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Gears of War takes place on a planet known as Sera, inhabited by the human survivors of a once-glorious civilization. For a century, however, they fought among themselves. Eventually they knew the hush of peace that blanketed the land. That was until the discovery of Imulsion, a low-viscosity fluid discovered by an oil-exploration drill, it was unusable until a woman named Dr. Helen Cooper created the Lightmass Process, which enabled production of cheap energy. The world economy soon collapsed due to its extremely low price and the elimination for the need of hydrocarbon and nuclear fuel sources. The few countries that had an overabundance of Imulsion under their feet soon found themselves at war with nations who were not as lucky, and so began the Pendulum Wars. During the 79-year war, the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or COG, became a legitimate minor political party. Founded long before the Pendulum Wars by fanatical socialist Alexiy Desipich, the party operated according to an obscure world-government philosophy based on eight guiding principle values: Order, Diligence, Purity, Labor, Honor, Loyalty, Faith, and Humility.

The Pendulum Wars ceased on what is now called Emergence Day. In less than 24 hours, a ravenous species known as the Locust burst from under the ground and attacked every major city on Sera. By the time human forces pulled together to form an effective defense, it was too late. The Locust Horde had already taken control of the majority of the world's urban, military, and manufacturing centers. Billions lay dead, approximately one quarter of Sera's population. The COG took matters into their own hands and re-enacted the Fortification Act, allowing martial law to be placed on all remaining survivors from the initial invasion. All survivors were ordered to evacuate to the Jacinto Plateau, a safe haven that the Locust Horde could not penetrate from the underground due to its thick granite substrata. Survivors who could not make it to the plateau were given the following apology: "For those citizens who can't make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us, this is the only way." Orbital particle laser weapons were used in a scourched earth strategy to deny the Locust Horde survival on the surface, forcing them to stay in their underground warrens. This war would continue for another fourteen years.

Somewhere around the tenth year, Jacinto was being fortified into an unassailable fortress. Its once-magnificent cities, envied for their beauty, were soon converted into military defense platforms. The plateau's natural fissures and utility systems were destroyed or flooded with nerve gas to delay the Locust Horde's inevitable attack. People who had made it to Jacinto Plateau, but were not in the army, were called the Stranded. The Stranded are living in horrible conditions and malnutrition, and have to find ways to defend themselves. When the Locust began their attack on Jacinto, Marcus abandoned his post in a response to a distress call from his father, a renowned soldier, at the East Barricade Academy, but he was too late to save him. At his trial in the House of Sovereigns, Marcus was charged with dereliction of duty, cowardice, and failure to obey orders. The COG found themselves running low on able-bodied soldiers, so they turned to untraditional sources of men: the infirm, the young, and the condemned. Marcus Fenix was pardoned, and freed by his friend Dominic Santiago. Shortly afterwards, the Locust Horde overran his prison. The Gears of War campaign begins here.





As you have read from above, Gears of War clearly has a very detailed and fantastic story. In the beginning of campaign mode, Gears wastes no time when getting into the action and centre of depth. The campaign is brilliantly structured and works extremely well with the action. Your immediatly emersed into the game from the very beginning with your campaign character, Marcus Fenix. Joined by other massive marines, who look like they have been living on steroids, you set out to controll different areas of Sera. From here, you are literally thrown into blazing action. And it is glorious. Not just killing enemies randomly and repeatedly, but using stealth, tactics, precision, skill and defensive strategy. Like Gamespot.com says, "A block of concrete is your best friend". And thats 100% true. Hide behind anything you can to survive, the enemy is relentless and starving to kill. While hiding behind a concrete block or a burnt out vehicle, you can still shoot at the enemy. Either by precision fire or blindly. This helps a lot, as some of the enemy AI will not hide and will rather charge straight at you. This is when you can either take them out with bullits or (my favourite) by sawing them in half with the chainsaw attached to your gun. Extremely cool and so much fun to use. The chainsaw/machine gun is a brilliant weapon. Making gameplay ultra gorey. As you saw a Locust in two, blood splashes all over the screen, resulting in a pleasurable and lustful way of killing the enemy. Of course, you can also possess sticky grenades, hand guns, shotguns and other types of machine guns. You can also use the Locust's weaponary.





The Locust Horde are fantastic enemies. As intelligent AI, the Horde are tough to kill. Packed with advanced weaponary and expert shooting skills, they can terrify. Especially when they sprint ferociously at you as you panic and fire wildly at them. Sometimes I would even jump when a Locust springs out at you. Like Resident Evil 4, Gears can make you panic while playing. You'll jump in every massive gun battle and fumble with the controll as a Locust smashes your face in with his gun. Frantic stuff, but so much fun to play. Speaking of gameplay, Gears controlls are extremely easy to use. Simple, quick to learn and smooth as ice. And with the ever so comfortable 360 control pad, gameplay is near to perfect.





The graphics are without a doubt, f**king amazing. Sharp, clear, textured and colourful, the graphics in this game are stunning. Locusts look fearsome, cities look vast and the lighting is close to perfection. The graphics are especially great when a smoke bomb is let off, and the area of play is surrounded by a thick foggy smoke while dozens of Locusts emerge from it. Extremely atmospheric and terrifying. Although this game can get very dark in some places, its still a visual feast.





With close to perfect gameplay, unbeliveable graphics and a fantastic story with one of the greatest villainous AI out there, Gears of War is an utterly brilliant gaming experience. Suspencful, thrilling, atmospheric, and sometimes scary, GoW is a highly recommended game. If you haven't played it much or not at all, I strongly consider.
Other than it being slightly repetitive, Gears of War is one of the best 3rd person shooters I've played and will remember for a very long time. Addictive (especially on co-op campaign mode) gaming thats NOT to be missed.
A strong 9/10.




Warning: Gears of War is over 18s and contains gore and violence

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