Following the release of Gears of War 3 in 2011, the Gears franchise was at an all time high in popularity and critical acclaim. However, developer Epic Games wanted to move on to other things, namely getting started on Fortnite. That left Microsoft in a bit of a sticky situation. The market was there for another Gears game but nobody had been ushered in as Epic’s replacement ahead of time, unlike 343 Industries takeover of the Halo licence from Bungie. Luckily for Microsoft, People Can Fly (developer of the criminally underrated Bulletstorm) was available and as a subsidiary of Epic Games had always been close to the Gears franchise as they even played a role in helping develop all three previous titles. It would be understandable if Microsoft may have had apprehensions about putting People Can Fly on the job after Bulletstorm’s abysmal sales figures, but with a well established and very popular IP in their hands what could possibly go wrong?
Fifteen years before Damon Baird & Augustus Cole join the ranks of Delta Squad in the original Gears of War, Baird was a Lieutenant and leader of Kilo Squad; Gears of War: Judgment is the story of how he lost that title.
After disobeying the orders of Colonel Ezra Loomis, Kilo Squad are dragged into the courthouse and told to recount the events leading up to them deploying a Lightmass bomb upon Halvo Bay. Meanwhile the Human vs Locust war continues to rage outside the courtroom and it’s only a matter of time before the Locust breach the building.
Fifteen years before Damon Baird & Augustus Cole join the ranks of Delta Squad in the original Gears of War, Baird was a Lieutenant and leader of Kilo Squad; Gears of War: Judgment is the story of how he lost that title.
After disobeying the orders of Colonel Ezra Loomis, Kilo Squad are dragged into the courthouse and told to recount the events leading up to them deploying a Lightmass bomb upon Halvo Bay. Meanwhile the Human vs Locust war continues to rage outside the courtroom and it’s only a matter of time before the Locust breach the building.
The story of Gears Judgment unfolds mostly through testimonial flashbacks from each of the games four protagonists. You get to play as each of the four members of Kilo Squad, once per testimonial given. Despite this Baird is still technically the main character because he’s the leader of the squad, and he’s the only character you play as twice. When you change character the gameplay doesn’t vary so the character switching is purely for narrative purposes, which I feel is a bit of a missed opportunity seeing as if we had just played as Baird the whole time the game wouldn’t have been different in the slightest.
For Gears of War standards, it’s a pretty good story. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind but considering that so far Gears of War has so far only consisted of overly muscular men growling at each other in voices that sound like motorbike engines about “killing grubs” it’s got a little bit more depth to it than usual whilst still maintaining that aesthetic that has made it so popular.
The biggest difference to Gears Judgment comes in the gameplay though. At first glance it may not appear as though anything is different at all. It’s still a third person shooter with an emphasis on smooth cover mechanics. But now the game revolves around an arcade style scoring system. Each kill nets you points, the more impressive kill the more points you earn, the more points you have the higher your star total at the end of the section. There is also the ability to play ‘Declassified’ sections, wherein the game puts more gameplay restrictions on you to earn more points. Things like completing the section in an allotted time frame, reducing visibility or ammunition, or even restricting what weapons you’re able to use. These Declassified sections are usually quite fun to play, but are also extremely challenging at times, particularly the time restriction ones. The higher the difficulty changes what kind of stars you can earn (Bronze on Easy, Silver on Normal, Gold on Hard, and Onyx on Insane), so completionists will be spending a fair amount of time getting three Onyx stars on each section of the game.
This segmented nature of the campaign can make it feel somewhat repetitive and even short at times though. You’re scored after almost every skirmish you have and some of them only last a couple of minutes. The Gears of War way has always been to take you through linear corridors and then land you in an arena where you fight enemies, then rinse and repeat. But that has never felt more abundantly clear than with Judgment because more often than not the linear corridors have been removed or shortened significantly.
It’s a small issue but the control scheme has also changed. No longer is weapon selection done on the D-Pad (A primary, secondary, pistol, and grenade) but now has been switched to the Y button decreasing your available weapons down to just two. You can still carry grenades, but these are now thrown with the Left Bumper. It is designed to speed up the flow of combat by reducing the number of options you have in any given situation. But as a result, it means that now you’re more often than not just caught out because you’re running out of ammo and you don’t have a pistol to fall back on.
For Gears of War standards, it’s a pretty good story. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind but considering that so far Gears of War has so far only consisted of overly muscular men growling at each other in voices that sound like motorbike engines about “killing grubs” it’s got a little bit more depth to it than usual whilst still maintaining that aesthetic that has made it so popular.
The biggest difference to Gears Judgment comes in the gameplay though. At first glance it may not appear as though anything is different at all. It’s still a third person shooter with an emphasis on smooth cover mechanics. But now the game revolves around an arcade style scoring system. Each kill nets you points, the more impressive kill the more points you earn, the more points you have the higher your star total at the end of the section. There is also the ability to play ‘Declassified’ sections, wherein the game puts more gameplay restrictions on you to earn more points. Things like completing the section in an allotted time frame, reducing visibility or ammunition, or even restricting what weapons you’re able to use. These Declassified sections are usually quite fun to play, but are also extremely challenging at times, particularly the time restriction ones. The higher the difficulty changes what kind of stars you can earn (Bronze on Easy, Silver on Normal, Gold on Hard, and Onyx on Insane), so completionists will be spending a fair amount of time getting three Onyx stars on each section of the game.
This segmented nature of the campaign can make it feel somewhat repetitive and even short at times though. You’re scored after almost every skirmish you have and some of them only last a couple of minutes. The Gears of War way has always been to take you through linear corridors and then land you in an arena where you fight enemies, then rinse and repeat. But that has never felt more abundantly clear than with Judgment because more often than not the linear corridors have been removed or shortened significantly.
It’s a small issue but the control scheme has also changed. No longer is weapon selection done on the D-Pad (A primary, secondary, pistol, and grenade) but now has been switched to the Y button decreasing your available weapons down to just two. You can still carry grenades, but these are now thrown with the Left Bumper. It is designed to speed up the flow of combat by reducing the number of options you have in any given situation. But as a result, it means that now you’re more often than not just caught out because you’re running out of ammo and you don’t have a pistol to fall back on.
Judgment runs off the same engine as Gears of War 3 and there is no notable improvement on the visuals. So, it’s pretty, but at the same time it’s disappointing that after a two-year development time nothing was done to improve the lighting or textures any further. The sound design has never been one of Gears’ strong points, and Judgment does nothing to change that. Whilst the guns are certainly punchy, all the sound just blends in this mess of shouting, gunfire, and rock music.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 6/10
PRESENTATION: 7/10
LIFESPAN: 5/10
SCORE: 6/10
Gears of War Judgment at times feels like a glorified expansion to Gears of War 3 but goes out of its way to unnecessarily alter the gameplay in ways that make it generally less fun to play. Whilst the story is worth seeking out for series fans, if you don’t already like Gears of War there’s not an awful lot Judgment is going to do to try and change your mind.