When the story of Marcus Fenix & Delta Squad ended back in 2011 with Gears of War 3 Epic Games announced that they wouldn't stop making Gears games just because the trilogy was done. So now we have Judgment (yeah, they couldn't be bothered to change the spelling of the word for other countries) which details what happened to Kilo Squad, the squad Baird & Cole originally belonged to, in the days following E-Day...Its actually pretty good.
So E-Day has happened, shit hit the fan and the Locust Horde have started emerging from the ground. You, Lieutenant Damon Baird, have been charged with disobeying direct orders from a commanding officer and thereby bringing your squad down with you. Whilst the war rages around the courtroom you are interrogated by Colonel Ezra Loomis as to why you activated a lightmass bomb strike on Halvo Bay. The game unfolds in a series of playable flashbacks which tells the story of Kilo Squad having to make some tough decisions in order to stop Karn, a Locust general who is leading the attack on the Bay.
Its a rather simple story yet it is one of the most interesting in the Gears franchise, it introduces new things that we didn't know about Cole or Baird alongside new characters Sofia Hendrick, Garron Paduk and Ezra Loomis. Its just kind of annoying that the new characters never re-appear in the main trilogy.
Judgment also includes 6 new missions for Gears of War 3 titled 'Aftermath'. This sets itself just after Baird and Cole leave Marcus & the rest of Delta Squad to search for a boat. It details them meeting an old friend and how the space of just over 20 years can bring bad blood to a once good team.
The gameplay to Judgment is largley the same with the only changes being in the control scheme. You no longer use the D-pad to select weapons and you can now only carry 2 weapons instead of a primary, secondary and pistol. You can carry up to 4 grenades and these are handles with LB. Enemies drop ammo boxes and there are of course some new weapons, none of which are overly special.
The biggest change to gameplay and arguably the worst part of Judgment is the scoring system. Gears 3 had Arcade mode which attached a score to the campaign mode, this was completely optional. Judgment does not have Arcade mode, but instead has it on by default and it cannot be switched off. This not only forces you to play the game in a certain way, which may not be suited to you, but it also breaks the cinematic feel the Gears trilogy was so well known for. This is an even harder blow when you find out that Judgment is easily the most cinematic entry yet with some absolutely amazing set pieces and cutscenes such as the amazing courtroom clips, plus the games final boss goes down in the books as the best fight in the franchise.
Judgment is the best looking entry in the franchise to date, with only subtle changes to the Unreal Engine since Gears 3 but it brings much more colour and detail to a series once drowned in various shades of brown & grey. The cutscenes are the highlight, if devs People Can Fly & Epic Games can take these clips & make some more to fill in the gaps where the gameplay sits I would happily pay to watch Judgment as a CGI film because it looks gorgeous.
As for sound, some of the louder sections of the game remain distorted but its nowhere near as bad as the previous titles, plus the dialogue isn't so cringeworthy this time round especially in the courtroom scenes, this is where the game excells in three main areas; the story, graphical presentation and audio standard. Its worth playing the game just to see these tense courtroom scenes.
So Judgment is the best Gears of War game? In some areas most definitely, but then again its major weakpoints such as the always on scoring system and short length (coming in at just about 5 hours on Hard) make the game avoidable if over £15. However if you love the previous Gears games, the universe or just want a solid shooter to fill a space then Judgment should without a doubt be on your to buy list.
Gears of War: Judgment – 7/10
+Brilliant & Interesting Story
+So Pretty
-The Always On Scoring
-Too Short
