then the gun will jam and delay the reload. It's something simple but effective and again adds to the pressure of the Locust threat bearing down on you.