Gears of War may well be one of the most hyped games of all time. Microsoft and Epic have made it completely impossible to avoid the onslaught of Gears of War propaganda that has been ramping up over the last few months. It won't be until Halo 3 that you see another marketing campaign bombard the video game world like Gears. I remember seeing the early screens and thinking it was no big deal, not really giving it the credit everyone said it was due. Then I saw it in motion, and I was on board immediately. As I got caught up in the hype I wondered if the game could live up to the standard that the gaming community had set for it.
I was not ready for Emergence Day. I ran to my 360, shredded the wrapping, and booted it up. From the moment Dom opened my cell door to the rolling of the credits I was immersed in Gears of War. It is an experience, halfway between a blockbuster movie and a military engagement and never letting go. I played in the dark, in the middle of a storm, with surround sound far too loud. It was possibly the most spectacular campaign I have ever played in a video game, on par with the first runs of MGS2 and Halo. The visuals, the sound, everything comes together to bring you into the world of Gears of War.
You ARE Marcus Fenix, and you feel every bump and shot and jog as you rip through the locust horde. The storyline is bare-bones and confusing at times, but the seeds for a very interesting and in-depth world are there. More importantly, these little story kernels piqued my interest; I found myself daydreaming about them while my professor droned on about anti-derivatives. I couldn't wait to go back to tearing through tactical encounter after tactical encounter. Even after playing it, I was immersed.
Better yet, having a friend jump in to be Dom is an even better experience. A friend and I tore through the last two acts together, cursing and yelling and marveling at how god damned cool this game was. Everything in Gears is on some bizarre sort of testosterone steroids that make the world stand out from the crowd of sci-fi shoot the aliens games.
I ran into some connection problems on the online end of the game, but the several matches I did play on emergence day were fantastic, edge of my seat wars. This is more than a game, this is an experience. There are elements which are less than perfect; the thin plot, the somewhat dubious writing, the fact that single has to end. But as an experience Gears of War has few peers. I compare it to running through the first Splinter Cell for the first time in an overnight session or playing old Resident Evil games with the lights off. It is as much about the game as it is about how you interact with it, a true piece of video game art.
10 of 10
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