If you enjoy shooters then there are a lot of different franchises to enjoy in video games. One franchise that is exclusive to the Xbox 360 is Gears Of War. After the success that was Gears Of War 3, the next sequel in the franchise was Gears Of War: Judgment. Gears Of War: Judgment sold 425,000 copies in it’s first month which was a disappointment compared to how well Gears Of War 3 sold in it’s first month. In August of 2013, Gears Of War Judgment sold one million copies and in the February 2014 edition of Game Informer, Gears Of War: Judgment was voted as the best Xbox 360 exclusive released in 2013. Was Gears Of War: Judgment a good sequel?
As you go through the campaign, you will unlock profile achievements once you do a specific task a certain number of times which will help you level your character up for multiplayer. There are red skulls you come across and if you touch one, it will give you the option to activate a declassified mission which will make your current objective harder in one way or another.
One of the declassified missions could have you destroy ten p[iles of eggs. If you don’t destroy all the piles, enemies will hatch from the piles you didn’t destroy. At every checkpoint, you will see how many stars you earn. If you activated any declassified missions before you reached the checkpoint, it will be easier to earn stars than if you hadn’t.
There are cooperative and competitive modes you can play online. I tried one of the cooperative modes and I didn’t experience any lag or dropped connections. So I have no problems with the online mode.
The game does present a challenge but if you get hurt, you will have teammates that can rescue you and you can rescue them if they’re down and need assistance. One tough aspect of the game is some enemies. There is one guy who has a whip and shield and can still wreck you even if you’re a few feet away. Some enemies slither on the ground and you can’t harm them unless you shoot their tail. There is also one enemy you can shoot, he gets pissed off, transforms, and is even harder to kill.
There are a couple of times in the campaign where you and your team will have to take cover because waves of enemies are coming in. One feature I like is if you are ready before the timer runs out, you can have the game send in the enemies instead of having to wait out the timer.
There are a couple of parts of the game where you will find automatic guns that you can set up and any enemy that the gun can view will be fired at. If an enemy gets to the gun, they can disable it and these guns can only be fixed a couple of times before they stop working for good.
Near the end of the game, you also get to control a turret. If you miss an enemy while you have the chance to kill them, they could end up attacking you from behind while you are operating the turret.
When it comes to the controls, I don’t have anything to say about them that is negative. So the controls work fine throughout the entire game and there is nothing that I would change about them.
The story starts with the team being brought in on charges. The colonel wants to hear their side of the story and he will decide on charges as they explain their side. First Baird has to go but at different points through the trial, the colonel will ask different team members to explain what happened next. Whoever happens to be explaining their side of the story at trial is who you control as you play through the mission.
I mentioned the declassified missions earlier and you get stars as you reach each checkpoint. You want to do as many declassified missions as you can because if you have at least 40 stars by the end of the campaign, you unlock Aftermath which is a short continuation of what happened after Gears Of War 3. A couple of parts about the aftermath campaign that stands out is when you have to enter a toxic room and you have no choice but to take damage as you go through the room trying to reach the gas masks but enemies are trying to kill or impede you. There is another part where you are ziplining down a rope but with your free hand, you are shooting enemies coming at you.
While I had no problems with the controls in the main game, there is a mini-game where you have to set explosives in Aftermath and the controls to set the explosives aren’t explained clearly.
I have no problems with the graphics. The different types of enemies look different. You visit different locations throughout the campaign that look different and while this was released late in the Xbox 360’s life cycle, I don’t think the graphics could have been done any better.
I like the sound effects from the enemies and I like the music that plays during the game. Also if you shoot a partner, they’ll go “Hey I’m on your side” but they won’t lose any health from receiving friendly fire.
So the gameplay is a lot of fun and the gameplay is not difficult but still presents a challenge. I have no problems with the controls. I liked the story and how the story was told. I have no problems with the graphics or sound. The online multiplayer adds a lot of replayability once you finish the campaign. So I give Gears Of War: Judgment on the Xbox 360 9 out of 10. I didn’t like how your teammates would repeatedly get in the way and I didn’t like how the controls weren’t explained well in the aftermath campaign when setting the explosives. However, this is a great game and I recommend you get this game as long as you have an Xbox 360.
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