Game Review: Gears of War: Judgement

I finally got my hands on a copy of Gears of War: Judgment and I have to say, I was not disappointed. Judgment brought to the table everything that I loved about the other Gears games, with a few added twists and turns that keep you on your toes.

Judgment has you reliving the actions of Kilo Squad; a four-person squad led by Lieutenant Baird. The game starts off with you and your squad being brought into a courtroom in the middle of a warzone, handcuffed and being accused of insubordination, disobeying a direct order, and treason.

While not a lot has changed in the way of gameplay and how the story is played out in front of you, a few new ways to progress through the Gears world have been introduced. As you progress through each mission, you have the option to “declassify” information as you make your case in front of your accuser, Col. Loomis. You are given these options, which are identified by a large COG logo placed somewhere at the start of each mission. When you approach the giant COG, you press the requested button and are given the option (if you so choose) to paly the mission at a slight disadvantage. By accepting the declassifying mission, your enemies will gain advantages: attacking from behind as you move down the street towards and objective, assaulting a large opposing force using only Locust weapons, and even having to get through a specific mission before the timer runs out your entire squad is killed.


“Now why would I want to do any of that?” you may ask. Well if you choose to declassify certain information, it will assist you in gaining a higher star rating. Star rating? In Gears of War: Judgment, you are assessed on your squads performance in completing the mission by gaining up to three stars. These can be attained by GIB kills, executions, headshots and so on. This made the game a little more competitive on the story line side as well. When your perform special kills, like headshots or executions, a counter pops up on the bottom right side of your screen, with not only your number of special kills, but also your online friends. After I saw this, I found myself trying to get that one extra headshot or lancer chainsaw execution to take the lead over my friends.

The storyline kept me intrigued in the fact that Judgment is the prequel to the first Gears of War game. You even hear Marcus Fenix calling for help as his squad was taking fire. This brought me back to the first time I played a Gears game and reminded me of the many hours I had logged in the Gears universe. The storyline kept me intrigued and playing for hours on end. Even after completing the game, you unlock the Aftermath campaign, which is an added shorter storyline that projected you into Baird and Cole’s mission at the end of Gears of War 3.

As for graphics, the Gears world and characters look as beautiful as ever, if not even better! Everything from the hoards of Locusts coming at you to put an end to Kilo Squad, to the wall your crouched behind crumbling under the heavy barrage of a multcher gatling gun was fantastic. Playing through Judgment was a visual ecstasy. By the way of controls, not much has changed from the very first Gears of War. You can still dive up staircases, make a mad dash through enemy fire, and take enemy Locusts as meat shields; this Gears is just how I remembered each and every game that has come before it. And that is certainly NOT a bad thing.

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