14 DAY TRIAL // The structure of Gears of War as a series is so set in stone after three core games and millions of sales that People Can Fly, the main creators of Judgment, had to tweak it in some fundamental ways to make the game interesting.
At the same time, the team could not ditch the familiar elements of the series: cover-based shooting, melee kills, Roadie runs, a suite of weapons linked to various enemy challenges.
The solution they came up with is very innovative and should be implemented in other long-running shooter series as well: they have created alternate takes on familiar ideas and have allowed the player to choose how to play the game.
In each Gears of War: Judgment level, players will quickly encounter a red log on a wall and pressing X will display how the scenario ahead is tweaked.
The changes are sometimes designed to make the level harder to complete, but other times, they only exist to force players out of their Gears of War comfort bubble so that they can try out new things.
My favorite tweak filled a research lab I was fighting in with noxious fumes that distorted the character’s vision and made it hard to distinguish foes from friends, resulting in a more frenzied battle that featured plenty of one-on-one kills.
Another one filled a library with dust and with close quarter-focused enemies, resulting in an experience that had an almost horror feel to it.
Some levels get a time limit, which can sometimes feel overly harsh, and there are ones that focus on certain weapons.
Not all the People Can Fly ideas are great, but they do Gears of War: Judgment a great service by making the entire experience feel new and interesting despite staying close to the traditional ideas of the series, satisfying both long-term fans and newcomers.