The shooter to end all shooters?

Gears of War this, Gears of War that. For the past year and some change, that's pretty all you heard, and it got the point where you couldn't discuss the future of gaming without taking on a reference to the game. Sometimes, when a game gets this much hype that early in its development, it spells trouble: either the game will flat-out flop, or it won't meet the expectations it built up and get bad press. Now that "Emergence Day" has come and gone, and Gears of War has finally made its grand entrance, the question remains: Does it live up the hype?

All signs point to "hell yeah."

The story behind Gears of War goes like this: On the day dubbed as "Emergence Day", the Locust Horde rose from the underground and attacked every major city and district in the world, killing billions of people and reducing all things to rubble. The few survivors evacuated to Jacinto Plateau, an area that served as a safehaven and protective housing from the Horde. When the invaders finally broke through the defenses, Marcus Fenix, a member of a military unit known as the Gears, attempted to rescue his father, which was a direct dereliction of duty. He was unsuccessful, and for his actions he was given a prison sentence of forty years in the Jacinto Maximum Security Penitentiary. Once it became obvious that the Locust were just too powerful, the COG “paroles” Fenix for the extra muscle, and from there, you are thrust into the action. You play as Marcus Fenix, and along with the help of three others members of COG, your job is to eliminate the Locust Horde and once again make the world safe for all mankind. Or die trying.

Gears of War is an over-the-shoulder third-person shooter, which to many may sound like beating a dead horse. Make no mistake about it-- this game is more innovative than just about any shooter you've played before. In Gears of War, the main focal point in gameplay is the proper use of cover, thus eliminating the comparisons to other shooters as another "run-and-gun" game. Running full blast into a conflict will surely get you slaughtered in this game, and it is up to you to navigate and negotiate each stage and its terrain strategically. Dipping in and out of cover is essential in survival, and in this game, you can utilize just about anything for the added protection: doorways, broken walls, pillars, charred automobiles, and so on. If it can provide cover, use it to your advantage. The Locusts are using the same strategy, so you'll have to figure out what the best approach is in relation to your situation. Do you stay in cover to take down the group? Do you flank them and use the element of surprise or find a better attack point? Do you flush them out with a grenade and pick them off? The decisions you make and the weaponry you use pretty much mean life or death, and that's just a taste of what makes this game so unbelievable.

Another innovation is the active reload function, which is a meter-based weapon reloading system. You have the option of just pressing the reload button and letting it be, but if you need to reload quickly and get back into the fight, you can time your reload against that meter, stopping it in a specified area. If you’re successful, your weapon will reload quickly and the ammunition in that clip will be a little more powerful. If you miss the mark, your gun will jam, and you’ll have a harder time reloading and probably leave yourself vulnerable in the process. Active reloading is pure genius, and it just adds to the already stellar gameplay element Gears of War brings.

Like I said before, the Locust, for the most part, aren't idiots. These beasts come on many different classes and ranks, and each one has their own agenda, from the Locust drones who mainly handle the grunt work and ground-pounding, to the elite-ranked Locusts who put more thought into their attack plan and pack the serious weaponry. They will take cover when under fire, call out and run from tossed grenades, sneak around to your blind side...pretty much whatever it takes to stop your advances. You will come across enemies that have more guts than brains, but as the game progresses, as in most other games, they will get tougher, smarter, bigger, and pack heavier weaponry, and of course, you will face some freakish bosses (remember the commercial). You won't know what you're going to get until it happens.

Though there are four of you out there smashing Locusts, most of the game is played with you teamed up with an AI-controller partner, who for the majority of the single-player mode will be Dom Santiago. Now, Dom is a fairly handy sidekick. Sometimes he will pull your butt out of the fire if you’re in trouble, but other times, when the action gets too thick, he’ll turn stupid, throw caution to the wind, and get himself greased. From that point, it's either game over if his death is instant, or you'll have to stick your own neck out and heal him before he bleeds out. Granted, there will come a time where you can command him, but your options are limited, and when you need him to follow an order, it’s iffy whether he’ll do it or not. This could be just a preset method of action that doesn’t allow player control, but when you have a hardheaded partner in certain situations, it seems to defeat the purpose of giving orders. Or, maybe the developers did it that way to give the player more to deal with rather than allowing your AI partner the pleasure of blowing away the Locusts.

Graphics aren't everything, any gamer with an ounce of common sense will tell you that. Apparently, that philosophy wasn't good enough for the developers of Gears of War. This is no exaggeration: Gears of War may have the best graphics I have ever seen in a video game, period. At first glance, you can tell that Epic was looking to squeeze out every visual capability the XBox 360 could handle. The character models, though a little exaggerated in size and muscularity, look absolutely brilliant; everything about them from the scuffs and soot on their armor to facial imperfections are all well-presented. Your in-game surroundings look just as amazing as the characters-- from the ruined cities to the underground tunnels of the Locust Horde, every area you do battle in is a thing of beauty.

The game's overall fluidity is just as amazing, as its blends in nicely with the solid gameplay. Even the cutscenes are rendered in CG, from the opening introduction to the ending sequence, helping the storyline and the action flow together consistently. Crisp, fluid movements keep the intense action rolling without a hitch as there are no notable hang-ups in the animation department, so you can definitely expect smooth, flawless play from start to finish.

In addition to the breathtaking visuals, the in-game sounds are just as amazing, bringing about a war zone feel comparable to that in Call of Duty 2. Bullets whizz and richochet, the Locusts snort and shout commands, and about the same ammount of profanity you'd hear in Full Metal Jacket-- Gears of War is as excellent in the sound area as anywhere else, especially in the voice-over acting. The main characters all speak with rugged, gravelly voices in a grunt-heavy dialogue. Every character in the game is voiced perfectly, more notably Private Augustus Cole, who is voiced by Lester Speight, the actor who starred as "Terrible" Terry Tate in the Office Linebacker Reebok commercials. If you love to hear great dialogue, you'll fall in love with him.

Gears offers three modes of difficulty: casual and hardcore are there from the onset, and insane mode is unlocked once you make it through one the previous two difficulties. Though the action is stellar from beginning to end, the main gripe is the short singleplayer campaign; it's good for a solid ten to twelve hours of play on casual or hardcore, so a player could run through it in a day or two. With three modes of difficulty, co-op options, and a long list of achievements to unlock, you can always go back for more, but you may find yourself playing Gears of War mainly for its online modes, which are unquestionably the staple of the game.

As mentioned before, the multiplayer online modes are what sends the replay value Gears of War through the ceiling. Epic went all out when they created one of the best online modes of any game on the market. Gears offers two types of online play; a two-player co-op mode and an eight-player multiplayer mode. In co-op, you and a friend can team up together on the single-player campaign, which, if teamed with a savvy partner, is far more fun than playing with an AI-controlled partner. What makes co-op even better is the idea of allowing a friend to join in your game, seemingly in mid-stream. There is no real reset or do-overs to deal with when you want to invite someone in, and you and your friend can pick up the action at the start of the last checkpoint.

The online multiplayer mode is one why most people play Gears of War, and for good reason. Up to eight players can either team up in four-on-four matches in three game types. All rules and abilities from the single-player mode apply, except during online play, you can perform special close-range kills, such as the infamous curb-stomp. What better way to finish off a downed opponent then stomping his brains out? Spilling their guts with a chainsaw bayonet, perhaps; it's totally up to you. The online play in Gears of War is unbearably fun, and it’s only going to get better once more levels are released.

It's a rarity finding a game that sticks every reviewable aspect, and Gears is one of those games. Graphics, sounds, and most importantly, the gameplay-- this game has everything going for it, and it lives up to every bit of the hype it jammed down our throats. Even with the minor bugs and hang-ups that come with all other games, I was amazed by what I was playing. To not have this game in your Xbox 360 game collection is like a form of self-punishment. There’s no doubt in my mind: Gears of War can easily go down as one of the greatest video games ever created.