Gears of War: Judgment Reviews

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Let me preface this by saying Gears of War is my favorite action series by a long shot. As a fan of multiplayer action shooters, the series up to this point, has never let me down. I felt that the transitions from Gears 1-3 markedly improved with each iteration. From Chainsaw duels to meat shield tagging, it seemed like the action only got more intense and more fun. I was looking forward to judgement needless to say.

Then I played it.

Epic, what in God's name happened? Cover system? Pointless. Weapon re-spawns? Endless. Down but not out? Gone. Graphics? Subjective, but for me not as crisp as Gears 3 (for example the Hammer of Dawn, absolutely does not carry the punch and melty flavor it had in previous games, you may even argue that it was better in Gears 2) Fun? Subjective, but for me palpably absent.

The decision to take away down but not out, you may think would encourage people to use cover more, team work more. I've played about 35 hours of multiplayer so far, and this thought process couldn't be more wrong. They turned the game into what is essentially Gears version of an arcade shooter. You pick your primary weapon to start with, Lancer, Gnasher, Hammerburst, Retro Lancer, Sawed off, or the new Marzka, and your choice of one grenade (Wall tagging is gone by the way, another disappointing decision to me). From there you are put in a 5v5 match like the previous game. FROM that point, you will likely come to the same conclusion as most, just take the gnasher, run in, shoot once, and melee. Congratulations, you have mastered Gears of War Judgement. Now that alone isn't necessarily a deal breaker. Some could argue that it's faster now, but I for one don't remember ever playing the previous games complaining about the speed. But enter the multiplayer rotation once, and 4 maps later, you will have seen it all. Yes, Gears of War judgement only comes with 4 Multiplayer maps. There are a few maps for Overrun mode, similar to horde but pvp and with you controlling locusts swarms between rounds (pretty fun). But as far as actual classic gears of war 5v5's, there are 4 maps the game launches with. That is not a misprint. And no, it doen't matter that you spend a lot of money paying for maps the last time around, they don't do you the courtesy of throwing in Gridlock or Clocktower, they don't care if you expected more value for the 60$ you just spent.

A free map came out recently. That makes 5 now. But if you didn't download it in time, you will have to pay for that too Via Season pass, or get even more ripped off by buying the map packs separately. What a joke! I remember buying the other gears games and thinking that Epic was a great company, because they actually gave you quite a bang for the buck. Not any more suckers.

The maps themselves by the way, those 4 maps mentioned earlier. SUCK! I dont mean to be crass but they are EASILY, EASILY, the WORST maps epic has ever came up with. A confusing mess of ups and downs, with WAY too many power weapons that respawn about 15 seconds after someone just picked it up, so don't worry boomshot guy, there's another one waiting for you just around the corner.

We were supposed to get excited by being able to jump down glass windows, off of the sides of buildings down int he the streets etc. Well I've played it folks, and it doesn't do jack. I had a group of 9 Xbox live friends who were not only amazing gears players (look up on youtube AdamBerg11 if you want proof) but avid ones as well. Not one of them, literally not one of them, played this game beyond the first week. Don't blame Epic, you'll say. Blame People Can Fly, they did this to our beloved Gears. Let's just hope that's true, and that Epic get's back on the ball with this franchise which I'm sure has planned installments for the upcoming Next Generation Xbox.

Save your money. I didn't.

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Like most people I was very excited when I found out that the Gears of War series was going to continue. I had played the previous 3 and enjoyed them all, both solo and co-op. Gears 2 introduced Horde Mode which was my favorite game mode to play online with friends. It seemed that the Online Deathmatch was too difficult for my tastes and the matchmaking system did not work well. Still Gears of War 3 improved on all fronts; deathmatch, Horde Mode, and campaign. Gears of War: Judgment took 4 steps backwards. I was suspicious when i read the news that Cliff B had left the team, and after playing the game i can understand why he left. They took his baby and just pushed it onto the market to collect money from loyal fans like myself who expected great things from this franchise. The co-op campaign was fun that is why i gave it 3 stars for the fun factor. But the Horde mode is gone, replaced with a similar mode but lacks the RPG element that GOW3 had. If you are on the fence about this game please take my advice and wait until you can purchase it for $30 or less because it is not worth 60.

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Now before I begin, no I did not buy this off Amazon, I bought it from gamestop so that's why there's not an Amazon verified purchase in my review. I've been a fan of GoW since the first game and have them all. I've loved the campaign for all of them and loved the multiplayer, even when they added the sawed off to Gears 3 which was ridiculously overused by I got through it and still loved it.

But after playing this game for about 8 hours it just felt different and odd. I know the developers were going for the game to be different and of course it's always good for a game franchise to change it's ways. That's if it's in a good direction of course. Now don't get me wrong, this is still a pretty solid game but it just has something missing to it.

Campaign: Haven't played too much of it but it seems promising. People on here say it's about 5-8 hours but I don't really mind that. Knowing that you should just not rush through it and then complain about it being short. Play it little by little and it will last. There really wasn't anything I found wrong with the campaign. I've actually enjoyed the Declassified Missions option to it. It adds a little more fun to it since it allows to to gain stars to unlock stuff.

Multiplayer: This is where I was mostly disappointed as follows:

Pro's: -Most of how it runs feels the same aside from the new controller scheme (Y button to switch weapons instead of the d-pad and LB for grenades)I'm not making a huge deal out of it because it only takes a little while to get used to.

-Lot's of skins for your character and weapons to unlock.

-When you're waiting to respawn you don't need to wait the full amount of time, you can just press A to respawn immediatly.

-A few new weapons you can start off the match with as opposed to being limited to the Lancer, Hammerburst, Gnasher and Sawed-off.

-You can roll off high ledges to the ground below you now.

-If you're a huge fan of TDM as I was in GoW3, then you'll enjoy it more now since the winning goal is 50 kills with only 1 round.

Con's: -The first thing I noticed was that they got rid of being DBNO. Now when you would usually just get down, you just die. You don't really get a chance if you're being shot at from far away to crawl away into safety or revived. You just die. Not really a big fan of that.

-With the fact that DBNO being gone, you can now be melee'd twice and get killed from that. So now if someone is wall bouncing around you they just need to melee you twice and you're dead. It's pretty lame but again it takes some getting used to.

-Only 4 multiplayer game types so far: Overrun, Free for all, Domination, and TDM. Seems like they got rid of KOTH, Execution, and Wingman which I loved to play. I'd assume they'll add it on later on as DLC possibly or as the special event of the week but who knows.

-You can spawn with only one primary weapon now. I always liked that fact that I'll spawn with my lancer, gnasher, and snub everytime I respawn but now you need to choose between spawning with a Lancer, Retro Lancer, Hammerburst, Gnasher, Sawed-off, Booshka, or Markza along with what grenades you choose and your snub. So you can't spawn with both a lancer, retro lancer, or hammerburst alongside with your gnasher or sawed-off. This isn't a huge deal but it is slightly annoying. Upon spawning though you CAN pick up a map spawned weapon to replace your snub pistol so it would be like having two primary weapons but then you don't have your snub. It may be a small inconvenience but it is still is one.

-Lastly is the fact that you seem to spawn with very little ammo. I always spawn with my gnasher equipped which I noticed makes you only start off with 8 gnasher shells. Now I haven't played GoW3 in a while so I don't remember the exact number you start out with my with this number, you run out of ammo quickly. Luckily there's a lot of ammo boxes around so those help you out but it's still a bit of an annoyance.

Overall this game IS worth having but don't put $60 down for it. Wait until the price goes down to at the most $40. I just feel this game isn't as enjoyable as the previous games. Of course a lot of you might disagree but I'm sure there's a lot of you that will agree with me. Maybe with some more gametime I can say more positive things about the game but as of right now, this is all I have to say.

UPDATE 3/25: I've had this for almost a week now. I keep trying to give this game a shot but I honestly can't. I may be mistaken but now you can use a gnasher while you're using a boomshield? Are you serious? You can take someone out easily enough with the snub and boomshield but now you can use I guess any weapon you have equipped? Literally this game is just full of scrubs. I've played a little more of the campaign and it's a lot more disappointing than I expected. Mostly because I'm not a fan of how it plays out like an arcade game. I was thinking that it would only happen every once in a while but it's not. And in the campaign you can use executions and meat shields but you can't in multiplayer? Really? I've never played a game with as bad multiplayer as this. I gave this game a shot for a week and it just threw my expectations out the window. The only reason why I rated Fun with 2 stars was because of the very few games I get where it actually feels like the original Gears instead of running and gunning and explosives everywhere.

Honest reviews on Gears of War: Judgment

When I first got into Gears of War, was when I bought my 360. It was literally the first game I bought, and I was blown away by it. I am not "one of those Gears fans", you know, the one's that refuse to believe that there was a good Gears game since GoW1. I thought Gears 2 was just as good if not better, and 3 was a worthy entry in the series, and that it was a fitting END. But, as with most franchises today the idea of making more money off a name has become more important than releasing something that is worth releasing.

Gears of War: Judgement was the first time I wasn't desperate to get the game day 1. Not because it didn't look impressive, not because I've lost interest in Gears, but more because for the first time Epic wasn't working alone, and also the fist without Cliff and Rodd. That thought frightened me and unfortunately it was entirely based in reality. This is not Epic's Gears of War franchise, this is People Can Fly's attempt at Gears of War. The last time the two paired up was the ill recieved Bulletstorm, which I did enjoy, but since I beat have yet to go back.

Judgement's only strength is it's campaign. the campaign is fun and offers a little something different than what we have all become used to. Yes you are still fighting locust in the same point A to point B linear fashion, yes you are still using Lancers and Shotguns, but it still feels fresh and fun. The Declassify option is the shining feature, making play in a certain way to attempt to attain a 3-star rating on your missions, like using only pistols, or adding more and varied enemy types. It really adds a bit of replayability trying to rack up high scores with your friends. It's not all roses in the campaign though, Difficulty is nerfed to hell, if you used to feel challanged on Hardcore or Insane, a 3 year old could literally survive on these difficulties. I started straight off on hardcore and at no point felt challanged, even declassifying never added difficulty. Enemies that were never present in GoW1 are magically here, then gone for the next 2 games, then come back in 3, and the introduction of new and mainly useless weapons make for a less than inspired twist on gameplay.

But, once the campaign and the weirdly out of place and timeline Aftermath is over, the multiplayer is all you have left. Well, then you officially have nothing. Multiplayer has to be the worst in Gears history. Overrun is about the only gametype that even feels like it should be there. Execution takes forever to finish just one match, Team Deathmatch has been taken from 15 cumalitive kills then last chance to being 50 kills, Free-For-All is absolutely abysmall, Domination is a sad attempt to be CoD, and not fighting locust, no Down But Not Out, just make Multiplayer all around a frustrating experience. As you level you unlock prize boxes (much like in Mass Effect 3) but they offer nothing more than comestic changes for your guns and character. The biggest frustration is the lack of the 4 weapon series staple, Where as you could have an Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol, and Non-Lethal Grenade you may now only have one Non-Lethal Grenade, One pistol, and Either an Assault Rifle or Shotgun. This completely removes the ability to take people on based on where they are. You won't make it very far if you have a Sawed-Off and the other team has nothing but Lancers. What they should have left alone they retooled the most and made it the series worst Multiplayer experience to date.

To wrap this up this game is the definition of rent not buy, play the campaign enjoy it and then chuck it out the window. Hopefully this is the official end of the franchise.

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If you're thinking about buying this game just hold off until the price goes down, which I'm sure will be soon.Worst $65 I've ever spent. Honestly, Gears of War 3 is better than this.