Gears of War: Judgment Review

As the release of Gears of War: Judgment approached gamers worldwide, I was worried the fourth installment in the man versus human engulfing grub/imulsion havoc wrecking monsters would consist of several hours of death and destruction with almost no plot for the sole purpose of profiting off the three previous Gears. 

I mean come on..... How could you develop a Gears of War game just a few weeks/months after the Emergence of horrific grub creatures and not have the king of grub destruction Marcus Fenix in it? That alone caused me to pre-judge the creativity of the developers and doubt its worthiness. 

What? Marcus Fenix isn't good enough for your prequel, motherfuckers?

So I purchased the $60 game with few hopes of success, numerous doubts of its plots and a fear I threw almost six hours worth of work down the tubes for a video game. 

And luckily, I was mostly wrong on all three counts.

While the plot, which followed then-Lieutenant Damon Baird, Private Augustus Cole and the rest of Kilo Squad in the fight for Halvo Bay, was weaker than its Gears counterparts, I feel the creation of a former UIR Major - Garron Paduk - and the story he brought from previously being an enemy of the COG and being forced to unite to fight the grubs was quite interesting, and that it brought a different perspective to gamers. 

We were also introduced to the highly respected and ancient Onyx Guard... Which we have spent three games and over twenty hours of our gaming lives without ever hearing about and then told they are a big deal, even having one of their cadets join Kilo Squad... That was definitely the game's biggest plot failure.

But moving back to the positive side, I greatly enjoyed how we played the game through Kilo Squad's testimony in front of a hastily convened tribunal to judge their guilt for disobeying direct orders and for deploying the Lightmass Missile to save Halvo Bay from General Karn and his absolutely terrifying grub creature that destroyed Paduk's home. 

I'm not going to spoil the ending, but my favorite moment was when you finally hear Marcus Fenix radio control for backup at the military museum and your actions actually save Delta Squad, and at least in the Gears world continuum, save planet Sera right then and there, for if Fenix died immediately after E-Day, who would have defeated the grub scum in Gears 3?

Overall, I enjoyed the game, although it under-performed the three previous installments in plot and a few aspects of gameplay (missions are incredibly short and encourage gamers to opt for the unclassified side missions), but in the end came through with a nearly unbeatable adversary and a satisfactory ending, which tested years of accomplished COG credentials on my part...

What say you?