Gears of
War: Judgment is an odd beast of a game. In many ways, it feels like a rejected
piece of DLC from a previous entry; too many changes to satisfy the
expectations of the hardcore Gears crowd. And yet what holds back this game
from greater heights is its reluctance to go far enough to leave any significant
impact on the franchise.
Judgment is
the story of Kilo squad: veteran Gears Baird and Cole, along with newcomers Paduk
and Sofia. This story is a prequel to the rest of the series, supposedly set shortly
after "Emergence Day" although you wouldn't know that just by
playing. While the city isn't quite as war-torn as series regulars are used to,
there's nothing really to indicate how long they've been actually fighting the
Locust. Everyone seems unfazed by these monstrous creatures, and just as
well-suited for battle as any of the other games. That's one of the biggest
missteps of the conception of this game... its insignificant timeline makes
this whole effort meaningless. Why couldn't we play an unprepared squad that
encounters the very first wave of these fierce beasts? Or even give us a
storyline that ends with the events that led Marcus to wind up in the jail cell
that we met him in back in the original Gears?
Jumping into
the campaign, I was immediately put off by two things: You have to unlock
Insanity (my co-op buddy's difficulty of choice), and there's no Arcade mode.
Arcade mode was a god-send for co-op, because if one player died, they would
eventually respawn as long as a teammate was still alive. Why oh why did they
not keep it??
Judgment
doesn't stray far from the Gears' go-to theme of insubordination. Most of the
game is told in flashbacks as Kilo Squad stands trial at a makeshift tribunal
session. It's one of those ludicrous situations you only see in stories like
this: A major Ass of a commanding officer takes time out during a war (right
smack in the middle of a warzone, no less... The trial is interrupted several
times by waves of enemies) to punish these soldiers for not following orders. I
understand the importance of discipline on the battlefield and what not, but
why wouldn't they just be locked in the brig until a more suitable time can be
found? It seems more detrimental to the war effort that this officer is abandoning
his post so he can punish these guys for not following his misguided orders.
The gameplay
itself stays inline with the tried-and-true Gears formula, with a few odd
control tweaks. Grenades are now exclusively assigned to the left bumper, which
had previously been the objective indicator. That led to quite a few explosives
being unintentionally launched into the air, but once you get used to the
change tossing grenades on the fly becomes a welcome change. The grenades
themselves also get a bit of a makeover, adding the Stim-Gas variety to the
mix, allowing you to revive comrades from a distance. A tossed explosive will
also automatically stick to anyone they come in contact with, providing a
messy, inescapable death.
Also, you
now switch weapons with the Y button, as you can only carry two, with the
elimination of the back-up pistol (you still can use pistols, but they have to
be slotted in the main weapon positions). With the removal of mandatory pistol
opens up the use of Boomshields, however. These massive, portable, near-indestructible
shields can now be used with any of your main weapons.
Perhaps the
biggest addition to the gameplay is a fully optional component; the Declassified
Missions. These help increase your score for each section, awarding your
performance with Stars that unlock character skins and such. Selecting these at
the beginning of each mission (usually) adds a degree of difficulty to the
section at hand: A time limit, a limitation on available weapons, even the
removal regenerating health. Sometimes, however, the Declassified Mission
actually helps you: It provided Longshot rifles for a level designed to fight
off enemies across a chasm. It would have been a lot slower going had I
attempted the section without the rifle.
The game
itself is an oddly structured thing. It's broken up into tiny little sections, ones
that often end abruptly. One level in particular had a fight in the street, then
showed enemy reinforcements coming. So I set up defenses with a fancy Tripwire
Crossbow (a devastating trap-maker, if you have time to properly use it) and
readied myself for the attack... only to have the section suddenly end; The
oncoming battle was part of the next section entirely. While it's nice to only have
such small bite-sized areas to redo if you die (a big gripe of previous GOW
games were the horribly-placed checkpoints), these section breaks really screw
with the pacing of this game as a whole.
There's also
a short extra campaign that unlocks: Aftermath, an equally unimportant side
story that occurs during the timeline of Gears of War 3. This story reunited
Baird & Cole with Paduk, but doesn't really tell you why they didn't stay
together after the events of the main campaign (Oh yeah, because his character
hadn't been invented until this game). This part of the game has no
Declassified Missions or Star-based scoring. Just feels like something that
failed to make the cut in Gears 3. But it does flow uninterrupted, which was a
nice change of pace.
The
multiplayer options provided this time is a mixed bag. On one hand, the maps
are great. Along with increased character mobility (you can now jump off
balconies and such, though larger falls can hurt), these multi-tiered levels,
particularly the map with the gondola, are expertly structured. However, this
game has stripped out a lot of the game modes, and even more of the characters
skins. In fact, Locust aren't even available in deathmatch. It's all Gears vs
Gears, which is both confusing and morally questionable.
The main
multiplayer addition is Overrun, which is a class-based objective mode. And
there's only one objective: Locust want to break open the Emergence Hole cover,
while the COGs want to stop them. Playing as the Locust is just like Beast mode
(only with fewer character options)... earning points will let you buy a
tougher Locust to use. There are only eight types to choose from, but that's
better than what the COG have. Playing as the COG only lets you choose one of
four class-types. Bizarrely, you can't choose your own skin, as they're tied to
the class. So if you want to be a medic and throw Stim-Gas grenades, you'll be
playing as Sofia... possibly one of several identical Sofias running around. And
while there are fortifications scattered about (razorwire, turrets and such),
they can not be upgraded or replaced. The engineer class (Baird) can repair
them before they break completely, but once they're destroyed, that's it. With
no unlocks or rewards while playing on the COG side, it's just not a fulfilling
treat, it's just table scraps of a mode.
Graphically,
it's as good as Gears 3, minus many of the impressive set pieces. There is some
actual color in the game though! The sky in particular provides a welcome blast
of brightness, breaking up the bleak gray palette the Gears franchise is known
for. But you won't be seeing all that much of it, as the action keeps you
focused on the ground.
And while
the voice acting is solid, and what you've come to expect from the series, the dialog
writing is a big shameful letdown. Love them or hate them, to me Baird &
Cole have been the comic relief of the series. So why put them as the leads in
a game that takes itself way too seriously? Even if the story isn't the Wacky Over-The-Top
Adventures Of Baird & Cole (that it should have been), why isn't the
writing peppered with more one-liners? There are a few humorous lines, but
nothing noteworthy. That is the biggest disappointment of this outing.
2.5 out of 4
Stars
Recommended
for: Die-Hard GearHeads. The campaign won't do much for them, but they should
enjoy the few new maps... if they can put up with the weapon tweaks (They
nerfed the shotguns a bit. Oh my!).
Franchise
Fixes: If you're going to do a spin-off of Gears, make it worthwhile. If not
telling a significant story, then it needs to be an over-the-top good-time
joyride. The developers, People Can Fly, made the pitch-perfect Bulletstorm,
and this really should have been a spiritual sequel to that game. They really
need to be let loose and make a true Gears/Bulletstorm mash-up.
Achievements/In-Game
rewards: While there's nothing very creative on it, but achievement hunters
will probably find this the easiest list of all the Gears games (getting 3
stars on all levels on Insanity will be the most difficult). There's about a
half-dozen multiplayer characters to unlock, and a bunch of weapon and player
skins that are awarded in random prizeboxes that you get as you play. You have
to get the same skin for each gun separately though: bleh. And you don't even get
to use them in the campaign: boo!
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