Graphics: Gears is dark. Very dark. Even darker than Doom 3, if that’s possible. The lack of a colorful palate creates a mood of danger and foreboding that helps to generate immersion in an otherwise boilerplate story. The backgrounds are extremely intricate, and the character models are animated with great attention to detail, from the muscle-bound space marines to the bulky, reptilian Horde. And players whose rigs surpass the game’s minimum specs will be delighted by the extra detail accessed by their DX10-compatible video cards; my playtest ran as smooth as butter with all visual bells and whistles activated and at 1600×1200 resolution. I originally had to back the settings down a bit to achieve a smooth frame rate, but upgrading to the most recent Nvidia video drivers allowed me to restore the settings to maximum, so make sure your drivers are up to date.

Interface: Menu screens are laid out efficiently and are easy to navigate. The options menu allows you to choose between mouse/keyboard and Xbox 360 controller setups, and all control options are easily remappable. There are some oddities, however: the screens used to select your default multiplayer skins are located in the main option menu instead of inside the multiplayer menus, the video options don’t include adjustments for antialiasing or anisotropic filtering and, when using the mouse scroll wheel to switch weapons within the game, the highlight doesn’t wrap back up to the top of the list when reaching the bottom, forcing you to scroll back upward, a delay that could get you fragged in an intense online match.

Gameplay: The battles are visceral, fast-paced and sometimes exhilarating as you and your squad move through the blasted city in search of the enemy. The levels are massive, complex and filled with places to use for cover during combat, and the maps make excellent use of three-dimensional space. Also, the targeting arcs that display when using grenades give you an added bit of control that you don’t find with other shooters.

But players who are unfamiliar with the console version might find some of Gears‘ control schemes difficult to adopt. Jumping is replaced by a mantling command that is part of the game’s cover system, which must be mastered to survive; you have to tap the mantle key twice to first crouch behind an obstacle, then climb over it. The targeting reticle only displays when the aim key is pressed and held, and it’s difficult to fire your weapon with any accuracy without it. And in the third-person view, your character is placed on the left half of the screen instead of in the middle; the right half is reserved for a partner playing in co-op mode. When playing solo, the shifted perspective can be annoying for awhile.

Extra ammo and weapons are scattered all over the maps, but most of the icons blend in with the background so well that you won’t find most of them until you step on them. And you have to press the “use” key to pick the items up; you can’t grab them by merely running over them. These aren’t necessarily bad alterations, but they could annoy gamers used to simpler control methods. The biggest problem, however, is the scarcity of save checkpoints, some of which are placed before long cutscenes instead of after them. This means that you have to sit through the cutscenes every time you reload, and the cinematics are unskippable.

Multiplayer: Playing Gears on the Internet is great fun, provided you enjoy playing team deathmatch. During my playtest, most of the available online matches were using the Warzone and Execution modes, with very few Annex and King of the Hill games in progress, and none using the Assassination mode. Teams are limited to eight players per side; I played in one Warzone match that wouldn’t even start until at least six players joined. Gears ships with an excellent selection of 19 multiplayer maps, and the included game editor offers users a chance to create their own custom layouts.

I had very little trouble joining new matches, and aside from a rare BSOD, play on the net was flawless. Because my multiplayer skills are not what one would call l33t, I had plenty of time to play with the nifty spectator mode, which allows you to cycle through fixed-camera and over-the-shoulder player views to watch the remainder of the round after you’re fragged. Voice chat is also available, although there’s no mention of it in the game manual or the setup screens. If you’re logged in at a time when there are plenty of matches to be found, online Gears generates the “just one more round” feeling gamers crave.

Sound FX: The audio portion of Gears is adequate at best. Weapon sounds fit their corresponding firearms fairly well, with the shotgun producing the most satisfying thump in the game. The exception is the Hammer of Dawn, an orbital weapon with a sound that doesn’t match its imposing name. There’s not much variety in the voice acting, since most of the voices are those of the gravelly-throated space marines. And there are no specialized settings for players with high-end speaker systems; the audio options menu only offers three volume sliders and a toggle to turn audio effects on and off, with no mention of what those effects are.

Music: Gears‘ music score is the most neglected part of the game. Atmospheric sounds accompany the menu screens, and during gameplay there are only a few brief music cuts to enhance the combat scenes. Certainly, the developers had more important things to worry about when creating Gears, but the lack of a more detailed soundtrack lessens the overall package.

Intelligence: Enemy AI is sometimes tough and crafty, with Horde fighters attempting flanking maneuvers and using cover to their advantage, while at other times they go brain-dead and stand out in the open, daring you to shoot them. Your computer-controlled squadmates are just as schizophrenic; they show excellent teamwork and offer effective support, but they’re just as likely to walk in front of you during a firefight, then complain that you shot them.

Difficulty: Three difficulty levels are available: Casual, Hardcore and Insane. I played at the Hardcore setting and found Gears to be continually challenging. Acclimating to the unusual movement system made the beginning of the game cumbersome and frustrating, but once I got used to covering and mantling and the lack of a persistent targeting reticle, I became more and more comfortable with the gameplay. But, once again, the inability to save progress anywhere turns a tough but manageable campaign into sequences of tedious repetition, especially considering the lack of adequately placed save checkpoints. On the lighter side, players looking to pad their gamertag scores will be happy to learn that finishing a level on Hardcore unlocks both the Hardcore and Casual end-of-level achievements.

Overall: The acclaim that Gears of War for the Xbox 360 garnered is tough to ignore, and the combination of a superior visual presentation and an excellent multiplayer component shows that much that made the console version great has made it to the PC iteration. But there’s plenty wrong with this game, including sometimes disappointing AI, lack of attention to ambient details such as music and sound, and dodgy Games for Windows Live connectivity that still hasn’t delivered on its promise to provide PC gamers with the many advantages of its console cousin. Devoted shooter fans who waited a full year for a PC version of Gears will be pleased and disappointed in equal parts, and so was I.