Gears of War: Judgement
As I've mentioned before, I only recently realised that Gears of War: Judgement was actually a standalone story and had a decently single player campaign. For the longest time I was under the impression that it was release geared purely towards multiplayer. Like how I own Battlefield 3 and have never loaded up the single player campaign at all. While in the mood for some more Gears I found a copy of Judgement online for a mere $12 and scooped it up, excited to see where they went with the existing narrative.
Rather than following the saga of Marcus Fenix as the Gears trilogy does, Judgement is more of a prequel; following one of the COG team members from the earlier games, Damon Baird, in a smaller slice of the war between the Locust and the Humans. Once I started playing it however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the game does not simply follow Lt. Baird. Instead, the narrative is divided into chapters, all of which takes place as flashback sequences as each member of Kilo Squad recounts their actions while on trail for their unorthodox actions in assisting during the war.
Kilo Squad consists of Baird and Gus Cole, reoccurring characters from the original trilogy, as well as two new protagonists. Garron Paduk, who fought in the war against the COG army during the Pendulum Wars (which predated the encounter with the Locust.) and Sofia Hendrick, who was studying at the Onyx Guard Academy and therefore had the knowledge to help Kilo Squad acquire and use a Lightmass Missile against orders to help defeat the Locust.
GOW: Judgement may not have quite had the blockbuster story that the original trilogy had, since so much about the Locust had already been revealed, there was not much left to throw at the player. The campaign in itself however stood out simply because Epic tossed in some nice new weapons, a few new enemies and changed up the gameplay slightly.
Judgement's single player campaign urges you to earn stars for completing missions within certain standards. And within each mission you have the opportunity to earn extra stars by upping the difficulty of certain encounters when prompted. Sometimes it's by swapping out enemies with more powerful versions, sometimes they've dropped in a dense gas so you can't see your enemies, each time something that actually changes up how you have to attack the level in order to succeed. Which really makes multiple playthroughs worthwhile.
I enjoyed Judgement quite a bit, certainly more than I thought I was going to. And certainly enough that I hope Epic will continue the series down the line. Gears of War 1 was enough for me to buy an Xbox 360, a new Gears of War may be enough to push me to buy an Xbox One.
Rather than following the saga of Marcus Fenix as the Gears trilogy does, Judgement is more of a prequel; following one of the COG team members from the earlier games, Damon Baird, in a smaller slice of the war between the Locust and the Humans. Once I started playing it however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the game does not simply follow Lt. Baird. Instead, the narrative is divided into chapters, all of which takes place as flashback sequences as each member of Kilo Squad recounts their actions while on trail for their unorthodox actions in assisting during the war.
Kilo Squad consists of Baird and Gus Cole, reoccurring characters from the original trilogy, as well as two new protagonists. Garron Paduk, who fought in the war against the COG army during the Pendulum Wars (which predated the encounter with the Locust.) and Sofia Hendrick, who was studying at the Onyx Guard Academy and therefore had the knowledge to help Kilo Squad acquire and use a Lightmass Missile against orders to help defeat the Locust.
GOW: Judgement may not have quite had the blockbuster story that the original trilogy had, since so much about the Locust had already been revealed, there was not much left to throw at the player. The campaign in itself however stood out simply because Epic tossed in some nice new weapons, a few new enemies and changed up the gameplay slightly.
Judgement's single player campaign urges you to earn stars for completing missions within certain standards. And within each mission you have the opportunity to earn extra stars by upping the difficulty of certain encounters when prompted. Sometimes it's by swapping out enemies with more powerful versions, sometimes they've dropped in a dense gas so you can't see your enemies, each time something that actually changes up how you have to attack the level in order to succeed. Which really makes multiple playthroughs worthwhile.
I enjoyed Judgement quite a bit, certainly more than I thought I was going to. And certainly enough that I hope Epic will continue the series down the line. Gears of War 1 was enough for me to buy an Xbox 360, a new Gears of War may be enough to push me to buy an Xbox One.
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