Now I've decided NOT to "over-do" this review, since I'm sure you guys (and gals!) want to go off and read another review or something. So I hope you will find this a great read.
-------------------------Background of Gears of War-----------------------------
Gears of War was released in the US on the 7th of November 2006 and later released in the UK on the 17th of November. Upon prior release, it was the most talked about game, this was the ultimate game that every person should get once released, and that's exactly how it was.
It sold over 3 million copies in its first few months of release, and that figure as now reached 6+ million total copies throughout the world. it still has over 1 million active players online, possibly countless more in total.
I picked up this game with 2 others, when i first bought my Xbox 360 Elite, let's just say this is the only game I'm still playing out of the 3 :)
I bought it for £30 at the time, but you can pick it up for around £15 now days.
-------------------------Basic story in Gears of War-----------------------------
Gears of War is the traditional "Good guys vs Bad guys".
The story starts when an alien race named the "Locust Horde", attacks Earth in countless numbers and the planet is forced to destory it's own cities, they keep coming and the human population is falling fast. Is there any hope? Of course! An inmate named Marcus Fenix , once left to die, is now charged with keeping humanity alive...
-------------------------Features of Gears of War--------------------------------
Let's have a look at what Gears of War offers....
Want to take cover, shoot behind walls and feel absolutly Godly with only 1 touch of a button? Well, you can do this right here, by pressing A (default settings) You can jump to cover, blind fire and even roll to evade the onslaught from the Locust Horde.
You will be playing with your squad of hardened men to fight the envasion, why not get a friend to help? You can play the campaign either on Xbox Live or with a second controller, on either of the 3 difficulty settings (Casual, Hardcore, Insane) The true fun factor of this game is pairing up with a friend! And even if you don't, you will still feel the adrenaline pumping as you play.
The Online gameplay is what REALLY makes this game shine, now it's your chance to be on the evil side, thats right, Human vs Locust. With over 15 maps and 4 game types, you are truely looking at a perfect mix for all sorts of players.
Awesome finishers - Got an enemy on his knees? Why not walk up and execute them? Or perhaps you would love to curb stomp them, or better yet, chain-saw them till they explode? Do it right here!
Monsters and Weapons - With 10 different types of weapons and 10 different monsters, you will truely enjoy the feeling of seeing a new monster, it will give that "oh...damn!" feeling, both weapons and monsters are graphically amazing (And the monsters are not dumb either, they will cover and use grenades too!)
-------------------------------Online Game Types----------------------------------
There are 4 game types to choose from.
Warzone - Basic Team Deathmatch, 4v4 and if you die, you have to wait till the next round. Once your whole team is dead, the round is over and the winning team is awarded with that round win, majority of players prefer 8-12 rounds, but can select up to 19 rounds. Warzone is the most used game type.
Execution - The only way to kill is to execute! Get your enemy on his kness and give him a good bullet to the head, or curb stomp him, whatever you prefer. But if you fail to execute, you will not kill and the enemy will rise. It is the same concept as Warzone.
Assasination - One person from each team is selected to be the "Leader" Your objective is to kill the enemy Leader, once either Leader is killed, the round is over. Players who are not the leader, will not respawn, but the leader must be killed with an execution.
Annex - This is a King of The Hill type game where both teams battle to claim a weapon spot on the map, once a team has successfully "camped" the spot, each second is counted, each weapon spot has total of 60 seconds and the minimum setting is 180 seconds to win the round. Players respawn in this game type. Majority of players prefer 3 round games for annex.
---------------------------------------Graphics---------------- ----------------------
Gears of War is still, to this day, one of the best graphical games released, it has SO much realism to the backgrounds and also interactive scenes, with that said, the game runs perfect and no freezing/frame lag occurs.
---------------------------------------Sounds----------------- ---------------------
Superb choice of sounds in this game, there is ALOT of swearing (the game is rated 18+ in UK) the monsters give the creepy, yet enjoyable sounds and the weapons are great. Can't say no more.
---------------------------------------Controls----------------- ---------------------
The controls are simple enough if your a quick learner, the main problem was using the A button to take cover and such, you must know where you want to take cover and press it at the right time, else you will just roll into the wall and possibly exposing yourself enough to be killed. This is a game where, you can quick aim and shoot, or you just "know" where the crosshair is, in campaign though, the aiming is not a problem.
---------------------------------------Achievements------------------ ---------------
It's something we all love about the Xbox 360 games, and it's the achievements. Gears of War offers players to get up to 1250 GamerScore.
Most of the achievements are online and can take a little while to get but within 2-3 weeks of playing, including campaign, you should bag yourself an easy 600-800 gamerscore. Some achievements include,
Beating the game on all difficulties
Hosting 50 ranked matches
Getting 100 headshots
---------------------------------------Bad Points--------------------------------------
Seriously... Achievement - This 50 gamerscore achievement requires you to get 10,000 TOTAL kills in ranked online games. Annex does NOT count towards your kill total.
An avarage player will get around 8-10 kills a game (say 8 rounds, for instance) which could take up to 30mins depending on the score. This achievement will takes months, if not up to a year to complete. However, its a great "logo" for yourself to show how experinced you are.
Glitches - There is quite a few glitches within this game, and give a 12 year old glitches and he will abuse them. Some of the glitches really ruin the game, however, you will rarely see this in ranked gams, and are common in public games. If you see a glitcher, just send a file complaint.
Once a game starts, no-one can join! - Thats right, once the game starts, the teams are locked. And half the time, people will leave if they cannot kill someone or the room is too good, leaving you in a 4v3 game.
Host as advantage - If your host, you will have an advantage over other people, since you are hosting, you will have NO lag whatso ever, your shotgun seems to do alot more damage from range then other players, and sometimes you will take more hits to die. Alot of hosts play on the Human side, this makes other players join the human side just for the advantage of a possible easy win.
No customisation - You cannot customise anything with your character, period.
---------------------------------------VERDICT------------------- -------------------
Regardless of the annoyance of some things on the online play, this game should be in your collection, 100s of games has been released on the Xbox 360, yet this is still higher rated then all of them. Want a great looking game, with a awesome campaign and a top-notch online experience thrown in? Gears of War has the answer.
I think that sums everything up, I'll re-read this later on and check for errors/anything ive missed, feeling pretty tired at the moment! Hope you enjoyed reading this review.
If you have any questions or would like to share your experiences, then feel free to contact me!
Gears of War - Top Game. 
