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The Good
The Bad
Released near the end of the Xbox 360's first year on the market, Gears
of War was a defining moment for Microsoft's console. Its gameplay
relied heavily on forcing you to take cover to avoid enemy shots, which
meant that it required a healthy dose of patience as well as a steady
trigger finger. It then beat that mechanic into your head over the
course of its quality story mode, while also letting you team up with a
friend online to take on the nefarious Locust forces together. Of
course, it also had an amazing team-based multiplayer mode in which up
to eight shooters could connect and go at it in a variety of different
modes. Over time, more multiplayer maps and modes were added to the
collection via the Xbox 360's download service. All of that great stuff
is now available on the PC, on which the game looks better than it ever
did on the Xbox 360, and without sacrificing anything in the process.
If you've never played Gears of War, or if you just haven't played it
in a while, do yourself a favor and try this new version of the game.
The game's story component puts you in the shoes of Marcus Fenix,
who up until the very beginning of the game was serving time in prison
for treasonous behavior. But the war effort requires his special brand
of badness, so he's quickly set free, dressed up in his old soldier
garb, and put back into action with the members of Delta Squad. Your
enemy is the menace known as the Locust, which seems to be an
amalgamation of different races and creatures, all seemingly devoted to
exterminating your kind and taking over your planet. The game's plot
points are inconsequential and work in a number of meaningless
MacGuffin devices that serve as the only impetus you need to march from
point A to point B while gunning down bad guys the whole way. You'll
blast even more bad guys in the PC version of the game, which has a new
section at the start of the final act that fills in a blank left by the
360 version. It does a better job of explaining how you go from running
away from a huge beast with rocket launchers mounted on its head and
shoulders to showing up at a train station to take the battle to the
enemy general before he ruins everything.
The new content in the campaign is significant because it's
new, but it's not especially noteworthy in the grand scheme of things.
If anything, it probably would have worked better as a separate
"deleted scenes" mode than as an integrated part of the game because it
changes things up a bit in ways that betray the difficulty progression
of the game. The new content often takes place in wide-open areas that
are larger than any areas found in the console version, and it also
brings together different combinations of enemies than you see in the
rest of the game. Likewise, it forces you to cover a lot of distance
between most checkpoints, and it feels much harder overall than
anything in the "old" sections of the game. One section even features
multiple paths to get to the same location, which seems weird and out
of place, given the rest of the game's extremely linear nature. The new
content is pretty good, but it's not so mind-blowing that you need to
drop everything immediately to see it.
Of course, the rest of Gears of War is completely intact here,
as well. And the complete package, done better than it was on the Xbox
360, is exactly the sort of mind-blowing that you might need to drop
everything if you haven't already played it. Aside from a few
frustrating cases in which the checkpoints are a little too far
apart--and perhaps the need for a difficulty setting that falls between
the too-easy "casual" and the occasionally punishing "hardcore"
setting--it's hard to find many faults with the campaign, which will
probably take new players around 12 or 13 hours to complete. The
war-torn world you navigate through looks really great, and you're
always wondering what will be around the next corner.
The gameplay is really satisfying, too, thanks to a very brutal
graphical style that makes your weapons look like they're doing extreme
damage. Likewise, you'll appreciate the quality control with a
mouse/keyboard setup or an Xbox 360 gamepad, which is fully supported
in the game. Your main tactic in the game is to run up to an object and
quickly hide behind it, then occasionally pop out to fire off some
shots and quickly get behind cover again before you take too much
damage and explode into a bloody mist with several meaty chunks. With a
mouse and keyboard, you're mostly using the standard WASD shooter
control scheme, but the space bar is used to run and to get behind
cover, and you can hold down the right mouse button to pop up out of
cover and take aimed shots. With the gamepad, the left trigger is used
to manage cover, the right trigger shoots, and A is used for running.
Both setups work just fine, though holding the space bar to run feels a
little awkward. Furthermore, the mouse lets you turn and aim much
faster than a gamepad does, which means that the mouse will probably be
the control scheme of choice for online matches.
Up to eight players can come together online and break off into
two teams for a handful of different game types. Examples include
warzone, which is the normal team-deathmatch style of play, and
execution, which forces you to run up and chainsaw or boot players
who've been downed to finish them off. Other modes, such as king of the
hill and annex, make the game a little more tactical by requiring you
to claim and hold various points on the map. All in all, the
multiplayer offering is just as savage and great-looking as the
single-player mode, and with plenty of maps to choose from, it can keep
you busy for a very long time.
The graphics in Gears of War have never looked better than they do in
the PC version, though that, of course, depends on your machine. If you
can exceed the game's system requirements, the game looks pretty
amazing at higher resolutions and delivers a good, smooth frame rate.
It certainly looks much better and sharper than the Xbox 360 version of
the game, and it does so without looking like the typical console-to-PC
translation. The game also comes with a fully featured level editor,
another thing you don't typically see in console-to-PC translations.
Though some players may still prefer to play it with a gamepad, this
feels like a PC game, top to bottom.
With a great loadout of weapons, a healthy multiplayer package,
and an action-packed story mode, Gears of War is a terrific action game
that, even after a full year, still stands apart from the pack. Whether
you're a superfan of the first game who is looking for some additional
content, or a PC buff who's been wondering what the console kids have
been up to, Gears of War on the PC is most definitely worth your time
and money.
Satisfying gameplay in story mode
Very addictive online offering
Really stellar graphics from both a technical and an artistic standpoint
Fully-featured level editor included.
The Bad
System requirements can be a little steep
New chapters added to this version don't fit quite so well with the old ones
Difficulty could have used some slight tuning.
Released near the end of the Xbox 360's first year on the market, Gears
of War was a defining moment for Microsoft's console. Its gameplay
relied heavily on forcing you to take cover to avoid enemy shots, which
meant that it required a healthy dose of patience as well as a steady
trigger finger. It then beat that mechanic into your head over the
course of its quality story mode, while also letting you team up with a
friend online to take on the nefarious Locust forces together. Of
course, it also had an amazing team-based multiplayer mode in which up
to eight shooters could connect and go at it in a variety of different
modes. Over time, more multiplayer maps and modes were added to the
collection via the Xbox 360's download service. All of that great stuff
is now available on the PC, on which the game looks better than it ever
did on the Xbox 360, and without sacrificing anything in the process.
If you've never played Gears of War, or if you just haven't played it
in a while, do yourself a favor and try this new version of the game.
The game's story component puts you in the shoes of Marcus Fenix,
who up until the very beginning of the game was serving time in prison
for treasonous behavior. But the war effort requires his special brand
of badness, so he's quickly set free, dressed up in his old soldier
garb, and put back into action with the members of Delta Squad. Your
enemy is the menace known as the Locust, which seems to be an
amalgamation of different races and creatures, all seemingly devoted to
exterminating your kind and taking over your planet. The game's plot
points are inconsequential and work in a number of meaningless
MacGuffin devices that serve as the only impetus you need to march from
point A to point B while gunning down bad guys the whole way. You'll
blast even more bad guys in the PC version of the game, which has a new
section at the start of the final act that fills in a blank left by the
360 version. It does a better job of explaining how you go from running
away from a huge beast with rocket launchers mounted on its head and
shoulders to showing up at a train station to take the battle to the
enemy general before he ruins everything.
The new content in the campaign is significant because it's
new, but it's not especially noteworthy in the grand scheme of things.
If anything, it probably would have worked better as a separate
"deleted scenes" mode than as an integrated part of the game because it
changes things up a bit in ways that betray the difficulty progression
of the game. The new content often takes place in wide-open areas that
are larger than any areas found in the console version, and it also
brings together different combinations of enemies than you see in the
rest of the game. Likewise, it forces you to cover a lot of distance
between most checkpoints, and it feels much harder overall than
anything in the "old" sections of the game. One section even features
multiple paths to get to the same location, which seems weird and out
of place, given the rest of the game's extremely linear nature. The new
content is pretty good, but it's not so mind-blowing that you need to
drop everything immediately to see it.
Of course, the rest of Gears of War is completely intact here,
as well. And the complete package, done better than it was on the Xbox
360, is exactly the sort of mind-blowing that you might need to drop
everything if you haven't already played it. Aside from a few
frustrating cases in which the checkpoints are a little too far
apart--and perhaps the need for a difficulty setting that falls between
the too-easy "casual" and the occasionally punishing "hardcore"
setting--it's hard to find many faults with the campaign, which will
probably take new players around 12 or 13 hours to complete. The
war-torn world you navigate through looks really great, and you're
always wondering what will be around the next corner.
The gameplay is really satisfying, too, thanks to a very brutal
graphical style that makes your weapons look like they're doing extreme
damage. Likewise, you'll appreciate the quality control with a
mouse/keyboard setup or an Xbox 360 gamepad, which is fully supported
in the game. Your main tactic in the game is to run up to an object and
quickly hide behind it, then occasionally pop out to fire off some
shots and quickly get behind cover again before you take too much
damage and explode into a bloody mist with several meaty chunks. With a
mouse and keyboard, you're mostly using the standard WASD shooter
control scheme, but the space bar is used to run and to get behind
cover, and you can hold down the right mouse button to pop up out of
cover and take aimed shots. With the gamepad, the left trigger is used
to manage cover, the right trigger shoots, and A is used for running.
Both setups work just fine, though holding the space bar to run feels a
little awkward. Furthermore, the mouse lets you turn and aim much
faster than a gamepad does, which means that the mouse will probably be
the control scheme of choice for online matches.
Up to eight players can come together online and break off into
two teams for a handful of different game types. Examples include
warzone, which is the normal team-deathmatch style of play, and
execution, which forces you to run up and chainsaw or boot players
who've been downed to finish them off. Other modes, such as king of the
hill and annex, make the game a little more tactical by requiring you
to claim and hold various points on the map. All in all, the
multiplayer offering is just as savage and great-looking as the
single-player mode, and with plenty of maps to choose from, it can keep
you busy for a very long time.
The graphics in Gears of War have never looked better than they do in
the PC version, though that, of course, depends on your machine. If you
can exceed the game's system requirements, the game looks pretty
amazing at higher resolutions and delivers a good, smooth frame rate.
It certainly looks much better and sharper than the Xbox 360 version of
the game, and it does so without looking like the typical console-to-PC
translation. The game also comes with a fully featured level editor,
another thing you don't typically see in console-to-PC translations.
Though some players may still prefer to play it with a gamepad, this
feels like a PC game, top to bottom.
With a great loadout of weapons, a healthy multiplayer package,
and an action-packed story mode, Gears of War is a terrific action game
that, even after a full year, still stands apart from the pack. Whether
you're a superfan of the first game who is looking for some additional
content, or a PC buff who's been wondering what the console kids have
been up to, Gears of War on the PC is most definitely worth your time
and money.
yeh it is a awesome game 
