Harder to put down than your childhood pet...

Gears Of War is an action/strategy/shooter with gore set to 110%. The back drop is a wartorn parrallel Earth called Sera. Sera was once a magnificent civilization with decadent Victorian style buildings and vast expansive views. This once peaceful planet was shaken to the core by an invasion from beneath it's surface by the Locust Horde. These enormous humanoids attacked Sera without warning. In this review, you won't find out why either. Showing no mercy they drove the human surface dwellers into the verge of extinction. This left the humans with but one choice. They torched the planet in a desperate attempt to push the locusts back underground. They failed.

Now 14 years later, you take the role of Marcus Fenix, an imprisoned COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) soldier who has been busted out of his jail cell by longtime friend and army buddy, Dom. You are charged with taking back the planet from this horde. Your tools for this Mission Impossible are simple but incredibly effective weapons. Handguns, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, laser guided satellite cannons, and my favorite and the most fired weapon in the game, the chainsaw bayonette assault rifle. Armed with these weapons your team of 4 COG soldiers will push the invaders back in the most intense shooter we have seen this year.

We all know this game is visually the most spectacular release on the 360 to date. The world is immersive and real. Textures are so authentic you'll be caught wide eyed and open mouthed just scanning the environment with your camera. Gears has lifted the yardstick for what is expected of 360 games in the future and will be constantly used as an unfair comparison for anything that follows in it's wake. The orchestral score for Gears works in creating atmosphere and tension and all shots, explosions and voices are of the highest quality. This game just oozes class.

The gameplay premise in Gears is straighforward. Use cover, supress your enemy and move to the location that best sees you wipe them out. Gears is not about running, shooting and circle strafing enemies through the campaign. It wants you to use the well placed cover that is strewn throughout Sera. Failure to do so will result in your carcus being chopped, blown up and kicked around alot. Games in the past have clumsily struggled to find an easy to use cover control method. Gears overcomes those hurdles by using the A button and the A button alone. When used in unison with the left stick, all your required cover options can be executed with one simple button push. The game features a novel and highly effective reload system. Hitting the reload bar at the right time will result in higher damage from your next round. Failing to reload in the sweet spot will see your weapon jam. While it holds you up for only a second or two, this is all that's needed for an approaching drone to get the better of you.

The campaign mode offers two levels of difficulty for all gamers. Both "casual" and "hardcore" difficulties will suit the majority of players with a third "insane" difficulty being unlocked once the game has been completed. 2 player co-op over Live will create a challenge for anyone brave enough to accept the toughest difficulty. It's worth mentioning also that there is no stripping back of the storyline or features of campaign mode for the co-op experience. You can play the entire storyline from start to finish with a buddy over Live if you choose to.

The multiplayer experience is again, class leading on the 360. All above mentioned weapons are available for 3 simple modes of gameplay, Warzone, Execution and Assassination. All three game modes are playable in up to 4 vs 4 matches. In the short time Gears has been released, it has moved to #1 on the XBox Live charts most played. Multiplayer is a highly strategic based game where again, cover is essential, but also teamwork with other players will see you kerb stomp a rival in a most rewarding fashion.

With Gears Of War, Epic Games and Microsoft have delivered the most technologically advanced and immersive experience to date on the 360. There are rare moments in gaming history when one can truly appreciate superior gaming prowess. This is one of them. Be amazed!

Without doubt...