I apologize if you find my title misleading as I found Gears of War: Judgement to be a good game and by no means hated any of the game, something I can't say about Gears 1-3. This is because GoW:J has no vehicle levels, levels that bogged down on the original with bad controls and were a bitch to get past on insane (the hardest difficulty.) This game feels built from the ground up but with characters we are familiar with but didn't spend a large amount of time with.
The Characters
The first thing you'll notice is the ages of everyone's favorite smart-ass Baird, and the Thrashball legend Cole. You do have two other members to the team, kilo squad, they are: Paduk, a combatant from the pendulum war, a war prior to the locust emergence, he fought against the COG. Then there is Sophia Hendrik, a cadet in an elite group amongst the COG called Onyx guards, they are tasked with providing security for COG leadership and and similar to MPs. She's a bit of a slut. Unfortunately the only time Marcus is in this game is three to four lines of voice-over.
The Controls
You'll notice as well that the controller layout has been changed, the Y button switches weapons now and the left bumper is now a quick throw on grenades which no longer can be equipped or "stuck" to a enemy with the B button but will stick to an opponent when thrown, but not on a bounce. Also, medical healing grenades have been added. Lastly if you have a boom shield you can keep your equipped weapon, be it a shotgun or lancer.
The Gameplay
Gears of War: Judgement is in essence an arcade style 3rd person shooter, a departure from the straight forward shooter vibe or the originals. The sections in each chapter are short mostly containing 1 to 2 firefights with small to large groups of enemies with varying enemy types to fight. This sounds simple, and it can be, or you can add challenge by accepting a level modifier in the form of a declassified mission.
Declassified missions come for the story being based around Lieutenant Baird's war trial. As you start the game you are shown that Baird and the rest of kilo squad are on trial for their actions during a skirmish with the locust, an alien species that came up from the ground of the planet Sera, that the game series takes place on. Judgment is told as testimony from each member or kilo squad's perspective. Apparently some of the testimony is classified and by choosing to play it you get to see how it "really" happened. These can be varying chores like playing the level with low visibility, playing a mission with weak weapons or low ammo, or protecting a random item from damage. Declassifying is offered as a way to add story that you wouldn't get otherwise, in actuality it adds a sentence or two of dialog specifically about the task at hand and skipping them does not cause you to miss anything.
The reason I called the game an arcade shooter is that the game is similar do the developer's previous game Bulletstorm, in that kills and actions are scored and you gain stars for completing kills and earning ribbons. These stars are earned faster once you declassify a mission as they always add difficulty. Well, this and the fact that each level is so damn short. Each chapter contains 5 to 8 levels or sections and each one is a different person's testimony but forwards the story.
Among the story and declassified missions are collectibles. COG tags, to be exact, while I hate collectables being in EVERY game, these are a mainstay of the Gears of War games. In this game there is only one per level which is down quite a bit from previous entries in the series, but still hold no importance to the story.
The Story
As far as the story goes you play as Lieutenant Baird, whom you meet as Private Baird in the initial trilogy and this is a prequel to those, so what happened to cause the demotion. Well, that's what this game is about. Baird is in a city called Halvo Bay and finds it to be under siege by a Locust commander called Karn, the same locust who has laid waste to entire cities and is known by one of Baird's squad mates, Paduk, as death and destruction incarnate. Braid decides to use a weapon that is called a light mass missile, it is very destructive and centralized, but it is meant to be used on a larger target and to ultimately save move lives than those of Halvo Bay. Hence the hearing.
I won't ruin the story for you as it is good and has tons of Baird's sarcastic humor. It's dark and gritty and has a lot of good ideas and it delivers on most of them. The best part of which is Aftermath. Aftermath is a follow up to the story of Judgement that you unlock by earning stars in Judgement story and takes place during a section of Gears of War 3. Marcus Fenix tasks Baird with locating a boat for an attack. This section was the closest to the Gears franchise, longer missions, no stars or declassification, just straight gears action.
The Rest
Multiplayer in Judgement is similar to previous games with a few changes. There is now a Free For All mode and Overrun, which is a mode that has replaced Horde. Free For All is self explanatory, no teams everyone fights everyone. Overrun is similar to horde in that its COG vs Locust but now both sides are human players and now there is a damageable objective. You have three waves where as Locust you attempt to destroy an emergence hole plug for two waves and a generator providing power to. . . Something the COG need. As the COG it is your job to defend these objectives, all of which is done with a time limit.
Gears of War: Judgement is executed quite well and tells a story worth seeing. Is it great? No not really, Gears 3 is the best of he series. But, the game is good. My favorite character of the whole series has been Baird and I appreciate the fan service in getting a Baird centric game. The game is definitely worth a buy, just in that its not the same formulaic crap for other shooters, like the terrible Call of Duty franchise.
Well that's all from me on Gears of War: Judgement. Feel free to comment or question below, or look for me in multiplayer under Amzngspidermatt.
-ASM out.
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Disclosure: This is a non-sponsored review. All product was purchased by me and the purpose of this review is based solely on my own interests. No product or monetary compensation was given to me by said company.
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