I knew this day would come. When you have an Xbox LIVE Gold account, you get "free games" once a month. (This is not the place to argue if the game is free or not since you have to pay for the account, so for the sake of argument, roll with it.) Unlike the games for Xbox One X and up, when your account expires, the 360 titles remain available to you, both to play and download at a later date, so I made a point to collect some here and there. This was one of those games. I knew it had a reputation as being one of the lesser games in the franchise, but at the time, I did not have any other in the series, nor was I willing to buy any of them. (Again a discussion for another time.) YEARS later the dice picked this one, as I knew they would one day. I had hoped, however, it would at least be an interesting, if not particularly good experience.... I was so wrong.
Story: You and your squad are on trial for disobeying orders to an incredible magnitude and Colonel Loomis wants answers. He wants them bad enough, in fact, that when you were arrested, he didn't bother taking you to a safer location to be processed, but landed you in the center of town to answer for your crimes on the spot while the war rages literally down the road.
Undaunted by this, the man who holds your fate in his hand (and is expected to sentence you to death) demands your explanations, which will be how this story is told. The game is divided into 5 sections, each being told by a member of the squad (with Baird telling the first and last). Their testimonies will be the backdrop of each of these sections, explaining how this squad of four saw a very nasty Locust (the alien race mankind is at war with) named Karn and chose to launch a secret missile without authorization to kill him and save thousands. And with the tail told, the game will finish with a 6th section in the here and now as Loomis' hubris leads to the trial being interrupted by Locust forces barging in and forcing everyone to attempt to retreat.
There is little really to add to this... the story is incredibly straight forward and really little else then a vehicle to encase the action with, some snark along the way, and a classic "everybody laughs like the end of an 80's cartoon episode" ending that really doesn't do much other then signal the adventure is over.
5/10
Graphics: There is no way to overstate just how much impact the original Gears of War had on just what video games could look like when it burst onto the scene as an Xbox 360 exclusive, single-handedly showing just what the new Unreal 3 engine could do. And even looking at the game 15 years later, it still holds it's own with it's well detailed and atmospheric look of a world broken down and collapsed from war and destruction... and Judgement followed in it's footsteps. Unfortunately for this installation, (the 4th to come out) the effect has diminished over time. That is not to say this game doesn't look really good... just that by the time it came out, it wasn't going to stand out nearly as much as that original title.
You will play this game from behind the shoulders of the character you control during any given section as you make your way through blown out buildings and streets. And I have to be honest, fighting the hoards of Locusts this game is going to throw at you does look really good. Every detail is designed to fit the tone and what you would expect. And I would have to argue for the realism in the world you are about to play in, much like the original.
However, I can not say the same for the characters who populate it. They fit the world very well, but besides the one young lady in your squad, everyone is just about completely interchangeable. Sure there are some details to set everyone apart, but really, everyone looks basically the same. This becomes even more true during combat when everyone is tearing around the map, so those details become less informative then the build of whoever is in front of you... which the guys also share with a lot of your enemies. It will not be uncommon for you to see ton of guys moving around attacking each other and just picking a group to shoot into and hoping for the best.
Again, that is not to say that that detail work doesn't look great. When you get up close to a locust or one of your team members, you can see the effort that went into that gritty look and appreciate it. But when you are in battle and it's dark and moody (as a lot of the game is) you are going to find yourself almost (and if you don't have the self control, absolutely) shooting some of your AI allies... not that they will help themselves, but we will get to that later.
7/10
Sound: When we talk about how a game sounds these days we tend to find a lot of standard orchestrated soundtracks that sound great for the game, but never stick with you. This game is a little bit different. It takes place in a war-torn world where there is little hope left and there is no such thing as a safe place, and the music reflects it. Yes the music is the kind of backdrop that fits it's purpose, but rarely stays long after, but it takes a bit more of a science fiction feel in it's own right to convey this with ominous tones and militant beats mixed with electronic tones and guitars when the action really heats up. It really sounds like you are listening to the ambient music of classic 80s science fiction/action movies like the Terminator. And that honestly leaves it something special as it is just pleasing to listen to on it's own.
And while there are few lines here and there from characters that are well delivered and may even make you chuckle for the right reasons, lets be honest about the star here... we are listening to the guns and explosions and hell raining down on everything... and at this the game shines. Your weapons sound anywhere from good to meaty (often the same one depending on if it's supercharged or not) with voices of pain and splatter and explosion that just finish the audio side of the experience as visceral as what you see on the screen. In both sound and visuals, this series has always known how to make it's mark.
9/10
Gameplay: Sadly, this is where the game stumbles and falters badly. Judgement is a squad-based game where you will go from small arena to small arena where a set of Locusts will pour in from specific locations or be in a few per-defined ones to defend them and it will be up to you to eliminate them all. All six sections of the game are made up of 6-8 of these arenas, making it very easy to predict the flow of everything. Sometimes, it is that simple, while others will require you to defend a wave or two of enemies, giving you time to setup defenses before each, and even some are straight up escort arenas as you have to keep the Locust from destroying a robot you are traveling with. But for all this, the setup in just about every case is the same: go down a small corridor to a barrier (almost always a door or a small wall to hop over) that upon passing, causes the action to begin. When you've killed everything, a beacon will show you where to go to end that part of the section and get your score. Most of these arenas will be completed in 10 minutes at max and if your arena has more then a room or two, consider it one of the largest in the game.
But this quick repetition is not the only thing going against this title. I have to take particular issues with the controls as well. Anyone who knows me knows I'm going to knock off points for a "this button does all maneuvers" control scheme, as it requires the game to interpret what you want versus you telling it... and this game is no exception. Want to run, hold down the A button, but if you didn't want to attach to a wall (like for example if it's at an angle where an enemy has a clear shot) better hope the game doesn't think so and lets you run past it. And with how little directional control you have while running, this is a serious issue as you may simply be unable to dodge it. Games like this have always needed a separate button for taking cover and you will feel that immediately.
On a personal note, I also found it tough to get used to the auto-aim assist the game uses (I come from the PC using keyboard and mouse for these kind of games). If you don't touch the stick and hit the zoom button, you will see what I mean as any enemy close enough to the cursor could be chosen for a lock-in where it will automatically follow them. It helps since a stick is an inherently inaccurate aiming device, but it's definitely weird to have your aim jump a good inch or so on the screen while not touching the right-stick on your controller.
And then we can get to the biggest sticking point in this game: your team. Judgement is designed to be a 4 player co-op game and it shows. If you play with the AI instead you will find them absolutely terrible. They can be counted on to run in your way while you are firing, ignoring you or each other when a character is down, or even just jumping between cover because "you went there, so I should too." They are just hands down the worst I have seen in a long time.
But this implodes on itself when you have to defend a location or that damn robot. These guys will basically ignore the goal (except to yell at you about it), leaving you to dive between all possible openings and be a one-man army. It is beatable, but it is far more frustrating then it has any need to be for these idiots alone.
5/10
Bugs: This being a game from the Xbox 360 console, you would expect it to run without any major issues, but while playing I had to reload a check-point because of bugs. This happened literally in the first real enemy encounter of the game and the first 15-20 minutes of it running as enemies that should have spawned didn't effectively stopping the progression of the game entirely.
Overall: I have no love for this game at all. None. The first thing it did with a controller in my hand was break. It then showed me how little control running gives you, leaves me playing a much slower game so I had better control over how I moved. It then gave me nothing but a routine of pattern of "corridor, small arena, go to the other exit to see how you scored" for the entire game. It just offered nothing to make me want to play for more then an hour or so at a time to power through it.
That is not to say this is the worst game I have ever played. Nothing was seriously broken and I was able to stick through it to finish it. But it was probably one of the most "meh" games I have played in a long time under it's admittedly pretty ascetic. If you have a choice, I would definitely say look somewhere else for something else to play. That goes double if you are not going to play with some friends.
Score:
5/10
Source: Xbox Online store
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