unforum

[Jas0n]

Quite an amazing game thoroughly - though running through the main story only takes a few hours to complete on the lower difficulty.

Graphically, it appeared to me that all of the cutscenes in game were identical to the gameplay... with the lone exception that you could see your player's face and the zoom on the characters.

I have yet to have an opportunity to play online, though I'm looking forward to it. The story is pretty good as well, somewhat confusing at first to what is happening and why ... the what gets cleared up, not yet the why.

You get the opportunity to drive a vehicle, but you're somewhat limited with what you can do with it. It's not quite like driving anything in Halo - you're limited to a specific route.

Weapons are planned out very well, the primary gun is awesome - if you get the chance to get close to a baddy (should happen) Hold B first to rev up the chain saw on it, then your trigger to fire... Blood and Gore all over the screen, awesome.

I do have one complaint with the gameplay and that is the "sneaking" you have to do and the physics don't seem quite right. definitely isn't splinter cell.

Out of all the games I've played, graphically this one is the most intense... areas of the game seem so vast and really pull you in. Warning though, if you have problems with motion sickness and playing games - you'll likely have a problem with this one. I've never had any problem, but one particular area was starting to churn my stomach as I was controlling my character through it... didn't help that I was twitching back and forth to view how amazing the scenery was. I'd personally give it an 8/10. Some more open environment for game levels would have been nice and more Halo like vehicle action (since they introduced the vehicles). Graphically 10/10

[thebruce]

the story is covered a lot in the manual and in various trailers and such. I haven't read through the manual - actually, I only broke it open after I finished the entire game. Which is also, unfortunately, when I first noticed the 'active reload' feature the whole game I was playing with full reload times and the odd weapon jam in reload. hehe Active reload is a very nice feature, and now that I'm playing through in hardcore, I'm sure it will come in handy.

Also note there is no 'health' per se, but rather a timed damage, in that if you get hurt to a certain degree, you can die, but if you wait a few seconds, you'll return to normal. Much the MC in Halo with minimal health once the shield and armor deplete (though technically they say the armor is slightly tied to the health in that the armor has healing ability built in ) anyway...

Graphically, no arguments - best graphics I've seen to date, not just technically, but man - artistically! I was consistently amazed at the level of detail in the environments, architecture, nature... it's jaw dropping to say the least. Making full use of the graphical effects really adds to the cinematic feel of many of the scenes, and cutscenes. Well implemented!

As for open environments, from the sense of sheer scale, I'd totally disagree - the fact that I couldn't see any 'background' images at the horizon, but that landscapes were entirely geometry was astounding. From the sense of freedom of movement though, perhaps the maps were relatively more constrictive than open and massive. But I for one didn't notice it while playing...

My opinion is that the bar has definitely been raised a few clicks for Bungie if they want to maintain their Xbox 'killer app' status with Halo 3. Otherwise, for now at least, Gears has definitely taken the cake.

[sad_bot]

gears of war...