It's finally here, the 360 flagship title - the Unreal 3 engine running, stop-and-pop exhibiting, balls to the wall action fest that is Gears of War. My first exposure to the game was in an EB outlet in Copenhagen, but five minutes was not enough time for me to get a feel for the game. Cue the long wait to finally get back on Australian soil and sit down to enjoy a long session of Locust popping. So does the game live up to the hype?

Well, yes and no - and for equal reasons. Gears of War is an impressive piece of software. Never before have your eyes feasted on such hyper detail; beautiful bump mapping, terrific texture wrapping, delicious detail, dynamic depth of field effects - they're all there. And the game runs beautifully, as smooth as a newborn's behind in fact.

And it's when you realise that the transition between story scenes and actual gameplay is almost flawless (in terms of visual detail and atmosphere) that you know something special is about to go down. Then you hear that first Locust growl and it's suddenly on - the fight for humanity's survival, with you (Marcus Fenix) at the head of proceedings. Along with your trusty sidekick, Dominic Santiago, and your squad of buff soldiers, it's a ten hour journey of busted bones and splattered brains.

So we've established that GoW is pretty much the best looking game we've ever seen. If you've seen the screenshots or played the game (let's face it, most of you have by now), you'll know the jaw-dropping effect the game has during its first play through. The stop-an-pop mechanic is pretty darn good too. When we first heard about it we had some reservations - would it get old quick, will it cause the game to feel slow and stuttered? The answer to both is no, because the context-sensitive A button allows you to stick to cover and move around maps like a pro within minutes of picking up the game.

Not only does it look great but the game's level progression is similarly impressive. Starting out as a prison break, it's not long before you're threading your way through war-torn streets, massive underground caverns, crumbling manor houses and even onto a moving train. The art design for the game is extremely depressing - but in a good way. No other game in recent memory has produced such a real feeling of a wasted world. The war with the Locusts has pretty much ravaged the entire planet and each and every building tells a story of battle. You really do believe that this is a last-ditch effort of Humanity's survival.

Combat is visceral and close-quarters for the most part. Weapons such as the shotgun and chainsaw bayonet fulfill Epic's goal of bringing confrontations close to the player. Levels are also dotted with cover spots that allow you to leap frog closer to enemies and even outflank them. This is a vital approach, as the Locusts are damn aggressive opponents and will kill you quite easily if you slip up. The only criticism we have of the enemy AI is that they can pretty much be guaranteed to jump over cover into the waiting teeth of your chainsaw. Of course, this knowledge is vital on the harder difficulty levels.

Speaking of difficulty, GoW is hard. Not hard as in, ‘Oh, I think I need to just give it a rest and come back later' - hard as in, ‘S*#t, stupid f*^&ing bastard Locust %$#&s!!!' This comes down to the fact that on Hardcore and Insane difficulties, the game is pretty much focused towards co-op play. Drag a mate in via Live and Insane is pretty manageable. Try it on your own and your neighbours are likely to assume you have Tourette's Syndrome. Actually, the game is totally imbalanced because Casual difficulty is pretty much a walk in the park for any experienced shooter fan.

Character wise, your squad is full of some lively characters. I personally hated the Cole Train, as to me he embodied every single stereotype attached to African American soldiers, coming out with cringe-worthy one liners related to the ‘wordplay' on his name. Marcus is a gruff, all-business kind of guy and you'll feel happy to control him. One moment in the game sees him witness scurrying enemies off in the distance. When asked if he saw them he answers with a sigh, "Yep, kinda wish I hadn't.” It's this subtle characterisation (which often mirrors the player's opinion) that gives the game atmosphere.

Multiplayer is as violent and hectic as you can expect. Maps are quite small and basically pit two teams of four against each other in tight, fast tournaments to the death. Playing with a random group can lead you to think that it's just a frag fest but get a group of organised buddies together and tactics can play a large role. Using the chainsaw bayonet on opponents and exploding your Live Buddies into piles of gibs with the Torque Bow whilst dodging deadly sniper shots that whistle over your head while you're taking cover is incredible fun and there's a real sense of fear that stirs in your stomach every time you try and take someone down. Just the way it should be. We would also like to applaud the fact that there are no graphical differences between the single and multi player - more games need to follow this lead.

While a great experience, the online multiplayer experience of GoW is also sadly marred by a few annoyances, spearheaded by the lack of options in a ranked game. Currently, there is no easy way to play ranked matches with your friends. You can either play with random strangers, or go to pains to find a game your friend has created and attempt to join it before it fills up. And after each match, you're heedlessly dumped back to the menu, so forget those teammates you worked so well with before! For a game that promotes teamwork so heavily, this is a horrendous oversight that may jeopardise its future on Xbox Live. Also, in a game that is otherwise rather polished, we were puzzled to see what we presume to be simple mechanics like voice chat and the ‘Last Played With' list so broken. And as fun as multiplayer is, we do hope that more maps get released soon as the confined nature of many of them, especially those with specific action points, may breed boredom in the near future.

So why, at the start of this review, did I answer yes and no to GoW living up to the hype? Quite simply, the story is very disappointing. The setting and backstory have the potential to rival Hollywood licenses but the game loses its direction mid way and as a result the ending is both premature and confusing. Of course there will be a sequel but this doesn't make the scrambled last couple of acts forgivable.

Additionally, boss battles, whilst suitably epic in visual terms, are so piss easy once you work out the catch that they're hardly worth thinking about on repeat attempts. There existed the opportunity for bosses as engaging as a Metroid title but instead Epic gave us monsters that can be slain with the click of a button and a well timed shot to the weak spot.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the game. It has layers of quality that few titles ever exhibit. But for all the graphical beauty and jaw-dropping gameplay moments, there's a distinct feeling that the developers didn't want to push it too far. Certainly, introduce stop-and-pop gameplay, make the game so detailed that players will go through it just gawking at the art design - but don't really push the genre forward. Which is fine, the game is as solid as a concrete pillar, but in the end GoW takes the safe middle path all the time. What about hot-swapping between squad members? How about branching storylines where you get to play out what the other squad is doing in order to move gameplay forward? Maybe upgradeable weapons or abilities, tied into some kind of kill count? Or even just secret areas and paths that reward you for exploration. Sure there are dog tags to collect in the game but the only incentive to replay the single player game is twofold: 1 - You played it on casual and feel a little ripped off at how quickly the game finished. 2 - You simply want to experience all those awesome visuals and great level design again.