Gears of War: Judgment

Overview

Gears of War: Judgment is a 2013 third-person shooter developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games and published by Microsoft Studios for Xbox 360. It is a spin-off of the Gears of War series and a prequel to Gears of War (2006). It was released in North America and Australia on March 19, 2013 and in Europe on March 22, 2013. It runs on Unreal Engine 3.

The story is told in flashbacks during a COG military tribunal. Lieutenant Damon Baird, Augustus Cole, Sofia Hendrick and Garron Paduk recall events from early on Emergence Day, when Baird faces execution for unauthorised use of a Lightmass Missile. Kilo Squad is tried by Colonel Ezra Loomis. The squad fires the missile at Locust General Karn, who is later revealed to have survived. Loomis executes Karn, drops the charges against Kilo and demotes Baird to Private.

It is an over-the-shoulder shooter with a cover system. The campaign has six chapters, each with several missions that are self-contained, so earlier settings cannot be revisited. Missions are scored on kills, headshots and gibs, with up to three stars awarded, and an optional harder setting with conditions such as a time limit or weapon restrictions raises the score. Earning 40 stars unlocks Aftermath, a one-chapter campaign that follows Gears of War 3.

Multiplayer adds two new modes, OverRun and Free-for-All, across eight maps (four for OverRun only and four for COG versus COG) and four game modes. Grenade wall-planting and active-reload damage boosts were removed, and carrying a shotgun and rifle together came back for standard versus modes except Free-for-All after fan criticism. The Locust appear only in OverRun, a change that drew a strongly negative fan reaction.

Development began after Gears of War 3 shipped in September 2011. Epic Games brought in People Can Fly, their second collaboration after Bulletstorm, and chose Baird as the lead because he was a fan favourite who had never had the spotlight. Every main character is playable. The game was announced at E3 in June 2012, and Tim Sweeney said it cost 60 million dollars to make.

Pre-orders at Walmart included Gears of War 2 or Gears of War 3 at no extra cost, and other pre-orders came with a download code for the original Gears of War, a Classic Hammerburst token and a multiplayer skin. A VIP Season Pass gave a permanent double experience boost and early access to two expansions. Reviews were generally favourable, with a Metacritic score of 79. About 425,000 units sold in the US in the first month, and the game passed one million copies by August 2013.

Official trailer

Official Gears of War: Judgment Launch Trailer, XBOX. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Gears of War: Judgment (Xbox 360) Full Playthrough (No Commentary), Rellings. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Third-person shooter

Developer

People Can Fly, Epic Games

Publisher

Microsoft Studios

Series

Gears of War

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

Composers

Steve Jablonsky, Jacob Shea

Designers

Wojciech Mądry, Dave Nash

Writers

Rob Auten, Tom Bissell

Producers

Piotr Krzywonosiuk, Alan Van Slyke, Chris Wynn

Directors

Adrian Chmielarz

Modes

Single player

Yes

Online multiplayer

Yes

Local multiplayer

Yes

Co op

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Subscription history

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Achievements

Achievements70 (1,500G)

1000G possibleNo

Total

70

Gamerscore

1500

Online note

Only two achievements need multiplayer: Party People and Blood Brothers.

DLC has trophies

Yes

DLC note

Aftermath unlocks with 40 stars in the Judgment campaign. Supercheats lists 19 DLC achievements. Aftermath does not count for Blood Brothers.

Grind

• COG Tags: 48 collectibles, Respect for the Fallen needs all
• Star achievements run from Rising Star (50 stars on Casual) to Superstar (all stars on Insane)
• Difficulty achievements for Casual, Normal, Hardcore and Insane; Insane unlocks after finishing another difficulty

• They Called Him Karn Completed Museum Of Military Glory 10G 75.34% of players
• Open Arms Completed Halvo Bay Military Academy 10G 67.06% of players
• The Real Thing Completed Seahorse Hills 10G 62.13% of players
• Take Back This City Completed Onyx Point 10G 60.15% of players
• I Told You Completed Downtown Halvo Bay 10G 57.92% of players
• This One's Not Over Completed Courthouse 10G 56.62% of players
• Friends Completed Aftermath 10G 44.36% of players
• Determined Completed all Campaign Chapters on at least Casual difficulty 10G 54.29% of players
• Steel Nerves Completed all Campaign Chapters on at least Normal difficulty 10G 47.66% of players
• Iron Fist Completed all Campaign Chapters on at least Hardcore difficulty 25G 22.98% of players
• Lion Heart Completed all Campaign Chapters on Insane difficulty 50G 7.02% of players
• Party People Played any section in 4 player Co-Op 10G 18.06% of players
• Blood Brothers Completed all Campaign Chapters in Co-op 50G 20.26% of players
• Challenge Accepted Completed your first Declassified mission 5G 94.73% of players
• Never Give Up Completed at least 20 Declassified missions 10G 51.77% of players
• Quality Soldiering Completed all Declassified missions 50G 19.23% of players
• A Peek into the Future Watched Aftermath teaser 10G 45.21% of players
• The Aftermath Unlocked Aftermath 20G 64.61% of players
• Rising Star Attained 50 Stars on at least Casual Difficulty 10G 62% of players
• Shooting Star Attained 75 Stars on at least Normal Difficulty 20G 45.38% of players
• Star Struck Attained 100 Stars on at least Hardcore Difficulty 50G 15.99% of players
• Superstar Attained all Stars on Insane Difficulty 50G 4.97% of players
• Never Forgotten Recovered 10 COG Tags during the Campaign 10G 49.46% of players
• Veteran Remembrance Recovered 25 COG Tags during the Campaign 10G 27.62% of players
• Respect for the Fallen Recovered all 48 COG Tags during the Campaign 20G 12.08% of players
• Ribbon Master Earned 3 unique Ribbons in any section 10G 58.26% of players
• Proud Wearer Equipped your first Medal 5G 44.03% of players
• Ready for War Earned at least one Onyx medal 20G 31.74% of players
• Sybarite Earned the Onyx "War Supporter" medal 50G 2.25% of players
• Seriously Judgmental Completed all Declassified Missions on Insane difficulty 75G 5.7% of players
• Level 5 Reached level 5 5G 80.73% of players
• Level 10 Reached level 10 10G 68.36% of players
• Level 20 Reached level 20 10G 36.25% of players
• Level 30 Reached level 30 15G 22.93% of players
• Level 40 Reached level 40 25G 16.92% of players
• Level 50 Reached level 50 25G 13.84% of players
• Let's Do This Achieved level 50 and chose to re-up for another tour of duty 50G 13.28% of players
• Fearless Achieved level 50 a second time and chose to re-up for another tour 50G 8.26% of players
• Unstoppable Achieved level 50 a third time and chose to re-up for another tour 50G 6.2% of players
• Death to Locust Killed with all classes of COG in Overrun or Survival 10G Needs online 31.48% of players
• Death to the COG Killed with all classes of Locust in Overrun 10G Needs online 14.8% of players
• Survivor Completed wave 10 on all maps in Survival mode 10G Needs online 6.32% of players
• Globe Trotter Won a match on every map in all Versus modes 10G Needs online 11.75% of players
• Jack of All Trades Won 10 matches of Overrun 10G Needs online 11.53% of players
• Team Leader Won 10 rounds of Team Deathmatch 10G Needs online 18% of players
• All Rounder Won one match in Free For All, Team Deathmatch, and Domination 10G Needs online 16.55% of players
• Roaming Free Won one match on every map in Free For All 10G Needs online 13.59% of players
• Team On Tour Won one match on every map in Team Deathmatch 10G Needs online 20.91% of players
• Overran Won one match on every map in Overrun 10G Needs online 14.87% of players
• Dominator Won one match on every map in Domination 10G Needs online 14.91% of players
• BOOSHKA! Earned 50 Double ribbons with the Booshka on Terminal 50G Needs online 2.57% of players
• Don't you die on me! Revived 100 total teammates on Terminal as a Medic 25G Needs online 2.85% of players
• Surprise! Got a Double while emerging as a Corpser 10G Needs online 2.93% of players
• Professional Locust Killed 100 enemies with each Locust 75G Needs online 2.93% of players
• All Aboard! Won Hardcore Survival on Terminal with 5 Soldiers 25G Needs online 2.53% of players
• Captain Sera Earned a killing spree with the Boomshield on Boneyard 10G Needs online 4.87% of players
• Long Bomb Earned the You're It ribbon on Boneyard 10G Needs online 4.33% of players
• Old School Marathon Played 10 matches total on BloodDrive 10G Needs online 5.92% of players
• Like A Boss Placed first in Free For All in Boneyard 5 times 15G Needs online 4.37% of players
• You Looking At Me? Won a Team Death Match game with the entire team wearing the Car 13 Armor skin 20G Needs online 3.62% of players
• You Can't Hide Earned the Tree House Predator ribbon on Ward 10G Needs online 4.02% of players
• Getting it Done Destroyed the generator in under 8 minutes on any DLC map 30G Needs online 3.97% of players
• Dread the Rage Got a multi-kill while playing as an enraged Rager on Ward 10G Needs online 3.16% of players
• Drop the Mic Finished wave 10 of Survival at the first e-hole on Ward on at least Normal difficulty 50G Needs online 2.48% of players
• Flag Runner Scored a flag cap on Streets, Rig, Gondola, Library, Lost City, Museum, and Checkout 25G Needs online 4.24% of players
• Look What I Found Got a kill with each pickup weapon in FFA during a single game on the map Lost City 15G Needs online 4.03% of players
• Flag Dropped Killed the flag carrier a total of 20 times 20G Needs online 4.92% of players
• Pendulum Wars Won a TDM, DOM, and BT match with your entire team wearing the UIR Armor skin 40G Needs online 2.82% of players
• For Gorasnaya! Scored 5 flags in BT as Paduk 20G Needs online 4.65% of players
• Golden Artifacts Won public/ranked game of Execution on Museum with all players using Gold character and weapon skins 30G Needs online 1.87% of players

Space and patches

Space needed8.29 GB

Update patchTitle updates 1 to 4

The title updates on record for this game.

DLC

Two paid map packs came after launch, along with two free ones. All four are on the Xbox store for the backward compatible version on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S: Call to Arms, Haven and Dreadnought are free and Lost Relics is US$12.49.

Items

Name	Date	Adds	Obtainable today	Price
Haven	2013-03-29	Free. The Haven map and the Execution mode. Co-sponsored by Maxim.	yes	Free
Call to Arms	2013-04-30	Maps Blood Drive and Boneyard, the OverRun map Terminal and the Free-for-All mode Master at Arms. Season Pass holders had it from 2013-04-23.	yes	Free
Dreadnought	2013-05-14	Free. The OverRun map Dreadnought.	yes	Free
Lost Relics	2013-06-25	The Breakthrough mode, maps Checkout, Lost City and Museum, and the OverRun map Ward. Season Pass holders had it from 2013-06-18.	yes	US$12.49

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Plays offline from the disc, split screen co-op and versus work, online play still runs, and the map packs are still on the Xbox store.

Online

Online servers runningYes

Plays offlineYes

Online versus for up to 10 players, OverRun, Survival and four-player online co-op still run over Xbox Live, and no shutdown has been announced.

Services

Service	Status	Shutdown date
Online multiplayer and co-op over Xbox Live	running	None announced

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale	Reviews
Metacritic	Xbox 360	79	100	81

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale
IGN	9.2	10
Destructoid	9	10
Computer and Video Games	8.5	10
GameTrailers	8.1	10
Edge	8	10
Eurogamer	8	10
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	8	10
GameSpot	7.5	10
Joystiq	4.5	5
GamesRadar+	4	5
Giant Bomb	3	5

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Adrian Chmielarz
Producer	Piotr Krzywonosiuk
Producer	Alan Van Slyke
Producer	Chris Wynn
Designer	Wojciech Mądry
Designer	Dave Nash
Programmer	Grzegorz Mocarski
Artist	Waylon Brinck
Artist	Wyeth Johnson
Writer	Rob Auten
Writer	Tom Bissell
Composer	Steve Jablonsky
Composer	Jacob Shea

Notes for collectors

• The Locust only appear in OverRun, and removing them from versus multiplayer drew a strongly negative reaction from fans.
• Earning 40 stars in the campaign unlocks Aftermath, a one-chapter follow-up to Gears of War 3.
• Walmart pre-orders came with Gears of War 2 or Gears of War 3 at no extra cost.
• The Haven map and Execution mode were free, and were co-sponsored by Maxim.
• It is the second game Epic Games made with People Can Fly, after Bulletstorm.
• Tim Sweeney said the game cost 60 million dollars to develop.
• The achievement for reaching level 50 can be earned three times, by choosing to re-up for another tour of duty each time.

Credits

Publisher

Microsoft Studios

Developer

People Can Fly, Epic Games

Director

Adrian Chmielarz

Released

2013-03-19

Age rating

M (Mature)

Disc ID

4D530A26

Region

US

Time to beat

about 7 hours

Copies in the shop

• Gears of War: Judgment (XBOX 360) CA$14.99