Gears of War 3 was one of the Xbox 360’s last real big exclusives before the new generation of systems launched (which is a statement in itself considering it was over two years until the Xbox One would release) and it’s fair to say that the hype was justifiably high for Gears 3. I bought into that hype so much that I had picked up the Epic Edition of the game (including various bits of physical memorabilia for the game such as a statue of Marcus Fenix) and I also picked up the Gears of War 3 themed Xbox 360 to replace my aging 60GB standard model.
For a sixteen-year-old that was a whole lot of money to drop on just one game, even ten years later that’s a whole lot of money to drop on one game! But was it worth it? Oh yeah it was!
Two years have passed since the sinking of Jacinto and the Locust hollows were flooded. In that time the COG has almost entirely disintegrated with leaders like Chairman Prescott disappearing and presumed dead. What remains of the COG is either at sea, or at Anvil Gate, an old COG stronghold from the Pendulum Wars. The Locust are seldom seen but when they are, they desperate and savage, clinging on to what little they have left and fighting for a survival that’s barely worth the effort. But the Lambent continue to grow stronger, they are infecting the planet and nowhere is safe. Hope seems entirely lost until Prescott turns up with information regarding Marcus’ father, Adam Fenix. It seems that Adam didn’t die at the start of the Human/Locust war and was instead kidnapped by Prescott to work on a weapon that would destroy the Locust for good (we’ve all heard that before), but now it’s almost done. Prescott dies before he can tell Marcus where his father is, so begins a mission to discover the location of Adam, and then ensure that he can deploy the weapon and bring an end to this terrible war.
For a sixteen-year-old that was a whole lot of money to drop on just one game, even ten years later that’s a whole lot of money to drop on one game! But was it worth it? Oh yeah it was!
Two years have passed since the sinking of Jacinto and the Locust hollows were flooded. In that time the COG has almost entirely disintegrated with leaders like Chairman Prescott disappearing and presumed dead. What remains of the COG is either at sea, or at Anvil Gate, an old COG stronghold from the Pendulum Wars. The Locust are seldom seen but when they are, they desperate and savage, clinging on to what little they have left and fighting for a survival that’s barely worth the effort. But the Lambent continue to grow stronger, they are infecting the planet and nowhere is safe. Hope seems entirely lost until Prescott turns up with information regarding Marcus’ father, Adam Fenix. It seems that Adam didn’t die at the start of the Human/Locust war and was instead kidnapped by Prescott to work on a weapon that would destroy the Locust for good (we’ve all heard that before), but now it’s almost done. Prescott dies before he can tell Marcus where his father is, so begins a mission to discover the location of Adam, and then ensure that he can deploy the weapon and bring an end to this terrible war.
Gears of War 3 takes the grand storytelling of Gears 2 but actually does some good with it this time around and most of that good comes from the fact that for the first time in the series our eclectic cast of muscles and bullets we call Delta Squad are actually given character development and depth!
It’s incredible what a sprinkling of emotion here and there can do to a game like Gears. It doesn’t stop it from being the grizzly, gory, over the top gunfest that people love it for; and it actually makes it somewhat narratively engaging this time.
That being said, Gears of War 3 certainly will not go down in the annals of history for its incredible storytelling. The plot is totally contrived and relies way too much on people just not explaining why things are happening or how things work so that things can just happen, and the audience doesn’t get asking questions about the logic behind it. Despite being a little more intelligent, Gears of War 3 is ultimately still a Gears of War story. It’s about big dudes, with big guns, causing big explosions. But due to the characters now being slightly more than just gravel voiced hunks of muscle, this bonkers plot becomes slightly less forgivable, especially seeing as it does go full goofball at many points without ever explaining the in-universe science for it.
For the most part though I do enjoy Gears 3’s story a lot. Sure it’s dumb, but it’s like the 2007 Michael Bay Transformers film in that it’s stupid but in an endearing kind of way. My biggest issue with the story is that Adam Fenix is the most McGuffin character in almost any story I have ever seen. He literally turns up in the final game of the trilogy, and he is physically on screen for all of five minutes to do what he needed to do and then that’s it. He has no purpose other than to push a button and that’s what you spend the whole game working towards. It’s a spectacular ending sure, and it tries with the emotional resonance, but it does seem very stupid when you really take a look at it.
Gears 3 refines the gameplay from Gears 2 to even greater strengths. Movement is smoother, shooting mechanics are more refined, level design is a whole lot better and more varied! All the weapons and enemy types from previous games return alongside some new ones. The weapons see the additions of the ‘Retro Lancer’ although I hate that name for it and it should be ‘Pendulum Lancer’ as it is in all other Gears of War expanded media. This version of the Lancer removes the chainsaw and makes it less accurate, ‘why would I want that?’ you ask…well it’s because it has the stopping power of a kick to the balls from a horse and kills enemies dead in just a few bullets. You also have the Sawed-Off Shotgun which has a shorter range and wider spread than the Gnasher but is more deadly up close. The Digger sends little Locust creatures burrowing underground and explodes when in close proximity to an enemy. Two new heavy weapons are added, the Oneshot sniper which does exactly what it says in the name, and the Vulcan machine gun which requires two people to operate (one holding the gun and one holding an ammo pouch for it).
There’s also a new grenade in the form of Incendiary grenades. These cause an area effect of damage and last for quite a while.
The new enemy types for the Locust include the Serapede (an armoured centipede that can only be attacked from the rear), Armoured Kantus (a tough as nails variant on the standard Kantus), the Shrieker (a small flying enemy), and the Siege Beast which functions more as a vehicle than an enemy unit. Then you have the Lambent enemies. You’ve already faced Lambent drones and wretches, but now you’ll have to deal with a whole lot more. First up is the Drudge, this unit mutates after a certain amount of damage into one of three varieties and deals massive damage in its mutated form; The Polyp which functions similarly to a wretch but smaller; and The Gunker which is a lambent Boomer that takes a whole lot of bullets to die and deals massive damage in both projectile and melee varieties. The majority of the game you’ll fight against Lambent enemies and they generally aren’t as fun to fight. It’s a change of pace from regular Locust because they explode upon death which also causes damage, but they are generally tougher and due to their increased difficulty can be a little tedious or bullet spongey at times.
It’s incredible what a sprinkling of emotion here and there can do to a game like Gears. It doesn’t stop it from being the grizzly, gory, over the top gunfest that people love it for; and it actually makes it somewhat narratively engaging this time.
That being said, Gears of War 3 certainly will not go down in the annals of history for its incredible storytelling. The plot is totally contrived and relies way too much on people just not explaining why things are happening or how things work so that things can just happen, and the audience doesn’t get asking questions about the logic behind it. Despite being a little more intelligent, Gears of War 3 is ultimately still a Gears of War story. It’s about big dudes, with big guns, causing big explosions. But due to the characters now being slightly more than just gravel voiced hunks of muscle, this bonkers plot becomes slightly less forgivable, especially seeing as it does go full goofball at many points without ever explaining the in-universe science for it.
For the most part though I do enjoy Gears 3’s story a lot. Sure it’s dumb, but it’s like the 2007 Michael Bay Transformers film in that it’s stupid but in an endearing kind of way. My biggest issue with the story is that Adam Fenix is the most McGuffin character in almost any story I have ever seen. He literally turns up in the final game of the trilogy, and he is physically on screen for all of five minutes to do what he needed to do and then that’s it. He has no purpose other than to push a button and that’s what you spend the whole game working towards. It’s a spectacular ending sure, and it tries with the emotional resonance, but it does seem very stupid when you really take a look at it.
Gears 3 refines the gameplay from Gears 2 to even greater strengths. Movement is smoother, shooting mechanics are more refined, level design is a whole lot better and more varied! All the weapons and enemy types from previous games return alongside some new ones. The weapons see the additions of the ‘Retro Lancer’ although I hate that name for it and it should be ‘Pendulum Lancer’ as it is in all other Gears of War expanded media. This version of the Lancer removes the chainsaw and makes it less accurate, ‘why would I want that?’ you ask…well it’s because it has the stopping power of a kick to the balls from a horse and kills enemies dead in just a few bullets. You also have the Sawed-Off Shotgun which has a shorter range and wider spread than the Gnasher but is more deadly up close. The Digger sends little Locust creatures burrowing underground and explodes when in close proximity to an enemy. Two new heavy weapons are added, the Oneshot sniper which does exactly what it says in the name, and the Vulcan machine gun which requires two people to operate (one holding the gun and one holding an ammo pouch for it).
There’s also a new grenade in the form of Incendiary grenades. These cause an area effect of damage and last for quite a while.
The new enemy types for the Locust include the Serapede (an armoured centipede that can only be attacked from the rear), Armoured Kantus (a tough as nails variant on the standard Kantus), the Shrieker (a small flying enemy), and the Siege Beast which functions more as a vehicle than an enemy unit. Then you have the Lambent enemies. You’ve already faced Lambent drones and wretches, but now you’ll have to deal with a whole lot more. First up is the Drudge, this unit mutates after a certain amount of damage into one of three varieties and deals massive damage in its mutated form; The Polyp which functions similarly to a wretch but smaller; and The Gunker which is a lambent Boomer that takes a whole lot of bullets to die and deals massive damage in both projectile and melee varieties. The majority of the game you’ll fight against Lambent enemies and they generally aren’t as fun to fight. It’s a change of pace from regular Locust because they explode upon death which also causes damage, but they are generally tougher and due to their increased difficulty can be a little tedious or bullet spongey at times.
Solo play is made slightly ‘easier’ this time round by allowing you to enter ‘Down But Not Out’ status once you take enough damage that would normally have led to death in Gears 1&2. However, this comes with certain caveats. The first being that Gears 3 will regularly put you in firefights that are, on higher difficulties, damn near impossible to get through without going down. The number of enemies that have the ability to down you in a single hit, or deal massive damage in a single blow has increased dramatically from previous titles. Add to this the frankly awful friendly A.I companions that regularly get confused as to whether they should be attacking, retreating, or reviving you. It was a regular occurrence that my A.I teammates would storm ahead of me and all go down, leaving all fire concentrated on me as I attempted to navigate a battlefield to revive them (usually to little success). I would also regularly go down next to them and they’d just continue to shoot rather than revive me as I slowly bled out. So, whilst Gears 3 can certainly be construed as ‘easier’ because you won’t die when you hit zero health, it can often be more frustrating because encounters are so much more frantic and the friendly A.I is bafflingly stupid.
Visually Gears 3 is a significant step up from previous titles thanks to a much-needed dash of colour. Gone is the dark greys, browns, and reds and in is the bright yellows, oranges, and greens. It still looks like Gears of War, but it’s now much nicer to look at. This doesn’t disguise the flat environment textures and the still muddy sound design. It’s madness that a game of this scale still can’t manage sound effects properly to create something that’s somewhat enjoyable to listen to. Gears 3 is the same old mash up of gargles screams, chainsaws, bullets, and a slight hint of some kind of orchestral score in the back. Nothing is given priority in the sound mixing and so everything is just loud and unpleasant at the same time.
I have been somewhat harsh with this review but the reality is that Gears of War 3 won’t win you over unless you liked the previous two games, and even then the attempts to make it more than just grizzled guys with guns is certainly welcome from my point of view but not very well handled overall.
Visually Gears 3 is a significant step up from previous titles thanks to a much-needed dash of colour. Gone is the dark greys, browns, and reds and in is the bright yellows, oranges, and greens. It still looks like Gears of War, but it’s now much nicer to look at. This doesn’t disguise the flat environment textures and the still muddy sound design. It’s madness that a game of this scale still can’t manage sound effects properly to create something that’s somewhat enjoyable to listen to. Gears 3 is the same old mash up of gargles screams, chainsaws, bullets, and a slight hint of some kind of orchestral score in the back. Nothing is given priority in the sound mixing and so everything is just loud and unpleasant at the same time.
I have been somewhat harsh with this review but the reality is that Gears of War 3 won’t win you over unless you liked the previous two games, and even then the attempts to make it more than just grizzled guys with guns is certainly welcome from my point of view but not very well handled overall.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
PRESENTATION: 8/10
LIFESPAN: 8/10
SCORE: 8/10
It’s big dumb fun and that’s great. It’s still one of the best third person shooters from a mechanical perspective, and it is without a doubt the best of the original trilogy of games.