Gears of War: Judgement is the fourth instalment in the franchise – a prequel to the hugely popular trilogy that follows a familiar face in the character of Damon Baird. It is the first game of the franchise not to include Marcus Fenix or Dominic Santiago. Overall, Judgment is Gears of War through and through, with much of the same, just done better and with more refinement.

The game follows Baird and his team, Kilo Squad, who include another familiar character, Augustus Cole, as well as two new faces, Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk. Having played the first games and remembering how engaging the story telling was then, I had high expectations for this one and I was not disappointed.

It moves away from the traditional format of storytelling with one continuous perspective and instead breaks it down into 5 chapters, each told from the perspective of the various members of Kilo Squad (Baird tells the first and last chapter). Whilst you might think this would detract from the seamless feel of it all, they intertwine them all beautifully.

On top of that, you are given an option to adjust the story to include harder odds that you have to fight through (stronger opponents, extreme weather conditions, no reinforcements, etc.) in the form of “declassified missions” which can be activated by approaching a distinct mark on the wall. This adds to make the game more exciting for the player as well as providing an achievement boost as reward.

Whilst it may not challenge you on an intellectual level nor tackle thought provoking social issues, it does well to give you a deeper look into the background of a familiar, yet lesser known character in the Gears of War universe. The narrative of each chapter is given by the squad members in turn and all come with their own phrases and style of telling the story. It provides a little more insight into the characters and their personality.

The saying goes, “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it” and the developers took this to heart with Gears of War gameplay. It is very much the game fans will know and love and they will be able to jump right into the thick of it without much of an adjustment.

In some shooter titles, you might be able to blast your way through relatively quickly, however in Judgement, there is no such thing. Teamwork is essential to succeed and one cannot rush into a fight without having team-mates back you up, along with being careful to choose your cover wisely. A certain player I had the misfortune of playing with for much of the last section of the campaign taught me this again. And again. And again. On the bright side, I perfected the art of dodging through hordes of Locust forces to revive a teammate and still get out alive.

The need for careful thinking is coupled with a huge open ended feel in the levels. There are multiple ways to get to the same objective, and so players are given the freedom to tackle things in their own way. You can choose to go knocking on the front door and weather the hail of fire, or else you can choose to sneak to the side and flank the enemy, or further yet, find a comfy “eagle’s nest” and snipe from above. The choices can feel endless in a genre often very linear in its approach to completing missions.

The large selection of weapons at your disposal is fairly similar to previous titles in the franchise with some new additions. From sniper rifles without scopes, to sawn-off shotguns, to giant butcher cleavers, the game seems to have it all.

With an abundance of weapons to choose from must come an abundance of enemies to battle against. Most of the Locust variations will be familiar to fans, but there a few that bring something new. One such Locust is called a Rager. Initially a rifle wielding soldier, once close to death they become “enraged” and throw down their weapon, transforming into ferocious melee units that nightmares are made of.

Judgement also stays true to its roots with collectible tags of fallen COGs as well a horde of achievements and ribbons that can be earned to unlock various customisations in the game that range from special characters to character and weapon skins.

The multiplayer did see a bit of a rework compared to Gears of War 3. Co-op campaign mode remained, which allows you to complete the story mode either with the help of friends or strangers via Xbox Live. That’s about all that remains from the previous multiplayer. Gridlock, a game mode featured previously was removed entirely as was Capture the Leader.

Before you raise your pitchforks to protest, you should know that they have added some other really cool modes. They turned the previous Beast mode into a mode called Overrun. It is essentially a combination of Beast and Horde mode. Teams alternate between playing as COGs and Locusts as they seek to defend (COGs) or destroy (Locusts) objectives in the fastest time possible.

For the first time in the franchise, a Free for All mode has been added. It is your standard deathmatch with every man for himself. With that comes a team deathmatch variation for those who prefer to work with others. There is also a mode called Dominion, another well-known mode in other games, in which your teams fight to control key points on a map.

You can only play Locusts in the Overrun mode, other modes pit Cogs against Cogs. On the technical side of things, joining multiplayer games is as fluid as you could hope for. The game is quick to find matches with the highest quality and in my time playing this game I had no problems.

Like most aspects of this game, the graphical style strayed very little, with most levels being grime filled, dark, blazing battlefields. A very nice twist in the environment comes in the form of fog which occurs in certain levels that reduce your vision significantly, creating a whole new experience and further reinforcing the need to shy away from running in blindly (excuse the pun).

On top fog of war, there are also gale-force winds which reduce vision and forcibly push your character around, again creating variety on the battlefield. Added to this lack of vision, when you melee a unit and tear through them with your chainsaw, blood splashes on to your screen momentarily clouding your vision. All of this together really adds in making you feel engaged and in the thick of it.

The overwhelming intensity of the graphics and the gameplay does seem to brush the audio aspect of the game to one side. Besides the growls and grunts of incoming hordes giving you an indication of a fight, or the well-known “boom” as a Boomer lets loose, the sound is rather standard and bland. However it does little to take away from the game, it just does not add to it in a way that is worth noting.

In the end, fans of the game can rest easy as the franchise has been done proud by its latest addition. The intense and exciting gameplay is strongly supported by great visuals and a well put together multiplayer environment. Fans will not be disappointed and newcomers will find an enthralling world to delve into.