Gears of War 3

After two years since their last outing, Marcus Fenix and Delta squad are back for what I believe to be the last of one of the best series on the Xbox 360, and whilst I could easily sing its praise, I am writing this feeling a little disappointed. If third person shooters are your thing, it is definitely worth a play through with satisfying gunplay and enough content to keep you busy right up until next year. However, none of it is anything new and some players may get bored of its repetitiveness.

The game starts where the second left off. Jacinto, the last human stronghold against the attacking locust horde (a race of humanoid creatures from below ground) has been destroyed in a last effort by the humans to wipe out their foe. The fleeing survivors have found safety on board a ship whilst scouring the surviving cities for resources.

The player takes the role of the series’ main protagonist, Marcus Fenix, whose main objective throughout the game seems to be to find his father Adam. Now perhaps I didn’t follow the story close enough in the last two games, but for some reason, Marcus’ Dad is of high importance, so much so that most of the levels in the game will focus on trying to find him.

Now I understood Marcus’ need to help his father, but there was little explanation offered as to why everyone else was so keen to blindly follow. Though as it turns out, Fenix Senior is quite essential to the story. The plot isn’t the real reason though that players will be keen to pick up a copy. Although a little more effort has been put into the script this time around to try and tell a more serious story of survival, it’s nothing new and the lack of depth to the characters means it won’t pose much interest.

Other than the plot, the rest works well. The general atmosphere has been well crafted and one does get a sense of the desperation felt by the surviving humans, especially during the scenes where you simply walk through a shanty-like town in the search for resources. It also provided a welcome break from the action and helps balance the game.

The graphics and sound are both major contributors making everything feel very real. The amount of time put into making the game look pretty clearly shows and is much appreciated, especially during sections where the lighting effects are shown off. Colour has also been added, allowing Gears to stand out from the other dust-coloured shooters on the market. The music and noise effects are on par with the appearance, with guns and other weapons sounding realistic and making head shots even more satisfying if only to hear the ‘pop’ of an exploding skull.

The campaign can be played with up to two players on one console, or up to four online, but I played most of it solo. The allied AI in the campaign managed to fare pretty well, taking cover in the right places and attempting to flank the enemy where possible. The same can generally be said for the enemy AI; however, I did get the odd one who insisted on hiding in front of a wall, making him a very easy target.

The main problem I had was that despite level changes, the action does get a little samey. You’re nearly always shooting at something and for the most part it’ll be from behind a wall. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. The game play is good enough that it’ll keep you wanting more and you are given plenty of toys to play with and monsters to use them on.

If shooting an enemy down wasn’t enough though, the player is also given the option of executing his or her foes in a variety of ways. Similar to the last two, after locust or humans take enough damage, they go ‘down but not out’ and crawl along the floor until they are either revived by a team mate or finished off by an opponent.

Each weapon has its own execution that can be unlocked and each is more gruesome than the other. If you weren’t aware of this already, this game is extremely and perhaps unnecessarily violent. There will be a lot of blood as you see heads and limbs ripped off bodies and victims sawn in half. This is not a game for the faint hearted. The coarse language too is nearly on par with the violence and would sometimes render any scene attempting to be serious laughable.

As for the multiplayer, horde 2.0 is a bigger and better version of its predecessor and is one of the stronger parts of the game. Like the first, you are pitted against fifty waves of increasingly difficult enemies, though this time you have the ability to purchase weapons, walls and various other defences with currency that you gain from kills. Beast mode swaps the roles, giving the player the chance to become a locust soldier and face the humans. Although not as compelling or as long as horde, it is still a welcome addition. Finally, you have your standard team death match as well as a variety of other multiplayer modes that all have a ‘Gears’ characteristic to them.

All in all there is plenty to keep you busy. Even once you have finished the campaign, there is definitely some replay value in Arcade mode and at higher difficulties.

There are also plenty of characters, executions, weapon coatings and more to unlock as well as a levelling system which will keep you engaged if you can be bothered. And it really is a big if.
Having played through Gears 2 several times and spent long nights trying to get to level 50 on horde with my mates, I found that the core game in Gears 3 has seen little change. As I said, there are new things to do, and generally the game has been improved upon with a wealth of extra content as well as the long campaign (10 – 15 hours). To me though, it is at the end of the day a prettier and more polished version of 1 and 2. Still, before I put it away I do need to get to level 50…