Ever since November of 2009, we’ve all came to know and love the awesome App Store developers, Crescent Moon Games, with their first ever game Ravensword: The Fallen King that ended up being a huge success and hit. Over the months since then, they’ve released 2 more games, Aralon: Sword and Shadow being the most recent game and then Rimelands: Hammer of Thor coming before Aralon. Both games have received great reviews all across the board and have been a super big hit with the iOS community. And now, I present to you their next game, Gears. Gears isn’t the typical game for Crescent Moon Games, due to the fact that they’ve only developed RPGs in the past. However that doesn’t stop them at all from creating a freaking sweet game. Oh, and Gears has some freaking sweet and stunning graphics by the way. But anyway, check out the full in-depth review of Gears below!!

Gameplay 10/10

The gameplay in Gears is super simple: the goal is to get the magical ball into a funnel at the end of each maze/level. Seems simple right? Well, after you add various barriers in the game that you must conquer so you may finish the level such as going down a flight of stairs, hopping to and from gears, rolling on thin bridges, bouncing on trampolines, activating mystical switches, and more, it’s not as easy as you think it is. Along with that, there’s a time limit depending upon which difficulty you selected. As you go on throughout the game, levels become harder and more complex, however, it’s as bad as you think it is. With all of those factors combined, Gears poses a fun, simple, yet challenging gameplay that will keep you going for hours. All in all, the gameplay is well done and very well polished to maximize fun but still maintain some level of difficulty.

Menus 10/10

When you first launch Gears, you’re greeted with a nice, yet simple screen that gives you access to everything you need. As you can tell from the screenshot above, you can choose to play Gears, choose what world or level you’d like to play, change the options, or tap on “Help” if you need any help. If you’re not a fan of a touch-based control system and would like an added challenge, you can stitch to a tilt-based control system under the options page if you would like too. As an added bonus to the tilt-based control system, you earn extra points for the added difficulty which is pretty nifty if you want to boost your highscores. Gears also comes with 4 different difficulty modes ranging from Easy, Normal, Hard, and “Brutal!” to give you the best gameplay experience.

Controls 10/10

The controls in Gears are spot on and perfect without a single flaw. Gears offers 2 different ways to control the magic ball in the game. One of these options is the touch/swipe method and the other is tilt/accelerometer. I’ve found the swipe/touch method to be a lot better and less challenging, however, if you’re up for an extra challenge and want to earn some extra points to boost your GameCenter score, use the tilt/accelerometer method. Along with the 2 different control methods, Gears gives you the ability to adjust the swipe speed and reset it if you ever want to go back to the normal speed. As for the tilt/accelerometer method, Gears automatically calibrates the tilt at the start of each level and like I said before, you get an added bonus when using the tilt/accelerometer method. The controls couldn’t be any better for this game.

Sound 10/10

There’s not much to say about the sound in Gears, other than the music and sound effects go really well with the game. Gears does have voice-overs in it, however, it is very little and there is none while playing the game that I have heard. All in all, the sound gets a perfect 10/10!

Longevity 10/10

Along with the stunning graphics, Gears comes with 27 levels spread across 3 very unique worlds that each pose a new challenge and a stunning view. There are various barriers in the game that you must conquer so you may finish the level such as going down a flight of stairs, hopping to and from gears, rolling on thin bridges, and lots more. With all of those factors combined, Gears poses a fun, simple, yet challenging gameplay that will keep you going for hours.

Graphics 10/10

Like I’ve said before and I’ll sat it again, the graphics are absolutely stunning, even if it’s on an older device that doesn’t have the Retina Display. Gears comes with Retina Display support for the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G and will be compatible with the iPad 1 and iPad 2 as well, I believe. As an added bonus, under the options, you can set the quality of the graphics. The options include “Optimized”, “Normal”, and “High”. I play Gears on “Normal” and even at that, the game looks stunning and runs perfectly smooth. When I bumped the graphics up to “High” on my iPod Touch 4G, I experienced a good amount of lag. I (and Gears as well) recommend you only use the “High” setting for the iPad 2. All in all though, the graphics are amazing even at the normal setting and are very well polished. Great job in this area, Crescent Moon Games!

Cost 10/10

Whether Gears is $0.99 (launch sale price) or $2.99 (after launch sale price), it’s worth it without a doubt. With all that you get and the re-playability, $2.99 is still a bargain for Gears to be honest and is an amazing game.

Conclusion 70/70 — 5/5

I could go on for hours about Gears and never stop playing it. With the vast number of challenges, difficulty levels, and more, it’s safe to say that Gears will keep you playing for hours upon hours. The graphics are stunning and superb, most of the levels are super complex, the sound is spot on, it has lots of re-playability, and the controls are flawless. Go pick Gears up now.