http://www.neocrisis.com/video-games/87-games-g/8402-gears-of-war-3-360Was the nearly half year delay for Gears of War 3 worth the wait? Did over one million people who made pre-orders for the game make the right decision on the third installment and the final game in the current story arc? Find out our answer to these questions.
The game takes place eighteen months after the fall of Jacinto. During this period, the COG was abandoned by the COG head of state, Chairman Prescott. As a result of being leaderless, the COG disbands and the former members separate and move towards the safest places left. Victor Hoffman takes some survivors to Anvil Gate while Delta squad sets off on the "Raven's Nest" naval ship with the remaining humans to avoid further Lambent incursion.
I am happy to say that the story, no spoilers, will answer nearly all of your questions:
The fate of Delta squad
The fate of Adam Fenix
The fate of Chairman Prescott
The fate of Locust Queen Myrrah
The fate of the Humans and the Locust
Adam Fenix’s research on Imulsion and his conclusion
The graphics are downright awesome, as one would expect from Gears of War 3. The team at Epic spared no expense in the graphics department. The guns, characters, environments and so forth are first class. I have absolutely no complaints regarding the graphics. The game does include stereoscopic mode for 3DTV sets as well. In a confirmation statement, Epic stated to Joystiq that: "Gears of War 3" uses Darkworks' TriOviz technology, which is integrated with Unreal Engine 3, for stereoscopic 3D support. All "Gears of War 3" gameplay and cinematics have S3D support, and this extends to split-screen play as well. The gameplay is solid, I simply love fighting. It is as if you are in a Hollywood movie with explosions, blood and guts flying every which way. While you are taking cover, you can see the enemy fire slowly but surely eat away the cover that you are hiding behind. I think that fighting at night or in dark places is the best. I say this because firing your weapons illuminates the area around the weapon allowing you to see where friend and foe are firing from. The illuminations looks downright awesome, the light that pierces the darkness is simply killer.
One of the things that I love about fighting is what happens to the lambent when you kill or are about to kill them. Whenever you kill them, they explode as if they had a small grenade inside of them. On certain enemies, when they are about they die, they transform from one enemy type to another. Of course, these "transformations" make the already ugly enemies even uglier; I mean this in a positive way. The new enemies’ designs "set a world record for ugly." I think that the designers took some ideas from such horror series as Resident Evil, when designing these ugly transformations. Both the enemy explosions and their transformations add another leave of blood and gore with a little bit more awesomeness to this already stellar game.
The overall gameplay is the same. If you played Gears 1 or 2, then you will already feel at home. Previously, whenever you took cover from enemy fire, you were relatively safe. However, that is no longer the case. You will now be facing an enemy type that is able to literally kill you on the spot, regardless of whether or not you are behind cover. The reason is that this new enemy has a shark like grenade that literally swims underground and pops up on you. This makes being behind cover much more dangerous than simply running through a storm of bullet. I do not like facing this enemy because of their weapon but when you use the weapon yourself, it is a pleasure to use.
The AI, both allies and enemies, are controlled quite well. The enemies will try to outflank you whenever they have the opportunity to do so. Your allies do a great job at progressing throughout each level. I like the fact that if you or another of your allies are severely injured, that you are able to drag yourself to a teammate who actually revives you, instead of ignoring you.
The character development is done extremely well. They continue to develop throughout the story. When either something good or bad happens, you sympathize with the character(s). Each character has their own background and are not simple cookie cutter characters. Each character brings a different aspect to the story and all the characters are needed to make the game a success.
The game does a good job of providing an atmosphere which emphasizes that the world as basically gone to hell (and has yet to come back from it). Everything that you see, from the environments to the characters themselves, indicates that their heyday was a long, long time ago. One cannot begin to image when the last time was that these characters saw something as simple as a flower growing in the sunlight.
Multiplayer has been improved. If you had any issues with Multiplayer in Gears 2, I think that Epic has addressed those issues. There are multiple online gametypes but I was only able to play a few of them because there were only a handful of reviewers playing the game. The modes I did manage to play were: Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Capture the Leader.
In Team Deathmatch when all 20 team lives run out, the match rules turns into a mixture of Warzone and Execution rules. King of the Hill is basically a variant on the Capture the Flag mode that we all know. Finally, in Capture the Leader you must capture and hold onto the opposing leader while at the same time protect your own leader. I have no issues playing any of these modes and I highly suggest you play these three modes and the rest of the modes.
There are two additional modes that I have not previously mentioned; Horde "2.0" Mode and Beast Mode. In Horde Mode, you need to designate a "Command Post" location. Once you decide on the location, you will be able to earn cash from kills. The cash will be used to build defenses around it; like wire and laser fences, automatic and manual turrets, and decoys. In Horde Mode, if you somehow manage to survive until every tenth wave, you will now need to fight against boss monsters from the campaign. Some of which include the Brumaks and Lambent Berserkers.
As the name suggests, in Beast Mode, you and 4 other players play as the Locust creatures that attack the COG members. In this mode, you take on waves of humans, include Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad. Tokens are earned for killing enemies, allowing the player to upgrade their character to a stronger class of Locust. I have played both these mode modes and must admit that Horde and Beast modes are the most addictive modes to play.
Using the various vehicles at your fingertips is a blast. For example, the Silverback is an exoskeleton fighting suit of armor that provides a great deal of firepower. The Silverback has two modes of fire. The first mode simply consists of a right side mounted Gatling Gun. Its secondary firing mode switches the Gatling Gun for something similar to a rocket launcher which fires small explosives.
You will also be using another version of the exoskeleton which is used for heavy lifting. Think of it as the Gears take on the conventional wheeled forklift. This is not a combat type exoskeleton but it can kick cars around and crush nearby enemies by sending out small energy wave through the ground be kicking the ground with force. I must say that I also enjoy using this specific exoskeleton because it feels very robotic like and that I like the various sounds that the machine makes whenever you operate it.
Here are some suggestions:
Explore - Yes, it’s obvious but do it anyway. You will be able to find much needed ammo, story information and items that you need to collect.
Grey Gears logo - If you see a white logo on a box, BREAK IT. It means that weapons or ammo are within the box.
AIM for the bright spots - Most of the enemies that you face are dark. Anything that is bright colors, yellowish, is a weak spot. These weak spots make killing the enemies much faster.
Destroy Spawn points - Again, pretty self-explanatory, but it does help when you are surrounded by enemies.
Head Shots - Even the biggest enemy cannot do anything with their head blow off.
As one would expect, the game is available for pre-order in three retail versions: Standard, Limited, and Epic. The game will also have special character variants based on where the game is pre-ordered. The Limited Edition contains an Octus Award Box with the Octus Service Medal awarded to Dr. Adam Fenix, exclusive Adam Fenix playable character for multiplayer, fabric COG flag, and the personal effects of Dr. Adam Fenix such as his Last Will and Testament, Hammer of Dawn schematics and Fenix family mementos. ($79.99)
The Epic Edition includes everything from the Limited Edition as well as a Marcus Fenix statue, a 96 page book about the game's art and design, and the Infected Omen Weapon Pack that includes skins for the Lancer, Hammerburst, Retro Lancer, Sawed Off Shotgun and Gnasher Shotgun. ($149.99)
The game can also come bundled with a limited edition Gears of War 3 console. The console will also include a headset, two wireless controllers, a 320GB hard drive, and two tokens to unlock Adam Fenix and the Infected Omen Weapon Pack. ($629.99)
Without a doubt, I would tell any 360 owner to get this game. Hell, I would even go so far as to tell non-360 owners to go out and buy a 360 just to play Gears 3.
10/10
Calendar