TOKYO--We'd be lying if we called Gears of War anything other than one of the best-looking games for Microsoft's looming Xbox 360. Though the final version of Epic Games' powerhouse shooter won't see store shelves until "emergence day" in 2006 (whenever that is), we were lucky enough to play through a rather brief demo level hosted by Epic's Cliff Bleszinski and Mark Rein at Microsoft's Xbox headquarters in Tokyo. Though we played only the smallest sliver of what the final game will offer, we can safely bet that this is going to be one of the biggest 360 games to watch in 2006.

　　The demo took place in the same scene depicted in the trailer released back at E3. Delta Company members Marcus and Dom have been separated from their comrades, and with dusk fast approaching, the burly pair needs to get back to safety without delay. While you might think that two highly trained, heavily armed, thoroughly badass future commandos ought not to be afraid of the dark, there's a catch here: The ruined city through which Dom and Marcus are making their way is beset by Gears of War's malevolent alien antagonists, the locust horde. The locusts apparently thrive in the shadows, so the soldiers have to stick to well-lit areas or risk being ripped asunder by whatever lurks in the darkness.

　　According to Bleszinski, at least in the demo we played, this unique mechanic is strictly enforced; if you stray out of the light for even a couple of seconds, you're pretty much done for. In the interest of preserving your guys, the designers provided a couple of interesting tricks in the demo level to keep your path lit. In one instance, we fired on an old car to set it on fire and then pushed it down a hill, essentially creating a mobile light source that we could run behind. But the car didn't stay ablaze for long. Oops. Later on in the demo, we got to turn a valve to let loose a stream of flammable liquid down a path, and we then had to shoot the stream to set it on fire, creating yet another path to continue on.

　　In between these unique points of interest, there was shooting--a lot of shooting. On the surface, Gears plays about as you'd expect--that is, a lot like other third-person shooters, with Halo-style aiming and movement controls and an over-the-shoulder zoom-in feature that lets you fine-tune your shots. But Epic has clearly put a lot of thought into the game's combat and control design, because there's more going on under the hood than meets the eye. The crux of Gears' gameplay is the evade button, which you'll be jamming on a lot when the firefights get especially hot. The evade button is basically a one-touch method of making your character do cool stuff in the context of the situation. If you're moving in a particular direction and you hit evade, you'll leap and roll in that direction. If you're facing a surface that can provide cover when you press the button, you'll leap toward that surface and immediately hug up against it. If you're facing a low ledge, you'll quickly climb up on it. The easiest way to get a sense of the evade function's importance is to watch it in action; the combat we played in the Gears demo was extremely fluid and dynamic. Lots of action-movie stuff going on.

　　Gears of War doesn't seem at all like a typical run-and-gun shooter. Rather, you'll have to rely heavily on cover so you don't get wasted out in the open--you know, kind of like real armed skirmishes. Each level will have tons of cover points that you can attach your character to. These include just about any flat surface, from a low-barrier wall to the rusting frame of a car. Once behind cover, you can inch back and forth to shoot around the sides, or even blind-fire directly over the top, though this will understandably reduce your accuracy quite a bit. Aside from the pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle Marcus was packing (and what space marine worth his salt wouldn't have those?), we also had grenades to toss. Obviously, grenades are nothing new, but the way Gears of War lets you gauge your aim with them is awfully useful and intuitive. When you equip grenades and hold down the fire button, your targeting reticle will be replaced by an arc that shows the exact trajectory of your throw.

　　So about those graphics...they're pretty darn good. As an Unreal Engine 3 game, Gears of War is obviously head-and-shoulders above anything we've seen on current-generation consoles or even the most advanced PCs to date. But we haven't gotten to see much of the game in motion from an actual gameplay perspective until now, and aside from the obscenely detailed character models and level designs, we were impressed to see the more cinematic effects being implemented by the team's artists and programmers. From the motion blur when you flick your viewpoint to the cloud of glass that explodes from an obliterated window frame, the combat in the demo looks pleasantly volatile. But hey, don't take our word for it--watch the video for yourself.

　　You think the locust horde stands a chance against these guys?

　　Beyond the nuts-and-bolts shooting action of the five-minute demo, Epic isn't talking much in the way of specifics about Gears of War's design. But Bleszinski did speak a little about the way the game will flow--you'll essentially follow a series of "branching linear" missions that will occasionally give you a choice about which way you want to proceed. Better still, there will be a cooperative mode, so that when you encounter one of these forks in the road, each player will be able to follow his own path, so you can explore both possibilities. Finally, Bleszinski dropped a hint about the game's competitive multiplayer mode: There will be one. Beyond that, we'll have to wait for more details--but given Epic's pedigree with the Unreal Tournament and Championship series, one would assume Gears will have a significant presence on the 360 version of Xbox Live.

　　It only took the five-minute duration of the Gears of War demo to convince us that the game's explosive combat will more than likely live up to its lavish visuals. The demo version was running reasonably well, with a frame rate hovering at and occasionally below the 30 mark. But the game is purportedly running on only one of the Xbox 360 CPU's three cores, and Epic claims it should at least double that performance number by the time emergence day rolls around, sometime next year. In the meantime, we'll bring you more on Gears of War as soon as possible.