varingblaarGears of War Judgment
Spoiler warning: If you haven't played Gears of War Judgment, I suggest you do so before going any further. If this spoils it for you, it's not my fault.You have been warned.
This is the fourth game in the series of playing through the Gears of War series in co-op.
Why does it feel like someone took an unrelated game and slapped a Gears of War story onto it? The control scheme is different and the game didn't tell me. It's not a major change, just grenades and weapons that moved, but 30 hours of muscle memory is difficult to change. The biggest problem is two weapons instead of three, severely limiting tactical options.
The most jarring change is the gameplay loop, and by extension level design. The previous games had a flow. There was no break in the story except for the occasional loading screen, but only if it's absolutely necessary. In Judgment (Judgement? weird) it's short, distinct levels with a summary at the end. Walk in, do the thing, walk out. Five minutes, tops. The Summary screen says who did what better. Each mission has an optional "declassified" modifier that increases difficulty in exchange for increased imaginary points that I'm still unsure what they do.
The moment-to-moment play is far more arcade-like. Doing cool things awards points that add up to stars. It drops little extra ammo things that give ammo to all players. So bullets can teleport now? Guns and ammo have always been a hand-waved in Gears, but do you have to be so blatant about it? I found myself running and gunning a lot more, instead of sitting behind cover and popping out for well placed shots.
Here's the problem with all this: It changes how you play. The Gears of War games have always been co-operative. If one player struggles, the other could carry. Some players are better at hanging back and sniping, others are better at running into the action. With Judgment, the game makes you compete. "Which one of us co-ops harder?" That's not how I want to play. Our combined efforts unlock stars so we can get three stars on all the levels, so that's sort of fun... What is this, Angry Birds?
All this to say, Gears of War Judgment is my least favourite so far. The only reason we kept playing is to see what happens, and to unlock the Aftermath campaign for which you need a certain number of the stupid Angry Bird stars...
The Story
In medias res. We start with the impromptu military tribunal and then tell the story in flashback. The first few acts are told from the perspective of each character a few weeks after E-Day. Baird looks and acts pretty much the same. Young Cole is fun to see, but talks and acts the same as always. Paduk has a very sharp sense of humour that's entertaining to listen to, and Sofia deals with many chauvinist issues women in authoritative positions often need to deal with.
Col. Loomis is an ass, but that's his job. Towards the end he does fight alongside you (because he has no choice) but he's still an ass.
The story part is not too bad. Well written, connects the little short-burst missions together nicely, and the characters are entertaining with a lot of banter. It moves through some interesting areas with some fun fights. The constant stop to review who stayed in cover the longest and who did the most active reloads breaks the flow of the story, but otherwise it's fine.
Then there's a boss fight, cut scene, fade to black, main menu... Wait, was that the end of the campaign?
Well, that was unrewarding... Guess we play Aftermath now.
Aftermath
This happens during Gears of War 3 after we find the location of Azura but before we go to Azura. We're trying to find a ship, which ends up being on top of a building. Paduk's signature sense of humour and Baird's propensity to blow stuff up. Gotcha.
For most of it the story it feels like Gears 3. It has the flow of the other Gears games where we fight for a bit, then walk and talk to the next bit, then fight again. Some new lore is revealed. We find out Sofia was kidnapped by COGs and Paduk tried to rescue her. It didn't work out, but we don't know whether she survived. This also mostly explains how they showed up with a bunch of helicopters at the end of Gears 3.
It's only one extra act culminating in a pointless little zipline shooti scene, but it's good to get the lore.
Verdict
When researching this whole play-through journey, Gears of War Judgment was in the list to play, but begrudgingly. The Gears of War community as a whole is unsure whether to include this as a worthy title. I see it now. This game is completely different in design and tone from the other games, but still includes story that adds to the overall narrative. If I were ever to play through these games again, I would read a summary of the story and skip playing it.
6/10 don't recommend next please.
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