Gears of War 3, EPIC Games third installment in the Gears of War franchise and final Gears of War to focus on the Marcus and Dom heavy story arc that was introduced in the original Gears of War. Gears of War 3 was critically acclaimed, receiving awards in 2011 from the likes of IGN, G4, and Gamespot, and had sold over 3 million copies within the first week of release.
Now it's 2013 and Gears of War Judgment is right around the corner! This is my 2013 Gears of War 3 review!
GRAPHICS:
What stands out the most in the graphics department are the detail and lighting effects. Thanks to all the detail in the character models and maps, the game really pops. The lighting is at times just outright spectacular. Seeing a large Lambent explode is a sight to behold. There is no doubt that very few games will be able to compare in the graphics department on the aged Xbox 360 console.
CAMPAIGN & STORY:
Gears of War 3's campaign starts off with Marcus waking up from a freaky dream, stuff quickly gets real when the ex Chairman Prescott arrives and gives Marcus a data disc containing information presented by his father, immediately after a new wave of Lambent start an attack on C N V Sovereign, the COG remnants refuge at sea. After a few battles and shift in perspective, Delta Squad embark on a mission to uncover the mystery that is the Lambent, Adam Fenix, and the Locust.
Throughout the Campaign, you get to delve into the life that once was and the mind that now is Augustus Cole. These parts of the Campaign are accompanied by some fun banter between Cole and his fans, and a cool scene in which you get to relive the olden days first hand. What I found particularly interesting was how the scene in which you relive Cole Train's thrashballer days, but in modern times was executed..rather than being pulled out of the experience and being forced to focus on quicktime events you're just restricted in control and see what happens. Some quicktime events in other games would be better replaced with that system.
The plot is interesting and emotional, especially for a fan of the franchise. Common banter between squad-mates makes for an experience that demands your attention and frequently rewards you for doing so with an entertaining script. Even when playing through the Campaign solo, you never feel alone as your squad's frequent chatter brings the atmosphere to life. The script's well writing is accompanied by some great voice acting.
This episode of the series is action packed, urgent, and intense...you can always feel the serious matter at hand.
The Campaign's gameplay is excellently paced, with each battle tossing unique combinations of a variety enemies, new possible approaches to battle, and a variety of things to interact with..and it all feels natural. Never do it seem the gameplay had variety just for variety's sake. Much of the variety is thanks to the thoughtful level design and clever writing, both ends worked well together and brought to the table a nice blend. The well paced and full of variety gameplay is accompanied by vastly differentiating locales and scenery. Virtually no level feels the same.
By the end of Gears of War 3's campaign, you'll feel like you went through a lot, both in regards to action and drama. The plot and writing may not be the most sophisticated of drama or pushing the edge of our way of thinking, but it does well and it's certainly a loveable story.
SOUND:
Gears of War 3's soundtrack has a few attention grabbing scores and overall does well in adding to the experience. The sound effects all sound great and the voice acting is often ties superb.
MULTPLAYER:
What aspect of Gears of War 3 stands out the most is the multiplayer. Not only is the Campaign worth a play and is bound to invoke enjoyment, but there is much more to see with Gears of War 3. Gears of War 3's multiplayer modes are plenty, designed well, and for the most part play out well too.
Thanks to dedicated servers you may be able to have a match lag free, depending on when you choose to play and your region. Modes like Horde and Beast are co-operative and pit you up against increasingly difficult AI, Arcade mode allows you and some friends play through the Campaign, but this time with a scoreboard, and finally modes like Team Deathmatch, Execution, and King of the Hill are competitive game modes where two teams of 5 compete to win an objective.
There are a handful of multiplayer modes, spanning in over 20 playlist. A wide character selection, unlockables such as medals, weapon skins, and executions, and a ranking system help add to the multiplayer experience.
The ranking system is based off of experience points. The more you play and the higher you score, the more experience points you earn. Experience points can be earned in virtually any mode. You start off at level 1 and make your way up to level 100, once you attain rank 100, your number is replaced with an emblem and you are asked to "Re-up". The re-up system works much like the infamous prestige system found in Call of Duty, but instead of having to lose all your unlockables and gain a unique emblem, you gain a new weapon skin and your emblem and numbers change colors. With each re-up your numbered rank and even the rank 100 emblem has a new color...this system encourages you to keep playing, but the reward is lackluster as the final emblem looks so identical to the first that many will not even notice you are at the highest level.
Horde mode can be played up to 5 players. Horde mode pits you and your team up against 50 increasingly difficult waves of Locust. Every tenth round, you face a boss wave. At the beginning of each round you are able to fortify your position, things such as barb wire and turrets can assist you in defeating the Locust Horde. The more you fortify, the better fortifications you are able to build.
Beast mode faces you and up to 4 friends up against the COG and stranded. You can choose from more than a handful locust to dispatch your prey. The Locust operate much differently than the COG as you might presume, but even the humanoid class Locust can't regain health like the COG Heroes unless healed by a Kantus. It's especially fun to take control over a tinker and try get close enough to enemy AI to surprise them with an explosion. Locust like the Berserker and Armored Kantus are reserved for later, as you have to earn points to unlock them for use...unlocking the highest class locust group is usually quick and playing as these Locust is great fun. Beast is best played with human teammates, the timer is the same in both co-operative play and single play, you may have a difficult time making it past the levels even on the easiest difficulty.
Gears of War 3 has 7 competitive game modes, Execution, Warzone, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Leader, Guardian & Wingman...with a few variations separated into different public playlist. All game modes can be played up to 10 players online with up to two players split screen.
Execution and Warzone are single elimination game modes and they feel the most appropriate given the multiplayer map design.
Team Deathmatch is a popular game mode seen across many video games, but in Gears of War 3 instead of racing to get a certain amount of kills both team are allotted a life pool, the life pool counts down and can make for some intense clutch moments.
The maps in Gears of War 3 don't seem to be suited for the Team Deathmatch game mode. On maps like Mercy and Bloodrive spawn protection last long enough to provide a safe way to as far as the middle of the map. this becomes a problem as spawn protection can get in the way of some expert strategies. Spawn protection shouldn't even exist during the initial spawn to each match as it only gets in the way. On maps like Mercy, Azura, & Drydock due to the central high ground on each of the maps you frequently end up in matches in which you are struggling simply to get near an opponent. Opposing teams can easily take point on these high grounds and watch over one of the two possible spawns and make it very hard to do anything besides be a target. Thanks to both the size and structure of each map, Team Deathmatch usually only takes advantage of binary spawns, this leads to already mentioned spawn trapping. Most of the Team Deathmatch matches only take advantage of a binary spawn system and because of this you are limited to spawning according to a timer..this timer eliminates the immediacy we see in TDM in other shooters..the timer can also become frustrating if you intend on changing your loadout during the match..sometimes you may be aiming to switch your loadout just to get interrupted by the spawning timer and thanks to both the timer and the counter intuitive loadout selection UI, you may frequent find yourself spawning with the wrong weapon. Game modes like King of the Hill and Capture the Leader see similar issues although with there being an objective besides kill the enemy team they aren't as prevalent.
King of the Hill pits your team of 5 against another team of five to see who can reach the score goal by sustaining control over the glowing rings..the glowing rings move from place to place within a round, giving your team plenty of opportunities to start fresh and do a better job at capturing the ring.
Capture the Leader is another 5 on 5 game mode in which one player on each team is designated the Leader. The objective is to capture the other team's leader and hold hold him or her until the timer runs out.
Guardian is a game mode that designates one player on each team of 5 as the leader, the objective is to kill the enemies leader and the rest of the team. If the leader is still alive after you kill a player on the other team, that player can respawn. .Once the enemies team leader is dead, the opposing team can no longer respawn. Playing as the Leader in both Capture the Leader and Guardian is great fun, because you are granted special abilities such as being able to see enemies through walls.
Wingman sees you and a partner facing up against 3 teams of 2 as you all try to be the first team to reach the score objective. Wingman can provide some intense action and compel you to keep the formula of other teams in mind. As you are approaching victory, tiny details like what teams are left standing are important and can win or lose your team the match. Where Wingman falls short, like team deathmatch, is the map design, the maps don't seem to be designed with Wingman in mind and because of this, the game mode never sees it's true potential.
GAMEPLAY:
Features like being able to spot your enemies, trade weapons, and lend ammo are all welcome additions and encourage teamwork.
The weapons all feel very satisfying when using them in a cooperative or single player play, but in competitive game modes you may often times feel the weapons are a bit cheap. For example: Having a intense, high adrenaline matchup just to be froze in place by an ink grenade can be very annoying. Having to remain wary of the looming ink grenade is a nuisance. Despite some of the weapons giving you a cheap feeling they all feel forceful and effective.
Probably the best part of Gears of War 3's gameplay is the cover system and movement. In Gears of War 3 the movement feels extremely fluid and quick.
CONCLUSION:
Gears of War 3 is THE full package and offers more even beyond the core. Things such as easter eggs & mutators add to your favorite modes and Thanks to top notch graphics, excellent level design, and perfect pacing the Campaign is intense, emotional, and consistently entertaining. The co-op modes give you an opportunity to easily enjoy any game mode with buddies, but issues such as a lack of specialized maps, a boring ranking system, and a few annoying circumstances hold the competitive multiplayer back. The competitive game modes are still enjoyable thanks to fantastic matchmaking, fluid gameplay, and unlockables. With a game that received such great feedback you wouldn't expect it's value to have significantly diminished in just over a year and so my score doesn't differ much from what I would've given it upon Gears of War 3's release. Gears of War 3 is a fantastic game. I give Gears of War 3 a 9 out of 10!