Gears of War Judgment is the fourth game in the Saga but goes back to where it all began. The story is a setup story for the main trilogy's backup characters Baird and Cole. It is a nice idea to go back and set up these characters because they are ever present in the main story arc but you do not really feel they are fleshed out as much as Marcus and Dom were when playing through Gears 1-3. The story starts at the end, with our duo and company in a tribunal. The game is basically broken down into testimony's of the events that unfolded which lead to them being put before the jury.
It works well with the game allowing to flow through the section and then a cut scene setting up the next. You feel the characters emotions well and truly understand the decisions made. The secondary characters in the game are also strong with a distinct personality and overall the story was strong. The campaign runs for around 6-8 hours which is fairly standard but at no point did I find it a struggle to keep playing. There is also Aftermath which is a short add-on to the disc which sees you play Baird and Cole through a section of Gears of War 3 where the two groups are separated. It's nice to see how they got to where they did when not with the main group but it did not really add anything to the game for me.
Level design and graphics are fairly standard compared to the rest of the series with waist high cover in abundance. The graphics are solid and the colours or lack of feel right within the world. There are a few more enemy types thrown in to the game which actually made me wish they had made it into the main games as they added a new threat to proceedings. Also I really enjoyed the 'Declassified' missions. Through the main campaign you find tags on the wall which if you choose to activate, start the next section under a restriction. For example you may be working you way through a building and normally it would be illuminated. But selecting the Declassified mission this would turn off the lights meaning only light through windows can be seen and enemies are harder to spot. This adds a bigger challenge and can add to re playability. Playing through a section knowing that there are going to be harder enemies, or having to use just a pistol etc really became fun as you challenge yourself that little more. The reward is additional XP and also an achievement or two. For some reason this was taken out of the Aftermath section of the game which was a noticeable absence. I was disappointed by it and also really feel that a DLC should be available for the other games so they can be played through with Declassified missions.
All in all Gears of War Judgment did not really make any new ground and was more of an expansion of the series rather than a re-invention. There were some good additions and it felt like it was created with care rather than thrown together purely to make a few bucks. Comparing this to something like Halo 3:ODST really shows Bungie up as this does generally stand up well as a stand alone title but I think releasing at £40 was a bit high. A £30 would have been about right in my eyes but it was good all the same. Multiplayer is very much what you come to expect and again tread on familiar ground.
Graphics - 8
Sound - 7
Controls - 8
Story - 8
Overall - 7.7
Multiplayer - 7
MR
No comments:
Post a Comment