In a heavily war saturated market, we check out the adolescent, muscular "Woooh" that is GoW.
Look out boys! Those dastardly Locusts are up to their old tricks again. The plot of the game is about how Marcus Fenix (crazy huge marine "badass" 1#) is looking for his Dad who is apparently actually alive after the events of E Day or D Day or whatever. Accompanying him is Dom (crazy huge marine "badass" 2#) and the rest of the crew with Coletrain, Baird and… two women? Yes that's right. The much advertised, crazy big twist of Gears of War 3? Women actually exist! Shocking.
The gameplay of GoW is the big draw of the series apparently. Playing in a third-person view the player can take cover, blind fire, 'rodie' run (sprint) and chainsaw and generally kill bad things and make them dead. While the reloading mini-game is pretty cool (basically you try and time it so you hit a white line which increases damage for that clip), all those things have been done in other games and with much more style. While I have to admit that each aspect works well and Epic Games have really put in the effort to tune combat to a fine point, you're constantly asking yourself "Why"? What's the point?
Oh yay, here come yet another wave of Locusts.
Oh yay, an obligatory driving section.
Oh yay, a completely foreseeable plot twist.
Playing through the game is dull enough, especially without all the "Hoo-rah marines are so awesome and perfect" mindset that gets shovelled down your throat every five minutes. So many times during play you would see a really easy and quick way to reach your objective and just know that the game isn't going to let you have it.
"Wait. You wanted to go the direct way there? But I just caved that in and spawned dozens of killer aliens along the (far too long) only alternate pathway. Get ready for fun!"
Eh... even talking about it is boring. Suffice to say if you want a game where you do nothing but fist-bump and compare biceps with each other over a gored up head of a Locust, then there might be something here for you.
But for everyone else… what can I say? The game works, I guess.