Sue me, I stopped trying to come up with witty review lines. I promise though I will once I get back into the groove of reviewing games. That said, there isn’t really much to say about Gears of War 3. It’s been a long time coming since the original came out near the end of 2006, and the series has continually improved with each iteration since. So now, here we stand at the conclusion of the trilogy, as we bid farewell to another franchise that has stood as a pillar for Microsoft’s XBox 360.
War has changed… back then, it was easy… just fill those Locust scum with bullets or saw right through their innards.
But noooo… now, with the increasingly dire Lambent situation growing worse and worse by the day it’s not so simple to unload bullets or saw through Lambent monstrosities when they always explode into pools of Imulsion all over the place, we find our heroes since Gears 2 aboard a massive cargo ship they now call home.
Never fear though. If anyone’s going to win this damn war and kick everything’s ass in the process, it will be none other than Marcus Fenix and his Delta team bros (Though I guess… Anya and Sam are on the team now… but then they also have Jace and Carmine… so… is there more testosterone or less that makes up Delta?).
I digress though. As you can probably already tell, the story of Gears 3, though it picks up 2 years after Gears 2 (read the books if you want to find out what happened in between), is still rather clichéd with a pretty standard story that’s par for the course. Let’s face it though, even if you were seriously interested in the Gears story, that’s not really the reason why you want to play it.
You’re here for the adrenaline rush. Darting in and out of cover, laying waste to the monstrosities bent on wiping out humanity.
That sweet, sickly sound as you saw your way through the Locust and fill the Lambent hordes full of lead, and curbstomping some grubs who just happened to be at the wrong place at the right time.
Did I mention, they added a bayonet charge?
Mmm… mmm… gooooood.
Don’t forget them Silverbacks, those mobile turrets of devastation.
Gears 3 brings back all your old favorites and adds in a whole slew of new weapons and methods to wreak havoc upon your foes. With new weapons comes new enemies to deal with, constantly varying combat situations, and newer ways to tackle every combat scenario differently. That’s what you’re here for. It’s why you play Gears, and Gears 3 is no exception. Gorier and more violent that ever, ohhhh yea.
Have there been graphical improvements since GoW2? Yea. Is the soundtrack/sound design better? Yea. Does it really, really matter to you? Maybe. Should it affect your decision to buy/play Gears? Probably not.
One of the things that really shines in Gears 3 is the new shiny multiplayer, and first up is the fully revamped Horde mode. Enjoyed how Gears 2 brought forth a great new cooperative multiplayer mode? Horde 2.0 is the future and it has landed. One of the biggest additions to Horde mode is the ability to purchase and upgrade fortifications to block off or slow down the incoming hordes, adding yet another level of depth and complexity to the beloved multiplayer frag fest while also allowing the developers to push the limits of complexity, difficulty, and variety available for Horde mode.
Or maybe, you were one of those types who actually felt bad for the countless grubs you slew back in Gears 2. Don’t worry, Epic’s got you covered there too with the all new Beast mode. More like a class-based multiplayer game, in Beast mode, you play as the Locust Horde, besieging Stranded and COG alike. You start out with basic Locust types like Tickers or Wretches, and as you slaughter the wimpy human defenders, you can earn ‘cash’ to build up to eventually playing those dreaded Berserkers you probably hated fighting back from Gears 1.
All in all, Gears of War 3 represents a spectacular conclusion to widely respected series of third-person shooters and I for one most certainly am looking forward to spending countless hours with my friends grinding out the new Horde and Beast modes, which will likely also involve grinding out some guts and vital organs, human and monster alike. 
