Gears Of War: Judgement Review

Do People Can Fly take the Gears franchise where it's never been before?
Creating a fourth entry in a franchise after a hit trilogy has to be one of the toughest prospects in the entertainment industry- Halo 3: ODST, Pirates Of The Carribean: On Stranger Tides and the god-awful Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull are all prime examples of that. People Can Fly were given a hefty challenge, then, with Gears Of War: Judgement to follow up Epic's grand trilogy of dazzling shooters- did they make the cut?

There's a genuine sense pervading the entirety of Judgement that this is a daring 'reboot' of sorts for the series. We've got a narrative told with plenty of innovation through its format, where Lieutenant Baird and Kilo Squad are placed on trial fourteen years before Gears Of War, sending players into plenty of flashback missions to help establish a verdict. Thanks to this storyline, there's also plenty less of the irksome macho-manliness of the original trilogy, creating a greater reason for the player to empathise with characters. Better yet, there's a 3-Star Ranking System present in each and every one of Judgement's various missions.

The masterful element of this arcade-like system is most certainly the Declassified mechanic. In each level, a glowing red skull icon will appear on the walls, and provide an option to mix up the action with a new scenario such as smoke grenades constantly clouding the player's vision or health refusing to regenerate. Players should definitely take up the challenge, as the variety and diversity it offers in terms of the shooter genre a whole gives Judgement a distinct advantage over its rivals. If People Can Fly are now to become a part of an annualised alternating video game franchise, like Call Of Duty, then they could do worse than to resurrect this game-changer in their next entry of Gears!

Aesthetically, Judgement doesn't do itself any injustice either. Admittedly the Xbox 360's visuals have pretty much been pushed to their limits now, yet the world and its characters still look great, offering bright potential for the development in graphical quality in the next-generation of consoles. The soundtrack is for the most part your typical action blockbuster setlist, but it does suit Judgement well nevertheless and at least provides compulsion as you're playing through the main campaign. These visual and audio elements combine to simply aid the game in being that much more of a well-rounded product.

Best of all, it will be extremely difficult for players to criticise or lament any lack of content on show here. Gears: Judgement features a meaty 10-12 hour campaign with plenty of range in its missions thanks to the Declassified options, a second mini-campaign taking place after the events of Gears Of War 3 and of course the hefty online component of old. The epilogue campaign Aftermath does sort of feel like a piece of Gears 3 DLC that was never released before, sharing more traits with Epic's trilogy, but you'll enjoy it over the 2-hour running time, even if the lack of Declassified missions robs it of some of its innovation. The multiplayer is typically fantastic for Gears, allowing fans the chance to play co-op, Overrun modes and more both offline and online.

This isn't quite the perfect game- the scenarios of the main campaign do start to wear a little thin in its final hour, and the Declassified missions can be seen as replacements for blockbuster setpieces- but fans and newcomers alike shouldn't notice those flaws too much. The biggest credit I can hand to Gears Of War: Judgement is undoubtedly this- whereas Gears 3 began to felt as if the Xbox-exclusive franchise might be starting to get overly predictable, this time around People Can Fly have breathed new life into the series just in time for the next-generation. Gears Of War: Judgement's marketing campaign has left a lot to be desired in terms of garnering attention, but trust me, if you miss out on this masterful reboot and refinement of the series formula, you'll be passing up the opportunity to experience one of 2013's most impressive games.
9/10