Let me start off by saying that the first Xbox 360 game I played was the original gears of war and I really loved that game. Ever since then I have been a crazy fan of the series. Sure the game isn't as story driven as some other titles but what captivated me was the fun pick-up and gun gameplay. Even after playing it after months I never felt lost or without any idea of what I had to do. Now let's fast forward to present day and 4 games later (gears of war 1,2,3 and judgment) we get gears of war 4 and how does it hold up? Let's find out.

STORY: 7/10

Gears of war 4 takes place 20+ years after series badass and lead Marcus Fenix and team defeated the locust that threaten the human civilization. The events of gears of war 3 has had some after effects on the earth's atmosphere with 'Windflares' extremely strong windstorms. The events of previous gears games also cause the human population to decrease and to protect the human population from both extinction and the windflares, the COGs(in-games military unit) set up walls around settlements and restricted any individual from leaving the walled settlement. Of course not everyone would share the views inforced by the COGs and they started living outside the walls and started calling themselves 'outsiders'. This time around the story revolves around JD Fenix(Marcus Felix's son) childhood friend Del Walker (both former COG members) and Kait Diaz an outsider whos outside community they join. One night their village gets attacked by some creatures and kidnaps Kaits mother and villagers, so the three set out on a journey to save Kaits mother, the villagers and find out that the war is still not over.

GAMEPLAY: 9/10

The game plays as you would expect any gears of war to play... Fluid cover and shooter. Thus was the game that perfected the mechanic after all. The game does have some additional gameplay features not present in old games such as pull enemies from cover and knifing them, getting a hold of some special weapons like the buzzkill etc. The game still has it's active reload times where you have to time the reloads and if you time it right your reloaded clip will do enhanced damage for a short period of time.

GRAPHICS: 8.9/10

Graphics are up next and let me say this... It looks beautiful. Sure it isn't as photo realistic as say uncharted 4 and other ps4 exclusives but the game is charming in it's own with a wide range of Blues,reds and greens, smoke effects and particle effects. Even armor detailing is a fine touch. Overall a good looking game and this is one of the few games that support HDR (High Dynamic Range) and if you have a t.v that supports it and a xbox one s, you can get a better deep color pallet.

AUDIO: 10/10

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Gears of war soundtrack-The Sound of Silence by Disturbed

Gears of war 4 uses a technique called Triton. What this technology does is that it mimics sounds as how they would sound in real life. For eg, bullets passing by wooden crates and cement walls would sound different, Triton mimics that real life characteristics and implement them in the game. It is quite nice and something which you would need decent headphones to truly appreciate. Other things like the guns explosions are sound really good and amazing.

Final Scores: 

34.5/40

 87.2% approval rating 

CONCLUSION

Gears Of War 4 does everything required to get the franchise roadie-running without losing what made it so good to begin with. This is a seriously great game with a few plot holes that is keeping it back from being a true masterpiece for the Xbox and windows platform. 

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My Horizon: Zero Dawn Review

Image Sources:

1. Giantbomb

2. Shacknews

Note: I originally reviewed the game on Amazon when I bought it and the review has been edited according to the context of steemit and posted.