Is this the first "Killer App" for the 360?

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Controls: 9
Longevity: 9

Overall: 9.6

weatherbee1982's Excellence Award

The XBox, now the XBox360, are well known for having plenty of shooters on their systems. The first and foremost being Halo 1 and the love it or hate follow up Halo 2. Due to the great success of the Halo series, many software developers for the XBox/XBox360 consoles felt that almost all of those respective console owners mostly wanted first-person shooters (FPS), and kept delivering a mariad of titles in hopes of replicating Halo's sales. One of those companies to come to the fore now is Epic Games.

Epic Games, for those not in the know, are reknowned for their PC gaming prowess in the Unreal Tournament series. This series, which has garnered critical acclaim in the FPS genre, was ported over to the PS2 by Atari. However, the first Unreal Tournament did not do so well and did not capture the intent of the game, much to the disappointment of the designers. Fast forward to the present "Emergence" day...

Many who have followed any of my reviews know that I am usually hard pressed to give perfect scores across the board. Rarely have I had the opportunity to give this many, but this game has earned them. The setup into the game is quite simple, and offers a group of options at your hands. As I am rather new to shooters in general, my experience was not only with the Campaign mode, but it was with the Campaign co-op mode over XBox Live with a good friend of mine (at times split screen when I had the chance).

Graphically, this game is THE best looking game on the XBox360, bar none. There is no noticeable rate slow down or screen tearing on any scene, act or during intense firefighting action. This has usually been a problem for other games on this system (re: THQ's MotoGP '06) that hopefully developers have figured out. This game looks the absolute best on HD, but even on SDTV, you will notice that this game is finally the step up into the next realm of graphics for any system. For comparison's sake, only the PS3's Resistance: Fall of Man faintly holds a candle to this game (emphasis on faintly). In game to cut scene assets are not noticeably different graphically, which has been the dream standard set by the developers since the PS1 (Toy Story graphics, anyone?). The lighting and shadows will play to your advantage, if you have a keen eye, allowing for even more tactical decisions during intense firefighting situations, which adds more into the immersion experience of this game. Another important detail is how f*ugly these soldiers are, showing you all the scars that they have accumulated during their combat years. As this is a third-person shooter (over-the shoulder perspective), the view and high framerate allow you to see your fav soldier, as he chainsaws the opposition down into chunky, bloody bits (literally, better have strong stomachs out there, too).

As mentioned earlier, this game was heavily tried over an XBox live connection. The graphics of this game, amazingly enough, did not experience any slow down or lag issues, even during intensive combat events. This is thankful, especially during those times when you have to cover each other's backs due to enemies coming at you in both directions...

The sound IS important and IS wonderful! Having any 7.1, 5.1, 3.1, etc. set up will do wonders to add to the immersive experience, as this game takes full advantage of it, unlike others (re: Chromehounds). The opponents in this game, called Locusts, have their own unique form of speech, which will be advantageous to use for you in combat situations. Further, when they yell their version of "frag," you know it is time to look and run from the area, otherwise you will be blown to bits. Hear a noise from above, better look up! The whole grin factor comes into play when your girlfriend/significant other comes home and asks what war you're fighting, when all guns are ablazing from both sides, subwoofer turned up, sound at roughly -25 to -35 dbz and your hear some of your guys in the game tell them b***ches what's up (you heard right fellas, they swear like any good soldier would, which makes for some downright hilarious dialogue). It's sweet!

The controls, though significantly different from Halo or any other shooter across all systems, are thankfully easy to get used to and quite intuitive. The left shoulder is used to aim (causing an over the shoulder view, with the essential aiming cursor), the right shoulder is fire. The A button is the button used for you to gain cover, and on screen prompts will tell you how to switch between cover if needed. The B button is your chainsaw/butting with your weapon. The X button is reserved to allow you to pick up weapons and the Y button is used to allow you to zoom into important objects that you need to look out for. The left trigger button is set to allow you to find your partners, giving you an onscreen prompt, showing you which direction they are. A good addition would have been to show how far your partners actually are, and breaking cover when you want to during a fire fight sometimes is not as intuitive as it seems.

The longevity of any shooter hardly rests on any campaign that is put forward. Usually they are short, unimaginative and serve as tutorials to get you to the main part, online fighting in today's day and age (not like they used to be in the 90's). However, with that said, the campaign mode in Gears of War does have a reasonable story with hilarious dialogue that you can really enjoy. The co-op mode has really made this an enjoyable experience, and I would strongly recommend it if you know a friend who has this game. Strategy in some of the campaign acts (to which there are 5) is a requirement, because the AI in all difficulties will find ways to flank you, pin you down, throw frags at you while advancing, etc. Expect to die early, often, and have fun doing it, because blowing heads off those Locusts is quite fun and stress relieving. For the clock of the campaign mode, it took my friend and I approximately 15 hours to get through it in Casual Mode (we are now in Insane Mode getting killed like crazy).

The online Multiplayer modes are 4-on-4, with ranked and unranked matches. Being as I am a casual player who doesn't care whether I am pond scum, or king of the world, I usually side with the unranked and casual players. However, as a warning to those hardcore players who do look for ranked matches, there is a little bit of cheating currently going on. The issue stems from clan members planting their members on your team and purposely getting him/her to get their strongest weapon to your opposition. Hopefully this issue (even though the accounts are expensive) will be addressed soon! Otherwise, the experience is enjoyable and you will find plenty of reason to come back. There are currently 10 maps supported, with more promised.

I offer up to you, the reader, a strong argument for what is arguably THE best game available on the XBox360, if not across all 6 consoles available in this or last generation. If you are not one for shooters, but still have a 360, I would still give this one a try. It is a whole lot of fun, and isn't as quick to take you out of the game as some FPS out there. For those on the fence about whether to get the Sony Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution (Wii), or Microsoft's XBox360, this game is but another reason to go for the XBox360. This IS the first killer app for the 360, bar none.