This game has been so overhyped that reviewers feel compelled to give it a good score. Excellent texturing, solid presentation. Poor, repetitive desgin with little innovation. If you are expecting a classic you will be disappointed. It is as formulaic as they come.

70 bucks down the drain. I finished the game in 5 hours and since I don't have online it's practically worthless to me now. it was fun while it lasted but not challenging and waaaaaay too short. The shortest game I've ever played in my life. Bloody EB won't give me my cash back eitehr, only trade in.... sigh

IT works. It lacks any major glitches. Beyond that, there is nothing to recommend this game. It is boring, repetitive, formulaic, and above all else mundane. It is the quintessential second-rate shooter, embodying all that is and can be wrong with the FPS genre. The online is boring to the point of unplayability, the offline held together simply by polish. They did what they set out to do, they made what they set out to make. They just forgot to make sure that goal was . . . you know . . . good.… Expand

it is unbelievable how some sicko's out there put a random chainsaw on a gun, just for the purpose of seeing blood squirt everywhere.......my son, who is 6 years of age, went to his friends house where he watched this boy's brother play the game......my son came home with the friend, and starting to pretend to chainsaw each other..they were yelling and screaming, and also swore lots......my son said "Sup B**ches" to his friend...this is absolutely insane..........who the heck puts that dumb chainsaw in the game....this person must have just got out of jail....UNBELIEVABLE......but overall great game with great graphics… Expand

Kinda interesting, for the first few acts 1,2. Later it get boring and boring. And then you get to fight the final boss which is so easy. Then you play multiplayer and then it gets boring because there are 3 game modes. I gave it a 3 because the graphics and the characters and co-op. But in theory GoW sucks as a team-based shooter.

Sure, it looks and sounds great, but that's only skin deep. The core cover mechanic is repetitive, cumbersome and unoriginal (you're basically playing Killswitch 2), the plot is terrible and the AI seems lobotomised. Mulitplayer is fairly fun for a while but dragged down by glitches, limited modes and the same repetition of that cover mechanic.

I could not agree more with Storage Box and Jacob B. I'm glad the truth is finally starting to come out about this sad excuse for a game. This is definitely the most over-rated game I have ever played. Graphics=10/10. Gameplay=2/10. The level design is unbelievably repetitive, the A.I. is probably the worst I have ever seen and the dialogue could have been written by a five-year-old. If ever you needed definitive proof that graphics don't make a game then this is it. At least there's half decent multiplayer on XBOX live but this doesn't make up for the abysmal single player campaign. Half the budget for this 'blockbuster' must have gone into bribing reviewers to give good scores. Well, Microsoft - you can't get to me! I was fooled into buying the first game but don't expect me to buy any more Gears games - I suspect that there'll be at least one or two others following my example. P.S. I don't own a PS3, I love my 360 - I was just hugely disappointed by the poor quality of this game.… Expand

I hate this game, on single player they force you to listen to stupid dialogs that you cant skip and they put it after a checkpoint so you have to hear it over again every time you die as punishment, like this game has a story anyway online its worse, the maps are stupid simple designed an its nothing but lag and noobs that either chainsaw you or just knock you in the head, the guns are useless dont bother shooting anyone, just run up to them either knock them in the head or stick a frag on them, this game is so over hyped.… Expand

This is one of those "am I playing the same game?" moments. Controls are clunky and cumbersome and unintuitive. The "training" session to get you into the game is appalling. The "multifunction" cover button never does what you want or expect - endless rolling around on the floor when you want to mantle or hide. Graphics are so greyed out and poorly defined that you can't tell team members from foes. Plot, bad-guys, voices and weapons so cliched they may as well not exist - oh look it's THE HORDE ffs! Oh look - the baddies all look like they are from Alien. Oh look - there's a cute chick giving you instructions in your ear! Maybe the PC version is better - but having to come out of cover, twiddle endlessly with the stick to get an aim while getting shot up is DULL DULL DULL Did absolutely nothing to suck me in or make me want to play further than level one. What the hell am I missing?… Collapse

Two big reasons I was turned off to this game: 1)The grayed out screen had me shooting my own guys as often as the enemy because I couldn't tell them apart. 2)The most important part of the game is HIDING. What fun is a game where HIDING is the most important skill to learn? I am trying to have FUN, not learning how to duck and cover. I know that some of this needs to be involved, but this much? Very frustrating to play a game where most of it involves taking cover, and then accidentally shooting your own guys(when the cumbersome aiming allows you to actually hit anything at all). Amazed at how highly rated this game is when I see how good the other games receiving similar ratings are. And I have heard it is short too, although I will never find out myself. Glad I got it used - if I return it fast I can get decent store credit.… Expand

This game was hyped way to much!!! The game is beautiful, but the game play gets boring after about an hour. Its the same thing over and over agian. No new originality. I think they focused to much on the graphics and not on the gameplay. The single player campaign is way to short and lacking in a lot of areas. I would rent this and then take it back, because once your done with it, you wont want to play it again.… Expand

The controls on this game SUCK!!!!....im sorry but good graphics do not = good game.....i cant believe that no one else has stepped up to say how bad the controls are on this game.......the berserker battle is retarded....im getting killed because i cant control where my guy runs to and when i am stuck on a wall he just jumps to another one and bomb dead.......i have really tried to give this game a chance but the controls are just not where they should be......come on this is not a game to compare to Halo....and for the record i wasnt the big of a fan of Halo but it least it was playable!!!!!… Expand

Thoroughly average. Tried and tested game formula is finally getting tiring. All the separate components are nice; graphics, music but is just held back by such repetitive gameplay. I could play this again for an hour and not need to play more.

Good graphics, decent gameplay, but quite repetitive. Online co-op is really good, but all other XBOX Live options SUCK. Anything but co-op on Live is TERRIBLE, repeat TERRIBLE. Why couldn't they have just made a regular deathmatch? Not a really great game, but I typically only play online so take my opinion for what it's worth. The story mode may be the greatest ever, but I wouldn't know.… Expand

When I played Halo, I was amazed. I remember how utterly speechless I was when i played this game. I loved it; the maps were huge, the game was amazing, the storyline was full of mystery, and you could play the same level over and over again and it was still as amazing. Gears of War is not Halo and not worth buying because you can beat it in 7 hours (as I did). I suggest renting it so you can decide for yourself but overall the game is crap. WAY TOO OVERHYPED best describes it for me and not to mention dissapoiting. The potential is there, definately, but if you are looking for the next Halo, I suggest getting FEAR or wait until more games come out. I cannot describe how dissapointed I am with this game; I give it a 1 because at least its resale value is relatively high.… Expand

"whats more bad ass run up chainsaw a guy in half back up in cover frag them shot gun there face off if there close and still think its hard very orriganal" WTF does that mean??? The story mode is pretty decent, but you will finish it the day you buy it. The online play is utter crap, with the exception of the online co-op (which is the only reason I am giving this game a 4). The graphics are indeed great, but so what? It takes more than graphics to make a great game. RENT this game before you buy it and form your own opinion. RENT!… Expand

No, it will never beat Halo. Not now, not ever. I didnt like the game at all. too short, to easy, too simple. it may be a little diferent form other shooters, but ... the pourpose is the same as the other shooter games. and, witgought counting, is very violent, as gay as that sounds, people that liked it probably dont have younger brothers. That Game scared the crap outta my lil. bro.

hes only 4, and he had nightmares.… Expand

The most over-rated game ever. The only thing good about it are the graphics, but that doesn't solely make the game amazing does it? Terrible.

Crap game, my son played it and started to pretent to use a chainsaw and blood coming out.....I don't know why you would have the chainsaw (I saw it) in this game with all of the blood squishing out.....There are some weird games out there (ex-gory chainsaws) and I think the creator of that had some problems

total rubbish for those of us that have a brain.......endless shooting at targets that are ill defined ,everything in greyscale ugh,fiddly controls that must turn on geeks like no tomorrow.who are these peaple that rate this game?...children or just those with a childs iq....halo sussed it out, a game for all generations with simple controls ,riveting story line ,clear enemies and lots of thinking required .halo 2 sadly also sufferered from over complicating the controls ,actions etc when all that was needed was a larger battlefield scenario enviroment where steath can win as well as brute force........they(microsoft ) will learn that it is the older generation that actually buy these games and just once in a while we like to play them as well ,maybe even show our children that it is not allways the best option to go in all guns blazing .fat chance in this game .apart from a few formuliaic exceptions (beserker) its just a basic shoot,em up.hyped up to the rafters...........shame… Expand

Wow, the most over-rated game of all time, just edging out Halo 2. I love Halo, but everything that was good about that game is terrible about GoW. In Halo each weapon was different, and each one was used at different times, here they are all the same and I just use one all the time. In Halo each baddie had a distinctive look, style and AI. Here they are all the same. In Halo there was variety of play style - large open fields, narrow corridors, solo and team play. Here it's all a grey mush of hide and fight in a ruined city. Also, in Halo you could have one shot kills with the right weapon and aim, or with the needler could blow up people. Here you just keep shooting aimlessly at a baddie until he eventually falls with no ability to really aim, and all the weapons are the same etc. But the worst thing (and this is fundamental IMHO) is that the locust baddies are IDENTICAL to your soldiers. Every battle I either killed my own men or was killed by a locust who I assumed was one of my men. It is such a frustrating awful game for that reason. It is also slow, cumbersome, slow, repetitive, slow, and has no story whatsoever. Did I mention it was slow? The whole game moves like it's stuck in treacle. The graphics are okay, but I personally preferred the near-future suburban setting and graphics of Half Life 2. Given the impossibility of differentiating between sides this game deserves a 0. But I quite like some of the incidental music and the atmosphere so it gets a 3. A massively over-rated game.… Expand

Pros: the re-load gimmick is clever; it kept me out of trouble for a few hours a day; I liked the sound effect when you collected a dead colleagues dog tags; the graphics were okay; the chainsaw effect was cool the first time. Cons: too numerous to list. 1st off, I can't believe the ridiculous fawning this game has received when it is a strictly linear, dull as ditchwater, blandly designed, uninspired, slow, uninvolving, and emotionally vacuous waste of time. Seriously you guys posting must work for the production company or have only just starting gaming. The levels are all bland and linear. Everything is grey and boring with v little detail. Everyone looks and acts the same. The game has ZERO atmosphere and no emotional hook - I couldn't give a toss about anyone in the game and have absolutely no interest in playing again. Did you Brute Force on the xbox? This game feels a lot like it only more dull, less variety and less colorful. Seriously, I am not joking - I am enjoying Crackdown and Call of Duty far more than this. Just like Halo 2 which took all that was wonderful about Halo, removed it and ruined the gameplay, this is so over-rated it pains me. Gah!… Expand

Quite simply the most over-rated game of all time. No atmosphere, horrible weapons, clumsy grenades, a chainsaw that only kills you, mushy graphics, slow, no story whatsoever, no music, repetitive in the extreme. I could go on, it is just a useless load of tosh and all the reviewers are idiots. No doubt they are also the fools who gave Halo 2 great reviews - the second most over-rated game of all time. I sold mine as soon as I beat the game - I hated just about the whole experience and would never play it again. Painfully bad.… Expand

Overrated. Gory. They should have called it Gears of Crap. In fact, this is such a stupid game it barely deserves any more words.

I stopped playing within the first 10 minutes because: 1. The "training mission" that might as well have never existed 2. The very clumsy controls 3. Most importantly, the lighting that made the game almost painful to look at. I didn't even get to what some have described as a lame story/weapons selection/dialogue/etc. Save your money; go buy the Orange Box or COD4.

This game is nothing compared to the adrenaline fueled graphics bomb we all know as Halo 3. Halo 3 is the only thing on the 360, if you want games like this, buy a Wii. Cause Wii is great for these casual games.

My problem with this series is that it's a basic mod for Unreal Tournament 2004. The Cogs look identical to the Human race in UT2k4 and after playing it on the PC, I can say that 'ts almost exactly the same. Aside from being third person, having a cover mechanic, and not being able to jump. I can say that Epic games has pulled a fast one and slapped a mod onto an older game and made millions. The only reason this game isn't getting a 1 is because the blood and gore in it are really good. Otherwise, it's hide, shoot, hide, shoot, watch scene, walk a little, hide, shoot, hide, shoot, hide, shoot, move a little, etc etc there are some enjoyable dialogues.. but honestly.. you guys just modded UT 2004 and called it Gears of War. Please. Have a little more creativity.… Expand

Boring very boring shooters are suppose to be about running through enemies shooting their face off with 2 bullets, not hiding behind cover during battles that are 5 times longer than in a normal shooters and using an entire clip to kill one guy on lv 1, the squad your forced to be with is crap they run out in the middle of the fight get shoot down and expect you to help them the enemy can see through walls and have 360 vision, and im not kidding you could hid behind cover behind and enmies back and the second you stick your head out he will spin around and kill you. this is just another crappy over hyped game on the 360 were the develpers focused to much on the blood and gore instead of the gameplay.… Expand

It is way too overhyped! It is not that good its just a shooting game that you just hide behind walls and other stuff most of the time, but if you like Ghost Recon, this is your game!

After all the hyped up broohahah over this game, I was expecting more. It all sounded like it had so much potential... Yeah great graphics and 'cinematic' style and as you jump in the excitement and feeling of action is great, but shouldn't that be a given, on next gen? Whatever happened to that thing called "gameplay"? Gears gameplay is repetitive, and definitely not innovative - just a rip off of Killswitch and a few others. Oh and a chainsaw? Ooooh, never seen that before. Plus there are lots of annoying things that ruin what could have been a pretty "solid" game. Like objects sticking to you as you run past. Lame physics on enemies with limbs flying around in all directions. Numerous disc read, collision and weapon bugs..Allied A.I. is just terrible! I remember bitching about dumb friendlies getting in your way as long ago as Half Life and these guys still haven't figured it out. And nobody seems to have noticed how weak the effects are. This is XBox 360 for god's sake it should be possible to do way better than this, I can't see any excuse for it. As far as overall presentation goes, the story and characters are just adolescent and the setting is pretty stupid too (why are there burnt out cars from the 80s lying about in a futuristic alien world?) Finally, it's only around 6 to 8 hours long. Worth a rental to look at the pretty environments but that's about it.… Expand

Ok the stroy was to short, it didn't even look like a war zone I counted 6 to 8 bots at once the bots can get exstreamly dumb every is grading this game on graphic there was no need to even pick up sniper or gernade gun in campain it was to easy with starting gun and there was only 4v4 online and couldent sign in 4 freinds oflfline its only good because it graphics are amazing I will admit that but its not worth 50 dollors.… Expand

This game was way too overhyped, and I am mad that I tricked myself into thinking I would like it. The game first of all doesn't have as good graphics as people said, maybe about low Xbox quality. The game is real short. The game is copying Syphon Filter in the terrain cover thing they use, so it isn't inovative. 3rd person shooters are always worse than 1st person shooters. The game was boring and repetitive the second I started playing and the multiplayer I hated after my first game, because it is really boring, and lame. Overall the game just isn't worth $60 of even $20, and I think it is terrible.… Expand

Silky graphics... bland characters... generic game. Oh wait, CliffyB did it, 10, 10, 10, 10!

Seriously, are people so starved for a decent XBox 360 game that as soon as shiny, legless shooter comes out every god-damn publication gives it a ridiculously high score?

A lot of journalists I've talked to and heard from are actually rethinking their scores... too late, idiots. You9;ve already given this game top honours when it deserves an "honourable mention" at best. Sad.… Expand

I Must Agree with Daniel, the expectations was so big that everyone make a big over-rated. This game is ridiculous in size. In one day I Finish!! The gameplay and looking remind a lot of BLACK on the PS2. The main aspect of the gears of war is the paintball style of play. Rent before buy and you will save a bucks...

Not a great game like everyone says. Way too short. Online play isn't too good. This game gets a 0 because of the over-hype!

I enjoyed this game quite a lot..........for 5 hours. I don't mind short games when they are extremely complete and introduce brand new things to a genre, but this game just felt like a really well done remake of past games. All the really cool features, have been done before, just not tied together so well. Graphics are nice, but it's sad to see that they couldnt run the Unreal 3 engine at its max, the demo's I've seen of the engine rendering other things on PC is amazing. Framerate is very poor when camera pans around in story sequences.

Good game, not great, I recomend renting it, but not buying it. I would normally give it a 7, but because of the overhype, and the insane fanboys spreading false info, I give it a 1.… Expand

A generic, mediocre shooter of the most depthless proportions. My opinion of this game is hardly marred by its difficulty, Abdul, but its been-there-done-that gameplay.

I think it's funny that you claim Mass Effect's storyline was awful, and then you gave Gears of War, an entire experience that can be summarized in one or two paragraphs at Wikipedia, and finished in less than 6 hours on HARDCORE MODE, a perfect 10.

You're an idiot.… Expand

To be honest I enjoyed the game...really I DID but then after my 6th go around it started to remind me of doom 3 and HL2. What really let me down is that the controls were hard to get used to and the AI sucked (not alot but enough to make me hate).

I didn

This game is full of stupid gimmicks that don't work. Graphics aren't that pretty, making everything dark and shiny doesn't equal good. Weapons are ridiculous and unbalanced, a machine gun with a chainsaw on it that has an attack that can't be stopped is just stupid. The whole being knocked out or whatever concept is okay, except the part where actions done to you while on the ground can't be stopped. Online play is laggy and full of 12 year olds that scream about everything. Map design is either extremely simple and lazy or huge and unfocused, causing new players to get lost a lot. The one thing that makes this game not worth your time is the maneuvering system, which is an absolute joke. Whoever decided that the A button would be used for dashing and leaning against walls was a serious moron. It's not uncommon to end up stuck against multiple walls in a sticky situation because of the terrible control scheme. It's also during this that the camera reveals how bad it is and flies around like a rabid child. Online pros will stroke their e-penises and call you a noob if you complain about it, yet have a fit if it happens to them. The reloading system is a hassle and mostly makes you roll around like an idiot hoping you won't jam your weapon. Overall, the game's controls are what make this game unworthy of not only the price of an XBox 360, but of an Xbox Live subscription as well. Incredibly overhyped by critics and players alike, this game is a mistake.… Expand

I don't understand the appeal of this game. I read a dozen reviews and talked to friends, all insisting this was the second coming. I don't like multiplayer, so that could be why I wasn't impressed. Graphics are awesome, but I don't like "half games" where the actual gameplay takes second seat to cinematics. If I want a movie I'll pay 1/3 the price for one. I';m forcing myself to play just to finish the single player. Snore.… Expand

This game sucks. the story sucks, the game is incredibly easy becuse the enemies are all basicly the same. the worst part was the acual gameplay, which seems fun and inventive... for the first five minutes. Once youv'e played the first level, you might as well have beat the game.

The feeling i get from this is that, they could have done this by DLC. It feels like gears 1.5 instead of a full fledged, which is no bad thing because it's gears, but i feel as though i'm being ripped off by something that should have been a bit cheaper.

Sure its got some amazing graphics, but this isnt anything i havent played before. Throw in extremely linear, one dimensional gameplay, zero exposition , and a messy control scheme, and what you get is an terribly overrated piece of garbage. Its very hard to believe this recieved such high ratings- i smell a payoff.

frist off im not a big first shooter fan anyway but wanted to try this game becuase it was hyped and theres not many good games for the 360 yet. the game has great graffics but it still dosent challenge the player in new and fun ways. just mindless shooting and nothing else.

I must be a jaded gamer now. This is the first time I've ever bought such a highly rated game and felt so let down. Maybe I just find the game boring and the controls terrible because I play pc games where the controls are precise and the action faster and more interesting. The graphics didn't wow me, the terrain is all flat and it's nearly impossible to distinguish enemy foot soldiers from your teammates. And everythign in the game is either metallic or brown. The duck and cover game play is not only repetitious but extremely buggy. Melee is pretty wonky. And perhaps the most unforgivable thing about the experience is that after exactly 7 hours of owning the game I had beaten it.. At least coop was kind of fun. Maybe I've been around too long and played too many games but I can honestly say I had MUCH more fun playing the new Zelda and Final Fantasy this Thanksgiving. At least I expect the resale value of my GOW to be relatively high.… Expand

This GAME IS FULL OF S%#T, go rot in hell. All you xbox 360 fanboys look like Marcus's screwed up wife! So yeah I h8 this game so that's it I am going to say and I did this so xbox 360 will be gone.

I'm not quite sure where the appeal for this game is. I've played up to a certain point, and have not seen many redeeming qualities. The story is... mediocre, sound is okay, music is fine, gameplay mechanics work well enough, but at the end, I really don't care about any of these characters. There's no incentive for me to keep playing, really. In a way, it got boring fighting the same sort of enemies over and over, with a little variation every now and then with 'bosses'. -- The graphics, in its time, must have been pretty good, but does no one realise that graphics will always get worse over time? Praising a game for its amazing visuals while ignoring its faults is akin to people being famous for being famous. Something more lasting: a new, innovative graphical technique, or an interesting use of an old one (like Left 4 Dead's film techniques), an amazing story (Final Fantasy Tactics, lots of RPG's), those sort of things make a game that will be remembered as a good game for a long time to come. -- This game isn't really even worth it's money right now. let alone five years from now because it just isn't that fun.… Expand

This game is so overhyped! I can't believe how it it said to beat the ps3 exclusives or the x360 games lik Halo and Uncharted 2. But then when I look at the kind of people who find this game appealing I realise hey are the type of people who like anything. Even critics say the game has good graphics - but it doesn't! Play any ps3 exclusive like gt5, ps home, uncharted, FFXIII (I know it's not exclusive but it has great graphics), ratchet and clank etc. and you will realise how this game looks like a ps2 game. The gameplay is clunky and the controls are awkward. It sucks.… Expand

Completely overhyped and overrated. Gamers were basically told that we are supposed to like this game and many never bothered to question that. Read the summary on this game then ask someone who likes GoW why they do. Nine times out of ten their answer will sound like they are reading the summary, almost like rehearsed lines. Clunky gameplay, darkness instead of graphics, overuse of cover system to the point of boredom, very short game (for what was a top dollar release), cliche everything, and nothing new enough to balance just how tired and clearly "borrowed" so much of this game was- all with a sheen of gore and machismo so over the top it is almost laughable. This game had great appeal for people like the movie going audiences that laud each new release as the best movie ever until the next movie comes out, but in the annals of gaming it is a minor embarrassment and little more.… Expand

Graphics are nice, and the characters have some personality. However the game is very boring, I found myself staying in cover too much for too long and it ultimately became boring. Also getting killed when trying to navigate through a level, made the pacing way too slow.

I don't mind taking cover, as long as the game lets me roam around without getting killed constantly.

It had the potential to be something great but it disappointed.… Expand

One of the most overrated game I've ever played. There is fun to be had here but it's tough to enjoy with the truly awful A.I and tedious gameplay. At release, it had great multiplayer which was unfortunately full of bugs and connection issues. The only appeal this game has is the pretty (but dated) graphics and decent core gameplay and "decent" is generous.