I haven't seen hype like this since the lead up for Halo 2! Somehow, be it clever marketing, word of mouth, fantastic video releases, or whatever, Gears of War has obtained the kind of anticipation and hype that is usually reserved for sequels such as Final Fantasy VIII, Resident Evil 2, Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Microsoft is truly billing Epic's third person shooter as the next killer app for their system, to run alongside Halo... did they put their time, energy and money in the right hands? Of course they did!

You play Marcus Fenix, a gear soldier who, during a Locust invasion from beneath the surface of planet Sera, disobeys orders in an attempt to save his father from death. He fails and is subsequently thrown into jail for 40 years for not following procedures. It isn't long before Marcus's maximum security prison is attacked by the Locust, however, and with no other options, Marcus is retrieved and put back on active duty to fight for what remains of his very Earth-like planet.

Combining elements of Ghost Recon and Halo, Epic has managed to create a tactical sci-fi third person shooter with the same amount of strategy as Ghost Recon and the fantastic story elements and moments seen in games like Halo and Metal Gear Solid. As Marcus, you're equipped with the standard weapon for gear units, called the Lancer. Outfitted with a chainsaw bayonet, the Lancer is a standard machine gun that accompanies the gear's pistol, as well as the innovative frag grenades that act as a grenade/mace hybrid, where the user swings it by a chain before unleashing it, or can even stick it to an enemy using the spikes on it. The pistol can be swapped out with a revolver, while the Lancer and any other secondary main weapon can be swapped out for a variety of weapons including shotguns, sniper rifles, explosive crossbows, a rocket/grenade launcher combo or the Hammer of Dawn - a weapon that summons a laser beam to fire down from satellites and wreak destruction on anything it touches. Every weapon is available online and the amazing thing about Gears is the balance between them all - you'll rarely die from a sniper rifle or any other device and feel like it was a cheat shot or that were cheated, something many games fail to address.

Not to move too far ahead of myself, the basic structure of the game is essentially built around the player moving from one battle section to the next, often having to carefully navigate corners through cover to avoid being caught in the open and ambushed with nowhere to hide. Gears of War is a slow moving game - and a great one because of it. The cover system is entirely based around the A button and the movement changes depending on how, and where, the button is used. For instance, if you're out in the open with no cover nearby, hit the A button and you do a quick forward roll (or any other direction). If you hold it down you initiate what's called the Roadie Run, where Marcus ducks and runs at a rapid pace, with a low, shaking camera following behind as if a camera man was in pursuit as nearby objects are kicked out of the way, displaying the fantastic physics engine. If you're around a wall and you tap A then you press up against it and take cover, while if you're simply near the cover then you slide against it, dodging fire at the same time before safely pressing up and kneeling if need be.

The great thing is what you can do from behind cover. You can do a SWAT turn to more cover nearby to move from position to position, you can roll out from cover, leap over a barricade or run around it quickly. That's just to get out though - attacking from cover is a whole different story! You essentially have two options; you can blindfire any gun or weapon over the top of the cover, or around the side, or hold the left trigger to come out of cover and aim with a targeting cursor. Grenades can also be blind fired or players can stand up and use the trajectory indicator to carefully aim where it lands, allowing you to even bounce them under trucks or around corners.

The blind fire/precision firing system is used at all times, even if you're not behind cover at the time. This eliminates players from running around with the pray and spray method - it can be done, but is very inaccurate, especially when moving. Whilst the game doesn't have any one revolutionary feature, it's the combined elements that are all done so well that make it so special. It just works perfectly and easily, rarely causing you to struggle with the cover system or firing. However, one of the most unique ideas in Gears of War is the active reload; when you reload, a slider appears on the top right of the screen showing the progress of the reload. In the middle of this display are two notches, and if you hit reload again whilst the slider goes over these notches you will reload quicker, as well as get a bit of a damage boost. However, if you attempt active reloading and miss the notch, your gun jams and you're up the creek for a moment - I fully expect something similar to begin appearing in shooters in the near future!

Now that you know how you'll be fighting and the weapons you'll use to dispose of your enemies, it's only right to learn about what you'll be fighting. The Locust horde that dwells underground are not a nice looking bunch - but then again, they probably say the same thing about Fenix and his crew! The humanoid-based creatures walk and fight like regular people, but they definitely do not breathe, sound or look like us. Looking somewhat like horribly disfigured humans that resulted from some sort of science experiment gone drastically wrong, the Locust soldiers are well trained in combat and use everything to their advantage. They know how to cover and when to flank, their aim is precise (yes, they're armed!) and they can rarely be taken out with just a single grenade. Complimenting these soldiers are other minor baddies, such as creepy crawlies that can literally come out of nowhere at any time and maul you to death! The Gears team have done a fantastic job of putting you against a bizarre breed of creatures but not making you feel like you're always shooting something flying through the air - there really are some truly great ground-based tactical battles to be had here.

Combining the excellent gameplay with superb level designs, non-linear battles that allow you to use any weapon or cover at your disposal to eliminate threats, as well as completely unique storyline elements is what really makes Gears' solo mode shine brighter than any of the grim graphics in the game. One section for instance, during Act 2, has flying creatures spewing out into the night sky from manholes and any other underground entrance, attacking anything that moves in the darkness (including enemies). In these sections you need to use your wits to light the way and even control a giant spotlight to navigate other team members to safety or take out these creatures. Unique moments like this are found throughout the entire game and really make the campaign shine, and when you add the fact that the gameplay is an absolute blast you really can't go wrong. The game is only five acts long, but the multiple difficulty levels (including the very tough Insane), co-op that allows you to invite any players, online or off, to join in on your game at any time during your single player campaign and achievements for playing through as Dom in co-op will keep you coming back to the story mode for a long time. If you can find time in between playing the insanely addictive online mode, that is...

The great thing about Gears of War's online modes is that the gameplay is just as solid as the single player, with all of the great features and very few hiccups or occasions of lag. Taking place in four-on-four battles across small but highly detailed and very well thought out maps, Gears is one of the few online games to incite an actual fear of death in the players, resulting in very slow and careful gameplay most of the time. No game mode allows respawns, although there is a very unique feature that allows you to return to battle after being severely wounded. Upon losing all health, you drop to the ground (assuming you weren't decapitated, cut in half, or killed with some other fatal method) but if you aren't finished off (which can be done through a variety of ways) you can rapidly push the A button to get back up and fight, or be revived by a team mate. When you manage to get a player down you can run over and execute them through a curb stomp (smashing their head on the ground with your boot), chainsawing them to pieces with your Lancer or using a variety of other methods such as sniper rifle headshots, close range shotgun blasts, grenades, rockets, or explosive crossbows.

One game mode in particular, dubbed Execution, requires players to finish off the other team through execution methods, meaning shooting them while they're down just won't cut it. What will cut it, however, is slicing them in half with a chainsaw, or blowing them to bits with a close range shotgun blast! Warzone is a fairly basic mode where the idea is simply to kill off the other team and in Assassination each team is given a captain who must remain alive to insure victory, and he is the sole player who can pick up other weapons. All in all, with ten excellent maps and more on the way, Gears of War has an online mode that stands high above anything else offered on the 360 and one that will easily stand the test of time as well - this is the online game to have and it's one where every player in the game will actually be worried about their life and try hard to stay alive!

Gears of War is not a pretty game, in a sense. You won't find the lush waterfalls of Halo 2, the beautiful sunset seen near the finale of Prey, or the green forests of Metal Gear Solid 3. What you will find is a very well realized vision of life on another planet, where everything is very grim and industrial. The grey buildings surrounded only by black concrete and the slow realization that whatever hell lies beneath this planet is slowly eroding the world and taking over everything. At moments you do find beauty trying to withstand the crumbling and dead terrain; lush green trees sometime stand in the middle of a courtyard, surrounded by destroyed buildings with the warm glow of the sun trying to shine over them. Gears is easily one of the best looking games ever created and rarely falters - graphical hiccups are few and far between and the character models not only look absolutely superb but move just as well.

Before release many people hailed Gears as being perhaps the goriest game to date; though it is indeed very graphic, it's debatable if it is indeed the bloodiest. Horror fans will absolutely adore the amount of detail put into decapitations and headshots, with blood spewing forth from carcasses in a manner that doesn't at all appear cartoonish like in Grand Theft Auto. When you see a body cut to bits it's obvious the developers spent a lot of time making sure the gory effects wouldn't incite laughter, but instead lots, and lots of "Ooooh's!" from the audience. Then laughter, because you can't believe how great it looks!

Matching the graphics is the sound and it doesn't disappoint. You may find yourself wishing for a more involving soundtrack, but careful listeners will notice certain musical cues that compliment specific moments in gameplay, such as when all nearby enemies have been defeated. The lack of a main soundtrack isn't a fault when you consider just how eerie the game manages to be without it. The third act is downright creepy as you traverse through a rainy street in the pitch black of night, hearing nothing but the rain colliding with the ground, barely masking the shriek of a nearby Locust in the distance.

Gears of War is simply a phenomenal game - one that is very difficult to describe, but once you pick it up and play it, you'll know exactly what they were trying to say. It does live up to the hype and it does match Halo in terms of a superb campaign and a ridiculously addictive online mode. If you're struggling to find a killer game for your Xbox 360 then look no further - unless you're under 17 of course!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).