Out now on XBOX 360 only, developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly, Gears Of War : Judgment is the fourth game of the Gears Of War Series.
Set before the events of the first Gears game, you play as Lt Damon Baird, who finds himself facing a COG military hearing. Alongside his teammates Pvt Augustus 'The Cole Train' Cole, Sofia Hendrick and URI grunt Garren Paduk, you play through the characters defense through them recounting their actions. As always, GOW is third person and still has that familiar dark gritty game-play that regular players know and love, and for new players provides a welcome change from recent first-person shooters that have been dominating Xbox live.
Each segment of story lasts roughly 20 minutes (depending how good you are) and can vary in mission type. These include your standard A to B fight through or take place in defense mode where you can set up strategic turrets to help your team secure a location. Also in each part of the story is a bonus mission which you don't have to accept but give you an additional challenge to the game. These can get you a better score whilst playing but come at a price - you may find the mission is now timed where at the end you will die, or the enemy is more powerful then they are supposed to be. As for the scoring, you are judged on the amount of kills, head shots gibs, reviving teammates, and are punished for how many times you are downed per mission. Each level you can be awarded 3 starts in total, and the more stars you unlock mean more customization unlocks in the game. Reward crates are also awarded to players when you complete certain objectives.
From the main menu, you are given a few choices. Obviously this is where you can choose to play the campaign and multiplayer, but also where you can go into the character setup screen. From here you can choose your gun skin camo, armour camo, what character you would prefer to play as in multiplayer, and open up the prizeboxes you earn in the campaign. During my gameplay I unlocked 2 of these which earnt me some experience points, and a camouflage for one of my guns! Alot of the skins for armour and guns seem to be available through purchase of your microsoft points, but a fair few of these can also be unlocked by getting as many stars as you can from the campaign. This is really a feature i like as it makes you want to play better, and whats more enjoyable then shooting the Locast!?
A VIP Season pass is available to buy both on Xbox Live Marketplace and In-Game for 1600 points which offers permanent double XP through VIP-only playlists, Instant access to 9 exclusive skins, and early access to multiplayer maps (6 multiplayer maps, two new game modes).
At the moment, there are four game modes available for online matches. These are 'Overrun' where teams take turns to destroy objectives as Locust whilst the other team defend as COG, 'Free For All' which pits COG against Cog, 'Domination' where teams of COG attempt build points by controlling rings (much like King Of The Hill), and 'Team Deathmatch' where two teams fight to the death until they reach the score limit. Unfortunately, the 'Down But Not Out' mode from GOW3 has not made an appearance in this game. One other match type that will bring cheers of joy to all Gears fans im sure is the return of Survival, where you and three of your best lancer-weilding friends team up against wave after wave of ever increasing Locust!
As an additional feature to Gears Of War : Judgment, you may notice on your first time to the campaign screen there are also two modes. Judgment, which is the campaign that you bought this game for, plus one other bonus feature that i cannot wait to see - Aftermath. Aftermath brings you an extension to the Gears Of War 3 storyline. For this mode, all you need to do is unlock 30 stars during your play through, and you can see what happened to the group after the end of Gears 3.
I waited for this game since playing it at Eurogamer in 2012 and i have to say, its a well worth wait. The graphics are amazing, the story is fantastic, and going through this will bring me so much happiness. I've missed Gears Of War since completing GOW3, and for Epic Games to release this title is awesome. They've really done a fantastic job with this prequel. So what are you waiting for?
Set before the events of the first Gears game, you play as Lt Damon Baird, who finds himself facing a COG military hearing. Alongside his teammates Pvt Augustus 'The Cole Train' Cole, Sofia Hendrick and URI grunt Garren Paduk, you play through the characters defense through them recounting their actions. As always, GOW is third person and still has that familiar dark gritty game-play that regular players know and love, and for new players provides a welcome change from recent first-person shooters that have been dominating Xbox live.
Each segment of story lasts roughly 20 minutes (depending how good you are) and can vary in mission type. These include your standard A to B fight through or take place in defense mode where you can set up strategic turrets to help your team secure a location. Also in each part of the story is a bonus mission which you don't have to accept but give you an additional challenge to the game. These can get you a better score whilst playing but come at a price - you may find the mission is now timed where at the end you will die, or the enemy is more powerful then they are supposed to be. As for the scoring, you are judged on the amount of kills, head shots gibs, reviving teammates, and are punished for how many times you are downed per mission. Each level you can be awarded 3 starts in total, and the more stars you unlock mean more customization unlocks in the game. Reward crates are also awarded to players when you complete certain objectives.
From the main menu, you are given a few choices. Obviously this is where you can choose to play the campaign and multiplayer, but also where you can go into the character setup screen. From here you can choose your gun skin camo, armour camo, what character you would prefer to play as in multiplayer, and open up the prizeboxes you earn in the campaign. During my gameplay I unlocked 2 of these which earnt me some experience points, and a camouflage for one of my guns! Alot of the skins for armour and guns seem to be available through purchase of your microsoft points, but a fair few of these can also be unlocked by getting as many stars as you can from the campaign. This is really a feature i like as it makes you want to play better, and whats more enjoyable then shooting the Locast!?
A VIP Season pass is available to buy both on Xbox Live Marketplace and In-Game for 1600 points which offers permanent double XP through VIP-only playlists, Instant access to 9 exclusive skins, and early access to multiplayer maps (6 multiplayer maps, two new game modes).
At the moment, there are four game modes available for online matches. These are 'Overrun' where teams take turns to destroy objectives as Locust whilst the other team defend as COG, 'Free For All' which pits COG against Cog, 'Domination' where teams of COG attempt build points by controlling rings (much like King Of The Hill), and 'Team Deathmatch' where two teams fight to the death until they reach the score limit. Unfortunately, the 'Down But Not Out' mode from GOW3 has not made an appearance in this game. One other match type that will bring cheers of joy to all Gears fans im sure is the return of Survival, where you and three of your best lancer-weilding friends team up against wave after wave of ever increasing Locust!
As an additional feature to Gears Of War : Judgment, you may notice on your first time to the campaign screen there are also two modes. Judgment, which is the campaign that you bought this game for, plus one other bonus feature that i cannot wait to see - Aftermath. Aftermath brings you an extension to the Gears Of War 3 storyline. For this mode, all you need to do is unlock 30 stars during your play through, and you can see what happened to the group after the end of Gears 3.
I waited for this game since playing it at Eurogamer in 2012 and i have to say, its a well worth wait. The graphics are amazing, the story is fantastic, and going through this will bring me so much happiness. I've missed Gears Of War since completing GOW3, and for Epic Games to release this title is awesome. They've really done a fantastic job with this prequel. So what are you waiting for?