Review: Gears of War 3

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Posted by Brendan Keogh, October 3, 2011. 2

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By now you have probably already read a review or two of Gears of War 3. They will have told you, quite rightly, that Gears of War 3 is the most Gears of War-ish Gears of War ever made. But there is one aspect of Gears of War 3 that I have not seen a single review touch on. An aspect that, for me, sets Gears of War 3 most apart from its predecessors, both mechanically and thematically, while also making it the epitome of everything the series has always strived to be:

Nobody has sleeves.

Seriously. Nobody. It’s as though every Gear’s bulging, rhinoceros-head-sized biceps grew to such an extent that no mere fabric could contain them and everyone ripped them off. It’s uncanny.

Really, this tells you all you need to know about Gears of War 3—the entire game has been stripped back to the bare essentials. In this post-apocalyptic Sera where humanity’s last bastion has been sunk in a murderous/suicidal attempt to end the war, anything that isn’t utterly essential to survival has been tossed aside—including sleeves.

The same goes for the gameplay. While Gears of War 2 expanded notably on the first game with a vast range of new weapons and enemies, its charm was diluted by a campaign full of fluff. Boring vehicles and turret levels, long and dull underground caves, and a few frustratingly unsatisfying enemies such as the Sires. Gears of War 2’s campaign lost sight of what made Gears of War so fun in the first place: the brutal simplicity of being pinned down in cover behind a knee-high wall as it progressively gets blown to chunks, blindly raining bullets on the enemy’s position.

Fortunately, then, Gears of War 3 hasn’t expanded the series so much as stripped it back and refined it. All of the features added by Gears of War 2 are still present (except Sires, thankfully) and even more have been added (including four player co-op support for the whole campaign). But even with the extra features, the campaign has simultaneously been stripped back to a tight, pounding run from level to level and cover to cover that rarely misses a beat. Much of the campaign will be spent roadie-running up to cover under enemy fire before spraying entire clips of covering fire down before, eventually, closing in to chainsaw (or, delightfully, bayonet) the stragglers—exactly as Gears of War should be.

Certainly, there are moments of absolute absurdity and the occasional, gimicky, on-rails segment, but they rarely outstay their welcome and, for the large part, actually manage to be quite fun. They tend to be just long enough to mix up the steady, repetitive pace of shooting-from-cover. A warning, though: it does continue 2011’s fine tradition of dreadfully boring and frustrating final boss battles.

All of Gears of War 3’s additions and refinements serve to strengthen that central mechanic of shooting things from cover. The cover-mechanism has been so broadly implemented in third-person games since Gears of War popularised it in 2006 that it is easy to forget just how visceral and desperate the series makes it feel. More than any other cover-based shooter, you don’t feel like you are taking cover so much as cowering as waves of bullets and rockets blow chunks of cover out around you. This intense desperation of being pinned down is exaggerated further in Gears of War 3 as that overturned table is no longer the safe zone it once was. More enemies and weapons will keep you on your toes, forcing you to constantly change positions. Digger grenade launchers, for instance, will burrow through the earth, pop up behind you, and explode, while the terrifying lambent gunkers will throw huge ordnance blobs with uncanny accuracy or simply stretch out a tentacle arm and hammer you into the ground where you crouch.

It’s no Vanquish, where staying still for longer than five seconds is certain suicide, but it does add a quickened pace to combat, a steady, thumping drumbeat of your back pounding against a new wall as you constantly change positions. It’s unfortunate, however, that the one improvement that titles such as Uncharted and Deus Ex added to cover-based shooting hasn’t been adapted to Gears of War 3. That is, being able to hold down A to turn corners while remaining in cover.

There is still a story, of course, and it is as nonsensical as it has always been. Kind of like a certain television series about plane crash survivors on a tropical island, all the plot holes in the Gears of War series never really mattered when you could be comforted that they would be resolved later. But around the fifth chapter of Gears of War 3’s campaign, as the story is meant to start concluding, what we always suspected becomes pretty clear: Epic never really knew what the hell was going on. Certainly, they had the vague, overarching plot-points pinned down, but specific things that the series often alluded to are never actually revealed.

That said, one or two plot holes do get filled in quite satisfyingly. And besides, it has never been the job of Marcus, Dom, or the other Gears to ask questions, only to shoot the things they are told to shoot and chainsaw the things they are told to chainsaw. They’re the brawn, not the brain. One of Gears of War’s running themes has been the manipulation and abuse of the soldiers by the powers-that-be, and the questions that never get answered fit this theme accordingly, if perhaps not intentionally.

It never was the overarching story that I really cared for. It was the visceral, guttural, moment-to-moment, brutal atmosphere—both in the gameplay and the cut scenes. A look shared between Marcus and Dom, some words reluctantly spoken, a boomer being downed in that second between it pronouncing “Boom!” and blowing me to gibs, a Gear clearly wanting to say something but not wanting to show any emotions or fear. Sure, these events have all been contrived to intentionally yank at the heartstrings, but for my part at least, Gears of War 3 nearly ripped those heartstrings right out a couple of times. The moments were utterly constructed to make me feel what I felt, and many players will undoubtedly scoff at the same scenes as corny or dumb, but if you switch off and just give in to the feel of Gears of War 3, these scenes can be immensely affecting. There’s this one scene, at a fuel station where… oh man. You’ve just got to play it.

So Gears of War 3 is less about story and more about gut feelings of futility, incompetence, and never quite being good enough. It is this feeling that is captured so perfectly in the return of the oh-so-magnificent Horde mode, in which you face wave after wave of enemies on the one map. This mode was the most significant addition to the series made by Gears of War 2 and has been duplicated by other games almost as broadly as the cover-mechanism. More than the campaign, Horde is a chance to just engage with that core, awesome gameplay of taking cover and desperately taking out waves of enemies against increasingly impossible odds while trying to not be overrun. Gears of War 3 has taken Horde mode and upgraded it to such an extent that saying Horde mode alone makes Gears of War 3 a worthy purchase would not be an exaggeration.

The most notable change is that points are now dollars and can be used to purchase weapons, ammo, and defences. I was skeptical of this at first—why do I need to spend $500 on that torque bow sitting on the ground? Why can’t I just pick it up? But once you get used to it, the cash works to add an extra tactical, almost tower defence layer to the preexisting, still-phenomenal Horde mode gameplay. Importantly, the weapons that enemies drop can still be picked up for no charge, it is just the additional weapons that must be paid for. Money can also be spent between waves on building up and repairing defences such as strips of razor-wire, decoys, turrets, automated sentires, and even mechs. In the games I’ve played, we pooled our money to heavily fortify one corner of the map where we could camp through the later waves.

And fortify you must if you wish to survive all fifty waves. In Gears of War 2, every ten waves repeated the same combination of enemies; they got tougher and you got weaker. Now, enemies still get tougher and you still get weaker, but the types and numbers of enemies you fight will constantly escalate for all fifty waves (with intense difficulty spikes for every tenth ‘boss wave’). You will find yourself constantly squealing down your mic in disbelief when, say, a Brumak suddenly appears opposite your defences. You will die a lot, but the game is forgiving and urges you to retry a wave until you pass, rather than give up and return to the beginning again. If you fail a wave, you keep any money you made before your death which may be used towards the next attempt, and you never feel too stuck, even after multiple attempts at one wave.

Of course there is also competitive matchmaking, which is about what you would expect. The different game modes all do a good job of encouraging and rewarding teamwork and restrained play styles. I was able to find games fast and my connection was consistently perfect. Still, competitive play was never Gears of War’s strength for me. I prefer camping in cover, not running around corridors, remaining vulnerable while shooting, which is what matchmaking generally ends up as.

Then there is Gears of War 3’s only new mode: Beast, which is an interesting gimmick. Essentially, it is the inverse of Horde mode, where you play the Locust and must take out the defending humans within a set time limit. I had trouble finding public matches (far more people, understandably, are playing Horde mode), but it is an interesting mix-up of the gameplay. You spend money to control different types of Locust—not just the drones but the tickers, the butchers, the kantus, everything. There are twelve waves, and something about fighting defending NPCs gets a bit old—not to mention the odd sensation of executed Marcus or Cole. It is an interesting and briefly entertaining addition, but one can’t help but feel it was approached a little half-heartedly compared to the rest of the game. Really, I’m surprised there is no mix of Horde and Beast where players populate both teams.

Overall, Gears of War 3 does a remarkable job of holding together its numerous game modes, weapon types, and enemy variants in what still feels like a stripped-back, essential, Gears of War experience. Rather than feeling bloated or sprawling with all its features, it feels tight and directed, and is an absolute heart-thumping pleasure to play. For what is supposedly the final game in the series, anyone that has enjoyed the previous games could not ask for a more well-rounded, polished, sleeveless, final draft to sign Gears of War out.

9

About the Author: Brendan Keogh

Brendan is a freelance writer for the likes of Pixel Hunt, Hyper, Kill Screen, Gamasutra, and others. A Student, a gamer, a blogger, a barista, and a chronic mistyper. Will write for food.

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