REVIEW – Gears of War: Judgment
Gears of War: Judgment is a third person shooter. It was developed by both Epic Games, and People Can Fly as the fourth entry to the Gears of War series. Microsoft Studios published for the Xbox 360 in North America on March 19th. Judgment is a prequel to the Gears of War Trilogy, which takes place 30 days after the icon “Emergence Day” which is the day the Locust emerges from the depths of the planet to kill everyone and everything, and start on taking over the planet. The story is not told through the eyes of Sergeant Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. Instead the story is told through Lieutenant Damon Baird, the Leader of Kilo Squad and its members as they make their testimonies in a trial for disobeying higher command, in order to do what needed to be done.
Each testimony is a chapter in the story you play, and control. However moments in the story can be changed through the declassified missions; separate side objectives that will have you do a side mission before completing the main objectives. These can be avoided, but I like how these missions can change the story, and this will add replayablity to the game just to see how missions will change. Also I have to commend the folks at People Can Fly studios and the art team because this has to be the best looking Gears game made. Colors pop out, and are vibrant, which is refreshing to see in this series. Also new mechanics and gameplay changes make this game feel different from previous titles. Enemies are smarter, and so are you’re AI teammates.
This game also incorporates tower defense elements. Certain parts in the mission will have you defending a certain locations for an allotted time. By using barbed wire fences & automated turrets, it adds strategy to the game, and you have to place these in certain locations to successfully defend your objectives. As for previous Gears titles, Co-Op is in this game, as well as multiplayer. Multiplayer match types are standard; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and your standard objective based modes. However, there is a new game type that I really love, the Overrun mode. It is an objective based game type in which one side is COG soldiers who must protect a generator and the other are Locust who have to destroy the generator, and open up the Emergence hole. There is also a class-based play style for this. COG’s have medic, solider, sniper, and engineer, each with their own different abilities and skills. However the Locust have their multiple species such as tickers, wretches, Corspers, Kantus’s, etc… However you can’t just pick the heavy hitters from the start, you must earn points by taking down barriers, getting kills, and providing aid to the team. You can switch each class as you die, and level up. So by utilizing these classes, along with team Coordination you can take on the opposing side and win the match.
Gears of War Judgment, is an amazing addition to the Gears series. With its unique single player experience, revamped gameplay features, and its new multiplayer modes I give Judgment a 4.5 out of 5.
