"Gears of War" introduced us to Marcus Fenix and his band of ludicrously muscled soldiers. Five years and two games later, the series is one of the best selling games for the Xbox 360. The series is now coming to a close and "Gears of War 3" not only wraps up the story of Marcus and the other soldiers, but manages to be the best game in the series.
Like the last two games, "Gears of War 3" has the subtlety of a Michael Bay movie, with dialogue to match. The game has everything, from stereotypical space football juggernaut Cole Train visiting his hometown with its many adoring fans to a new enemy group called the Lambent that explode upon death, adding even more explosions to the already combustible game. It even includes a cameo by Ice-T!
The game also feels a bit more self-aware. It recognizes that it's a ridiculous game starring men with legs the size of tree trunks who carry chainsaw guns. The plot and dialogue seems to reflect that more than in the prequels. It still hamfistedly attempts to make you feel emotions for the characters, but it works slightly better now.
Gears feels much like you would expect it to, the shooting is mostly the same, the cover is handled the same and even most of the enemies are the same. The difference is that everything feels a lot more polished. Everything feels tighter and while the game is still very linear, the environments feel a bit more open. Gears 3 does boldly go where no gears has gone before in including colors besides brown in some of the later stages and even includes an underwater level.
The biggest addition to "Gears of War 3's" campaign though is the four player co-op. There are now eight soldiers in the main unit, finally making it possible to play with more people. With a few new weapons in the game, a four person team can shoot their way through the campaign with a bit more variety.
The multiplayer modes don't shake things up much with deathmatch, king of the hill, and other classics. There is a new versus mode in wingman, which splits up players into four groups of two with the goal of killing all other teams. Cheap shotguns to the back and classic lancer rushes are still issues, but the multiplayer is a lot of fun, especially now that the game has dedicated servers, removing the dreaded host advantage from the equation.
One of the biggest changes is the popular horde mode, which now features tower defense elements. In addition to their guns and wits, players can now use money earned by slaying enemies to purchase barriers, decoys, turrets, weapons and ammunition to fight off the waves of enemies. The turrets and walls make horde feel a lot more tactical, but it does make it feel a bit more linear in that you tend to stay closer to your defenses. Boss waves also appear every 10 rounds, giving the mode some good variety. Horde mode, as a whole, feels a lot more fun in Gears 3, and the money system and bosses keep the mode from becoming stale.
As a counter to the Horde mode, "Gears of War 3" adds a new beast mode, which has players taking of the roles of the Locust trying to kill humans controlled by the AI. The humans use both their guns and the purchasable defenses to defend themselves. Players can unlock more locust by progressing through the mode and getting medals. The mode has a very strict time limit that gets extended every time one of the players gets a kill. It's a fun mode, but the time limit can get frustrating and it feels lacking compared to things like Left 4 Dead's versus mode.
So the Gears trilogy, a series very important in defining this generation of consoles, is at a close. The lovably ridiculous characters have had their closure (until the inevitable Gears of War 4), but it's a good send-off for now. The game pulled together everything needed together, and while it didn't take the series in a radical new direction, Gears of War 3 is one of the most well-built games of the year.
