Gears of War: Judgment Review

Gears of War Judgment Community Page

My friends and I spent most of 2006 anxiously awaiting a bold and fresh new game chock-full of epic combat, awesome multiplayer, and copious amounts of gore. That game was Gears of War, and when it hit our Xbox 360s we played it like no other. When Gears of War 2 hit the shelves we scoffed at some of the changes, but still, we adapted and continued with our daily Gears of War obsession. After three years of solid Gears of War 2 multiplayer mayhem, the day came when we all upgraded to the latest and greatest. That day had a melancholy tone for all of us, not because of the game, but because of all we had achieved in that time. We were all older, wiser, and had even started families of our own. However we kept nostalgia at bay and moved on to Gears of War 3. Once again we adapted to new changes and we played.

When we got wind of Gears of War: Judgment we were all more than a little skeptical, after all we are Gears of War connoisseurs. Judgment was not being developed by Epic Games, but instead by a relatively unknown studio –People Can Fly, and some of the changes they were proposing seemed preposterous. No Marcus Fenix, control changes, no Down-But-Not-Out. And all of this to come barely a year after Gears of War 3 launched; yeah we had our doubts. We’ve always argued that the original Gears of War was the best in the series, and once I plunked Gears of War: Judgment into my Xbox I instantly went back to 2006.

You will be pleased to know that I loved Gears of War: Judgment. In fact, the campaign is arguably the best in the entire series. For those unfamiliar, Gears of War Judgment is a prequel to the original Gears of War and stars none other than my favorite multiplayer character, Damon Baird. The story starts at the end, with Baird and the rest of Kilo Squad on trial for war crimes. As each member of Kilo squad recounts their story, players live out the testimonies in game. There are some notable changes to the campaign. For starters the campaign plays in an Arcade mode, in that, the game awards points for kills, executions, etc. and breaks the campaign up into very short segments. Don’t worry about this though, it flows together very well and has virtually no loading times between segments. In Gears of War 3, Epic opened up the campaign and multiplayer levels quite a bit –mostly to discourage “wall-bouncing”. For Judgment, People Can Fly did away with this notion and kept everything proportioned realistically. This means hallways are narrower, cover is closer together, and wall-bouncers are rejoicing. The narrow environments and the overall darker tone really give Judgment that original Gears of War feel.

Enemy A.I is slightly better this time around; however Judgment still suffers from some cheapness –As when at the end of a glorious and bloody battle, one stray bullet kills you. New to the series is random enemy generation, in which the game analyzes your play style and randomly throws in enemies to challenge you.  In this way, no two sequences are exactly alike.

Also new to the campaign are Declassified missions which add layers to the standard missions. For example, at one point Kilo squad is tasked with crossing a locust infested bridge. I can simply fight my way across the bridge and be done, or before starting I can begin the Declassified element where I have greatly reduced visibility and range. Every mission has some type of Declassified element to it and every one of these flows well with the story – it is never fantastical. Lastly, People Can Fly added an expansion to Gears of War 3 called Aftermath. This extra campaign takes place during the events of Gears of War 3 and offers closure on the relationships we watched develop in the Judgment campaign. Aftermath plays exactly like Gears of War 3, so its pacing seems a bit off after playing the Judgment campaign.

The meat of Gears of War has always been the multiplayer and here we see several refreshing and disruptive choices in the game’s design that both make and break multiplayer. The newest edition to the Gears of War multiplayer universe is Overrun mode, which plays more or less like a Beast vs. Horde mode from Gears 3. One team of five plays as the locusts and are tasked with destroying barriers, grub-hole covers, and a generator. Points are given based on performance, and once players accrue enough points they can unlock bigger, badder locusts capable of massive destruction. The other team plays as class-based COG soldiers charged with repairing said fortifications and defending the generator at all costs. The COG team has four different classes: The Engineer -who can set up turrets and makes repairs, The Medic -who throws down healing Stim-grenades, The Solider –who drops ammo crates, and lastly The Scout –who drops enemy locating Beacon grenades. Each class also has its own unique set of weapons and attributes at its disposal.  Although Overrun mode is fun, its matches tend to be very long. The appeal of Overrun will be short-lived; it’s not a bad mode, but most “Gear-Heads” will want to go back to Team Deathmatch. One huge beef I have with Overrun mode is there are only three maps at launch, and these are Overrun exclusive –so no Team Deathmatch, etc. on these maps. This is extremely disheartening since the rest of the multiplayer modes only have four maps to share. It borders on unacceptable to launch with only a handful of multiplayer maps. DLC is on its way, but it’s going to have to be substantial to break even.

Another addition to Gears of War multiplayer is Domination Mode. Here teams fight for control of three non-motile rings and rack up points in the process. The mode is fun, but it seems that People Can Fly tried to replace King of the Hill/Annex with this and it’s just not the same. There is also a Survival mode which is essentially Horde mode, but instead of 50 waves, there are only 10. Each wave progressively gets harder as you and your team maintain fortifications while annihilating grubs. Again, most “Gear-Heads” will leave these behind in order to play Team Deathmatch.

Free-for-All mode is like any other Free-for-All mode, every man for himself. On occasion my friends and I liked to have a little friendly completion and we’d play private matches with friendly fire on. It was a blast, and we’d all agree that we’ve never laughed so hard in our lives. So this is a nice addition to gears, but I doubt it will make as many fond memories as simply playing private matches with your buds.

Now on to the meatiest portion of multiplayer, Team Deathmatch. First off Judgment plays faster than any other Gears game. For that reason teams split 50 lives instead of the 20 we’re used to. Unfortunately the locusts do not make an appearance in Team Deathmatch; instead it is Red vs. Blue COG, ala Halo. For the life of me I cannot fathom why People Can Fly did this. Gears of War has always been about COGs battling the Locust horde– I’d understand if the main campaign focused solely on the Pendulum Wars, but it doesn’t. It’s always been COG vs. Locust, and this may be a deal breaker for some. Logistics aside Team Deathmatch in Judgment plays remarkably well. For many years it seemed as if Epic Games tried to limit the use of the Gnasher, in favor of what I call “Cheapy Weapons” like the Lancer and Hammerburst. People Can Fly on the other hand embraces all weapons, in particular the Gnasher. However, you can only choose one main weapon –so if you want a lancer, you won’t get a shotgun unless you find one on the battlefield. There are also several new weapons to pick up on the battlefield including a grenade launcher and other various rifles.

Team Deathmatch is a bit…chaotic

In addition to your main weapon you will also spawn with a pistol and a grenade of your choice –Frag, Ink, Stim, Smoke, or Beacon. Frag grenades will stick to your opponents if you time it right, but don’t plan on sticking grenades to walls in multiplayer, you can’t. This actually works to balance the gameplay; it would be a frustrating bloodbath if proximity grenades were allowed into all the fast paced action. Also gone are active reloads. I have mixed feelings about this, but it does seem to level the playing field a bit. Proximity grenades and active reloads are still allowed in campaign, just not multiplayer. Lastly, the Down-But-Not-Out (DBNO) system is sporadic. For the most part when you die in multiplayer, you die; however on occasion someone will go DBNO.

Players can also choose custom skins -some at a premium, for their multiplayer weapons and character. These are not part of the season pass and are down-right expensive. The premium skins look very cool, but again considering we are only given four Team Deathmatch maps I feel these skins should just be part of the game.

Graphically Gears of War Judgment looks fantastic. When you compare the graphics from Aftermath to the Judgment campaign you can see the little details that People Can Fly added to the series. The sound quality adds to the immersion and the music score is top notch. Controls are probably the one issue most of us are concerned about, and yes it is true that they will take some time getting used to. People Can Fly did several tweaks to our beloved control scheme. For starters grenades have been allotted their own button, LB, for a quick toss. You can also aim grenades by holding the same button down. The grenade change is very nice, and surprisingly not everyone blows up at once considering everyone has a grenade handy. LB used to be for finding your teammates in the heat of battle, but since their names are always shown on screen you no longer have a need for this –but you will hit LB anyway and probably kill yourself with a grenade. Swapping weapons has left the D-pad and has been assigned to the Y button. This works because the smoke grenade slot is gone, leaving you with only two weapon slots. The tradeoff: swapping weapons is a cinch. Other than those changes the controls are the same and movement is tight and fluid. Although different, the controls will not get in the way of your enjoyment of this game.

Whatever you do.. Do not hit LB

In conclusion Gears of War: Judgment  is a mixed bag.  People Can Fly did an excellent job and released quality, but not quantity. Hopefully, as with the original Gears of War, some well-planned DLC will bring additional high-quality content to the multiplayer modes. As for the major changes, remember, we are “Gear-Heads”, we adapt, and we play like no other.