Game Review // Gears of War Judgment

Gears of War has always been one of my favorite game franchises. It has been a game that has been with my since I first started my days gaming on the 360. I really think Gears and Left 4 Dead are the two games that really got me into some hardcore gaming. I remember playing through the entire trilogy with my childhood friend. And then I played Gears 4 and 5 with my brother. It was a great time, but Judgment was always one that was left on the back burner.

There’s this podcast that I am a huge fan of called The Regulation Podcast. They play games and talk about a lot of nonsense and it’s great. They’ve been replaying through the entire Gears 5 campaign together on insane difficulty. This made me think of replaying the whole series, and I knew I had to start with Judgment. Technically it takes place before all the other games, so it made it an easy pick.

I put the game difficulty on casual and just let it rip. It brought back so many memories of playing the Gears games. I love how the game feels to play. It has the good old cover-based shooting mechanics. The guys are built like brick houses and the locusts are wild. I loved every second of it.

The story is decent enough. It follows Damon Baird and Kilo squad right after the Emergence day. This story is set before Gears 1. It gives us the earliest view of the locust invasion in the games. Kilo squad includes Cole Train from the original series. It also features newcomers Onyx Guard cadet Sofia Hendrick and former UIR soldier Garron Paduk. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember anything about the Onyx Guard in any of the other games. They seem like future elite officers. And seeing the UIR soldier really brings up a lot of questions about this planets past. Clearly there were a lot of animosity between countries here. Makes me want to see the other side of things.

The story starts with Baird and Kilo Squad being interrogated by a complete douche bag. I can’t think of his name, but I think he’s head of the Onyx Guard. And he’s a tool. Baird starts telling the story of what ended up with them being thrown into this ridiculous court briefing. The entire time they’re telling the story, there’s a war going on outside. It’s such a wild thing to think of doing in that time, but I mean, I guess that’s war?

Each character gets to tell a section of the story, and when they do you get to play as them. It doesn’t change gameplay at all, just nice to get to feel like you’re playing as someone else. I would suspect if you’re lucky enough to play with three friends, each player would get to play as a character through the whole game. I played solo so I got to play as everyone.

A big thing that I noticed about Judgment is that it had an optional Declassified mission objective. These options would make the current section more difficult, like adding smoke so it is hard to see enemies. Or only getting to use certain weapons. I think I turned on each one I saw. I did skip one intentionally because it was a timed-based thing. I knew I could do it, since I had successfully done it in other sections. But I decided to skip past it. I don’t like feeling rushed in games. It’s not a good stress for me.

I genuinely loved playing through Judgment. I know some view it as a meh entry to the series. However, it still has some great moments. The game play is still super solid. There is also the Aftermath DLC that I have never played before. It takes place during the last mission in Gears 3. I plan to continue through the Gears franchise. After I get through Gears 3, I will backtrack to the Aftermath DLC.

I’m really excited to go back through these games. The new Gears game I think comes out next year. It’s set during E-Day I believe. I also think it shows what happens to Marcus and why he gets court marshaled.

How do you guys feel about the Gears franchise? Did you play Judgment or skip it? Let me know!