September 20, 2011 marked the release of one of the most anticipated games of the year, Gears of War 3. After attending the midnight release to buy my limited edition copy, I started playing and this game is everything I wanted from the Gears of War franchise. Everything from the second game is back, but has been honed to near perfection.
The story of Gears of War 3 starts three years after the sinking of Jacinto at the end of Gears 2. Humanity has been fighting for survival against the Locust Horde and the even more deadly Lambent, mutated Locust that pack an enormous punch. The ship Sovereign is now home to Delta Squad and many other Coalition of Ordered Government Soldiers (COGS) and civilians. Things go awry when chairman Prescott, who had to abandon the ship a year and a half prior, returns with a data disk showing that Marcus’s father, Adam, is actually alive and is working on a solution for the Lambent problem.
Delta Squad sets out to find Adam so that they can put an end to the Lambent and, hopefully live in peace. This all happens within the first hour or so. The game played with my emotions ‘til breaking point. This is the only time I have cried while playing a video game. Half way through, this game has one of the best stories I have played. The single player alone is enough to justify buying this game.
The multiplayer is what everyone has always wanted from the Gears of War franchise. The flow of the game is superb and there aren’t any major imbalances. The inclusion of the new spawn weapons, the Sawed-off Shotgun and the Retro Lancer, have altered the gameplay from a point blank shotgun war to a much more versatile combat system which includes short, medium, and long range,and new map weapons keep things interesting. The Digger launches an underground, tunneling grenade that pops up into your opponents faces. There is also the One-Shot, which does exactly what what you think it does. It takes a few seconds to aim, but it is a one shot kill. Incendiary grenades have also been added and old favorites have been reworked a bit. For playlists, Team Deathmatch leads the charge and the new Capture the Leader is fun, but Execution, Warzone, King of the Hill, and Wingman make a return. Team Deathmatch gives your team 15 lives, and once they are depleted you cannot respawn anymore. So it plays like a traditional TDM early on, but transitions to execution once both teams have depleted their lives. Capture the Leader plays like Guardian from Gears 2 except instead of killing the leader; you have to meat shield them for 30 seconds. Even though there are only 10 multiplayer maps, they are all varied and they are all very good. Epic Games has also announced four map packs to be released within a year.
Horde mode is now Horde Mode 2.0 and there are vast improvements over the first iteration. The main difference is that you now gain money for kills and you can use that money to buy fortifications, weapons, and ammo to help you fight off the Locust. Every ten waves there is also a boss wave which pits you against a Locust horde that includes multiple boss units and gives enemies either double health or double damage. In Gears 3 you can also play Horde Mode as the locust. The mode is called Beast Mode, and while it isn’t the best game mode, it is a nice touch and helps mix things up. You use money to buy a Locust unit and your goal is to eliminate COGS .
Gears of War 3 is so polished and so smooth that it is easily the best game in the franchise and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were game of the year. I am having tons of fun playing it and I recommend it to everyone. With the new game modes, weapons, executions, and enemies, Gears of War 3 is in a whole different league than the previous titles. Gears of War 3 is the perfect third person shooter and it is truly a fantastic game.
