Product Reviews

Gears of War has been available on Xbox 360 since the tail-end of 2006, so you'd be forgiven for wondering why it has taken so long to make its way to the PC. There are reasons to be cheerful, however, as the developers have added a few extra levels and further refined the already stunning visuals, although you'll need a powerful graphics card to enjoy them.

The plot is simple enough: the inhabitants of the planet Sera have been attacked by the vicious Locust Horde, a vast army of stupendously ugly aliens with a seriously bad attitude. Fast-forward 14 years and, with the supply of troops dwindling, mankind is forced to call on some unusual suspects. Cue Marcus Fenix, a war-hardened soldier unfairly condemned to rot in a crumbling prison. You step into the action at the point where Marcus is freed from his cell, and within seconds he finds his finger back on the trigger, with the Locust firmly in his sights.

Gears of War plays differently to your average PC shooter. This is one game where wading into battle

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with a trigger-happy demeanour is likely to end in a swift, inglorious death. Instead, the focus is on using the available cover intelligently, working with your team-mates and popping your head over the ramparts only when the enemy drops its guard.

Although the game was originally released on Xbox 360, the makers have done a superb job of translating the controls for the PC. You can opt to use a 360-style joypad, but mouse and keyboard work well too, and a brief tutorial quickly gets novice players up to speed.

Unlike many PC shooters, the action is viewed from a third-person perspective. This makes it possible to keep track of the wily Locust while remaining safely out of the line of fire. The controls make it easy to dive gracefully from burnt-out wreck to bullet-riddled wall, and the duck-and-cover tactics make for shoot-outs that are tense and thrilling in equal measure.

Our only real complaint concerns the Live for Windows software you're forced to install. When we played the single-player game without an active internet connection, Live for Windows sometimes crashed our PC, and after reading Epic Games' forums, it seems that many users have suffered similar problems. By staying online, we managed to complete the game without issues, and we had no problems with the multiplayer mode either.

The four-on-four multiplayer consists of brutal close-quarters fighting. As with the single-player game, you'll need teamwork to flank enemy positions successfully. It's an excellent addition to an already solid game that provides an interesting alternative to first-person PC shooters.