Gears of War: Judgement is a prequel to the original Gears of Wars, which made a splash when it first appeared in 2006 with it's over-the-top, chainsaw-gun, eat-shit-and-die, curb-stomping, cover-based gameplay. And the two sequels that spawned from the original were released to relatively universal critical acclaim outside of some comments on the ham-fisted storytelling.
Whether or not that ham-fisted storytelling continues remains to be seen, but there are definitely some changes coming to the series.
Developer People Can Fly (wholly owned by creators of the Gears of War, Epic Games), recently of Bulletstorm and lately of the Painkiller series, is in a good position to bring something new to the table. Maybe not the kind of off-kilter weapons that Bulletstorm and Painkiller featured, but because this takes place as Marcus Fenix is left to rot in a military prison, they certainly have a chance to create something a little outside of what was been established in the original trilogy.
I'd expect similar cover-based shooting and dodging to be entrenched in Judgement, and plenty of did-you-see-that?-I-just-cut-that-dude-in-half! levels of gore. The implementation of a "Director" a la Left 4 Dead to make enemy attacks a little more randomized is a good idea, but I don't think that will change the basic gameplay mechanics.
There have been comments made that Judgement will be punch-you-in-the-throat-(metaphorically) difficult as the notoriously unforgiving Dark Souls. I'm sceptical of such a move if only because it could very well alienate the fan base. A difficulty selection sounds more likely than just making the game much more difficult right from the opening salvo.
The protagonists this time out are Damon Braid and Augustus Cole, with the white guy (Baird) in the lead role for some reason. (I'd love to get an "in" on the process of how this character selection happened.) I'm not sure if that supplies a different dynamic over the Marcus/Dom duo -- the minority is still supporting the white guy -- but there's always hope that People Can Fly should get a chance to fill in the details and put their own stamp on the characters.
More details about the multiplayer, a mode that ranks pretty low on my priority list apart from Horde mode, will be slowly rolled out leading up to the game's expected release date of March 2013, but the devs have promised "changes." The only new mode I've seen anything about is OverRun, where Locust and Human teams battle to attack/defend a specific control point on the map, using various class-based mechanics to attack/defend. On the face of it, OverRun doesn't sound at all original or enough to shake-up the multiplayer, because gamers can get that same thing in the Battlefield games and Team Fortress 2, which is currently enjoying its 3rd or 4th renaissance. Hopefully there's something more interesting and gripping announced as the launch date draws near.
- Aaron Simmer
