Let’s put it out there: I have a love-hate relationship with Gears of War. Didn’t care for the second one too much and honestly thought the third game would be more of the same. But, jesus, Gears of War 3 just showed me how wrong I was judge it based on it’s previous installments. Gears of War 3 is truly a different experience. There’s just so much goodness contained in this single disc that I can _finally_ understand what all the ongoing hype was about. And, seriously, getting antsy waiting for all my friends to finally pick up their pre-orders!
So, without further ado, let’s get on with my game review…shall we?
Being the last installment in the Gears of War trilogy, the campaign mode doesn’t disappoint much. Familiar faces return and you’ll get back to doing what you know best: killing the Locust in any sick twisted way imaginable. With new baddies comes a new arsenal of weapons available for your disposal. If you happened to play the beta a while back, you may already be familiar with a few of the newer weapons, like the Retro Lancer and the Sawed Off Shotgun. You’ll soon find out that a new breed of monsters have arrived; the Lambent, hellbent on making sure you and your friends do not make it anywhere alive.
The newer weapons allow you the ability to be more creative with your kills. When you combine that with an expanded list of executions available, the twisted kill possibilities are endless. That’s what this girl loves to see in a game! And being that I was able to beat the game in about 8 – 10 hours, solo on Normal means that there was something there. There was something there that kept me wanting to make it to the next Act.
Wanting to find out more about the story.
Wanting to help Marcus and the others fight against the Lambent and Locust.
I just wanted to play more!
While I did happen to notice some repetition throughout the campaign, I didn’t really mind it and honestly I think I figured out why! Yes, as I sit here and type word after word for the review, I figured out why this campaign was so, so, so very good! It was all about the team. Wasn’t about going off on your own to accomplish a goal. It centered around the entire team working together to defend against the Locust. Now all my frustrations centering around the sometimes dim-witted NPCs, don’t appear all that bad. And when I say dim-witted, I mean sometimes the NPCs would do a little jig around each other instead of battling. While cute and endearing, it was annoying and odd to find them in a corner do si do-ing. But I digress. Perhaps they were dancing because I ran off into the distance, killed a few locusts and they got bored. Yea, that’s got to be it. Gotta be.
Anyway, since the team is always there to help you out. Dying doesn’t feel as bad. Plus, you can always count on your teammates to help you out in the tougher situations. A useful note since I can remember why I stopped playing Resident Evil 5. The NPCs suck in RE5!
I think Gears of War 3 has the best story out of the entire trilogy. You can agree or disagree with me but this time around I think I actually payed attention. Which is weird cause I often try to breeze through story lines. But I can keep going on and on and on about the campaign, I just loved playing through it that much!
>> Online Multiplayer Modes
With a new game, comes an expansion of the online multiplayer modes. Not only are you able to play the campaign mode online with 3 of your friends, you’re also able to play through the campaign in a new Arcade mode. If you’ve played Halo: Reach, you might be familiar with playing through Gears of War 3 campaign’s Arcade mode. There are “mutators” that you can enable with different modifiers for the game play. Each “mutator” varies in difficulty and mode.
The familiar versus favorites are back with a few new maps as well as a revamped and more interesting Horde Mode. This time around not only will you have to worry about the oncoming onslaught of Locust but you will have to strategize your bases as well. With every kill you earn money to use towards fortifying your base but be careful because the Locust have ways of breaking through your barricades. This is where your strategy is key. Waste your money and the moment your barricades are destroyed, you’re assed out until the end of the wave. You’re only able to upgrade and add fortifications at the beginning of a wave while accumulating cash during the wave to use at the beginning of the next one.
And finally, we come to the newest mode: Beast Mode, the hardest mode of all but the most fun to figure it out! Here, you play as a member of the Locust Horde. Each with different abilities and strengths. You start off with one minute to kill five stranded humans. With every kill and destroyed barricade, you get time added to your wave clock. This is not a mode to go in solo. This is definitely something to play with your friends. I tried to play alone and was able to make it through one wave. That was after A LOT of trial and error. Figuring out and playing around with different Locusts and having them tear through barricades and then focus on killing the stranded was pretty fun. But then again, I like trying to figure shit like that out. All and all this mode was a new favorite of mine simply because I couldn’t just go through slashing the humans. I had to think it through and plan a mode of action for the wave and with each successful attempt came a feeling of gratification. Sweet bloody gratification…
So, whether you have pre-ordered the game or not, this is a definite buy in my book. Bottom line.
After playing through Gears of War 3, I get the same giddiness I get from playing Halo: Reach. And if you follow me on Twitter and Raptr, you know that I play Halo: Reach…A LOT! So, if there’s a game that gets me to put away Halo and Rock Band; it’s definitely Gears of War 3.
On another note, I can’t wait till my friends finally get the game. Then we can relive moments like this…..
Category: Third Person Shooter
Release Date: 9/20/2011