Luckily, the game includes a myriad of deadly toys to play with. The shotgun is a great way to kill things at close range, the Longshot sniper rifle turns heads into piles of mush, and the Hammer of Dawn can fry multiple enemies at once. However, the Lance Assault Rifle's got them beat. This very effective machine gun packs some serious stopping power, but it's the special chainsaw attachment that garners the most interest. When activated, this very naughty toy slices enemies down the middle, resulting in a nasty display of blood and guts.
Unfortunately, this tour of duty is over much too quickly. The game can be beaten in eight to ten hours. That's not short by today's standards, but it's disappointing.
Thankfully, the multiplayer spices things up by tossing multiple people onto a battlefield, handing them chainsaws and leaving them to create anarchy. The game supports online and offline co-op as well as eight-person (four-on-four) death matching over Xbox Live and system link. The almost lag free gameplay means that people won't magically teleport around the arenas and that all bullets will find their mark, providing gamers understand how to play. Unfortunately, most people seem to think that the only way to succeed is to bum rush the enemy in the hopes that a barrage of gunfire will lead them to victory. These fools die quickly and sabotage the rest of the team, so it's a good idea to match up with friends and plot effective strategies. At least on the positive side, there are plenty of stupid people that are content to hide behind something and refuse to watch their rears. They're easy targets and a great excuse to rev up the chainsaw.
The only downside to this is Gears doesn't pack the same variety as Halo 2, which has a seemingly endless supply of modes. There's only three modes to choose from and they're simple variations of each other. Warzone is a standard four-on-four death match, Assassination charges players with killing the leader of each team, and Execution is the same as Warzone, except the only way to kill someone is with a melee attack. It's a disappointing selection, yet at the same time, it's good for people that don't care about capturing flags or worrying about reaching a helicopter before someone else does. It's a simple formula of kill or be killed.
Gears of War is a fantastic action romp through a sci-fi wasteland brimming with blood, monsters, and awesome graphics. It could've used some extras as well as a much longer single player campaign, but that's what sequels are for. For now, enjoy the unabashed carnage this game has to offer. Just turn off all the lights, crank up the audio, and have that chainsaw at the ready.
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