Gears of War 3 Company: Microsoft (Epic) Website: Official Site Estimated Street Price: $59.99 Review By: Brian Kvalheim

Introduction

All good things must come to an end. Microsoft was ready to wow the word back in to 2005, showing off their up and coming Xbox 360 gaming console. They needed to do it right this time, and they needed to beat out their competition. Microsoft needed to show what their console was capable of, proving that they could match the competition game for game.

Epic Games was in the eye of Microsoft. They wanted Epic games to help promote this new all in one media work horse, the Xbox. Epic Games accepted the challenge. They would create a new game for the Xbox that would show off  its power and might. Epic did have one stipulation. The Xbox 360 needed to meet their performance demands. This meant that Microsoft would need to double the amount of system RAM prior to releasing the console. That is a jump from 256mb to 512mb. Microsoft caved under the pressure, and Epic released Gears of War to the masses.

Microsoft never looked back, and Epic looked forward as they created one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world, Gears of War.

Story & Gameplay

Gears of War 3 storms the world taking no names. At the time of this writing, Gears of War 3 has already sold 3 million copies during its debut week. This is Epic’s third attempt to right any wrongs from previous version of Gears of War. From single player to multiplayer, Epic looked to the community as well as their statistical data they horded throughout the last 6 years. They need to make a better story telling campaign, a multiplayer that added something new, and find away to address many of the multiplayer; issues seen as problematic even through 6 patches in Gears of War 2. They have succeeded, and it was worth the wait.

The tag line for this game is brothers; to the end. This is the game of you rah rah. All for one, bro’s before ho’s. There is just as much testosterone as there is textures and titillations. This is the “more bad ass” that we have all been waiting for.

Lambents, Locusts and Imulsion fuel are awaiting you on Sera, and things are not pretty. COG is pretty much non-existent, and Marcus Fenix along with his cohorts are there to fight off the rest of Sera’s team of bandits.

The first thing you will notice, is the graphics. Lighting, textures, colors are all improved. Particles are added, and evidence of the Unreal Engine are shown off in some of the new gore features. I mean, who wouldn’t want to rip off an enemy arm, then beat him into oblivion with that severed arm? (Raises hand). This is clearly what a polished game looks like, and performs like.

The game is, as usual, told like a story, running you through a course of 5 Acts, with 6 Chapters in each act. Gears 3 expands drastically on the story line, making the game much longer than its predecessors. The story will keep you on your toes, as you will find that everything you do and everything you encounter is of grave importance. You can feel the end of the trilogy approach just on the story telling and intensity.

One of the greatest things about Gears of War and the campaign has been the co-op ability to play over Xbox Live. You can play with 3 others (total of 4) through the entire campaign. You can drop in and out of the game at any time, while bots take over for any absences. While obviously ruining your story, you can choose to enter another person’s campaign, at any chapter or any Act. I recommend you not do this until you have completed the game first.

Existing fans of the GOW (Gears of War)  will feel right at home playing this latest entry. Controls, albeit improved, are mostly the same that you have come to expect. Sprinting is a bit faster, snap-to cover is improved as well. No more of the sticky cover as you run past barriers, rocks, rails and more. Everything feels like the game was put in the oven for the exact recipe time. It's done, and done almost perfect. New weapons, new moves, new exploding characters, all implemented carefully so as not to make the game over the top, aka Bulletstorm.

The campaign has a great collection of characters, weapons and maps. The soundtrack is probably the best the series has seen, and is very fitting with the atmosphere of the story this time around.

It's not all perfect in GOW land though. Throughout the campaign you will find yourself saying “ok, so now there are MORE of these?”. There were times where I wish the story arc could have moved a bit faster instead of oversaturating the game with wave after wave of the same enemy. It seems that it was used to just prolonge the game to help increase review scores. Whatever the reason, it worked for Epic.

You will find a shortage of a few things, at least in hardcore mode. Shortage of check points, shortage of ammo, and a shortage of map design. More often then not, you will see your weapon or feet clipping through the map, showing that this is still a game design flaw that has not been perfected by any developer, but more so with Gears 3.

There is nothing really new or innovative to the game. It capitalizes on what Gears does best. Be bad ass for 15 hours plus of epic campaign. Plan on nearly 20 hours if you want to get all of the collectibles.

After those 15 hours, prepare yourself for hundreds more in the multiplayer aspect of the game. This is just one more area that Epic has drastically improved the game based on the community feedback.

What do we have in multiplayer? Tons of polished modes, from Horde 2.0 to Versus.

Beast Mode – you are the bad guys. Similar to Horde Mode, you are given an allotment of cash to build up during the 12 levels. This time, you play as the enemy against friendly bots. The more cash you earn, the more powerful enemies you can become. These levels are progressive, and you retain the levels for future matches.

Horde 2.0 – The classic wave matchmaking game that pits you against an every increasing number of enemies and difficulty over 50 rounds. You will earn cash throughout the waves, allowing you to purchase more ammo, and build a base around you. You can donate your earnings to teammates less fortunate than you as well. Be prepared for that ever so tough boss that appears every 10 rounds.

You will also have the choice of participating in Versus matches. You will get 10 multiplayer maps, allowing you to play against other Xbox Live players. You will find matchmaking in Warzone, Team Deathmatch, Execution and Capture the Leader.

Final Comments

Gears of War 3 is the picture perfect third person shooter to represent this generation of shooters. This is the fine tooth comb, ear swabbed game that you have been looking for, with more bad ass and gore than you can wave torn ligament at. If you are a graphics snob, you will find that this game would be considered by many, the best looking game on console this generation. It's looks damn good, and plays just as well.

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