It’s hard to believe the Gears of War franchise is only a year old. When the game launched last year on the Xbox 360 it immediately took the crown as the game to have. The graphics were top notch, the gameplay was solid, and the co-op experience was the best to date. A year later Microsoft and Epic have brought the game to the PC crowd, and it seems to have survived the translation.
The PC version of Gears of War supports Microsoft’s Games for Windows Live platform. Unfortunately, much like Halo 2 for Vista, it doesn’t support any cross platform play to extend the community. This is also the first title that allows for GFWL on XP machines. This was a huge complaint with the original GFWL titles as a lot of gamers didn’t want to install Vista. The game does support DX10, though I can’t really tell the difference between that and the DX9 mode visually. The real draw of the new version of Gears is the new chapters of content. Many noticed that there wasn’t exactly a smooth transition between Act IV and Act V, and these chapters help fill that void.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve played any Gears, in fact it’s probably been a good 8 or 9 months since I touched single player. I forgot just how beautiful the game looks and how well it plays. Running the game at 1600×1200 with all the details on high shows off some really impressive visuals, and while the core of the game looks the same as its 360 counterpart, it looks to have a few extra layers of polish and smoothness on the PC.
Of course with a PC version comes the mouse and keyboard controls, and while you can still plug in your 360 controller to play, the KB/M do feel completely natural. There is a trade off of course, and the lack of rumble with a KB/M setup is definitley missed, especially in such a visceral game. I thought that perhaps the KB/M would make the game too easy, but I still found myself restarting at those difficult parts over and over. The only advantage I really found with the KB/M was that it was easier to hit moving targets while sniping.
Gears of War for Windows is virtually identical from the 360 version up until Act V. The beginning of the Act starts with Marcus and the crew needing to restore power to a bridge to get the APC across to the train. There’s some great dialog here that really fills in some plot holes, and of course the grand finale is a battle with the big ass Brumback monster. The new content should take you a little under 2 hours to complete, and I dare say its some of the most polished and well designed levels in the game.
Gears of War for windows does have some technical problems. There are some frame rate jitters and drops here and there, it’s not consistent and it’s not often, but it is annoying. I also hit a few glitches with audio being dropped with dialog, and I hit a spot or two where I got stuck in walls. All of these things were pretty minor though, and didn’t necessarily take away from the gameplay experience.
The multiplayer now has an additional game mode, as well as 3 news maps and a level editor. The Games for Windows Live stuff sort of complicates things. With player matches, ranked matches, and a server browser it can kind of be confusing to figure out just where to start in multiplayer. On top of all that, only certain sections are available depending upon your [i]subscription level[/i]. You can play direct matches, co-op, and server browsing matches with any Silver or Gold account. Matchmaking and ranked matches can only be played with Gold accounts though. Because of this all multiplayer achievements can be earned in non ranked player matches. I know this was a big complaint on 360 version, and it really brings in to question just what the hell is going on with GFWL, especially in the face of what Valve has done with the Steam Community.
Technical glitches aside, this really feels like a complete Gears of War game. The additional chapters really fit well into the overall story, and almost feel like they were cut from the original game due to time constraints. It’s an absolute crime that these won’t be available to 360 owners as DLC. This was my 4th time through the game now and it’s still a solid and fun experience. And while I think some core PC Gamers will complain the game is too “console-y”, this is one title that shouldn’t be missed.
Score:
4 out of 5
Buy @ Amazon $49.99
