Besides some clunky controls, Macus's computer controlled teammates often get in the way of the action. They may look tough, but they're dumb as dirt. They're often stuck running around blindly, trying to take cover in an already occupied spot, and get in the way of shots. Most of the time, they simply run in and get themselves killed or disabled, and go down fast. Players are usually left to handle firefights by themselves, or risk getting shot down trying to revive their squad mates. Gamers generally have to spend a lot of time watching their own backs, since these computer players do a lousy job guarding the flank and there's no way to command them to take up specific positions. Luckily, the enemy intelligence isn't all that much smarter. Foes will take cover and try to outflank a player's position, but they're also prone to making the same stupid moves allies are prone to, like stepping out into pitch darkness where flesh eating bats descend and devour them. We hardly had to fire a shot during these sequences, because all we had to do was wait the Locust Horde out.

Difficulty is all over the place. In Casual (easy) mode, foes drop pretty quickly. Scaling things up a notch to Hard Mode makes the Locust Horde tougher, but that doesn't matter once players get their hands on the sniper rifle. Precision head-shots with the game pad pose a challenge, but we ended up popping skulls all over the place thanks the mouse's accuracy. Once enemies peeked from behind cover, they were pretty much as good as dead.

As exciting as the singe-player campaign is, nothing compares to the multiplayer experience. Players use Games for Windows Live to find servers and host games (including a local Live server) and do voice communication. The new King of the Hill is very similar to the pre-existing Annex mode, where teams must stand within a control point and defend it to gain points. The main difference is that King of the Hill uses a single fixed objective while Annex has multiple ones. Also, Execution rules come into play in King of the Hill, so it's not enough to simply shoot opponents. Players must run up to them and finish them off with the chainsaw bayonet. The bleed out feature, where a player can recover from being mortally wounded by tapping on the space bar, takes a lot of getting used to since it's so specific to Gears of War, and it usually looks like a foe gets shot down and then spontaneously gets back up. It's a little disappointing that multiplayer only supports a maximum of eight players (four on each team), but the relatively small maps keep up the pace. Finally, the inclusion of online co-op play, a feature sadly overlooked in most PC shooters, makes it all the more worthwhile.

Gears of War isn't exactly the must-have game it was on the Xbox 360, but it's still a remarkable game in its own right and fits perfectly into any action fan's collection. The controls initially feel clunky, but overcome with time, and gamers will thoroughly enjoy this excessively violent adventure.