Epic Games and People Can Fly were showing off the new Free-for-All mode in Gears of War: Judgment that was unveiled at PAX Prime this year. If you’ve played Gears of War 3, you’ll feel right at home – but almost to a detriment. It feels remotely the same with a few tweaks, and for most people, that’s just fine.
I had a feeling that 10 people in a Free-for-All match was going to be anarchy, and the chaos taking place on screen quickly proved that. Upon starting the match, I noticed you can’t switch weapons at all. You pick one weapon and pretty much have that single piece of equipment until you find another weapon. I’m not sure if that was part of the original Free-for-All mode, but it felt restrictive.
Other than that, it played pretty much like Gears of War 3 with a new name, to quote a friend of mine. It was pretty underwhelming, but if you really like the multiplayer from the previous installment, you’ll probably still enjoy it here. Free for All wasn’t my forte, unfortunately, and I ended up doing pretty poorly in the game. I mostly spend my time playing Horde or Single-Player with co-op, so I wasn’t able to get a chance to check those out.
I’m sure they’re both great, but it was hard to gauge that with Free for All. There’s still some anticipation to be held for it, but if you’re looking for a brand new experience in the Gears universe, you might be disappointed. Yet, if that familiar feeling is what you’re craving, you’ll be happy with what People Can Fly has under its wings.
We’ll use the wait-and-see approach with this title, but I’m hoping the campaign is great even if Gears 3 felt a bit lackluster in that area compared to Gears 2. Look forward to Gears of War: Judgement hitting March 2013.