• 1UP - 10/10 - My biggest complaint, however, is with the multiplayer options. What's there is a lot of fun, but that fun isn't going to last very long until downloadable content comes along (which developer Epic is working on now). Gears of War offers enough maps by today's standards (10), but not enough variety in features.
• Daily Game - 9/10 - One of the multiplayer game modes, in fact, requires players to deliver an execution blow. This mode, called Execution, earns players a kill only if they execute an enemy via a curb stomp, chainsaw bayonet or other close-range attack (cram a grenade up their rear, for instance). The second mode, Warzone, is basically team deathmatch. But it's the third mode, Assassination, that's probably the most fun.
• Eurogamer - 8/10 - In a sense, Gears of War lives up to expectations in that it's one of the most intensely beautiful-looking games ever made, but is one that plays by the rules in the gameplay stakes.
• GameInformer 9.5/10 - The final piece to the Gear's puzzle is the online multiplayer, which is where this game really shines. Sadly, there are only three fairly similar game types, but working together and trying to out-maneuver your opponents is one of the game's greatest charms, and in multiplayer matches the intensity certainly steps it up a notch
• Gamespot - 9.6/10 - Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes. While there have certainly been plenty of similar shooters before it, the game's great weapons, amazing graphics, and absolutely thrilling action make it stand out from the pack in a big, big way.
• IGN - 9.4/10 - It's here that you truly realize what a masterpiece Epic has created in Gears of War. Yes, it's the most gorgeous looking game on the Xbox 360, period. Yes, the sound design is worthy of awards. Yes, the game is fun as hell. But playing with a friend, as you bark flanking orders into your headset over Live, or across the room during a system-link game, or right next to you in a split-screen campaign, you realize that Epic has created the 360 game we all hoped for, and that Gears of War more than lives up to the impossible hype. 
• MTV Games - 9.6/10 - The game also runs at a very steady frame rate during gameplay. The cutscenes, however, are rendered in real time, and when the action really gets heated in some of the sequences, the visuals chop up.
• TeamXbox - 9.6/10 - Not to be overshadowed by the visuals, the audio team at Epic succeeded in making a game that sounds as good as it looks. The weapons sound powerful and dangerous, and it's impossible not to crap your pants when you hear the Hammer of Dawn warming up during multiplayer games.
• YahooGames - 4.5/5 - If you've been wondering why you lined up all night for an Xbox 360 this time last year, agonize no longer. This is the kind of game that sells systems, and if you have the merest action-loving bone in your body - and you can handle the gore, bad language, and short-ish play time -- it's pointless to resist.