Complete agreement with the comment below - pretty, polished high-production values - but dull, on a level that is becoming lost of game developers. Graphics do not make a game interesting. Otherwise 'life' would be interesting. :)

Hearing that this was SUPPOSED to be a great game, I bought a used copy of it to try it out. 2 painful days later, I returned it. I seriously don't understand the hype associated with this piece of crap game. It's one of the most overrated games of all time, in my opinion. Not one ounce of fun to be had playing this game. Avoid at all costs!

The graphics are absolutely amazing, but the gameplay is pretty shitty. The duck button doesn't seem to work unless I am taking cover (pointless), so I'm required to take cover all the time. The problem is that this greatly restricts where I can and cannot be at any given time. Why is the map so big if 95% of it is a dead zone? Even the first monsters in the game will kill you with just a few shots, so most of the wide open area is a cock tease. This game is not worth $50, but it's worth getting if you see in the bargain bin for $20.… Expand

as has already being said, formulae does not work well for pc. premise is go into small areas, take cover, then shoot, pause for cutscene, go into next area then repeat. you'd think come on theres GOT to be something more to the game cos its got a overall 8+, but thats it. thats ALL there is to this game. graphics and environment is well polished and vv nice but gameplay is bland. probably the blandest and most mindnumbing gameplay ive ever encountered.… Expand

I didn't really think it was a ten, just trying to even it out because this game deserves way more than a five. Sure it's pretty and uninovative, but there are some games, such as the first Halo, that just give you that epic hero feeling, and those games deserve praise seeing as few in numbers they are.

I was not sure to try this game since my experience with games ported from console to pc is not really good but I'm glad I did.
I like this game a lot, loads of action and nice graphics even on my dell laptop with a GEF7950 gtx and 2 gig of ram on windows vista 32.
The way you can hide and shoot is really nice.
The third person view is not too bad even if I dont like it normaly in this kind of game.… Expand

This is definately a console game. However, not owning a console, i found this game fantastic on the PC. I won't give it a 10 for the fact that the DX10 support is pretty buggy, and it's not Half-Life 2.

Another run of the mill shooter. Linear, dull story. Combat was surprisingly dull, weapons feel weak and enemies don't really react to being shot. Gameplay boils down to a game of room to room peekaboo. Cover system is alright, but I'd rather the game let me do things manually, Press a duck key, a jump and lean keys . Looks nice though.

This is a fun game but don't go into it expecting too much. I've noticed that a lot of the pro reviews seem to be over hyping this game and i think it is this game's down fall. Potential buyers expect way too much from the game. Play it as it is, mostly like an arcade shooter, and you will have fun with this game. Although there's not much in terms of story and character development, the game play is satisfying. There's just something about shooting from behind cover and seeing the blood of your enemies splashing around indicating that they are taking hits.… Expand

There are too many "leet" PC gamers out there who couldn't wait to bash the hell out of this game. Notice all the comments about how "console gamers don't know what good games are" and so on. Not saying this is a masterpiece sitting next to all other PC games, but this is definitely up there and not deserving of a measly 5!

Horrible game: repetitive gameplay (just duck for cover, pop out and shoot, repeat until credits roll), no story (same old SF crap universe that isn't helped in any way by its bland characters), and basically, that's it, there isn't much to talk about GoW, because it doesn't have anything other than shooting. One of the most overrated games ever, alongside with Crysis. If you like the graphics you can try Bioshock or Unreal Tournament 3, that use the same engine, but actually have some gameplay stuck to it.… Expand

The game is good. The max graphics are a little taxing on my gaming rig (4GB RAM, 8800 XTX, 3.2 C2D, Striker Extreme). DX10 graphics show litlte to no improvement over DX9 graphics. The game crashes on occasion (other PC games do not do this). Downloading and installing the title update after installing was a hassle. Without knowing a trick, the patch would not install. The install process took about 30 minutes. I could not play the game while installing (a feature that's been touted for GfW-Live titles). Games for Windows - Live is a mess. PC gamers have very little to be excited about when having to use the GfW-Live - which is relatively featureless compared to Live for XBOX 360. Live for the original XBOX has more features than Games for Windows - Live.… Expand

I don't know why users are rating this game so low. I'm not a console port fan at all, but this one had intrigued me, when I saw it being played on the XBox 360 at a local EB. I run the game maxed with a 8800 GTS with no hitches. The game has never crashed on me, and I'm more than half way through the game. Some points are vailid. Installation took a very long time. Windows Live is pointless, and the lack of a quicksave option or more checkpoints is sometimes frustrating. However the game play is excellent, and well worth the price.… Expand

So, exactly which game have all you Xbox 360 owners been playing that's so pants-wettingly great it's got a 94 on Metacritic? I only ask because the PC game I just played was nothing short of awfully mediocre and I can't see anything about it that would make me want to play it for more than about 30 minutes. Things started badly with the installer; I wasn't paying attention and so missed the "More Options button", meaning that after a single click the game was installing to the C drive. One quick cancel and restart later, I was treated to probably the longest install for a game that I've ever encountered, with a full 25 minutes of "Decompressing Files" after it had actually copied them. Undeterred, I fired up the game, configured my settings and launched straight into action...or at least I would have were it not for the fact that the game helpfully informed me that I couldn't save my progress without a Windows Live profile - the dialogues for which only had the Xbox controls listed for navigation, making the whole experience somewhat tedious. When I finally got into the game I have to say it looked very pretty and it had a suitably clichéd storyline, but the gameplay itself way just...flat, I guess. Run across open area, dive into cover, empty several clips into each identical enemy to bring them down pausing briefly to play the reloading minigame and then repeat ad nauseum. What really annoyed me was the seemingly random way in which your health is calculated; you can take an arbitrary amount of fire and then a red thing appears in the middle of the screen, then you take some more fire and a coloured-in red thing appears in the middle of the screen, then you take some more fire and die. Hiding for a few seconds makes the red things go away. No health bar, health gauge, health-o-meter or health display of any kind, just "OK, Not OK, Dead". Maybe I'm missing something here, perhaps the game is stunningly amazing on the 360 and they've just screwed up the port - it wouldn't be the first time - but as far as I can see there is absolutely *nothing* special about Gears of War in any way and I certainly wouldn't pay £35 for it, in fact given the choice I doubt that I'd even download it for free.… Expand

It's good game, that also looks good. Sotryline a bit lacking in terms of detail and controls not as good as they should.

I was very much looking forward to this game after the amazing hype that went with the 360 release. I am sad to say that this game is mediocre at best. Visually, it is a very striking game at times, with an excellent cinematic feel. However, the visuals are rather repetitive during the majority of gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, there is really very little to speak of. This is one of the most linear games that I have played since Dragon's Lair. Almost every step that you take has been predetermined by the developers; they may as well have drawn a bright red path on the ground where they expect you to walk throughout the game. Follow the path, hide behind cover, fire at popup targets, repeat. It does take you through a story that is interesting enough, although nothing very special and riddled with cliches and stereotypical voice acting. The AI is borderline abominable, both enemy and friendly, as though they were all mounted on tracks in a carnival shooting game. The audio is pretty good, though, with a lot of audio cues used throughout the game to help emulate a more dynamic experience. The controls were a nice surprise, since that is typically where most console ports fall down, but the control in Gears is actually pretty solid. I never really felt like I was fighting with them to get my character to do what I wanted, which is extremely important in a shooter. Overall, Gears of War is a decent bit of fun to jump into for a few minutes of coop or multiplayer mayhem while killing time before doing something else, but it doesn't come close to being the amazing game that it was portrayed as on the Xbox 360, and barely qualifies as a decent PC game in general, especially at a time when other far better titles are hitting the shelves.… Expand

Very stereotype game with bad story.

Biggest gaming disappointment in a while. By no means terrible but incredibly shallow and linear. The phrase 'one trick pony' was invented for Gears of War.

Oh, look at that. All of the critics aren't hyping this one up anymore despite their claims that it's superior to the 360 version... Gee, I wonder why? Maybe it's because the game wasn't so hot in the first place? Possibly one of the most derivative shooters ever made... Wait for the bargin bin.

Another in the line of overhyped 360 games that really aren't fun at all. Very pretty game, but the gameplay is just plain boring. Take cover, shoot blindly, run to next cover, repeat.

Boring game, nice graphics but too dark and repetitive for me. Nothing changes the first impression of gameplay out of ideas, to make things worse aiming is awful. Bottom line: mediocre.

It looks good and plays great. Ignore the comments about repetitive combat; if you want to play that way, expect to get bored fast, but if you want to try out new ways and new weapons to obliterate your enemies, you'll have a blast (literally). Chainsawing the bad guys never gets old, and the squad-based element - while annoying at times - makes a nice change from standard one-man-against-the-world FPSs. The environments are huge and well-done, and effectively complement the combat. Unfortunately, what could have been a great game is hampered by a lack of character and plot development - and don't let me get started on the crashing, which is a direct result of a fact that this game is a straight port from the Xbox. Hopefully Epic will learn from their mistakes and ensure that GoW2 is properly polished, before releasing it for PC.… Expand

This game illustrates the difference between console and PC gamers. Gears doesn't really require much thought at all- its very repetitive, and not really any fun. Not to mention the story is very unimaginative. Don't bother with this game.

This game is very good. It is really exciting to play with a friend in Co-op. Great maps and gameplay, also you can almost hide behind anything which is great. Not to mention, the weapons in this game are fantastic. See this game on the shelf? Get it, play it, then enjoy yourself for several hours.

I have to argue with Zach's comment about the cover system. Many of other games have a better "cover system" that doesn't require that you get into any fancy stances. Andrew G. made a great point: if life were entertaining, we wouldn't need pretty games :) In the end, a game is only as good as it's entertainment and longevity. Gears Of War was half way there with entertainment, and nowhere with longevity .… Expand

Not a specially good game at all. The anti-hero, the pre-made phrases, the superficial plot, the fact that the enemies dont stumble after been shot, it all adds up to be a teen game.

I played this game for pc at the lan center I work at and it just doesn't stack up to the other games that we have. The first week we got it people tried it out and then decided that we had better games.

This game truly is a console gamers paradise. However, unlike console gamers, PC gamers have skill, and therefore it would have been advantageous of Microsoft to release this game with a more PC-style killing system. PC gamers have the ability to aim at something smaller than an entire body, like for instance, the head, and I have to say emptying entire clips into basic enemies gives my hardcore character with his nasty looking gun a very overestimating look indeed.… Expand

This game was just awful. Horrible movement, terrible controls, no first person option, crap burst mode on the basic weapon, sluggish, gimmicky, confused, nonsense. This was NOT a first person shooter. This was NOT a PC game. This was NOT PC quality. This was a bad port of a mediocre console game. Yeah, I can see console puppies getting wet over this, but then they don

Couldn't play through the whole game - started off promising, but the fights are dull and predictive, and the visual style gets tiresome to look at after a while. The fine details in the environment and characters are noticeable, but that's all that's original about this game. This should be given for free as a tech demo for their engine - I wouldn't pay any money for it.

I enjoy this game very much. I only ever tried the console version for about 15 minutes before, and I feel as though it held up, even if I am a sucker for extra content. This game has great graphics and good controls. It isn't a great PC game, but I can't think of any way to make the controls better than actually having a chat option, instead of opening the console and typing "say etc." That just gets plain annoying. Enemies are really tough though. The basic locust will take half a Lancer clip before dropping on the easiest difficulty, and most of a full one on the hardest difficulty. If I empty even a quarter of a clip in to a marine from an AK47, he's still going to at least be grievously wounded. Then the tougher ones aren't any tougher. A Boomer take three headshots to drop on Normal with a sniper, three to drop on Insane. Difficulty sky-rockets once you get on to the Insane difficulty. You die very fast and enemies die half as fast. There isn't much variety in weapons, so you just need to worry about one for the situation. Its a gore-fest too. How many games allow you to run up and stick a grenade to an opponent. I've heard about a lot of very good PC games, but as I have only recently started gaming on the PC, I haven't played them. But I liked this game. If you're looking for a good tactical game with a lot of gore, go for it. If you want an actual FPS, this isn't for you. As PC games go, its not the best, but it is still fun.… Expand

So I bought this awful game on spec from the meta-score solely, before examining the user scores more closely. One mistake I won't be repeating. As the disparity between the Xbox and PC user scores will illustrate, this is a pretty good shooter for the XBOX, where they don't have any to compare it to. It compares favorably with Halo, but has been wearisomely flogged in other forums; Halo is mediocre outside the confines of its fan base and Gears of War rates _lower_ than it in every way. The video effects are surprisingly good for such a game. Things look pretty nice, no where near as good as Halo, Bioshock or Crysis; But given the other down falls I was seriously expecting Doom graphics. The terrain look fairly nice, when the graphics are cranked up and the enemies look pretty nice for the shallow automatons that they are. The main characters look decent, if reminding the author of apes or overly developed babies. In the course of the game I had to marvel at how how round and soft the game's sole black character looked. He look as if he was a large toddler with veiny arms. Disturbing to say the least. The sound effects are fairly decent, if half hearted in comparison with the sole focus of development: The combat system. The voice acting is terrible and one dimensional, but I won't take the game to task too harshly for this as the game is quite playable with the sound muted. No ambiance and no character development is lost. The combat is quite adequate with sound either on or off. It was about the third repetition of … Expand

The atmosphere and environments are really cool but thats about all thats good about this game. It plays like a kiddy console game. I mean there is ammo laying around everywhere and none of your squad can even die. There are lots of invisible barriers reminiscent of older low budget games. The stuttering, crashing and loss of game saves are inexcusable for any game. Too bad Epic doesnt give a crap.… Expand

There is really nothing new or amazing about this game other than the hiding beind cover part. your allies are idiots and the enemies have xray vision and im not kidding about that you could hide behind a giant wall and the enemy would come up and the a second before he passes the wall he magicaly knows your there and will punch you in the face which paralyzes you and then shots you to death. this game follows in the long line of 360 games that are rated m but is made for 8 yr olds, and who buts a chainsaw on a gun its plain stupid you can barely use it without getting killed. the develpors focused to much on the blood instead of fixing the ai problems or the weapons.… Expand

If you're looking for a 3rd person shooter where you can shoot the bloody crap out of every one, GoW is pretty fun. I cant understand how people can give this game a 2, the graphics are good and at least run smoothly even if you don't have a High-end Pc. The gameplay is actually surprisingly fresh but indeed IS a bit repetitive, and to be honest, the story, even if it has interesting ideas isn't really appealing. All-in-all: its a good shooter, worthy to be played.… Expand

Lousy controls and basic "console-itis" make this pure console port a solid waste of my money at least. It has beautiful graphics and artwork, terrific voice acting and some of the action is pretty good as well. But overall, its a lousy port for the PC. I bought it the moment EB Games opened last week and it was released, played through the weekend. Boring, especially the atrocious berserker situation.… Expand

Don't believe the hype. It's a boring shooter no new ground. A 'certain' game developer company is going to be given great reviews no matter what they produce. Just look at the difference between the reader metascore and the official metascore on this game.

Very very nice port imho.. No problems so far, running under Vista 32bit with a core2duo e6600, 2gb ram, x1950pro. It took a little while to tweak the graphics so it would run fine, but after that it ran pretty good and the cinematic quality of the game is vastly superior to other shooters on the PC.

Have had a few sound issues, but other than that, what's not to like? The control system is great, the duck'n'cover works seamlessly, and the action is intense.

A most excellent game to begin with, and a very good port (if not somewhat buggy with the AI behavior - characters will often get stuck or just stand around). Controls also work excellently, unlike some are saying. (I have mine custom-bound to the Numpad) Aiming is smooth, and overall game performance is good on a wide range of computers (the settings are very scalable). I played through Gears on the 360 as well, and can easily say that the PC version is better, what with the keyboard/mouse controls, super-duper-high-resolution you can set it at, and extra levels at the end. This is simply a good game.… Expand

Fantastic game. Runs reasonably well on my system, despite the fact that I don't have absolutely top-of-the-line gear. The textures and models are absolutely gorgeous, and the gameplay is fast and exciting. I can't speak to any of the multiplayer elements, since I don't often subject myself to the frustrations of gaming with angst-driven teens online.

An enjoyable game, but it does very much feel like a console port (which it is) along with the slightly dodgy controls apparently common with ports. Like many of the XBox 360 to PC ports this game seems to have disproportionally high system requirements in compared to native PC games. The use of cover in the game is very cool, though you do rather fell like you are playing Halo at times complete with the weak, inaccurate weapons. Gears of War makes a half-hearted attempt at giving you control of AI team-mates but it… Expand

I honestly don't understand why some people give this game such a low score. This is a solid port to the PC people. The single button system that allows you dodge, dive, scale and cover works great; it spices things up without complicating this shooter game. The campaign revolves around a simple and cliché story, but it is told really well with top-notch voice acting and exciting music. The graphics and sound effects are of high quality. Nothing beats the sound of your enemy being ripped apart by your chainsaw equipped rifle! I had the scale the game to medium graphic settings to keep a smooth framerate, but the game still looks impressive. So make sure that you have at least a decent PC by today's standards. The multiplayer is really fun (but tough, be prepared for your butt to be kicked for a while until you start gaining some good experience), and this is coming from a guy who really doesn't like to play multiplayer. The only reason why this game doesn't get a 10 or 9 from is due to some instability and bug issues. The game has a nasty habit of sometimes crashing to desktop during loading the savegames or intense gunfights in the campaign. And in the multiplayer you sometimes come across this weird bug which makes you and other players "phase" from place to place. Also, some people may find the really long installation process and the not-so-simple on-line sign-up procedure annoying. But any score lower than 8 would be an insult to the developer Epic and their game.… Expand

Excellent port to PC, including new maps, and great gameplay. Ingenious cover system used allowing you to take cover behind anything, anywhere. The system requirements are correct, as I am running bare minimum on XP, but can run the game on highest settings, averaging 40 frames a second. Singleplayer is not where this game shines. If you want to get this game, get it for the multiplayer, because that's where all the action is at.… Expand

I got this game after I had read all the great reviews for the PC version and thought it might be worth trying a definative console shooter. What a piece of junk. Why is the character off to one side of the screen? animation was now well put together and made me feel sick. I had to constantly adjust my position. The "cover system" is in place I think becasue console players can't cope with the concept of hiding. Menus are designed for a xbox pad which is sloppy. Live is a joke, only telling me I can't save after I created a profile that was apparently offline then not letting me create an online one. It gets one because what I saw of it was pretty. But I only saw less then 10 minutes because I couldn't take anymore. Avoid.… Expand

I was expecting great things from the cover system...but it sucks!. It's just so restrictive to constantly have to be hitting the spacebar to go in and out of cover stance--otherwise he's glued to his cover. This should all have been done automatically and free up the player for strategy. Also this game is plagued by the heinous windows live system. Which has generated no fewer than than 119 pages (and counting) of crash reports on the the epic games forums. How typical of Microsoft to use people who paid $50 as beta testers for their new compulsory system.… Expand

It's all been said. I'm not bitching about hardware issues or bugs. It played perfectly. It was just rubbish. Like a pop up wooden bad guy SAS training sim level. The taking cover thing is dire. One key to take cover? What about moving behind cover as in COD4. This game annoyed me because I buy after reading reviews. They all lied. This is a worthless game.

I played this game and i was completely awed at it's magnificence.....best game I've played in a long time.

A solid but very overrated game. To call Gears of War repetitive would be a massive understatement - there's literally nothing to this game. Aim, hold down the fire button, duck and reload, repeat. Some of the larger enemies make the repetition even more obvious, with the player having to repeat the fire/duck/reload process for four of five clips worth of ammo. The story and characters (such as they are) are massively forgettable, with most of the mission objectives being so generic that you end up just following the trail of enemies to the next checkpoint. The visuals, while occasionally showing great finesse (the character models are pretty good) suffer from hugely overblown textures and reflections, giving the game an ugly overexposed look. The graphic style is a matter of taste, but the endless grey/brown/desaturated blue levels did nothing for me (with the exception of a very pretty rain-soaked section). Gears of War seems to me to be more like an arcade game than anything else. It reminds me in some ways of Time Crisis, with the cover and gunplay being everything while story, character and creative identity are left as little more than footnotes. Casual gamers will probably dig it, but those of us spoiled by more complex and intricate titles like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock or the Half-Life series will likely tire of it pretty quickly.… Expand

Well I got Gears of War the other day from Gamefly. And to be honest, I didn't particularly care for it. It was just boring to me, the storyline what little of it I saw was dumb, the acting seemed terrible, the cover system sucked (I got killed so many times because the cover was so random on giving/allowing me to hide behind an object). I didn't even bother finishing it. I only got to about the 3rd level or so before I gave up on it.… Expand

Buggy, barely runs when it decides to load...I guess they wanted a few thousand Beta testers for free!

Awful, clearly made for a console... Space to hide behind a wall, right mouse to come out, left click to shoot the bad guys. Repeat 1000 times and you're done.

The game is at least interesting in its own right, and the gameplay elements (cover system and grenade trajectory system) the game just has too many bugs to be considered fun. I tend to spend more time dealing with crashes than I do actually playing the game. Additionally, do not believe the system requirements. The requirements listed are the bare minimums. In order to play this game, you need a system that can handle Crysis at near max. As a final note, this game may run decently on Vista (I have noted that Vista Ultimate users have the best luck with getting this to work), Gears just does not run properly on a XP based system. I recommend that you wait for additional patches before buying this game.… Expand

I agree. The single player is repetitive and boring. However, multiplayer is where the game shines. People almost never take cover in multiplayer. However...it works really well on the 360. Just not the PC so much, because the animations make it WAY too easy for headshots.

Great game if you can overcome its flaws. its hard to reccomend after there are so many good shooters this year but never the less this is a good one. and with some nice weapons that give oyu some real killing satisfaction.

I really don't understand all the fuss about this game. The graphics were kind of nice I guess, but everything else was quite underwhelming. The game crashed several times while I was playing and then wiped all my progress. All in all I found the whole game quite a chore and very frustrating. I was glad to finish it, so that I would never have to play it again.

I cannot understand why people like this game. The story line is lackluster. The combat is repetitive with little variation. The only variation is with the enemies tactics. The AI team mates obviously have downsyndrome as they try to rush into enemy turrets and get instantly whacked. The weapons are pathetic. While having a chain sword attached to my gun is cool the mechanics behind it make it almost worthless. The body armor the characters wear is worthless and most assault rifles are the equivalent of a pellet gun to the enemies (campaign). They say use the shotgun, but a game that forces one to use a single weapon isn't worth ones time. Despite every ones 'glorious reviews' the game is simply a sub-par shooter that is not worth any ones time. You might like it, I think it is personally over-hyped, over glorified, and sub-par...… Expand

Pure fun to play. Reminds of Mass Effect 2, just without the whole levelling up etc. Good recreation after a hard working day. Just a pity they won't release the other parts for pc.

By far one of the funnest shooters I have ever played on the PC. The simplicity and the cover system seem like they would hinder the experience, you'd think that this was a detriment, but really once you get into it, they provide a skill cap that is ridiculously high, pressing a single button to take cover and leave cover seems like a waste, but it takes a ridiculous amount of skill to master this in multiplayer. This was one of those few games that had so much potential for a competitive shooter scene, multiplayer was fantastic, out of the few people who played the PC version online, I was certainly a name you would see frequently, and high on the scores at that. The reason I stopped playing this game is two fold, both problems stemming from poor PC support, first off, the game causes my graphics card to glitch out and crashes my display drivers, so I uninstalled it, and lastly, the game itself has unbelievably poor PC support. You have to do some ridiculous things to simply download the patches for the game so you can play multiplayer, getting the game to work properly is just finicky as hell. This game would most certainly still be installed on my computer and I'd still be playing it, if Epic games would have taken their time to properly support their PC version so it is reliable. It's a shame I have to give a great game a 6 for this, but it is just touch and go, and the people who play this game online are dwindling because of it.… Expand

It looks like a great game for the first few hours with slick graphics and smooth gameplay, but gets too repetitive and formulaic later.

Вот из-за таких занудных рецензентов, декларирующих, что мол "эта формула не работает на ПС", мы похоже и не дождемся продолжения серии. Игра отличная, собранная - нет ничего лишнего. Проходить одно удовольствие.… Expand

El juego tiene una buena historia, pero es terriblemente repetitivo: tomas un área, disparas, pasan una cutscene y repites la ecuación, una y otra vez hasta terminar el título.