Video Review
Intro
The trilogy may be over but that doesn't mean that the franchise has to be. Gears of War Judgment is the first title in the series developed in part by "People Can Fly" the studio behind the not-so-serious Bulletstorm. After taking into account the switch of development along with this not being a numbered Gears, instead acting as a prequel. Gamer's feared that this Gears may turn into a bit of a cash-in, and less of a "true entry". To my utter dismay this fear has become a realization now having played the game for myself. The core Gears of War mechanics remain, but it lacks the heart of the previous entry's. It also does not help that majority of the new design choices worsened the game rather than improving it.
Presentation/Story
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| So much red |
Presentation/Story
Alright so let's get to it. This game being a prequel focuses on supporting protagonists Baird and Cole. Upon first hearing this I assumed that this game would sort of be a humorous misadventure tale with some great character banter. An opportunity to flesh out some extra back story for the two characters, and allow for some growth seeing as they have the spotlight this time around. Unfortunately they completely missed that opportunity.
Accompanying Baird and Cole are two more characters, Sofia and Paduk. The game opens with our band of misfits in custody being taken to trial, in order to plead their case before Col. Loomis (a real asshole of a guy). Which causes for the story itself to be told primarily through flashback sequences as each character takes their turn telling a piece of the story leading up to their current predicament. On paper I could see this concept sounding kind of cool, and perhaps it could have been if handled differently than it was. Anyway you play the game while the current speaker is occasionally narrating what is happening. Honestly, this narration becomes more of an annoyance than anything. Perhaps this is because majority of the narration fails to intrigue and takes away opportunities for the characters themselves to have meaningful or humorous dialogue among-st themselves. Also being a constant reminder that what you're doing has technically already happened, so the outcome of you're actions is predetermined. Which made me just want to hurry up and get back to present day so something new could take place.
Another strange decision was that of extremely spaced and limited cutscenes. Very few cutscenes are used during the flashback sequences, instead they are used primarily to transition between who's speaking in present time.
Graphically this is probably the best looking Gears so far. Only changes I noticed was possibly more vibrant colors along with the game seeming more shiny and less gritty. Otherwise this game has your classic Gears theme, exaggerated characters, and excessive amounts of blood.
Gameplay/Design
As mentioned briefly before this game attempted to incorporate some new design features, if implemented better these features could have refreshed the franchise. Instead they just made me miss the older games more, simply because they played so much better. The first new feature is the addition of a ranking system. The system judges the player on how well they complete each section, rating them on a 3-star setup. 3 being the best, and 1 being the worst. I could definitely see where a rating system could be addicting and give the player further incentive for playing better. Bulletstorm had this same rating system, and it did all of those things quite well. For some reason I can't say the same for Gears perhaps it is because the rating system seems half-assed. It works well enough but the way it judges you is not nearly as in-depth as the one incorporated into Bulletstorm. This rating system feels more tacked on than it should.
In order to compliment this rating system the developers included Declassified missions. These optional objectives can be activated via a glowing Red Skull symbol painted on walls typically at the beginning of a section. Most of these Missions are directly in your path, and majority of the time I found myself accepting them. All they really do when accepted is change the encounter of the enemies you're about to fight in someway. Typically in a way that hinders the player further, and makes the battle more challenging. A few examples of declassified missions would be a time-limit for completing the mission, making health not regenerate, making enemies hordes stronger by changing wave patterns or increasing health, and sometimes the missions can be rather amusing like one particular mission that forces the player and his companions to only use Meat Cleavers. The only real reason for wanting to activate these missions aside from linked achievements is that when the missions are active they make stars accumulate faster.
The third feature added, well it's more of a change than feature, happens to how weapon swapping is handled. This change bothered me a lot, probably because there was no reason to do it in the first place. All it managed to do was make the controls less fluid.. So, instead of your weapons being handled by the D-pad like every other Gears game they decided to change weapon swapping to the "Y" button. This change makes absolutely no sense and causes the control layout to take a step back instead of forward. Before the player was able to swap between 2 main weapons, a pistol, and a grenade, fluidly with a simple tap of the D-Pad. Now the player is restricted to tapping "Y" to swap between 2 main weapons which is fine, except you no longer always have your trusty back-up pistol. A pistol is considered a main weapon in this game, so it will take up one of your two slots. Also because of the change in weapon swapping the grenade had to be mapped to a button. Since Gears had always pretty much used every button on the controller the developers decided to map grenades to the left bumper. Previously the LB was used to pull up a display that highlighted teammates and objectives. So, after all of these layout changes the D-Pad previously smartly used to it's fullest extent is now in charge of pulling up that one little display. It takes quite awhile to get used to this adjustment. To be honest I'm still not really used to it and I've played the game well over 10 hours, yet I still find myself accidentally hitting the D-Pad for weapon swapping now and again. The only benefit that one could argue came from this layout change is that grenades can now be thrown quickly and easily.
The game mechanics are basically identical to Gears of War 3. Only additions aside from the control changes are a couple new weapons and a new enemy type known as the Rager, who well rages when provoked. None of the new weapons are amazing, but they are nice additions that fit in well with the existing arsenal. Only issue I found was with the Markza. This new gun functions as a single shot rifle with a limited scope. When scoped in I found that my bullets fired occasionally would hit the object close to where I was shooting instead of actually going where I was shooting. This flaw happens often in third person shooting games, it's just a bit of a nuisance for the player. I'm assuming it has to do with perspective when scoped in it appears your shot won't hit anything but in reality when the gun is fired there actually was something in its path that isn't noticed when scoped in. That or it's just some bad collision issues. Either way it's not a big deal just makes the game look bad when it happens.
The campaign as I've stated handles the story in a strange manner, sadly the game play also is handled in a similarly odd manner. It becomes obvious early on that this Gears lacks the dramatic set pieces and action sequences found often throughout all the previous Gears games. This causes the game to become a bit repetitive along with giving the game an overall underwhelming feel. But, it is the level design that causes this game to fall into complete and utter tedium. Every level in the extremely short 4-5 hour campaign is overwhelmingly linear filled with boring enemy wave sequences. While it's kind of cool in the beginning to come to an area and be able to fortify a defense against the impending waves of enemies, giving a nice nod to the horde modes of past Gears. Generally you're only defending against 2-3 waves of enemies, so fortifying becomes less necessary. Even the segments that are not wave based give the impression of it, due to the poor unimagined enemy spawn layout mixed in with lame enemy AI. For some reason in this game the enemies majority of the time will always rush you instead of using any kind of cover strategy. This constant rushing of enemies turns the gameplay into a dull repetition where the killing becomes at times a chore. The rushing also can cause you to become overwhelmed by enemies all trying to run into you while shooting which can result in some annoyingly stupid deaths.
On top of everything else I noticed a couple more small issues. First one is not really a huge issue, but the friendly AI in this game are not great. They will get in your way, and occasionally you will catch them in the act of stupidity. whether it be running back and forth for no reason or running into an object. They are not even close to the worst AI I've seen but they're also not up to par most of the time. The second issue I encountered I'm unsure whether it was purposely done or an accidental glitch. When you get downed in this game the normal locust will not kill you. I don't understand why but they will literally run away from you when downed in order to let you live. The only locust I found kill me when I was down was a Mauler, and honestly that might have been a accident. I have only beaten the game on Normal difficulty, so I'm unsure whether the enemies continue to do this on the higher difficulties or not.
Online/ Aftermath/Rewarding
There are three things in this game that in my opinion save this game from being a "bad" game. First of those things is a bonus mission called Aftermath unlocked after obtaining 50 stars. Aftermath is actually intertwined within the Gears of War 3 story. It could have been included on the Gears 3 disc and not felt out of place at all, but when placed on the Judgment disc it does feel out of place, but in a good way. It plays so much different, and is better than the Judgment Campaign in every way. It plays so much better because it actually feels like your playing Gears of War 3. There are cut-scenes placed throughout the course of the mission along with the characters being humorous and having some of their classic bantering. The level designs are much more interesting, the enemy spawn points compliment the flow of the game, and are strategically placed. It's pretty sad that this one hour bonus mission felt more epic than the entire Judgment campaign. Part of me wonders if this mission was already developed by Epic for Gears of War 3 and scrapped or originally planned as DLC, but instead wound up on the Judgment disc. I only say that because it plays so much different than the Judgment campaign, it really doesn't feel like the same people who made Judgment did Aftermath. Another clue is that the Declassified Missions and 3-star rating system are strangely absent from the Aftermath bonus mission. Let me put it this way based on the 3-star rating system this game uses the Aftermath mission would get 3-stars easily while the Judgment campaign would struggle to get 1-star.
The second thing that acts as a savior to Judgment is the addicting yet simplified online, combined with its rewarding unlockables and in-depth stat trackers. The online has 4 game modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch Domination, and Overrun. Deathmatch is my personal favorite simply because I've never much liked team-based online modes particularly the large-scale ones. I'm more old-school and like a simple everyone for themselves death match on a small close quarter map without too many players. To me this enables for the most intense matches. But, I know a lot of people now-a-days actually prefer team games and the most unique option for them would be the new Overrun mode. In overrun teams take turns defending or attacking as the COG and Locust. The Locusts always being the attackers attempting to retake areas on the map. The Locust combat like they did in beast mode from Gears 3 just more refined. When playing as the COG you can only choose predetermined classes to defend against the constant Locust attack. This will likely be the most popular online mode for Gears of War Judgment, and that title is well deserved. This game is extremely rewarding with ton's of extra weapon/character skins given through leveling up. These customization options and rewards given create much more incentive for the player to continue playing.
The final thing added into this game that saves it is the addition of Horde's Spiritual Successor Survival Mode. Survival mode while not being as fun or addicting as Horde mode is unique enough to entertain. Survival Mode functions pretty much identical to the online Overrun game mode. The only difference is that you're always playing as the COG, and trying to prevent 10 waves of increasing in difficulty, AI controlled Locust from pushing the COG all the way back and overtaking the map.
Conclusion
Gears of War Judgment still retains the core Gears game play mechanics, but makes a considerable amount of changes that were mostly for the worse. The story while being told in a unique way, was poorly executed and takes away from the games overall experience. Cutscenes in this game are too distantly spaced, and used in a boring manner. Tons of missed opportunities for character banter, and some extra back story. Enemy spawn points and attack patterns were poorly designed. Both friendly and enemy AI could have used some fine tuning. The 3-star rating system fails to be addicting and lacks much needed depth. The Judgment Campaign is a measly 4-5 hours in length, yet it becomes so repetitive that the end couldn't come soon enough. Changes to the control layout seem like a waste, because the new layout feels less intuitive. On the plus side the game includes some decent weapon and enemy additions that compliment the existing content nicely. The developers might be on to something with the whole Declassified Missions concept. I wouldn't mind seeing that concept further polished and transitioned into another game in the future. The bonus Aftermath Campaign makes up for Judgment's shortcomings, by showing everything Judgment did wrong for the player to witness even if it is only an hour in length. Aftermath ties the Gears 3 and Judgment story-line together through recurring characters. The game has an addicting and rewarding online with some unique game modes that help save it. This obviously is the worst Gears of War game out of the 4, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. It simply tried to be unique by switching things up as any addition into a franchise should do. Sadly majority of these additions did not turn out the way in which they were intended. I still recommend any fan of the series to give it a try, but don't expect a lot going in. No pun intended when I say this, but this newest entry fails to be as "Epic" as the previous Gears of War Games.
Pro's
+Aftermath Campaign pays homage to past entrys
+Online is addicting and Rewarding
+Overrun is a unique and welcome game mode
+Survival is a decent spiritual successor to Horde
+Enough content and replay ability to justify a purchase
+Declassified missions, extra weapons, new enemy type were all good additions
Con's
-Judgment Campaign is boring and honestly kinda sucks
-Storytelling while being unique comes across as rather dull
-Missed opportunities for character back story and much needed character bantering
-AI and spawning flaws
-New Controller Layout is unnecessary and makes no sense
-The rating system is a clever new feature but lacks depth causing it to fail in becoming addicting
-Cut-scenes are poorly utilized
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| New Characters |
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| I Plead Not Guilty |
Another strange decision was that of extremely spaced and limited cutscenes. Very few cutscenes are used during the flashback sequences, instead they are used primarily to transition between who's speaking in present time.
Graphically this is probably the best looking Gears so far. Only changes I noticed was possibly more vibrant colors along with the game seeming more shiny and less gritty. Otherwise this game has your classic Gears theme, exaggerated characters, and excessive amounts of blood.
Gameplay/Design
As mentioned briefly before this game attempted to incorporate some new design features, if implemented better these features could have refreshed the franchise. Instead they just made me miss the older games more, simply because they played so much better. The first new feature is the addition of a ranking system. The system judges the player on how well they complete each section, rating them on a 3-star setup. 3 being the best, and 1 being the worst. I could definitely see where a rating system could be addicting and give the player further incentive for playing better. Bulletstorm had this same rating system, and it did all of those things quite well. For some reason I can't say the same for Gears perhaps it is because the rating system seems half-assed. It works well enough but the way it judges you is not nearly as in-depth as the one incorporated into Bulletstorm. This rating system feels more tacked on than it should.
In order to compliment this rating system the developers included Declassified missions. These optional objectives can be activated via a glowing Red Skull symbol painted on walls typically at the beginning of a section. Most of these Missions are directly in your path, and majority of the time I found myself accepting them. All they really do when accepted is change the encounter of the enemies you're about to fight in someway. Typically in a way that hinders the player further, and makes the battle more challenging. A few examples of declassified missions would be a time-limit for completing the mission, making health not regenerate, making enemies hordes stronger by changing wave patterns or increasing health, and sometimes the missions can be rather amusing like one particular mission that forces the player and his companions to only use Meat Cleavers. The only real reason for wanting to activate these missions aside from linked achievements is that when the missions are active they make stars accumulate faster.
The third feature added, well it's more of a change than feature, happens to how weapon swapping is handled. This change bothered me a lot, probably because there was no reason to do it in the first place. All it managed to do was make the controls less fluid.. So, instead of your weapons being handled by the D-pad like every other Gears game they decided to change weapon swapping to the "Y" button. This change makes absolutely no sense and causes the control layout to take a step back instead of forward. Before the player was able to swap between 2 main weapons, a pistol, and a grenade, fluidly with a simple tap of the D-Pad. Now the player is restricted to tapping "Y" to swap between 2 main weapons which is fine, except you no longer always have your trusty back-up pistol. A pistol is considered a main weapon in this game, so it will take up one of your two slots. Also because of the change in weapon swapping the grenade had to be mapped to a button. Since Gears had always pretty much used every button on the controller the developers decided to map grenades to the left bumper. Previously the LB was used to pull up a display that highlighted teammates and objectives. So, after all of these layout changes the D-Pad previously smartly used to it's fullest extent is now in charge of pulling up that one little display. It takes quite awhile to get used to this adjustment. To be honest I'm still not really used to it and I've played the game well over 10 hours, yet I still find myself accidentally hitting the D-Pad for weapon swapping now and again. The only benefit that one could argue came from this layout change is that grenades can now be thrown quickly and easily.
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| Buddy Where'd you go? |
The campaign as I've stated handles the story in a strange manner, sadly the game play also is handled in a similarly odd manner. It becomes obvious early on that this Gears lacks the dramatic set pieces and action sequences found often throughout all the previous Gears games. This causes the game to become a bit repetitive along with giving the game an overall underwhelming feel. But, it is the level design that causes this game to fall into complete and utter tedium. Every level in the extremely short 4-5 hour campaign is overwhelmingly linear filled with boring enemy wave sequences. While it's kind of cool in the beginning to come to an area and be able to fortify a defense against the impending waves of enemies, giving a nice nod to the horde modes of past Gears. Generally you're only defending against 2-3 waves of enemies, so fortifying becomes less necessary. Even the segments that are not wave based give the impression of it, due to the poor unimagined enemy spawn layout mixed in with lame enemy AI. For some reason in this game the enemies majority of the time will always rush you instead of using any kind of cover strategy. This constant rushing of enemies turns the gameplay into a dull repetition where the killing becomes at times a chore. The rushing also can cause you to become overwhelmed by enemies all trying to run into you while shooting which can result in some annoyingly stupid deaths.
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| Put me Down |
On top of everything else I noticed a couple more small issues. First one is not really a huge issue, but the friendly AI in this game are not great. They will get in your way, and occasionally you will catch them in the act of stupidity. whether it be running back and forth for no reason or running into an object. They are not even close to the worst AI I've seen but they're also not up to par most of the time. The second issue I encountered I'm unsure whether it was purposely done or an accidental glitch. When you get downed in this game the normal locust will not kill you. I don't understand why but they will literally run away from you when downed in order to let you live. The only locust I found kill me when I was down was a Mauler, and honestly that might have been a accident. I have only beaten the game on Normal difficulty, so I'm unsure whether the enemies continue to do this on the higher difficulties or not.
Online/ Aftermath/Rewarding
There are three things in this game that in my opinion save this game from being a "bad" game. First of those things is a bonus mission called Aftermath unlocked after obtaining 50 stars. Aftermath is actually intertwined within the Gears of War 3 story. It could have been included on the Gears 3 disc and not felt out of place at all, but when placed on the Judgment disc it does feel out of place, but in a good way. It plays so much different, and is better than the Judgment Campaign in every way. It plays so much better because it actually feels like your playing Gears of War 3. There are cut-scenes placed throughout the course of the mission along with the characters being humorous and having some of their classic bantering. The level designs are much more interesting, the enemy spawn points compliment the flow of the game, and are strategically placed. It's pretty sad that this one hour bonus mission felt more epic than the entire Judgment campaign. Part of me wonders if this mission was already developed by Epic for Gears of War 3 and scrapped or originally planned as DLC, but instead wound up on the Judgment disc. I only say that because it plays so much different than the Judgment campaign, it really doesn't feel like the same people who made Judgment did Aftermath. Another clue is that the Declassified Missions and 3-star rating system are strangely absent from the Aftermath bonus mission. Let me put it this way based on the 3-star rating system this game uses the Aftermath mission would get 3-stars easily while the Judgment campaign would struggle to get 1-star.
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| Just Saving the World |
The second thing that acts as a savior to Judgment is the addicting yet simplified online, combined with its rewarding unlockables and in-depth stat trackers. The online has 4 game modes, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch Domination, and Overrun. Deathmatch is my personal favorite simply because I've never much liked team-based online modes particularly the large-scale ones. I'm more old-school and like a simple everyone for themselves death match on a small close quarter map without too many players. To me this enables for the most intense matches. But, I know a lot of people now-a-days actually prefer team games and the most unique option for them would be the new Overrun mode. In overrun teams take turns defending or attacking as the COG and Locust. The Locusts always being the attackers attempting to retake areas on the map. The Locust combat like they did in beast mode from Gears 3 just more refined. When playing as the COG you can only choose predetermined classes to defend against the constant Locust attack. This will likely be the most popular online mode for Gears of War Judgment, and that title is well deserved. This game is extremely rewarding with ton's of extra weapon/character skins given through leveling up. These customization options and rewards given create much more incentive for the player to continue playing.
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| Online is Fast-Paced |
Conclusion
Gears of War Judgment still retains the core Gears game play mechanics, but makes a considerable amount of changes that were mostly for the worse. The story while being told in a unique way, was poorly executed and takes away from the games overall experience. Cutscenes in this game are too distantly spaced, and used in a boring manner. Tons of missed opportunities for character banter, and some extra back story. Enemy spawn points and attack patterns were poorly designed. Both friendly and enemy AI could have used some fine tuning. The 3-star rating system fails to be addicting and lacks much needed depth. The Judgment Campaign is a measly 4-5 hours in length, yet it becomes so repetitive that the end couldn't come soon enough. Changes to the control layout seem like a waste, because the new layout feels less intuitive. On the plus side the game includes some decent weapon and enemy additions that compliment the existing content nicely. The developers might be on to something with the whole Declassified Missions concept. I wouldn't mind seeing that concept further polished and transitioned into another game in the future. The bonus Aftermath Campaign makes up for Judgment's shortcomings, by showing everything Judgment did wrong for the player to witness even if it is only an hour in length. Aftermath ties the Gears 3 and Judgment story-line together through recurring characters. The game has an addicting and rewarding online with some unique game modes that help save it. This obviously is the worst Gears of War game out of the 4, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. It simply tried to be unique by switching things up as any addition into a franchise should do. Sadly majority of these additions did not turn out the way in which they were intended. I still recommend any fan of the series to give it a try, but don't expect a lot going in. No pun intended when I say this, but this newest entry fails to be as "Epic" as the previous Gears of War Games.
Pro's
+Aftermath Campaign pays homage to past entrys
+Online is addicting and Rewarding
+Overrun is a unique and welcome game mode
+Survival is a decent spiritual successor to Horde
+Enough content and replay ability to justify a purchase
+Declassified missions, extra weapons, new enemy type were all good additions
Con's
-Judgment Campaign is boring and honestly kinda sucks
-Storytelling while being unique comes across as rather dull
-Missed opportunities for character back story and much needed character bantering
-AI and spawning flaws
-New Controller Layout is unnecessary and makes no sense
-The rating system is a clever new feature but lacks depth causing it to fail in becoming addicting
-Cut-scenes are poorly utilized
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