Curmudgeon Gamer: Gears of War reloading: this is fun?

07 November 2006

Gears of War reloading: this is fun?

Ok, I'm not an Xbox 360 owner (and won't be one for many years yet, if ever) so I can't test for myself, but perhaps a reader somewhere has picked up Gears of War and can give some context. From the GameSpot review of Gears of War:

Another really cool facet of the gameplay is that there's a trick to reloading your weapon. By default, reloads take a set amount of time and aren't anything flashy. But if you look just below the gun indicator on the screen, you'll see a line sweeping across a bar with a couple of different colors on it. That's the trick. A button press stops the meter. If you stop it in the gray area, the weapon reloads faster. If you stop it in the tiny white zone, you'll reload and all the bullets you just fed into your weapon will do more damage. But if you miss and hit it in the black, the gun jams and takes even longer to reload. It's a fascinating risk-versus-reward scenario that isn't difficult to master, but when you're under fire in a tense situation, you're still likely to screw it up now and then.

As Mike put it earlier, this is basically God of War-style button mashing applied to reloading weapons. On paper, it sounds terrible. I'd like to hear from someone else playing on whether it's really "a really cool facet of the gameplay".

Labels: microsoft, xbox360

--jvm at 21:48

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Comment [ 4 ]

Comments on this post:

it's not button mashing, it's timing your reload perfectly to get a bonus - kind of like the older golf games

By Anonymous, at 07 November, 2006 22:37

I agree with anonymous. It isn't button mashing. The golf comparison is quite fitting as well. Hit the bad section, and you get a penalty. Hit the sweet spot and you can get a bonus.

And it sounds like you can ignore the whole process whenever you feel like it.

The only thing I don't like the sound of is getting a damage boost. I'd rather it just be a straight reload speed benefit. But they probably felt the need for a little something extra to justify the extra complication.

By Baines, at 07 November, 2006 23:33

That sort of gaming dynamic is exactly why I prefer Tiger Woods 05 to 06 or 07. It takes the fun out of the game if success depends on split second timing button presses...is that "curmudgeon" enough?

By Gramps, at 08 November, 2006 09:49

It's a great feature. You can ignore it if you want, but when you use it, it adds a little bit of satisfaction.

By Anonymous, at 15 November, 2006 12:08

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