Gears of War 3 Review

The "Gears of War" trilogy has spanned over nearly five years. "Gears of War" was one of the first big 360 exclusive titles. It's campaign became legendary as well as it's online multiplayer experience. Then came "Gears of War 2" which was one of the top games of 2008. No one will ever forget the moment when Dom found Maria. After playing "Gears of War 3" I have to say that it lived up to the legacy of it's two predecessors and exceeded it in some ways.

Campaign

Similar to the first two installments, the Gears of War 3 campaign is full of intense action, one-liners, and heart wrenching moments. There are a few new weapons, like the Vulcan machine gun and a sawed-off shotgun, and most of the old ones that players have come to love. Marcus and the rest of the gang must fight their way to a city protected by an artificial hurricane where Marcus' father, Adam, and his secret weapon are located. They must fight the Lambent as well as the Locust and there are many twists and turns along the way. The campaign's writing is phenomenal (the voice acting... not so much) and from the moment I started playing it I didn't want to put the controller down. This campaign was my favorite part of Gears of War 3 and probably my favorite campaign out of all three installments.

Horde

Gears of War 3 features an entirely revamped Horde mode with many similarities to survival modes from franchises like Halo and Call of Duty. Players now earn money by killing enemies and completing bonus challenges. They use that money to purchase barriers, weapons, turrets and decoys that will help the fight the horde. Every tenth round is a boss round where players have to fight a random pick of the strongest Lambent or Locust enemies such as Berserkers. These changes have made horde mode more interesting and strategic and can make the experience very entertaining in co-op mode

Multiplayer

I have never been quite as interested in the "Gears" mutilplayer as I was in other games like Modern Warfare 1 & 2 and Halo 3, but once in a while if I'm bored or my friends ask me I'll play it. The things I enjoyed about the multiplayer modes in the previous two games are all included and in some cases improved in Gears of War 3. The cover based system and controls have been improved and many of the maps are larger and more fun to play on. The only negative that really stands out when I play online multiplayer is the sawed-off shotgun. The Gnasher shotgun is already very powerful and deadly at short range, so I don't understand why the sawed-off was included in the multiplayer modes. It's overpowered and can make a match miserable. My biggest hope is that it's power is adjusted in the next update.

Overall

Gears of War 3 is a fantastic game and for players who enjoy shooters with substance it is definitely worth the money. If you're worried about playing online multiplayer, it might be wise to wait until the game is updated to see what changes are made.

Modern Warfare 3: Top 5 Multiplayer Features That Make Me Hopeful

5. No Nukes - If you've played MW2 online you've almost certainly earned a nuke with a 25 kill streak or been annihilated by one in the last few minutes of a match your team was winning. It would seem that getting 25 kills without a death takes great skill, and might even merit a game winning reward, but in MW2 it didn't. Using One Man Army, any jerk could sit in a corner shooting a grenade launcher until he/she had a Harrier, a Chopper Gunner, and finally a Nuke. But no more will players live in fear of noobs with nukes. They will not be a part of MW3's new kill/point streak system.

4. COD Elite - Although a lot of the features of the free version of Call of Duty Elite aren't original, they are pretty cool and will add to the already high replay value that MW3 will most likely have. Players won't have to use third party websites to start private clans with their friends or share videos. I'm still not sure if the paid version is worth $50 a year though. It is $10 less than buying all of the DLC would be, but I only bought the first Black Ops Map Pack. If you plan on purchasing every map pack the paid version is definitely the way to go though, and you would probably save the most money by purchasing the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3.

3. Strike Packages - What makes me most excited about the new kill/point streak system isn't the rewards themselves or their division into three classes, but the fact that killing people won't be the sole objective of the multiplayer experience anymore. The biggest objective will be earning points for your team. Domination, headquarters, and capture the flag are constantly ruined by people camping at objectives just to get kills and not helping their teams win. Every multiplayer mode eventually turned into TDM. I know that there will always be greedy bimbos that just want to camp and get their KD's up, but I think this new system will encourage people to run around and actually work with teammates to win. Of course, I've been wrong many times before.






2. No One Man Army - Campers and Boosters loved this perk, but now they'll just have to find new ways to ruin matches. This is one of the worst perks in any Call of Duty game, but the next item on my list still beats it.







1. No Commando - Not much to say about this one. It allowed people to teleport and survive falls off of buildings even after they'd been shot. Yeah. This perk made me wanna toss my xbox out the window a few times, but fortunately I'm not crazy enough to destroy $300.