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Gears of War 3 Review

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I’m gonna level with you all.. As someone who loves being immersed in well-written and satisfying stories, I had a really hard time working on this review of Gears of War 3. It’s not that the Gears franchise is necessarily lacking in the story department, it’s just that it’s hard to hear over the clamor of a chainsaw cutting through the logic required to tell a coherent story. Still, there’s no denying that the conclusion of the Gears saga was one of the most anticipated games of this past year and one that I would be amiss to ignore.

The Gears franchise has always been about providing a crazy, inelegant, testosterone driven experience. As such, the original didn’t bother too heavily with its narrative. Rather, it threw players into the role of Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments or COGs which was at war with a strange alien species known as the Locust, handed them a gun with a chainsaw attached, and left them to have fun. While there were moments when it felt like Epic attempted to fill the story in, it was almost as if they had built the gameplay and then realized they needed a story to tie chainsaw encounters together -- or designed a gun with a chainsaw, built gameplay around it, and then added in the story. If you could get past this deficiency, a large part of what made the game so appealing was how ridiculously over-the-top the gameplay was while also being solid enough to carry the game. That’s not to say all attempts at storytelling fall short. Through their repartee and chemistry, Epic managed to build a phenomenal bond between Marcus and his COG brothers, Dom, Cole, and Baird. Gears 2 ignored this strength and overcompensated for the lack of storytelling and tried too hard to introduce a human element into the war. However, it was difficult to care about this because, while Epic made it fit within the story, it felt like it was an element added just to create a shocking point in the story. It was hard to care about the characters involved since you had no real interaction with them -- I apologize for being annoyingly vague there, but I didn’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t played the game..

Gears 3 also throws players in without much explanation. Those who wish to find out what happened between the second and third game must watch the ‘Previously on Gears’ cinema which isn't actually part of the opening. Still, part of what makes Gears 3 more successful is that Epic focuses their storytelling on the COG soldiers who have been central to these three games. The emotional moments in this game are much more successful because they involve characters who were there from the beginning rather than adding in new characters and trying to make players care about them. Seeing what the war has cost Marcus and his comrades, and what it continues to cost them throughout the game, is where Epic’s storytelling excels. At the same time, the inclusion of new characters takes away from this experience. Rather than bringing the new characters Jace and Sam along, it would have been far better if Baird and Cole, the characters who have been there from the beginning, had stuck around for the full duration of the game rather than joining the group intermittently. There’s a point late in the game where Cole throws stealth out the window, wanting his enemies to hear his boisterous voice and know it was him who tore through their ranks which exemplifies this lost potential, in my opinion.

Gears 3 picks up eighteen months after the end of Gears 2 where humanity sunk their last city, Jacinto, in hopes of flooding the tunnels underneath to put an end to the Locust. However, as revealed in the epilogue of that game, this last ditch strategy was heavily flawed. While the majority of the Locust did not survive, exposure to the fuel source Imulsion has transformed them into fearsome and more explosively-inclined Lambent which were briefly introduced in the first game. In this final entry, Marcus and Delta Squad must battle these two forces while attempting to reach Marcus’ missing father. Of course, much of the mystery regarding the Lambent and the war is left unexplained till the final chapter where, similar to the previous two games, the explanations come rushing in like a deluge.

The Gears 3 experience doesn’t deviate too much (at all) from its predecessors. It is still the same run-and-duck shooter as the previous two, but at the same time, the game shows the higher level of polish one would expect given the experience Epic has received from its previous two games. I remember in the earlier games, running down hallways was always a pain as your character would latch on to every minor piece of rubble that could provide cover. In Gears 3, the ability to run to cover, pop up to fire off a few shots, and the bounce to the next piece of cover is more responsive and precise than before. Perhaps this was the result of wider terrain or fewer sequences in tightly packed corridors, but it definitely lent to a more enjoyable experience. Another big change is the much larger role given to the Lambent, mutated versions of enemies which explode or worse upon death. While the Locust hordes still threaten the COGs and are a major adversary throughout the game, the biggest threat is clearly the Lambent armies which randomly and unexpectedly attack both sides throughout the game.

As I stated earlier, the Gears game have always felt that they are as far from elegant as possible. That’s not to say the graphics fall short as a result. Rather, they have always been some of the prettier looking games, which is ironic considering there isn’t much in the world that’s worth looking at. Epic continues to do a phenomenal job of depicting a dirty and gritty world where even the characters look rougher and more worn down. Part of what helps to emphasize this fact is that Anya, the only feminine character from the previous two installments replaces her dress with the clunky armor of Marcus and the other COGs. While this was undoubtedly done to quickly expand on her relationship with Marcus, the drastic change also serves to help convey the sense of what the war has cost humanity.

One thing that always bugs me in games is when your AI companions, who are supposedly aces, can’t even kill the most basic of enemies. While playing through Halo: Reach recently, I was irked at the inability of the elite members of Noble Team to carry their weight and kill more than a handful of Grunts. The Gears franchise has always done a better job which is only improved in this game. Not only are the members of Delta Squad capable of handling the Locust on their own, they actually come to your aid when you’re taken out. Having only played the games with someone, it was always annoying when one of us would have to run to find the other if we were bleeding out during battles or when the games would split our group in half since there was no one to revive us. Now, the AI controlled companions have been improved and are capable of bringing players back into the fray, eliminating one of the major hassles from the game. Strangely, it felt as if the Locust and Lambent hordes had developed in the opposite direction. It felt as if the enemies were a lot easier and had fewer instant kills this time around. Thankfully, the painful vehicle sequences from the earlier games have also been greatly improved. While there are still a few periods where Marcus and company stop traveling by foot, these don’t have the same carve-my-face-off-with-a-spoon feeling that earlier renditions carried. These new sequences are essentially glorified rail shooters where players can take out much of their frustrations against the earlier sequences. The ease in Gears 3 almost completely assuages the nightmares of the previous vehicle sequences, such as the first Gears’ ‘can’t drive while shooting’ segment. Almost..

Unfortunately, beyond the campaign, I was unable to devote a significant amount of time to the other important aspects of Gears of War 3, the multiplayer (which I didn’t get to play at all), Horde, and Beast Modes. Those who played Horde mode in Gears 2 will feel right at home in Horde 2.0. The battle against unending swarms of enemies has been expanded to include base-defense attributes. For all of you who ever wanted to be the villain, overrunning the helpless heroes, Beast Mode is for you. In this mode, players control the various members of the Locust army in their battle against the COGs. From the walking-proximity-bomb Tickers to the mighty Corpser, players are able to unleash the full fury of the Locust horde against the COGs. Unfortunately, due to how late (two months after its release..) I got around to playing Gears 3, the number of people online has declined significantly. As a result, it was really hard to actually find matches in Beast Mode. Still, if you can get some friends together (preferably with multiple 360s), it’s a lot of fun to play as a Wretch.

As I stated at the start of this review, Gears of War 3 certainly does not tell the best crafted story. What it does tell is a story of a band of brothers, dragging their feet through a difficult struggle against a fearsome adversary. More importantly, it continues to deliver on the over-the-top gameplay that has been refined by two successful attempts. It also puts a period on a journey that started in 2006. True, the journey may have been mired by its own ridiculousness at times, but if you can get past the main story and look at the pieces that shined from within that ridiculousness, that’s where the franchise continues to excell. And considering it is a franchise built around a chainsaw attached to a gun, I think you know what to expect.

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A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity ~ King Solomon

All images owned by Epic Games

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