[h1]20 Years ago it basically shaped the Third-Person-Shooter genre as we know it today...[/h1]
...but by today's standards Gears of War is not necessarily a must-play anymore. The story and dialogue are full of cringy embarassing wannabe-tough-guy machismo and only exist to give a shallow reason to shoot things, so i can't be bothered to waste any more time on further elaboration. Just know that the german voice-acting is one of the worst in any game, like Half-Life 2 german voice-acting levels of bad.
As for the gameplay, it is solid cover-shooter-fun, but it gets repetitive and quite monotonous very quickly. The leveldesign is serviceable at best and painfully obnoxious at worst, for example in one of the earlier chapters where you have to stay within well-lit areas to not get torn apart within seconds by those flying bat-like things that live in the dark, it's just extremely annoying.
The cover mechanic was fresh and exciting in 2006, but in 2026 Gears of War just feels a bit generic and outdated. With around five to six hours only, the game's pretty short, too and the almost cartoon-like artstyle with it's ridiculously hulking characters who put Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to shame is an acquired taste to put it mildly. So, overall, Gears of War didn't age particularly well. Nevertheless, if you like Third-Person-Shooters, it is still a decent playthrough, but definitely not for 40 Euros. Wait for a 50% discount.
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GEARS OF WAR (Reloaded)
Genre: Thrid-Person-Shooter
Release: Q4 2007 (Original PC-Version) / Q3 2025 (Reloaded)
( ) 0/8 Simply one of the worst games ever made. Don't waste any money on this.
( ) 1/8 Bad. Seriously flawed with barely any redeeming qualities. Worth a couple of Cents at best, if at all.
( ) 2/8 Sub-par. Only for hardcore-fans of respective genre / series. Don't pay more than 5 bucks.
( ) 3/8 Meh-diocre. It‘s okay. Don't pay more than 10 bucks.
(X) 4/8 Decent, but not for everybody. Don't pay more than 15 bucks.
( ) 5/8 Good game, Must-play for genre- / series-fans. Worth 20 to 25 bucks max, if you are not a fan.
( ) 6/8 Great game, universal recommendation. 30 bucks would be a steal for this.
( ) 7/8 Outstanding game, a milestone of it‘s respective genre. Definitely worth its full prize.
( ) 8/8 Simply one of the best games ever made. Get this, the prize doesn't matter.
