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Epic Games, developers of the Unreal series, caused a big uproar at this year's E3 by showing off their first exclusive Xbox 360 title, Gears of War. This over-the-shoulder, third-person shooter not only has highly realistic graphics, but also a wide variety of weapons and enemies to plow your way through.
Using the Unreal Engine 3, Epic Games has created an environment filled with rough and rugged, war-torn streets. Each building, room and hallway gives you the feeling that the battle with the Locust Horde (an enemy from underground) has left civilization nothing more than a memory. In this game, you play as Marcus Fenix, a former war hero that has been disgraced. When the Horde attacks his holding cell, he escapes and leads a band of warriors against the invaders in hopes of regaining his glory.
Just watching the demonstration, this game was a pure adrenaline rush. From the moment Marcus gets out of his cell and into open ground, the action is non-stop. Helping your character effectively take cover is a simple control scheme that can let you not only duck behind barricades, but jump over them, slide to adjacent coverings and also shoot over short walls or around corners while presenting as small a target as possible. If there isn't cover available, the destructible environment can sometimes lend a hand. There are times when pillars or other objects will fall over (when persuaded, that is) and become a nice place to hunker behind. And you will need to take cover too.
This isn't the type of game that you can just run and gun your way through. Even the typical grunt takes at least a full clip's worth of ammunition before they will go down, so this isn't your standard, one head shot and they're down game. So it's a good thing you will have help. All of the game's levels are designed to effectively use co-op mode. You will always have at least one other person at your side, so a friend can always jump in and lend a hand if your teammate's A.I. isn't quite up to snuff.
Gears of War shows off what Epic Games does best, high energy, high impact shooters that get your heart racing. |
