Eurogamer Expo: Hands on with Gears of War Judgement
Words by: Richard Berry | Posted: 8 months ago | Filed under: Eurogamer 2012, Previews.
First impressions are everything these days and the first impressions of Gears of War Judgement is that it looks and plays exactly like Gears 3 – this was echoed along the queue as we waited for our turn. While the graphics did appear smoother, everything remained the same, the characters, the HUD and the weapons are no different to Gears 3 – is this a bad thing? Well no as Gears 3 happens to be awesome but yes if you were expecting a brand new game.
The mode on display today was Overrun, attack and defend – which seems to be the new game mode that everyone is turning their attention to these days. One team play as the COG while the other plays as the Locust. It’s certainly inspired by a combination of Horde and Beast mode but more focused around a new take on the competitive multiplayer formula. What is different to this formula is the introduction of a class system.
Playing as COG we were each given the role of either engineer, scout, medic or soldier with no option to change between respawns. Each class has a unique ability, which is activated with LB, these ranged from either health packs, sentries, ammo or a beacon – which tags enemies and debuffs them slightly should any get caught in its field. Once used each ability has a cool down period before it can be used again.
Each class also has specific weapon load outs. Playing as the Locust force you have the choice of the full range of creatures, initially choosing from Ticker, Wretch, Grenadier or Kantus and by accumulating points you can unlock and buy the use of the meaner, more devastating characters, Corpser, Blood mount, Mauler or Giant Serapede. Each Locust character also comes equipped with abilities – the Grenadier was really handy as his ability is the grenade which after a short cool down period can be used again and again.
I found Overrun extremely playable , the attack and defend mechanic worked excellently striking a good balance between Horde and Beast mode. I was rather proud that my Gears skills (taught to me by Mr Burns) paid off with me finishing with the top score as both COG and Locust. (Were you playing against children again Rich? -Dave)
Rather than a new game, Judgement looks more like an expansion rather than a brand new title and while it’s easy to ‘overrun’ the objective with a few powerful Locust characters, a well structured COG team can easily triumph as we clearly demonstrated to the queue eagerly awaiting at our backs. This lively new mode will certainly keep fans happy for hours on end.
About Richard Berry
Rich co-owns Xboxer360.com alongside Dave and in his spare time he plays games such as Halo, CoD and Battlefield. His all time favourite franchise is Assassin's Creed, other than that he tends to chase Dave around with a stick to get him to do stuff.
