Just recently, I purchased the game Gears of War. This game is great, and I can’t even access the Live related things, so I’ve decided to share the joy of it with anyone who reads this. Especially Bl00n. Warning, even though this game is pretty low on the great storyline meter, there may be some spoilers.
The game starts you off in a prison cell, with aliens slobbering on you through the barred roof. You hear the words, “Jack, rip this door,” and a laser beam cuts through the door to your cell. A badass-looking man steps through and takes you out of your cell. I chose to go through the tutorial the first time I played (On casual, the “easy” difficulty), as otherwise I would have had absolutely no clue what was going on. The game flashes you through some basic steps of the game, and you shoot up the simplest Locust baddies.
The previously mentioned simple baddies are called Grubs. They growl, in a voice that wannabe metal singers envy, “HOMINIDS” every time you come near them. They carry guns (which are not as uber as the Lancer or the Longshot sniper gun; more on those some other time), take cover, flank you, and are also massively fun to kill. Particularly in one of those BOOM! HEADSHOT moments with the sniper rifle.
The next Locust you encounter are the Wretches. You are introduced to them while Jack the robot is cutting through a door. They scream and shatter windows while more of them constantly drop from the ceiling. These things don’t take cover like the rest of the Locust. They just bum rush you no matter where you are. They will literally climb over cover and start gang banging you. Wretches are not as awesome as Grubs to kill, since if you take the time to chainsaw one, 5 others charge and kill you. However, you can get good chainsaw kills on these guys more than any other Locust even with that. Since Grubs stay behind cover and if you get close to them whack you over the head, you rarely get one of those awesome VROOM-AAHH-*BLOODSPLAT* kills. If there are 2 at the max Wretches around, you can chainsaw both USUALLY if you really want to. Just chainsawing one then immediately rolling backwards to rev up your chainsaw bayonet and dismember the next Wretch typically does the trick. Sadly, it doesn’t always work.
Kryll barely deserve a mention here, as they are more of an annoyance than anything else. They pretty much only appear in one Act of the game, but they are a pain in the times they come in. Kryll are basically mutated bats that shun the light. If you step into darkness, they swoop down. Within seconds if you don’t find light you’re mutilated and you get to look at the pretty OBJECTIVE FAILED screen. Dom, your squadmate, seems to forget about them and therefore you have to frequently rush in and revive him because he decides to take a shortcut through the darkness.
Boomers come next in the big happy Locust family. They are huge, tough Locust that carry a sort of rocket launcher. Boomers get their names by growling, “BOOM!” before they shoot. These guys won’t go down even with a good solid headshot, so they are pains to kill. However, it’s pretty satisfying when they fall down. ;D
There are only a few Berserkers in Gears of War, and the few parts that involve them are pretty much the same. You can’t kill it with anything but the Hammer of Dawn (coooool weapon that I will go on about in the future), so you have to lure them places and kill them creatively. Berserkers are blind, so you have to sneak around them by walking. Dom walks close enough to poke them, which results to his being smelled by the Berserker and getting crushed. Usually he falls down, then I swoop to the rescue and save him. However, sometimes the Berserker decides to step on his head. Then I start swearing at the “OBJECTIVE FAILED” screen.
Theron Guards are Torque Bow wielding ugly creatures that are basically an improvement on Grubs. They also go down with a solid headshot. These guys also growl “HOMINIDS”, but they look cooler doing it. I only used the Torque Bow on General RAAM since I was so in love with the sniper rifle, but it’s a solid weapon. Theron Guards sometimes forget to take cover while they are charging their bows, so the BOOM! HEADSHOT moments are somewhat frequent and fun.
Finally, there is General RAAM. He killed a lieutenant at the beginning of the game (awesome cutscene though) so you sort of knew who he was. In one of the game’s frequent gaps in the storyline, you still don’t really know who he is, except your objectives list says “Kill RAAM.”. This guy frustrated me, even on Casual. Dom, who is your AI (or player operated, if you play Co-Op) partner, runs and jumps all over the place. He dies quickly in normal battles against Grubs, and against the General he dies even faster. While he is alive he draws some fire from RAAM, so he is at least a little helpful. After he dies you’ve got this big Locust with a machine gun and a shield of Kryll growling, “DIE GROUNDWALKERRR” stomping toward you. After 6 sniper rifle shots to the head and many frustrated retries, RAAM died in a nice cutscene.
Gears of War ends with a special bomb exploding underground and your fellow soldiers flying away in a helicopter. Meanwhile, a Locust talks about how they will “fight until they win or die” and sets you up for the inevitable Gears of War 2.
Expect a blog post entirely about the weapons of this game later. ;D
