Gears of War (PC)

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Gears of War burst onto the Xbox 360 and ruled the online roost until the Halo 3 juggernaut came along and blasted it out of the way. Now PC owners get a chance to see what all the fuss was about as Gears of War arrives to sorely test your Windows XP- or Vista- (and Mac- for that matter) based gaming system.

Gears of War isn't just another first-person shooter. Gears tells its story in third-person mode and uses an innovative and intuitive cover system. The game lets you slip behind cover to shoot blindly or position yourself to aim carefully; you can even leap heroically from cover to cover while shooting alien beasties also jumping from, say, a pile of rubble to an alleyway. Players can use a gamepad or the mouse and keyboard, and both control options work well. The gamepad is more intuitive, but, for the PC, the mouse's quick and responsive turning will probably make it the online weapon of choice for most players.

In a grim and gritty future, mankind has colonized a planet or two, and on one of them the society discovers a liquid source of power underground. Unfortunately, this wakes up a race of alien creatures called The Locust, and these monsters emerge inside of cities, quickly destroying them and the human population. Big, burly cartoonish WWE rejects called Gears are the bad-ass marines who deal with this sort of thing, and the game begins with the baddest-ass of the Gears getting released from prison so he can go do what he does best. The story is thin, but that really doesn't matter -- the action is very satisfying. The single-player campaign features countless battle set pieces and scripted events that'll stick in your memory a long time after playing. A few new chapters are added for the PC version, and they're more than welcome, even if they're kind of clumsily shoehorned into the brisk narrative.

What Gears of War lacks in plot it makes up for in atmosphere. The world is in ruins, bombed out and smoldering. Humankind is desperate, fighting for its life against an unending foe, and as you travel with protagonist Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad you get a sense of loss, desperation and devastation. Several outdoor levels are made claustrophobic by featuring swarms of murderous bird-monsters who'll eviscerate you if you stray into the shadows -- players have to slowly advance by shooting stray gas canisters. And the game does ambushes extremely well. It almost makes you forget that the only reason why you're really fighting your way from point A to point B is because the game developers want you to.

Gears of War also delivers on the weaponry. You've got your standard sniper rifle, machine gun, pistol and grenades. There's a very cool weapon that lets you paint a target and direct a beam of energy from a satellite to destroy a target; this weapon can only be used during certain portions of the game. Then there's the lancer: a machine gun with a chainsaw bayonet. Yes, that's as fun to use as it sounds. Reloading can be done at the touch of a button, or automatically if you run out of bullets, or you can play a little mini-game that increases your damage. When you press the reload button, a slider goes from dark gray to light gray. Hit the button again in the dark shade and your weapon will jam, making the reload take longer. Hit it in the middle shade and your reload will be slightly faster. Hit it just as it enters the brightest shade and the reload happens fast, and that clip will do extra damage.