Gears Of War Judgement Multiplayer Demo review

[jim g]

Well the Multiplayer Overrun Demo is and on Xbox live to download now (729 MB).

There is just one map and area to defend or attack you play as the Human when defending and the baddies when attacking. Only has 3 quick games, it's fast and fluid and am now busy working out my best character / weapon combo

All points earned are transferred to the final game. My copy has shipped and should be here tomorrow, but for now get downloading boys and girls!

I will post more later when I have had a chance to get a good blast.

[nonny]

I picked up the retail copy last night and had a quick blast through multiplayer (as that was what I was most interested in).

The changes in MP are interesting and mostly for the better. The main feeling is that the developers have modified the controls to be more FPS taking nods from COD/BF3. Your movement is now faster though not as quick as I was expecting from watching videos, its still very much the same pace.

What has changed is loadouts, grenade tossing and weapon swapping. For loadouts you now choose a primary weapon from the choice of the Lancer, Gnasher, Sawed-Off Shotgun, Hammerburst, Retro Lancer and Class HB. So basically instead of rolling into battle with two of those, a smoke grenade and a pistol like in old games is gone... you really have to change your primary weapon to suit your playing style or the map.

A new weapon also joins that roster, called the Markza. It's a semi-auto medium range sniper rifle with a 2x zoom but in use it actually feels more like a single shot assault rifle like you'd find in COD. I believe it holds a clip of either 6-8 shots but you can headshot people for quick kills, or around 4-5 shots to the body drops them.

All of that combined means loadouts are now a very important part of whatever tactics you'll employ because of the sheer opportunity choice in having to pick one. You can of course pick weapons up off enemies in battle and you can substitute your pistol in your secondary slot for another primary if you get the chance.

Then weapon swapping is completely changed. As you only have two weapons in your loadout you swap them quickly using the Y button. The Dpad as far as I can tell now has no purpose in a match at all. Big change but it actually works. It's of course straight from the COD template but the quick swap means you can empty a clip at range with the Lancer, then quickly swap to pistol for melee and close range if you're stuck reloading.

Then grenades. They're part of your starting loadout and you get a huge choice... yes you can start with a frag grenade and not have to rely on picking them up. You can now quick-toss grenades with a quick tap of the LB button. This makes them far more useful than in previous games as you can effectively corrale players and force them into certain spots to avoid the blast. I also note if the grenade bounces and touches them fully it will still stick to them, even from range!

You can still arc a grenade throw by holding down LB and aiming but really it is now a secondary tactic and you can not tag grenades on walls anymore for proximity detonation. This has been replaced by a tripwire crossbow weapon which does something similar.

I think this change more than anything has altered the fundamental tactics in a match. Everyone has grenades and therefore you become very aware not to stick your head out and risk being caught in a blast. You can also replenish from ammo crates which seem to always give you another grenade if you're out up to a maximum of 2 that you can carry at one time.

Other grenades seem to be very useful as well. The stim-gas grenade is basically a health drop you can throw down to heal team-mates but the one I've seen used a lot in games like Domination are the spot grenades which drop and immediately send out a radar pulse highlighting enemies on the map. When used correctly both these types add a lot to the tactics but I found their usage varies at present whilst people get used to using them.

Then the biggest changes... No but DBNO (down, but not out) in versus modes. At present in TDM, FFA and Domination there are no executions past retro lancer dashes or chainsaw kills. This makes sense in FFA as there are no team-mates to revive you anyway but it seems to be a strange exclusion from the team-based modes. I know Execution mode (the GOW default of old) is coming as a free DLC on April 2nd so at least that will keep the purist fan-boys happy. It just seems strange to me why they didnt make it a toggle option for hosting?

Maps are also very different to past efforts. The verticality in them is something that takes some getting used to, you can now drop off ledges down to lower areas to catch them off guard and most maps have at least two levels of verticality to gain vantage points and hold down the map.

So massive changes... and I have to say, it sort of works. It plays similar to previous Gears in weapon balance but the whole thing is so much faster, frantic in places and instead of relying on cover and slowly cornering your opponents you hardly have a moment to breathe in some matches.

My main criticisms of the MP so far... only 4 maps for versus modes (TDM, Dom, FFA) and then another 4 maps for OverRun/Survival. To me this is cutting it very thin for a full release title. Of course OverRun/Survival are now multi-tiered attack/defend game-types that require maps tailored to them so I understand the separation in map rotation but even so the maps on offer, whilst all great maps, are very few in number.

That Execution DLC on April 2nd also adds two more maps for free. I have to wonder why it didnt launch day one...? At least that is something though.

OverRun... well its Horde/Beast combined and its pretty damn good. I would sum it up as BF3 Rush with Gears classes. I had a couple of absolutely outstanding matches on it last night with randoms where everyone was learning the classes and it actually stands out as quite possibly the most fun I've had with a Gears game since the first invented itself. It is that good... and whilst Horde is now omitted and all the tower defence mechanics are gone the actual team-classes in this are very balanced.

There is also something to be said playing against the Locust in this mode and knowing it isnt just an AI opponent, especially when the Locust side get into the more meatier characters to dish out the damage.

So yeah... It's pretty damn good fun. I would like to see more maps as a whole and perhaps more options for hosting specific rules but this mixes up the Gears template in a way that some mechanics feel like they should have been there from the start.

I dont know how the fans of the series will respond as they're pretty serious changes but personally I like it, though I think its still worth holding onto GOW3 for Horde mode alone to get the best of both worlds.

Finally... my copy came with a download token for GOW1 which I didnt expect.

[Synthesthesia]

Honestly speaking overall I like all of the changes, and I'm a huge gears fan since the first one. The only thing I'm not massively keen on (but is growing on me) is the constant on reticle. I'd like the option to turn that off when I'm not aiming. It's distracting, but sometimes useful.

Overrun is awesome though. I prefer playing locust to cog, using tickers to chew the defences then once I get enough points move on to a Rager and pop some heads .

It's pulled me back in.

(Impressions from the demo on dash)

[rmoxon]

Is the reticle being on all the time. Just a multiplayer thing?

Im only really interested in the single player if I get this but I think having a reticle on screen even when not aiming would spoil the game a bit and make it too easy, as you can line up shots before you even pop out of cover.

[Synthesthesia]

Is the reticle being on all the time. Just a multiplayer thing?

Im only really interested in the single player if I get this but I think having a reticle on screen even when not aiming would spoil the game a bit and make it too easy, as you can line up shots before you even pop out of cover.

I think it does yeah.

You could always line up shots without leaving cover, you just tap the left trigger and it faintly popped up. I was doing it earlier on today with the sniper on gears 3.

[rmoxon]

Weird, I never even noticed you could do that in previous games and I've completed them all several times. Still I wouldn't want to use it anyway, so it's annoying if its there all the time.

however I just watched the video review on IGN and it doesn't seem to be there all the time in the clips they use anyway.

Incidentally they also say the game is brilliant, and praise its story, along with the new faster paced gameplay of this.

[Synthesthesia]

I don't know if the characters are different speeds in the Overrun demo they've got on, but honestly compared to Gears 3 it felt slower to me in terms of the cover stickyness and the roadie run speed. Maybe it's faster in the standard modes. I hope so.

I wish game developers would start letting you turn off the UI though. Tomb Raider is a perfect example of the UI being done right, it only shows when you shoot etc. Where as on gears, it constantly shows "ROUND 1"
etc. I don't think it does in campaign, but multiplayer definitely does. Not great if you have a plasma TV like me!

[rmoxon]

I don't know if the characters are different speeds in the Overrun demo they've got on, but honestly compared to Gears 3 it felt slower to me in terms of the cover stickyness and the roadie run speed. Maybe it's faster in the standard modes. I hope so.

I wish game developers would start letting you turn off the UI though. Tomb Raider is a perfect example of the UI being done right, it only shows when you shoot etc. Where as on gears, it constantly shows "ROUND 1"
etc. I don't think it does in campaign, but multiplayer definitely does. Not great if you have a plasma TV like me!

When they call it faster than previous games, I don't think they mean the way characters move, I think they meant the pace of the action. Apparently there's some kind of new dynamic enemy spawning in place where the better you play the harder things get, which means that you can become over run unless you're constantly on the move, it's no longer a game where you can hide behind a block of cover and just shoot things.

In fact the reviewer points out how little they actually stayed in cover due to the frantic nature of the game.

[Synthesthesia]

When they call it faster than previous games, I don't think they mean the way characters move, I think they meant the pace of the action. Apparently there's some kind of new dynamic enemy spawning in place where the better you play the harder things get, which means that you can become over run unless you're constantly on the move, it's no longer a game where you can hide behind a block of cover and just shoot things.

In fact the reviewer points out how little they actually stayed in cover due to the frantic nature of the game.

Yeah the overall gameplay flow is definitely faster paced. At least in places. They seem to have taken out reload cancelling with melee too, which I quite like the idea of in an enemy... but not being able to do anything for those few seconds yourself makes you feel helpless.

I like the campaigns but tbh multiplayer is always where it's at with Gears for me, and this one seems to be pulling me back in (I have the urge to constantly be playing it, and it's hard to come off it when I do).

My copy shipped today so I should have it tomorrow ^_^

[Charlie]

Are there weapons, perks and what have you to unlock in multiplayer, or is everything available to everyone from the off?

[nonny]

Everything unlocked from the start. The only things XP gains you is weapon and character skins.

[Charlie]

Good to hear. Really dislike the whole 'gotta spend 20 hours play time unlocking everything so you have a fair chance' so common in today's online shooters.

[nonny]

Yep thankfully there is none of that here. As you play MP you will gain prize boxes which are random gifts of either more XP or a skin for a specific weapon (or for characters). So there is no grinding required at all which is marvellous given how many other games force you to work for weapons.

I'm really liking this. The changes are quite substantial but all of them actually compliment the game-play and seem to have streamlined the mechanics for the better. I know a lot of fan-boys are moaning about there being no active reloading, stopping power etc... but really I havent missed them and the weapon balance overall I think is better for it.

You still get most favouring the Gnasher and closing in for quick kills but I noticed it doesnt have much ammo in this (8 shots) so you are really required to keep moving and picking up ammo drops to stay in contention. I am sure something will be found to be over powered in due course but I am enjoying the fact that I sometimes come up against people using the Markza or Lancer etc... and using them well enough for their playing style.

As a result this has more diversity of tactics than its predecessors.

[arcnas]

I got my copy yesterday, and have done some of the single player, its a court hearing, and each epsiode is the characters testimony, seems like a good idea, but after spending a couple of hours on it yesterday, im pretty sure ive had my fill of gears of war, its solid enough, but it hasnt blown me away, with this and God of war on the end of the series, im feeling God of War is the better offering, albeit a different one, cant comment on multiplayer as havent tried it yet

[Mayhem]

Played the demo last night. It does feel a bit different to Gears 3, hard to describe in some ways. The characters control and handle a bit different, and more than once I reached for the D pad to change my weapon

There's a bit of grenade spam about heh. Although I wasn't getting much input lag at least across the games I played. Only a couple of times was it obvious I got a point blank shotgun gib and it took a split second for the opponent to then splat.

And yes, I was winning as both COG and Locust, so it's possible as long as you have good team mates. Oh boy...

Not sure which character in the demo suits me most. I thought Cole but the Babooshka is a bit hard to land properly, and doesn't seem to do as much damage as I expected, like a grenade. In regards to comments about lack of medics, I did play the medic a bit, and was finding some rhythm there, especially in chainsawing the rager Locust and making sure people are staying on their feet.

Locust wise... grenadier and grenade spam hah hah... and the rager locust, but I was doing some bad damage with the gun instead, just hanging back a bit and picking all the COG off when they engaged my team mates. Scored copious headshot kills.

Good to hear. Really dislike the whole 'gotta spend 20 hours play time unlocking everything so you have a fair chance' so common in today's online shooters.

That's why I've generally preferred the Gears series to CoD etc... skill is far more important than how much time and life you've sunk into a game.