Let’s face it, right now it`s Cliffy B`s world and we are just fragging in it. Gears of War is proof of that and if you have any questions about that you probably haven`t played the game yet. Since the game premiered at E3 two years ago the hype machine has been slowly ramping up to a near deafening roar. The real question was if the folks at Epic could live up to the hype and deliver on all of the promises made since development began.

The short answer is yes they have.

Gears of War is the best action game out for the Xbox 360 right now bar none. It`s got great flow, near constant action, and very little "filler". Gears also features some of the best co-op and multi-player action ever pressed to plastic. The game isn`t perfect but the flaws are more academics than game play related, but we`ll get to that in a bit.

The game takes place on the Earth like planet of Sera where after years of peace the inhabitants have come to blows over Emulsion, a next generation power source. While the humans on the planet (Serans?) are busy fighting amongst themselves they don`t realize that trouble is brewing beneath their feet and are taken completely by surprise when the Locust Horde emerges from underneath their feet and begin to wipe out humanity in droves. The humans band together and form the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) but find that they still can`t beat back the Locust horde. Having just seen the Matrix the humans retreat to one small area of the planet where the Locusts can`t reach them and then take out the rest of the planet from orbit. Unfortunately this doesn`t really solve the problem and the Serans are now looking for another way to wipe out the Locusts and reclaim their planet.

This is of course where you step in. You control Marcus Fenrix (voiced by the same guy who provided the voice for Bender in the Futurama show), a COG soldier who was imprisoned for leaving his unit to defend his familys home during Emergence Day. With the government running out of troops Marcus is "re-enlisted" and it`s up to you to chew bubble gum and kick Locust ass and you`re all out of bubble gum.

Herein lies the big problem with Gears of War. The folks at Epic have created a solid back story for the game but they don`t flesh it out at all during the game. There`s no reason given as to why the Locust horde is attacking, there`s no background on Marcus Fenrik or his family except that we know his father is a scientist, and there`s no interaction with spooky female who narrates some of the cut scenes. I`m assuming she`s the Locust Chief but her role in things isn`t really fleshed out much (I`m guessing we`ll fight her in one of the near certain sequels). Instead the game leads you by the nose through a linear set of missions as you try and to locate and set off a device which will destory all of the Locust tunnels and save the planet.

Half-Life 2 took a similar tact of having your progress through a fairly linear storyline with a loose plot framework but Valve put supplemental plot information into the game, you just had to look for it. All through out t...