Gears of War Judgement Review | March 21, 2013
Xbox 360, Windows

Gears of War Judgment makes some changes in this 3rd person shooter. This prequel to the entire Gears of War series has many parts of the game that pay off and some that don’t. The changes are a good sign that they are not just resting on past successes and are still willing to make Gears of War fresh and new but the game just seems to be missing something when compared to the original Gears of War trilogy. Oh no Baird what did you do now. The story is on Lieutenant Damon Baird, that's right we said Lieutenant Baird and his Kilo Squad. Judgment starts out with him and his team being brought in front of a COG military tribunal for crimes that you get to find out about as you play through the game. Each of the four team members testifies, as they do you get to play as them during the campaign and find out their side of the story.
Once again the games use of cover during combat is strong and has no controller problems at all. You run up to find cover and you pop up and take out a Grub, find cover and reload. As you play the game you get to decide what to tell the tribunal and it changes up the game dynamics. If you tell tribunal that it was hard to see then the next level is hard to see. If you say you only had shotguns then you have to play through the level with only shotguns. Right before each combat situation there is a huge Gears of War logo on the wall with a different condition for the level. It makes the levels harder but it mostly makes the game more fun and there is a lot more to do while playing. They are optional but the more of them you do the more stars you get and the more stars you get the more stuff you get to unlock. Plus, it adds some dialog story moments too.
This is a great game but it is missing some things. The gameplay is really repetitive. There are no vehicles to ride on and there are no Reavers or Burmaks to take over. You do get to use a Silverback for about five minutes but that’s it. You just walking into an area, decide if you want to change the combat situations and then starting shooting at the Grubs or hold your position. It is still hard to tell your squad members apart from the Grubs and you can only carry two weapons or a heavy weapon (shield, mortar gun...ect), and a gun plus you do die a lot. The game does not have the polish of the previous three games and being able to get through Gears of War Judgement is only 7 ½ hours and that’s including doing the stuff the makes the game more challenging. Even the first Gears of War was longer than that.
It is still better than most games like it but we have high expectations when it comes to Gears of War. We do like that there is lots of save points so replaying levels as much as you like is easy to get to and easier to collect more stars. Of course there are multiplayer maps but it does not make up for the short campaign. Replay is really high here even though it is repetitive it is still a lot of fun. If you are a huge multiplayer person it is worth the money but if you are more of a storyline campaign type of gamer we would wait till the price comes down or get it on sale for under $45.00 or less.
 
8.5 out of 10
Great Game

8.5 out of 10
Great Game


Rated
M for Mature

Rated
PEGI 18

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