Gears of War: Judgment Review

"A Random Gears Prequel"

Campaign

Being told well before any of the Gears trilogy judgment takes place in Halvo Bay during its siege. The perspective is told as an in place narrative where each character gives a testimony which is told through an act. The campaign itself is a fair length of about five hours depending on how much searching you do or how slow you take your time. A speed run could certainly be done very quickly, yet you may want to soak in the very beautifully graphic world or collect Cog Tags that weren't hidden too intensely this time around. The game feels like a bit of a tech demo in my thoughts, there are some beautiful changes in lighting and furthermore the advances in character detail development.

I will complain about the setup of the story where most surprise or suspense is taken away as each character describes very boringly exactly what is about to happen. It is somewhat neat to pick your scenario, it just should have been more of a surprise and journey for us. The story will take you through this trial of tales from the team of characters that takes you all across the city doing a series of random tasks that will bring you to where you are at present. The levels give you some variety of movement as you tactically take out the large saturated amounts of locust that have been stuffed into each section.

It is slightly dragging at points, even worse if you have some challenge on it can be quite annoying. As far as change goes there really isn’t too much difference in the setup besides some additional enemies and some slightly differing locale. I will also comment that a particular part where there was a D-Dayish scene that I was wondering about, funny and strange at the same time. It was enjoyable to some extent, though I felt a large portion of the game focused on defending locations to go with some of the multiplayer and it was a move away from the traditional play style. It was an alright journey despite how it played through and the lack of classic feeling from some characters. It was sort of just another throw in to compliment the story of Gears, until Aftermath.

Aftermath

The possibly best portion of the campaign this takes place a far time after judgment during the time when Cole and Baird split off to collect some support for the strike against Azura. I found it was as though it was more of a cut-off scene from Gears of War 3 that they just threw into the game through some extra polishing. It just seems to lack the mobility of jumping off buildings and free movement.

Also it is littered with easter eggs that are not at all present within the core game. It also follows along the Gears 3 story better just filling in some additional spaces with the characters from the main game, also Carmine is back! Anyways the story is well placed in the universe and has that same flare from the third.

Multiplayer

Basically the multiplayer section is a shell of what Gears normally is, there’s four modes available. They are Team Deathmatch, Domination, Free for All and Overrun. Domination is slightly a hybrid play on Annex or King of the Hill and most arguably the most fitting of the new. Free for All truly has no place in Gears and its team style, whereas the Overrun mode fits the best.

It is essentially what Beast Mode should have been with you playing as both sides and a well fit style. Play as a number of locust or the interesting class setup where some areas are overpowered. The strangest area of change is that it is now Red vs Blue with no locust, seriously. This is overly disappointing and a benchmark change, along with many other minor changes.

Along with that are a series of weapons that throw erratic movement in and the removal of active reloads that are in campaign. Also is the use of only two weapons, a primary and a pistol along with everyone spawning with grenades which leads to mass spamming. It is just not what it used to be and there’s literally a tiny amount of maps to choose from, despite promises of some free DLC it is just lacking.

Gameplay

Judgment feels as though it is a devolution for the series, instead of taking what made it special and further it the game just went backwards. The movement of using others buttons for weapon switching or grenades is neat, it just isn’t what made the control intuitive in the first place. The graphics really aren’t much different from Gears 3 and cash grabs are all about. It’s essentially the same as before, just changed in a backwards sense.

The Conclusion

Down to basics the game is Gears of War, it just isn’t one that you are used to, or even one you are sure should even exist. It just brings an extra story to the table and adds more insight to an old game. There are some minor changes that benefit the series and a load of new weapons to toy about with.

Aftermath was possible the best version aside from Overrun in the game despite me not being sure if it was fully created with this game in mind. Should also mention the survival, but that’s just Overrun with bots as locust. There’s just no way that this game justifies a full purchase, if you like Gears it may be worth at a cheaper price or if you are new it may be a decent entry. Just be prepared to pay for extra since it feels like cash is the main objective this time around.

Gears of War: Judgment Review on Xbox 360

Rating Overall: 6.5