Since 2006, the Gears franchise has been making much progress in both the Multiplayer genre of our
***WARNING: Massive spoilers for the Campaign coming up ahead***
What's first to notice is the new developed graphics; the team at People Can Fly (behind the work of the game Bulletstorm) definitely was noticeable while playing the game, as many faces look cleaner and refreshing to see the gang in a younger form, while you do see a teeny bit of a likeness between Baird and Grayson Hunt from their title.
Musical score is just as great as before, with a fair few newer and older bits thrown into the mix, while the music score from the first game tends to pop up more. The same can be said about the voice acting; while many old voices do return for their respected roles. Fred Tatasciore returns as Baird for the main role, with Lester Speight returning to his role as Cole, who is uncharacteristically quiet this time around. And while Marcus Fenix (John DiMaggio) and Anya Stroud (Nan McNamara) do return in voice only, their characters never are seen, new faces make their first appearance. Ezra Loomis (Bruce Thomas), Sofia Hendrik (Ali Hillis) and Garron Paduk (Chris Cox) are a few of the newer faces. While the voice acting out of their characters add much into the game, it's hard to become attached to the characters early on, to which I'll explain.
The massive two failures the game has is storyline and gameplay. Before I get into my massive rant about the storyline, gamers will be a tiny bit confused with the new control system. Players are reduced to two weapons, only changed with Y. Veterans will be a tiny bit confused but eventually you'll get used to it - the new weapon changing system is much quicker and easier than before, the grenade options is just an utter failure. While you can stick enemies by throwing a grenade just right, sticking grenades against walls and floors is time consuming. Press LB to activate the grenade option, then quickly hold it to cause the grenade to swing, then press B to plant? Fix one control system, make the good system screwy.
While the storyline is solid enough for a plotline, the gameplay doesn't flesh it out to the degree fans have come to terms with over the years. Gameplay is split up into tiny chapters into, what I like to call, Acts. Within the "testimony" of a particular person, that character will voice over the beginning, parts of the middle and sometimes the end of each chapter. While the Declassified missions add in a bit more dialog, it doesn't suit the game's massive storyline overall. One chapter will have you fight through some snipers, then it finishes. Fade to black, two lines of dialog, kill some Locust and move to a new area, fade to black. This pattern repeats over and over, from testimony to testimony of each person. If you want to extend your time in each chapter, I highly suggest doing Declassified missions or else the missions will fly by. In all honesty, either way, you'll finish the game quickly, my time being only 3 hours. The star system is quite well done, it doesn't have any other offers other than customisation for Multiplayer and unlocking the Aftermath, to which I'll get to in a little while.
The truly disappointing factor was the ending: A three minute fight with the main boss (To which you only see once) which finishes off with an anti-climatic death and cinematic? The original Gears' boss fight with RAAM was a major challenge, especially to me. Gears 2's boss fight was simple, but the ending was superb. Gears 3 had a fight with the Locust Queen with her throwing everything and anything in your direction. Judgement finishes off with yet another enemy tactic of "shoot it in the mouth" and somehow General Karn is burnt and beaten easily, despite the game's hype of him being "The toughest Locust the COG has seen." And even as now Private Baird and the gang walk off into the sunset laughing and joking, the game ends with a cut to black in mid sentence and then straight to the dashboard. Epic pulled a "The Sopranos" move!
There was many issues over the Aftermath, but players can unlock it about mid way through the game. Aftermath features what happened between the time Marcus was travelling with the rest of the group to Azura. While the gameplay controls and weaponry are the same as Judgement, the star system is removed. The storyline is quite well done but still a little confusing: the entire game revolves around getting reinforcements, but the gameplay only asks you to get a boat and yet by the end, you end up with over a dozen boats and planes, due to Baird: "I have friends in the UIR".
Sooo, where did all the planes and boats come from in the middle of a deserted town and how did Baird negotiate the UIR to help them out with one friend in that army who now despises him?
While granted, it fills in a lot of the gaps, it leaves a lot more unanswered.
Multiplayer is still the same as ever, customisation is still mostly a "Pay Now - Play Later" for all the different types of skins for both your character and weaponry. Weaponry has been extended ten fold but characters are limited down to under fifteen. With Horde being replaced with a new "King Of The Hill" style gameplay with COG protecting an Emergence Hole and Locust aiming to destroy it, not lot of has been added content wise regarding with multiplayer.
Ranting and fanboy-isms aside, the game overall is a decent piece of work, definitely worthy of the series, but even as I play online, many hardcore fans are truly devastated at how their beloved series has turned out. Change is good for a game, but splitting a campaign up in little pieces and jumping back and forth from Emergence Day to a week later, then a few hours later then a few days later truly leaves me wanting less. Gears Of War 3 ended on a note perfect to the series "We finally have a tomorrow!", whereas I know I won't be coming back to play this game tomorrow. Only now do I understand why Cliff B left halfway during the development of the game.
Out of 10, I give Gears Of War Judgement an 5.5/10
Good Points
+ Voice acting is truly well done
+ Multiplayer is as good as ever
+ Storyline is eye opening...
Bad Points
- But Gameplay and chapter setting screws it up
- Ending is lacking and lazy
- Aftermath answers questions, but not too many
- Customisation is mostly "Pay Only"
- Control system is a little weird.
- ...no more...please...
GOW Judgement is out now for the standard price of $90
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