Gears of War 3
Gears of War 3 is the final installment of the trilogy centering around Marcus Fenix and delta squad as they battle the locust and face a new threat in the lambent as they fight to not only control their planet but to stay alive. Gears of War 3 is easily the best game in the franchise and the argument can be made that it is one of the best third person shooters released to date. While the game is fundamentally the same as its predecessors there are many new additions to both the presentation and multiplayer gameplay that make it standout in the series. Gears of War 3 also marks the first time in the series that the entire campaign can be played cooperatively by four players.
The campaign contains a better and more emotionally charged narrative than either of the previous two Gears of War games. The story in the previous two games felt like a loose way to tie action set pieces and giant boss fights together. While Gears of War 3 does not lose the action set pieces or the boss fights, they are presented in a way that is much more organic and a natural progression of the story.
The conclusion to the story of these characters that we have followed for three games is a satisfying one. While the characters never seem incredibly deep, they each have several great moments throughout the campaign. These moments range from funny one liners to the choices characters make in the face of desperation. The story also ties in elements from previous games that were hinted at or mentioned in passing, helping to fill in some of the series’ back-story while moving the plot forward.
Aside from the improvements to the story, the range of graphical fidelity is another area where Gears of War 3 stands apart from its predecessors. While previous Gears games have been infamous for a drab colour palette of greys and browns, much of Gears of War 3 features vibrant colours that may seem foreign to this franchise. Many of the levels throughout the campaign are stunning, whether they are tropical beach areas or blown out cities. The lighting effects are also impressive with sunlight tricking in through holes in the ceiling or shadows cascading down from a damaged statue.
This is also the first game where the lambent enemy type has become a credible adversary. By the end of most games the enemies become generic and boring. Players have become accustomed to seeing the same enemies over and over and easily taking them down with the same tactics. The lambent change that formula dramatically. Every lambent enemy has different movement speeds, will explode upon death and some will randomly mutate their offensive abilities so you never know exactly what you’re going up against. You’ll also be facing off against the locust throughout the campaign as well, often at the same time as the lambent. The game is constantly introducing new enemy types to shake things up, even during the later stages of the game. While you may know the tactic to take down a particular enemy type, good luck trying to kill it while hordes of locust and lambent enemies swarm around you.
Both ally and enemy A.I is not perfect in Gears of War 3. There has been many times where an ally A.I will charge into the middle of a swarm of enemies while the rest of the team is hiding behind cover. There were several instances where enemy A.I were covering on the wrong side of cover while taking fire. The flaws in the A.I exist but are a minor grip in an otherwise stellar single player experience.
The way that the team at Epic Games designed the levels in Gears of War 3 makes them feel believable and lived in. Where past games and those that emulate Gears’ cover system often feel like environments where objects are placed for the sole purpose of taking cover behind them. The objects in Gears of War 3 feel like the served a purpose at one time, not just to keep Marcus Fenix from taking a round of bullets. The first thing noticeable about these environments are how they feel like an actual place not just a collection of objects to hide behind.
Campaign levels can also be played in arcade mode, where each player scores points based upon the way they kill enemies, assists and helping teammates. A score multiplier is also in effect to give players incentive to stay alive. In traditional campaign when one player dies the team must restart at a checkpoint. In arcade mode as long as one teammate is left alive the other will respawn after twenty five seconds. Before entering any level in arcade mode, the player has the option to activate mutators which are similar to the skulls featured in Halo. Some of the mutators make it more difficult to play the level such as doubling the health of enemies. Other mutators are just for fun such as enemy blood being replaced by sprouting flowers. The only drawback regarding the mutators is that most of them need to be unlocked, some taking an extraordinary amount of work to do so.
The introduction of Horde mode in Gears of War 2 quickly became one of the game’s most popular modes, allowing a team of humans to fight off wave after wave of locust enemies. It is no surprise that Horde mode is back in Gears of War 3 but it has come with several changes to the wave based gameplay. The new horde mode contains several elements that are very reminiscent of a tower defence game. Between waves of enemies, players will have the option to buy or upgrade barriers, turrets and other defensive objects that will help them survive the next wave of locust or lambent enemies.
Players will purchase these objects with cash earned from killing enemies at the end of each round. The scoring system is similar to campaign’s arcade mode where money is awarded based upon killing enemies in different ways and helping teammates. Not everything will be available to each player from the beginning. Each individual will have to buy defences and upgrade damaged defences in order for the top tier defensive items to become available to them.
Also new to horde mode is boss waves. Every tenth wave a boss enemy appears which will require the team to work together to take down. Which enemy that appears is random but the closer the team gets to wave fifty the harder the bosses become. The bosses can be anything from a pack of berserkers to gigantic brumaks.
Horde mode is almost if not better of a cooperative experience than playing through campaign with a group of friends. The differences in how each multiplayer map is laid out, and how the group dynamics change with different teammates make horde mode alone a source of replay-ability for this title.
The competitive multiplayer modes of Gears of War 3 are leaps and bounds better than the multiplayer that shipped with Gears of War 2. Gears of War 2’s multiplayer was fundamentally broken and unbalanced when the game went on sale. Gears of War 3, on the other hand is everything fans of Gears multiplayer could ask for. The controls feel tighter and more responsive than previous gears incarnations and the weapons have been tweaked and balanced making this the definite Gears of War multiplayer experience. I was initially worried about multiplayer after playing through the beta earlier this year but the team at Epic has taken care of many of the issues I had.
Beast mode is a new game mode debuting in Gears of War 3 and in most respects is the exact opposite of Horde mode. Instead of playing as COG soldiers defending against wave after wave of enemies, Beast mode puts players in the role of the locust horde trying to wipe out human survivors. These survivors are hidden behind the same defences that can be built in horde mode.
At the beginning of Beast mode, players start as the lower tier locust and can eventually buy new more powerful locust to use to wipe out survivors. Money for these upgrades is gained through destroying survivor defences and killing humans. The humans begin as stranded survivors but as the waves progress they are joined by the characters from the single player campaign. These characters are stronger and do more damage than regular stranded humans. The locust only has a certain amount of time to kill every human. If the timer runs out the wave is over and the locust have lost. There are twelve waves that need to be completed in order for the locust to declare victory.
Gears of War 3 is the definition of replay ability. Not only does it offer several reasons to continue playing the campaign, horde mode and competitive mulitiplayer are very addictive and a lot of fun. The addition of Beast mode adds a new twist to the formula that Gears fans are accustomed to but it will no doubt catch on and become a fan favourite.
The level of maturity that Epic has taken delivering some of the emotion beats of the story is appreciated and helps to balance out the otherwise overly violent experience of the campaign. The narrative is a satisfying way to send off these characters, which we’ve followed for three games. Horde mode, beast mode and competitive multiplayer can keep someone playing this title for months if not years to come. In today’s market where gamers are trying to get the most replay-ability for their dollar, I cannot recommend a better game.
