Review: Gears of War the board game

I think its fair to say that the Gears of War franchise has been a little bit of a success for Epic Games and Microsoft alike. Its shifted a fair few units and I'm pretty certain the reason I'm still clinging onto my tired and creaky Xbox 360 Elite is to sample the delights of Gears 3. No doubt the curse of the Gears RRoD will strike and finally kill off my 9th 360 for good. So why is it so successful? Its not the cleverest game on the block and neither are its protagonists but I guess that's been half of its appeal, right? The style of the characters and animation certainly owe a little bit I guess to a certain future warrior from a certain Gothic sci-fi franchise, in some cases shamelessly so. But its certainly no direct rip off and its universe has its own distinct flavour. It was the brutality of the action and the awesome way in which the Locust were 'introduced' to the game environment via emergence holes that had people hooked... it also had me thinking that its mechanics might make a good Dungeon Crawler when I first saw it. Seems that somebody at Fantasy Flight Games had the exact same idea... and I say thank the Lord above that they did!!! Here's the Fantasy Flight Games video that's been doing the rounds to give you a taster...

Product Description

The massed ranks of the Locust and the 4 COGs on parade

Its another one of those 'games in a box' that I seem so addicted to lately. I think its fair to say that the box isn't as jammed pack full of stuff as say some of the other games I've reviewed lately, say like Mansions of Madness. However the game miniatures are arguably some of the best I've ever seen in a board game and you get 32 of them. Comprising of the 4 COGs and 28 Locust of varying types, they're all really nice. There's a veritable gaggle of different game cards and card tokens. You get 9 specialist D6's for defence and attack (red and black respectively) and a load of two-sided floor tiles. Its not a small amount of stuff by any stretch of the imagination. I also liked that the cards and some other components came sealed in zip lock bags so I don't have to buy my own for a change and I hope this is something Fantasy Flight Games and other manufacturers start doing a little bit more of.

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