Gears of War Ultimate Edition Review

   It's that time of the year again, the time where 3/4 of the games for the year come out in 1/4 of the year because Christmas. I was originally going to start this 'Game season' with Rare replay but it's disappointing nature stopped me from doing so (quick review; old games you have no attachment to don't hold up well), and to write about so many different games would've taken forever, so I've started with the weekend where 4 games I want to play come out in 5 days (looks like Mad Max is going to be missed) and I accidentally started with Gears of War Ultimate edition (I say accidentally because I was more psyched to play 'Until Dawn' but I accidentally sent that t my mothers house, and although I've got my hands on it now, I'd already started Gears by the time I got my grubby mitts on it).
   I suppose the million pound question before I start is am I a pre-existing Gears fan? (as this is a remaster of the 2006 'classic'). No, I wasn't. I didn't play it when it first came out but did pick it up a couple of years later for £5 (or something), played the first couple of chapters, didn't like it and never picked it up again. I figured I must be missing something though, right? It' Xbox's second biggest franchise (by quite a distance mind you) and millions of people can't be wrong, can they? (probably).
   I started and after the same first few missions I was put off for the same reasons I was the first time, just generic cover based shooting, but I'd paid new game money now so I was gonna get my moneys worth here, whether I liked it or not. I ground away and pretty soon I actually started enjoying it, despite all the stupid things about it, the game is actually pretty fun. For a game that's just about cover to cover shooting they do a good job of mixing the game up and providing new locations and gameplay modifications, like dealing with the Kryll, going underground, fighting off giant boss type enemies and more. The gunplay is fun and it's satisfying to unload a clip of ammo in to some Locust scum and watch them explode into a flesh and blood pile.
   I like the way the story of the game is just one mission too (granted, it goes wrong so takes much longer than planned) just like Half Life 2 and you feel like you're going along for this short story that they're on. The only problem I have with the story can be summed up in one word is 'bro'. These people are just hulking masses of men that celebrate when they eviscerate an enemy, love doing man stuff, saying phrases like "yeah, bring it on sucka', this my kind of shit" and don't even get excited when one of their former sports heroes joins them on their adventure. If Juan Pablo Angel had joined me on an adventure I'd have never wanted to get off the Angel-train.

   The other thing I don't get is how there's so many 'stranded' about. How can humans live in this war torn environment relatively safely when enemies can just come up from the ground and some evil bat things tear you apart in the dark? That's not safe living conditions, I'm sure they would've been dead withing a week. It's a very, very mad world on Sera. While I'm on weird things, the game its a huge difficulty spike on the penultimate chapter (when you get on the train), I probably died twice as much on that level as I had the whole game before it, and that final boss, urgh. After googling for help turns out I wasn't the only one who had problems with Raam, bu as soon as I found the Torque bow I did it first time, and the annoyance of having just spent half an hour getting nowhere faded away (somewhat (not at all)).
   The graphics have been caught up with and the game again looks great. also, in a weird turn of events, the levels that have been added in extra here (although they were in the PC release of the game but not the 360 one) have far better team mate AI. I ran in to problems all over the game where the rest of Delta just stood miles behind you and didn't help you from being overrun, or alternatively, ran way too far ahead of you and got shot to pieces. In these extra chapters though it was perfect. Couldn't they have fixed that for the main game at the same time?
   A quick touch on multilayer then. Clearly everyone who was playing online already had done so before because I was getting destroyed the second I moved anywhere, and it took forever to get in to a game anyway. Maybe this should just stay for the original players and noobs like me should say out of it, I'm hardly the worlds biggest fan of online shooters anyway (though I need to be ready for Battlefront).
   Overall then I think the game is pretty good now that I've actually given it a fair chance. Some parts of the game feel a little outdated (you really should be able to destroy cover, glaring omission or what?) but for the most part it's a solid game that make sense to be a big Xbox franchise as it's well made, simple fun. 7/10.