But it IS innovative, in it's own right.
It's the first shooter where you actually act and react like a real person being shot at reacts!!
(I know other games have the 'cover' feature, but none use it as well as Gears does, if you ask me).
Plus it is made by Cliff Bleszinski and Epic Games--masters of all things shooting games.
I think people are just bitter. Whenever I play a great new game and I and others talk about how great it is, there are always people trying to diss it. Whatever, man. I think people are just mad because shooters like Halo and Battlefield are going the way of the dinosaur. I'm telling you man, Gears' cover is the future--me and my buddies played 4 player link the other night for like hours...never got bored, despite a lack of weapons...every round went WILDLY differently from the last...everyone was on a level playing field, too--they won as often as my team did.
It also just feels realistic. The fact that you have to hide from gunfire is so well implemented that my friends and I were even doing actual militant-type strategies. You can't do that in other shooting games.
Gears of War takes that "lowest common denominator" gameplay I hate so much, and chainsaws the hell out of it.
Also the single player is really good too. The environments vary heavily, the enemies can be pretty vicious, and hey--they actually seem to be equally tough to deal with as you are.
One of the best shooters in recent memory for me, and as far as I'm concerned, the legit King of Console Shooters, period.