Gears Of War: Judgment Review

By Daniel Hobbs / March 21, 2013

rating: 3

Does this feel like deja vu? The new Gears Of War game - which comes from the team behind Bulletstorm - feels like a retread of places weve been before. Although this time you are staring at the back of a different meat head. This time around youll be playing as Kilo Squad, led by blonde square with facial features, Damon Baird. You know, that guy in the original trilogy that no one wanted to be.... him. The squad is put on trial as war criminals by the malevolent seeming General Loomis, and the gameplay follows their recounted tales of the events they are being prosecuted for. Its quite a neat way of telling the story, but sadly, thats all the story you are really going to get. Even with movie writer and former journalist Tom Bissel drafted in to craft the story, it still manages to do nothing, and is merely a case of here is a mission we did. End. There's no characterisation, no substantial development, and though some may chastise me, saying that Gears Of War is all about the gameplay, when you are left underwhelmed after some sweet gameplay, something is fundamentally wrong. The basics of gameplay are largely unchanged from other GOW games: you will find yourself shoulder barging into cover, peeking out, unleashing a hail of bullets then slicing bad guys in two with your chainsaw bayonet, as the Cole Train says woo!" Developers People Can Fly have, however, changed things a small amount by switching up the controls and making a few additions. Switching weapons has now been a placed on the Y button, and grenades are now governed by the LB button. It might sound like a small change, but the effect on gameplat is surprisingly positive: having those actions mere millimetres away from your natural grip, rather than on the clumsy 360 directional pad, allow for a faster action-oriented experience. New bad guys like the Rager and new weapons like the tripwire crossbow and gas grenade also add an extra layer to the gameplay. The game also introduces a new smart spawn system for the campaign and multiplayer, which is supposed to make sure that each encounter is unique; types, timing and location of enemies changing with each new checkpoint reload. However in the grand scheme of things, they dont do much to improve on the old Gears gameplay. However, the mission declassification system is a different matter: in each of the levels in the Gears Of War: Judgment, the game gives you the option of tweaking your experience to make it more difficult, including anything from limiting your ammo or weapons, to giving you a time limit to complete the next stage. Declassified mode gameplay modifications allow even Gears Of War veterans a new challenge despite the familiarity of the rest of the game. That said, the new features brought in are fairly few and far between, and rather typically, there is a lot of repetition. In another attempt at varying gameplay, People Can Fly introduced Horde style level sequences mixed into the main body of the game, which is an admirable attempt, but we have an entire mode for that. All credit to the developers, they have tried admirably to give older fans a reason to come back, but it all feels a little half baked, especially as a majority of the levels can last anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, adding up to a short seven hour campaign, that feels even shorter. The campaign is slightly bulked out by the addition of a separate story: Aftermath is a chapter set during the events of Gears Of War 3, during which Baird and Cole head off in search of back-up for the Delta Squad. It adds about an extra hour of gameplay to your experience and rather awkwardly wraps up the fates of some of your friends from the original campaign, however it still does not have any moments that wow and, like the main story, is rather underwhelming. Speaking of Gears 3, the whole experience outside of the game, ie the user interface, is ripped straight from the last game: all of the stats, ribbons and unlocks, both in single and multiplayer, are almost the same as Gears Of War 3, and it's hard to resist the feeling that there isn't a great deal of new material here.

Judgment dishes out your multiplayer options in six, less than distinct flavours: Over Run is the best of a bad bunch, combining the Beast and Horde modes of previous Gears title into a competitive experience, with the COG set up to defend important points, like a generator, and the locust attacking.

Similar to this is Survival, a co-op only mode, where the AI takes the place of the locust squads, and what set these apart from the other game types is the class based systems in place: humans have the option of picking their focus in the game, from healing to dropping ammo. Both modes are fine, but Survival is lacking and a rather lazy replacement for the fantastic Horde mode from previous iterations.

In addition, you can play basic Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Domination modes, which isn't exactly inspiring. More worrying is the front loaded microtransactions that are on offer: you can go ahead and buy XP doublers on a whim or you can pre order the DLC season pass for access to the VIP matchmaking playlist that generates much more XP than the normal playlist. Im a realist and am all for companies making money off the back of their product but its a bit too much when the game only ships with four multiplayer maps, even if they are rather well designed.

Of course, you can go and play the campaign with four player online which, thanks to the short levels feeling like a series of repetitive killing rooms, does add to the replay value. Gears Of War: Judgment is odd: it is a weird mixture of the classic Gears gameplay you know so well, tweaks to attempt to keep it fresh and a story that doesn't really pay off what so ever. You will slip comfortably back into the details of the series, be impressed by the addition of declassification but ultimately become disappointed at a package that doesn't feel like a full price retail product. Gameplay:

rating: 4

The Gears Of War gameplay that you love is still there. It's still great, although now you have become accustomed to it. Graphics:

rating: 3

Judgment looks... well, average. Another reason for it to feel like a generational stop gap. Sound:

rating: 2

Don't worry, that, guitar strum is still there, although the rest of the soundtrack is a muddy musical mix Replay Value:

rating: 4

The short length of the levels do allow for some replay fun to be had with your friends online, even though competitive multiplayer is lacking. Presentation:

rating: 3

Ripped straight from Gears Of War 3. Kinda lazy, to be honest Overall:

rating: 3

Judgment is a well made game, with a few twists the standard Gears experience. However, it does not do much to convince me that it's worth the money you'll be paying.