Gears of War Judgment review However, People Can Fly's decision to reign in sheer spectacle brings a sense of purpose, and allows them to concentrate on building levels that are a pleasure to fight in. They're well designed and --despite a aging engine-- look great, offering a fresh perspective of the planet Sera as Kilo move through the affluent Halvo Bay, lavish wealth crumbling under the Locust invasion, white marbled mansions disfigured by barbed wire and sandbags. Plenty of waist high walls and fortifications are there for you to latch on to and pick off Locust from a distance, but you won't be attached to cover as much as in previous Gears. People Can Fly opt for a more frenetic ebb to the combat, keeping you on the move around its wide arenas as monkey-like wretches, shotgun soldiers and mace-wielding meatheads come stomping down on your position. The developer has also opted against scripting enemy positions and spawning, leaving it to the game to throw different Locust squads at you due to some behind-the-curtains equations. It bolsters the game's chaotic complexion, meaning it can get messy and unrefined, but there's a welcome unpredictability that makes retries and replays play out slightly differently each time. It's an approach works particularly well in the "Horde" sections that are peppered throughout the campaign. Your squad is tasked with an area to fortify and defend as waves of Locust pour through the doors. Usually kept separate from the main campaign, these survival sections break up the corridor blasting, and the random spawning of enemies avoids a sense of ennui on tricky replays. It's all thoroughly, familiarly entertaining, but by far Judgment's most interesting addition to the campaign is the option to "Declassify" each section, essentially adding a gameplay modifier in exchange for a boost to your star ranking. These vary from time limits, to forcing you to complete sections with specific weapons or limited ammo, to adding special objectives. They're challenging and alter the passage of play significantly enough that they take on a different complexion when Declassified. When an area is covered in visibility reducing dust, for example, it changes the conflict from a back-and-forth rattle of gunfire to a frantic, panic-induced scrap in the muck. But as interesting as the idea is, Judgment doesn't do as much with it as you'd like. The dust trick is repeated at least five times throughout the campaign in slightly different guises, while the oft-seen time limits become messy charges. None of this reduces the sense of fun throughout the six or so hours it takes to rattle through the story, the shooting is far too satisfying for that, but it's an apt example of Judgment's campaign not doing quite enough to raise itself beyond an enjoyable, disposable blast. Elevating the package, however, is the multiplayer. Gears" weighty competitive match-ups have always been supremely satisfying, and Judgment is no different. The usual game-types of Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All and Domination are all present, correct and wonderfully served. It's refreshing to see that Gears has scaled back the Call of Duty style grind that unlocks new weapons and equipment. Instead players are let loose on each other on an even keel, battling over multi-tiered maps with neat sightlines and plenty of strategic positions. The maps are designed so that different styles of play --sniping, close quarters or rifleman-- are all accommodated for. You never really feel that levels are designed in such a way that certain types of weapons will serve you better, instead counting on your own preferences and skill. This is nothing new to Gears, but Judgment does bring one disruptive influence to its multiplayer. It's called OverRun. And it's terrific. It pits a team of Locust players against a team of human COG players, with the Locust tasked with destroying a human stronghold and pushing forward across a map. The COG team must defend until the time-limit runs out and the earth-shattering Hammer of Dawn fires and wipes out the Locust forces. It's the one mode in multiplayer in which specific classes are assigned. Humans have the familiar engineer, medic and soldier archetypes, while the Locust allows you to pick from a selection of creatures; from the scuttling explosive Ticker to the whopping great Corpser. The neat class system encourages tactical collaboration and experimentation, Locust Theron Guards can heal Grenadiers while they storm the base, Tickers can scuttle in and blow up fortifications in a suicide run, while the athletic wretches can scamper into positions its larger kindred cannot. The COG team must stick closer together, so their classes aren't as varied but are no less complementary, with scouts able to throw spot grenades to locate hidden enemies and engineers able to repair barriers and deploy sentry guns. It's Gears at its very best, fierce gunplay mixing with a fabulous ebb and flow across smartly designed maps. It's nothing revolutionary, rather existing elements melded into a satisfying whole. It's the kind of thing that makes Judgment a more long-term investment than its campaign demands, but even the single-player's familiarity and conservatism can't take away from the base thrill of pulling the trigger or revving that chainsaw. Gears of War does it better than most, and Judgment is a focussed celebration of that fact.