Whether you were asking or not the first "Gears of War" spinoff is here, and we have the launch trailer to prove it. Epic's "Gears of War: Judgment" pre-dates any events in each of the previous "Gears" games, taking place just after the game’s oft-referred “E-Day” or emergence day. It’s a bonafide prequel if you will, and puts the player in the shoes of Kilo Squad, leaving series stalwarts Marcus and Dom on the sidelines.
Kilo squad are those other two giant, gruff dudes, Baird and Cole, along with two newcomers to the series, Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk. As events leading up to a military trial with Baird as the defendant, players will fill the role of each member of the team to uncover what truly happened. In a narrative twist, you can ramp up the difficulty, therefore gaining more points, by “declassifying” certain sections of the level. Levels are broken up into individually-scored sections where players are encouraged to earn the three-star maximum. I guess we can thank "Angry Birds" for that.
Hopefully, with Baird as the protagonist in a new kind of tale, Epic may somehow remedy the series’ past storytelling transgressions, but we all know where the real meat is: multiplayer.
The big changes? A class-based system, allowing you to fill certain roles on the battlefield (medic, scout, etc.), a few new modes and, of course, some new weapons to play around with may just bring the online community back for another round. Only time till tell. That semi-automatic sniper rifle looks pleasing enough, though.
‘Gears of War: Judgment’ releases for the Xbox 360 on March 19.
