Gears of War: Judgment - The Gears Turn Faster

Last March, I reviewed Gears of War 3 and mentioned at the end that it would be a while before I played the then-upcoming Gears of War: Judgment. This was because God of War: Ascension came out around the same time and we ended up buying that instead. Later, I would actually receive Gears of War: Judgment as a Christmas present, enabling me to finally play it. About six months later, when I didn’t have school to worry about anymore and I was between things to review, I finally got around to playing the game, finishing the campaign within a couple of days during my free time. I enjoyed my time and I thought the new developer, People Can Fly, created something worthy of being an entry in the franchise. At the same time, though, there are a couple of annoyances that do hold it back a little.

Gears of War: Judgment serves as a prequel to the previous games in the Gears of War series, taking place during some early point in the Locust War. Kilo Squad, led by Lieutenant Damon Baird, is on trial by Colonel Ezra Loomis under accusations of treason for stealing COG experimental technology while on a mission at Halvo Bay. The trial serves as a framing device for Kilo Squad to give their testimony on what happened, switching back and forth between the past and present to transition between each member’s testimonies.

Colonel Loomis is kind of an ass.

Personally, I thought the story was written pretty well and was generally easy to follow, although at times I needed a reminder on why a specific action was happening. As this takes place in the past, the personalities of Baird and Cole are different than the games later in the timeline, but the vocal chemistry between them adds some depth to their friendship by giving more specifics to the audience. Because of this, we can see how they are able to stick together for so long in the main games and hearing their dialogue is fun. Two new additions to the Gears of War Universe are Cadet Sofia Hendrik, a former reporter who went to the Onyx Guard academy before her assignment to Kilo Squad, and Private Garron Paduk, a former Gorasni soldier who was originally a Major in the UIR, but became a Private with the COG through the Open Arms Program and got assigned to Kilo Squad. These two are very interesting characters, written in a way that you’re aware of their back stories, but their personalities are pretty well fleshed out and let you get to know them as people. Allowing everyone a shot at giving testimony was a great idea since we get to know everyone better and are allowed to hear multiple sides of the same story. Granted the stories follow the same timeline, but the idea is still brilliant and executed very well, especially since all characters are playable this way.

The way the story is played through though could have used some work. Each chapter is divided into a number of parts, each part consisting of an introduction to a new part of the environment before fighting through at least one wave of Locust and then moving on. After a few sections it gets pretty formulaic and it’s easy to see when a fight is coming, especially if the map layout is suspiciously firefight friendly, but over ten hours of it gets tiring and got me more and more anxious to see the ending. Missions also have a star rating, with improvement on it providing incentive to replay through the levels. However the frequent stops to give the rating for each mission frequently break the immersion, which led to me getting increasingly anxious to end the game. An additional replay incentive is the Declassified goals, which add a modifier to the mission and give a boost in increasing your star rating, along with adding additional testimony for Kilo Squad by filling in details they would have otherwise neglected to mention. Since I did all but a couple Declassifieds on my first playthrough, I don’t really know if the additional testimony changes the game at all apart from the narrations in the past. Still, it’s a neat idea that deserves mention for allowing more self-imposed challenges.

Triggering a Declassified mission requires finding this glowing logo.

Gameplay is mainly the same as previous games, but with tweaks to make it flow faster. Switching weapons is now done with a single button, Y, and grenade throwing is done such that you can still go through the setup to aim with LB and then throw with RT, or you can just simply hold LB to aim and then release the button to throw, or, more simply, just tap LB to throw in the direction you’re facing. In addition, the game introduces a new Locust type called the Rager, which starts out as a normal Locust equipped with a Breechshot, but physically changes to a melee-focused enraged form that can only be quickly disposed of with headshots; the one Declassified I intentionally skipped included waves of almost nothing but already enraged Ragers. A number of weapons are also introduced for the first time, those being the Booshka, a grenade launcher which fires ricocheting rounds with a delayed fuse; the GZ18 Marzka, a UIR sniper rifle; the Breechshot, a Locust sniper rifle without a scope, Stim-Gas grenades, which create a field that heals anyone within its range; and the Tripwire Crossbow, which fires rounds that are useful when setting up a defense against waves of Locust. These additional weapons are all very responsive and easily lend themselves to differing play styles throughout the campaign, though if you choose to go after all the Declassified missions you will be forced to change things up anyway. In any case, new weapon variety is always welcome to prevent things from getting stale and these weapons end up making sense in the long run thanks to the game’s setting.

Things are about to get Ghnasty.

Graphically, the series is almost identical to Gears of War 3, but there are slight improvements to the color palette that helps things stand out a bit better on the battlefield, though I would chalk that up to the campaign taking place mostly during the day with clear skies. However, this just shows off how good the lighting is and it’s always pretty cool to look at. Sound design is the same from the last game, but is no less impressive, and the sound which indicates the end of an encounter remains as satisfying as ever. Voice acting is also good, displaying a good emotional range and chemistry between characters.

As a bonus, earning 40 stars unlocks the Aftermath campaign, which takes place during the events of Gears of War 3. At some point during that game, Marcus Fenix sent Cole and Baird on a mission to find a ship and reinforcements for their assault on Azura. With Clayton Carmine, the duo returns to Halvo Bay and run into an old ally, Paduk, whom they haven’t seen in years. Paduk begrudgingly helps them on their quest, since his people made camp there and he knows the area. I liked playing this storyline, since I finally got closure on what happened to these characters during Gears of War 3, specifically why it took them until the final act to show up again. The campaign is also pretty short, maybe a couple hours, and its gameplay is basically Gears of War 3 (complete with graphics) but with all of the tweaks from Judgment, minus the tedious stopping between sections, star ratings and Declassified-type modifiers (though this makes sense given its spot on the timeline). I highly recommend playing this after completing the entirety of the Judgment campaign.

One of the first shots of Aftermath.

Before I end the review, I’d like to briefly discuss the Multiplayer. Normally, I don’t play online and, unlike my Gears of War 3 review, I don’t have an Xbox Live Gold account. So, in the interest of still wanting to discuss it, I tried the offline options to see what each thing was. Thankfully you can play offline with a second player and/or with bots. However, none of the modes were really that fun with two people. Sure the bots add some variety and increase the enjoyability, but my brother and I both concluded that all of the modes would be infinitely more fun with three or four people locally to provide more variety. Fortunately the new OverRun mode, in which players take turns defending or attacking an E-hole cover, is very fun regardless of having only two people around, although I must say that, due to the assigned roles of the characters and having pre-determined loadouts, the mode reminded me a lot of Team Fortress 2. That isn’t really a mark against it, just merely an observation; also, OverRun is sadly the only mode where a player can play as the Locust and Down But Not Out and Executions are no longer there (there are too many additional changes to list in this space). In addition, the new Free-for-All mode is basically a nice way of saying Gears of War now has a Deathmatch mode, though our conclusion about the number of people needed to make the game fun still stands.

I’d like to make one final complaint, which is that three Multiplayer modes, Execution, Master-at-Arms and Breakthrough, can be seen in the menu, but trying to select them has the game telling you to buy the DLC in order to play them. I have no idea if these were added to menu from an update or they were already on the disc, but I don’t like the idea of having a game tell you to spend money on it so you can do more things, even if you never intended to do so. If this was through an update, then it’s more understandable (though no less annoying), but if it was already that way from the start, then I have a problem.

Gears of War Judgment improves on the formula in all of the right ways, introducing tweaks to make the gameplay faster and creating greater replay value through additional modifiers and star ratings. While the story is pretty well-written, the frequent stops erode at the immersion and make the campaign unnecessarily tedious. However, it’s still a very fun game to play and the unlockable Aftermath campaign provides some much-needed closure on what happened to Baird, Cole and C. Carmine during Gears of War 3. This is a must-buy for Gears of War fans, plus for those who are only interested in the Multiplayer, I don’t think you can really go wrong. The gameplay may be getting a little more formulaic, but I’d still be willing to buy the next game and see what they’ll do next.

Duty Calls: The Calm Before The Storm (Parody)

NOTE: This is a parody review of a (parody) game and should not be taken seriously.

In today's gaming market, you don't have to look hard to find a military-themed First-Person Shooter, such as the long-running Call of Duty series by Activision. Sometimes however, you need something different in order to prevent monotony, which is where the downloadable title Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm (aka Duty Calls), released in early 2011, comes in. This military shooter does things that separate it from the crowd, perhaps making it one of the best shooters in this generation.

Normally, a military shooter puts you in the place of an American soldier, and your job is to lead your squad to victory against a foreign army. This formula, however, is not present in Duty Calls, instead taking a bold new direction. In this game, you are an American soldier, and your job is to lead your squad to victory against a foreign army while trying to retrieve a deadly nuclear missile bomb from the hands of the enemy leader boss before he can use it for evil purposes.

The story in this game is very rich and deep, even for a military shooter. Your character goes through a lot of emotional depth, making you connect with him as if you were actually in his place. A particularly dramatic and memorable moment is a cutscene where someone dies while delivering important information. Over the course of the game I had grown so attached to these characters that I felt really sad when this happened. Awe-inspiring setpiece moments help to capitalize on your emotions, bringing the appropriate one to mind when faced with certain obstacles.

The graphics of this game are very realistic, helping to set the tone of the story. The music further helps to set this up, giving a truly epic soundtrack that perfectly matches any given situation. The voice acting is, for lack of a better term, simply amazing, allowing you to become more attached to the characters and get to know who they are.

While the controls may be simple and easy to pick up, there is plenty of variety to be found in the combat. You start out with a standard assault rifle, but as you progress you can pick up other useful items such as sticks and notebook paper, which can help you get out of nasty situations, such as when you are facing off against a persistent paratrooper near the end. There is also a bit of challenge in this game, since it is easy for you to see a bloody screen as soldiers attack with a barrage of bullets. With a little perseverance though, and an awesome moment of slowdown, you can get by them just fine.

There is a ranking system in this game, like in plenty of military shooters, and man do you have to work hard in order to rank up. Even on easier difficulties, it can take a while, but once you get the next rank, you can breathe a sigh of relief before having to rank up again. With enough time and investment though, you too can be a Sergeant of the Master Sergeants Most Important Person of Extreme Sergeants to the Max!

Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm is quite a step forward in the way of FPS', especially when it comes to the military genre. It attempts to stand out with some unique ideas and they really work. If you are a fan of military shooters, Duty Calls is a game you should definitely check out.

NOTE: thedutycalls.com, the site from which this game could be downloaded originally, is (as of this writing) a dead link.

Bulletstorm: FPS On Steroids

In the world of the crowded FPS Genre, it gets difficult to stay on top. Every time a new concept comes along, various clones show up to try and cash in on the idea. However, one key concept always remains in an FPS: using the environment as a weapon. These usually come in the form of red barrels or some other form of explosive object in the background. The concept of realism also stands, attempting to combine the two into masterpiece crafts of the genre. If a game like Uncharted 2 is like a cinematic masterpiece and Call of Duty is a realistic war scenario, then Bulletstorm is a melodic blood symphony that makes the most out of its concept/tagline; Kill With Skill.

Looking first at the story, I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. Usually, a game with a concept as unique as that of Bulletstorm would just have a razor thin excuse plot designed solely to let you run wild. Instead, the story for this game has a surprising amount of depth to it. We start with a very intriguing and potty mouthed opening, which sets the stage for the story. Grayson Hunt finally encounters a ship that General Serrano is on and proceeds to attack it dead on. His ship crashes into Serrano's and both end up landing on the planet Stygia. After having surgery performed on his partner Ishi Sato, Grayson locks onto the location of Serrano and they both proceed to locate him.

It wouldn't really be right to talk about the plot of the game any further, as it is full of twists and unforeseen circumstances. But it would be right to say that it is full of truly spectacular moments and feats of scale never before seen in a shooter. For example, there is one section where Grayson gleefully attacks his enemies with a giant remote controlled robotic dinosaur, and another where Grayson and Ishi have to shoot enemies on an oncoming train while avoiding and attempting to take out a humongous wheel weaving towards them. The story was well-written in my opinion, assisted by top-notch voice acting and hilarious, if very potty mouthed, dialogue. Seriously, the amount of language in this game is enough to rival most games out on the market today. Even so, I was laughing all the way through the campaign.

The biggest part of Bulletstorm is the premise: Kill With Skill. Kills in the game are called Skillshots. In essence, there is a name for just about any kind of kill you can pull off short of just outright mowing an enemy down, each with a point value assigned to it. These points are then used as currency for the various dropkits scattered in the game, so the better you are the more weapons, upgrade, and ammo you can purchase for your guns. These skillshots come from skillfully combining your guns, leash, and standing and sliding kicks to pull off increasingly elaborate shots. Some also involve the environment, such as setting off an explosive near the enemy for the Enviro-Mental skillshot, which is one of the simplest skill shots to perform. If you want to start getting complex, you can use the energy leash's alt-fire, Thumper, to launch enemies into the air and kill them for Trap Shooting. And if you want to really get intricate, you can leash an enemy to your position, wrap a flail shot around them, and then kick them back toward a group and detonate the flail for the Homie Missile and Gang Bang skillshots. There are so many skillshots that I still haven't found all of them. There is a real thrill out of finding new skillshots and weapon combinations to use, which will guarantee more play out of the game in the near future.

The weapons are perhaps the most fun thing about Bulletstorm. Aside from the energy leash, kick, and trusty Peacemaker Carbine (PMC), you have a wide array of guns, each with their own powerful alt-fire modes. The alt-fire allows you to charge up your shots for equally ridiculous effects. For example, charging the Screamer turns it into a flare gun and charging the Head Hunter, a sniper rifle, allows you to detonate the sniper round midair for explosive results. Weapons also include the Penetrator, a drill gun; Flail Gun; Bouncer, a grenade launcher with bouncing orb shots; and Boneduster, a quadruple-barreled shotgun. While using them is always exciting, it helps that the controls are very tight and responsive, letting you feel more like a killing machine than ever thought possible. You can carry two other guns besides the PMC, and some are situational, but it's exciting to find that a combination was very effective even if it wasn't the "correct" one.

As far as visuals go, they were very detailed and fluid. The backgrounds are also very lush and colorful and the architecture is beautifully detailed, which gives you something nice to look at while you paint the walls with the blood and guts of your enemies. It was great to see a game like this use a large color palette, making for more inviting scenery and architecture than something like Fallout 3 or Bioshock 2. The game is also very linear, which minimizes backtracking to just going back to a strategically placed dropkit for a different load out or more ammo. What I knew going in was that the enemies in the game were more randomized to avoid being simply cookie cutter clusters, which I liked when I noticed some of the subtlety in the generated enemies.

Aside from the enjoyable Single Player campaign, there are also the Echoes and multiplayer Anarchy modes. Echoes mode has you replaying specific enemy encounters to compete against your friends by racking up points and finding more skillshots. While I enjoyed this mode for hours, I believe that leaderboard nuts will get full enjoyment out of this mode, compared to someone like me who prefers to play it to squeeze more fun out of the game. Sadly, I am unable to review the Anarchy mode due to unknown circumstances. I can't tell if it was the weather at the time or if it was a bad server connection or if it was my PS3 acting up, but I was unable to play a single map and at best stared at an infinite loading screen for about 30 minutes before giving up. As such, I am not one to say whether or not the online cooperative multiplayer is good or not; you may have to find out from someone else.

So, besides being unable to personally play the multiplayer and an okay ending to the story, Bulletstorm exceeded all of my expectations and then some. Never before has an FPS game make you think so quickly about various kills to the point where it becomes an instinctive reaction. I can definitely recommend this game to absolutely anyone who has played an FPS in their life and is willing to experience something that will expand their creative thinking. As for those who are still on the fence, think about it this way: in this game, you can fire a scoped sniper round at an enemy and redirect it midflight to make sure it hits your target, then control the enemy you just shot midair to another close by and remotely detonate the round.