Will the epic conclusion to one of gaming’s most influential series live up to the hype?
Gears of War
The third person shooter game, one of the first, began on November 7, 2006.
Gears of War completely revolutionized video games, with a shooting style that hadn’t been explored until its release. The so-called “Pop and shot” game play of popping out of cover, taking shots at your enemies, and getting back under cover was practically discovered in 2006 by none other than Gears of War (Gears). Now in 2011, the finale to the story of humanities fight for survival against the Locust (the enemies from the last two games) on the Gears home planet of Sera has been released, and there are so many reasons to own it.
Gears of War 3 is finally here. It has been a long adventure for the brave Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) soldiers. Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Augutus Cole, and Damon Baird are back, and ready for action. The story of Gears has always revolved around these four characters, but Gears 3 hosts an expanded cast of Samantha Byrne, Anya Stroud, Clayton Carmine and Jace Stratton. Marcus Fenix (the main character) has come a long way from being broken out of jail, (for disobeying government orders) and re-recruited into the worldwide war. The game has four unique modes to play, and all of them are great. Online/console multiplayer, and the single player (or co-operative; now up to four player) campaign have always been a part of the Gears franchise, but now there is an evolved version of the Horde Mode from Gears of War 2, and a brand new mode called Beast Mode. What is the best part of this package? Let’s find out.
The central part of all the Gears games have always been the single player campaigns, and this time around it’s no different. The story of the campaign takes place two years after the events of the second game, and much has changed. The emulsified Lambent disease has manifested itself upon most of the remaining Locusts, all of the COG soldiers are at their breaking point, Chairman Prescott (the leader of the COG) has returned after abandoning his government for 18 months, and Sera’s apocalypse is near. Sera, once a grand achievement of human architecture and the headquarters of the COG, has fallen into nearly complete ruin. Now, this is only a setup for the story of the campaign, which basically takes the gamer on a grand adventure (clocking in at about 20 hours) to find the father of Marcus Fenix. The game play is as fun and versatile as it’s ever been with newly added tweaks to the shooting and moving mechanics. Guns lose accuracy as they fire, and the movement is much faster-paced than it used to be. The campaign supports many new weapons and enemy types. It also changes over time with the introduction of new environments, and enemies throughout the game.
The Gears 3 campaign is excellent, but what happens when the campaign is over? Lucky for gamers, there are three other great game modes to play in Gears 3, and most people would start with the online multiplayer. Online competitive multiplayer is a whole different ball game when it comes to game play. Mechanics may remain the same, but tactics change in translation. The multiplayer is fast-paced, adrenaline pumping, and will keep even the most hardcore gamers on their toes. Gears 3 offers six different game types for the multiplayer, and they are: Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Leader, Warzone, and Execution. Team Deathmatch is a mode where two teams go head to head, and each team has a pool of lives to respawn with. King of the Hill has teams fighting for, and defending an objective on the chosen multiplayer map, and Capture the Leader has the teams do the same for the randomly chosen leader of the team. Finally, Warzone is a simple team battle similar to Team Deathmatch, except once the player dies, the player doesn’t respawn until the next round. Execution is the same as Warzone, but every player must be killed with an execution kill (a one shot kill, or a kill on the ground).
The final two modes of Gears 3 offer even more fun in two different forms of attack and defense. Horde 2.0 is a mode of unlimited rounds of enemies, where the player and up to four friends defend an area. This new version of Horde brings a “tower defense” component to the unlimited battle against the enemies. There is now a currency system for purchasing weapons and defenses to hold your fortress. Beast Mode is the opposite of Horde 2.0. Instead of defending a fort against unlimited enemies, the player plays as different types of Locust, and attack the humans. This mode is a very interesting rendition of Gears of War that absolutely must be experienced.
Gears of War 3 is the best version of Gears of War ever released in my opinion. The only issues it has are a few overpowered weapons and many cheesy lines in the campaign, which contradict the supposedly emotional moments in the story. Otherwise, this game wraps up the story of Gears of War very well, and delivers weeks, if not months of entertainment. It is the perfect rendition of a third person shooter, with refined gaming mechanics, and excellent game play.
★★★★★
