Gears of War 3 Review (XBOX 360)

By Neal "NeoMahi" Evans

GEARS OF WAR 3 is easily without question my own personal most anticipated Xbox 360 game of this year. For Xbox 360 gamers, its been a really dry and tough year, as far as exclusives go, while PS3 gamers bask in the glorious light of console exclusive bliss. Thankfully, through it all, Xbox 360 gamers will get their hands on a truly amazing console exclusive from those crazy ol' developers at Epic Games and without question the best Xbox 360 game of the year and likely to become the 2011 Xbox 360 Game of the Year. So, is Gears of War 3 everything Gears fans can expect, living up to the hype set before it? Is it truly the most polished Gears experience or will Gears fans be totally disappointed? We've got you covered if you're asking these questions because, lets face it, $59.99 is a lot of money these days and the great hobby of gaming isn't a cheap one.

There is quite the list of games releasing this year and they all seem to be launching pretty close together desperately begging for your hard earned buck. Gears of War 3 however has chosen to take a step back giving itself plenty of breathing room from the pack when gamers will be recouping from the 'Summer Drought.' Gears of War 3 was originally scheduled to release much earlier in an attempt to cripple Sony Computer Entertainment a little by disrupting Killzone 3 sales, according to Gears Design Director Cliff Bleszinski. However, Epic Games opted to throw out a Multiplayer Beta in April instead to hopefully benefit the development company bringing its fans the 'most polished Gears experience.' Thus, we're now having to wait until 20 September. Admittedly, I was beginning to lose interest in Gears of War 3 in thought that the game was releasing at a time when there were just too many other titles while back in April, I would have finished Killzone 3. Turns out, Epic had things figured out and instead released Bulletstorm, that seemed to be a testing of the waters for the new Unreal Engine version 3.3 and Bulletstorm became the game to screw with Guerrilla Games in an attempt to bring some of them to Epic's sandbox playing People Can Fly's Unreal Engine based game. Bulletstorm did well, Killzone 3 sold extremely well and everyone went home happy. The end result is the final product you'll be playing shortly.

Now, Gears of War 3 has been placed on a rather large pedestal with a lot of talk put behind it to hype up the crowd. Its claims to be above and beyond, to be the best looking game, and according to Microsoft, to be "This years most anticipated title." You're going to hear this game in constant comparison to Sony's and Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception. I guarantee it. It may seem at first that the two are totally different games but, the fact of the matter is that the only differences are that Uncharted is a little more down to earth while Gears of War is a completely steroid-induced experience with large massed soldiers going up against gigantic bugs in a Starship Troopers like fashion. They're both cover-based shooters however and both shoot for a strong cinematic story-based experience. Uncharted is just filled with more leaping about than Gears of War's ground based style. So, lets see how both Microsoft and Epic did and see if Gears of War 3 is worth your hard earned money and really goes out with a bang. We're not going to sugar-coat this for you. We're not trying to gain favor with Epic, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo or any other. We're not trying to impress for numbers or views. We're simply gamers just like you and want that same gaming experience you want with all the same expectations without some corporation looming over our heads telling us what we need to do to gain views. So without further delay, here we go with Xbox 360's biggest game of the year and exclusive to the Xbox 360, Gears of War 3.

PRESENTATION & STORY 

Gears of War 3 is a third-person action cover based game. Its all about getting into cover and working together as a team to achieve one goal. Its stop and pop, not run and gun. If there's one game Microsoft safeguards with their lives that Sony Computer Entertainment and PS3 gamers covet more than anything on the Xbox 360, this is  it. Personally, this has been my absolute favorite Xbox 360 exclusive franchise on the console. Yes, even more  so than Halo. I've never been a huge fan with running out into the middle of a battlefield and firing wildly around me hoping to kill something while simultaneously leaping  thirty feet into the air like some super-human. Gears of War is exactly the opposite, as I understand, taken from a paint-balling experience by the games creator. Its all about getting into cover and timing out your shots, wearing down your enemy at the knee's while flanking them from the sides, sneaking up beside them finishing them off by ramming your Lancer into their chest and sawing them into a chunk of flesh. Its requires strategy and team work unlike anything I've ever seen in any other Xbox game. To this day, now five years later in its third iteration, it still manages to keep me satisfied with its style. Its truly a powerful experience on the Xbox 360 hardware.

Gears of War 3 takes place two years after Gears of War 3. The great capital city of Jacinto on the planet Sera has been sunk flushing out what could remain of the Locust horde. The C.O.G have made a stand and are set to finish things concluding the trilogy. Brothers to the End. 

Gears of War 3 begins as Marcus Fenix discovers a message from his father, Adam Fenix, that he's alive and Marcus and his squad are set out to find him and bring him home taking down whatever Locust get in their way. But, just as they think they're safe, they're really not.

The Most Polished Gears Experience and Game

Gears of War 3's story has been penned by the author of the Gears of War novel, likely as a way for Epic to snuff the speculations that Epic can't create a solid story to carry the game. That its all about the gameplay and nothing else. While many gamers boast that its all about the gameplay, that's really not true. These days, a solid story is everything to give the game what it needs. Gameplay is equally as important to carry the game successfully throughout the story and successfully execute the vision the games Creative Director or Design Director had originally envisioned. Its painfully clear that Gears of War and Gears of War 2 certainly lacked in these area's. So many questions unanswered. For example, why the Locust Queen looked human? If she was  truly a Locust Queen, she'd held her figure pretty well birthing all those offspring while everything else looked like a giant galactic bug, again she looked human and had female anatomy. That's right, a bug with human female boobs. God of War 2 has that gigantic woman that had several. There were also questions looming as to what really happened to Marcus' father. So many unanswered questions. Well, Gears of War 3 sets out to answer many of these questions, but as I finished game, I still found myself asking questions. Some of which came up throughout the game and were never really answered, I felt and were just brushed off. Still, for the most part, things were covered very well.

One of biggest gripes I'd had through the experience, is how scripted everything really sounded, as opposed to other games I've played. The same cheesy phrases repeated over and over again. It had also sounded as ADR work. What I've come to find from games like Uncharted with their recording studio and voice recording is how cinematic things really sound. This is Microsoft we're talking about here that can fund that sort of thing, especially with their biggest release of the year. Going that extra mile. Even some of the lines throughout the game just make you shake your head and sort of laugh. Though, I found myself digging the line spoken by the Cole Train "man, this sets a new world record for ugly." Easily my favorite line throughout the game.

In the end, Epic for the most part managed to pull it off. Still nothing absolutely memorable, but what I did find when compared to other gamers is that Dom's experience with his wife in Gears of War 2 never had the same effect on me as other gamers had. I was so caught up in the adrenaline rush of action going on around me, I was too fired up to really feel anything sympathetic and when things happened, it was "alright, where are we going next?" Gears of War 3 manages to jerk at me a little. Again, I'd had more, I guess you'd call them emotional experiences with games like Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and Heavy Rain, but it was gratifying. I found myself at the close of Gears of War 3 totally satisfied as opposed to the start of the game where for the first hour or hour and one-half wondering what the heck was going on expect that I was looking for Marcus' father. Further into the game, things all made sense and the cast they'd lended with the addition of Jace, Anya's larger role and Sam Byrne's. It was strange to hear, but so familiar to hear Claudia Black voicing with this sort of Australian twang, which Claudia Black is in fact Australian. What I found is that accent would be there and suddenly be gone. At some moments Sam would sound Australian while others she would sound more British. I found it rather difficult and weird to hear Sam Byrnes and then Chloe Fraiser. Personally, it was then I realized the importance of Naughty Dogs philosophy on motion capture and ADR.

The presentation is astounding with a beautiful, as always, musical score and personality and feeling to the situation. Truly the experience that keeps PS3 gamers salivating and coveting. For those whom own both consoles, they'll enjoy a solid experience with Gears of War on the 360, but makes Uncharted 3's story all the more welcomed.

GRAPHICS 

When I heard Crytek out the door stating that they'd completely maxed out current generation gaming hardware and were ready for the next stage in consoles, I was extremely leery of such a statement. I was ecstatic to hear Cliff Bleszinski step out and talk to the press stating that the notion of the 360 being maxed out isn't really true but that there's still plenty of space to grow. When I finally got my hands on the build, I understood exactly what he was saying and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Unreal Engine 3 has definitely found ways to take each game of the franchise to the next level and Gears of War 3 is without question the best looking game on the Xbox 360 to date. Its always been that way with Xbox since the beginning of time. Gears of War was designed to demonstrate what the Xbox 360 was capable of and have evolved through the Xbox's lifetime and has possibly proven that the next generation of gaming consoles hopefully isn't as close as some may make things sound. The thought that Nintendo may be rushing things or simply trying to just catch up.

Welcome to Anvil Gate

Environments are clean. The AA has been cranked up and things look smoother. Its much like I remembered it looking in the Beta. A lot can change when you add color to a game. As the game progress', it looks very clean through a good portion of the game, but as you reach the end of the game, it'll blown your mind out your butt leaving you laughing at Crytek's statement. Textures are evident and though they don't quite pop like I thought they would have, it looks great. Again, smooth and clean with beautiful colors. Its also clear Epic made more of an effort with its lighting effects which again, more towards the end of the game will really blow you away. The game to me, looks very similar to Bulletstorm if not identical. I could sense of heavy feeling of Boarderlands as well. Something about the art and graphical style reminded me of it.

Lambant

However, the Unreal Engine 3 still suffers from a lot of the same graphical bugs its always had. There's a lot of jitter, as in a stumbling framerate, throughout the game as though the Xbox is stumbling to handle the pressure. Its not consistent throughout the game but is definitely noticeable. I had noticed as well in earlier parts of the game, you would walk through puddles and there would be no splash. Later on in the game you would see it more but, it took me off guard and disappointed me the finer details were looked over. There are still the smaller details that could have helped the game along. Stepping into water and water dripping and drying of armor, I also didn't notice blood spray on characters like in Gears of War 2 fighting your way through the gigantic worm. You were up to your elbows in blood. That sort of feeling and experience was lacking in Gears of War 3, which was a huge moment in Gears of War 2 and constantly applauded from many game critics.

Finally, the game still, as the Xbox 360 as a whole seems to have a real issue with texture pop-in, which is surprising as the Xbox 360's ATI graphics card is touted as having more pipelines for transfer of more textures. Texture pop-in is still there though not nearly as frequent as previous games were.

Overall, Gears of War raises the bar for Xbox 360 games and easily demolishes its direct competition and if I were Crytek, would be backing into a corner sucking my thumb.


 GAMEPLAY 

Gears of War 3 in style, as was mentioned earlier, is all about taking cover. Its stop and pop, not run and gun. This hasn't changed and I love it! The way it requires you to game is so much different from anything else ever played. Everything from taking cover, to aiming, to weapon recoil when using the Lancer versus the Retro has been overhauled. It feels better. I don't recall have difficulty once taking cover and popping out of cover unintentionally leaping out into the open and getting mowed down. Aiming is much better and feels tighter. It's unbelievable how much its changed until you actually get your hands on it and give it the run through. You're going to find gameplay, as far as innovation hasn't changed, its just been refined. As I played through the game, I was joined by a friend whom watched as I played through and he'd commented that nothing really seemed different and really, he's right. It just plays better. Its like a VStar that's been Dino-tuned. Its breathes and runs better and with more finesse. And its beautiful.

The addition of two more players really expands the experience. In fact, for the best gaming experience, gather together three other buddies and give it a run through. As a singleplayer experience, sometimes the AI isn't what it could have been. Your teammates still get in the way and can make things difficult for you. Playing together with friends eliminates the AI and gives it that feel and real communication that's needed to pull over the sort of style you want and crave from a Gears game; while on the same subject of AI, I found the enemy AI was ok, though there were still times I'd be standing in front of an enemy, he'd be looking straight at me and it was as though he was having seizures and then suddenly realized I was there with the final bullet flying through his head. Still needed some work.

The addition of certain weapons gives the game some real umpf which one of those were shown at E3 as you climb into a mech and blast the crap of anything in your path.

What disappointed me were some of the boss battles. The usual, there really big so blast them in the eye and then shoot them in the mouth to take them down, because they're just so big. It was usually pretty easy to figure out how to take the thing down and I never had died in a boss battle. In fact, the game a whole feels much easier than the previous games. If I did die, it was never in a boss battle and was usually the result of a stupid mistake like not looking around a corner. Thankfully there are two additional difficulty settings. The game also felt dragged out. The typical sort of thing. Hey, we're going here, but this is broken down, so we need to go here instead to accomplish the same task, but we need to go around this thick group of enemies. The story really felt dragged out because of this. I think Gears of War 3 was the longest Gears of War campaign I'd played but, as the Design Director of Battlefield 3 said responding to the inquiring of the games actual length, he said in essence that he'd rather a game be short and powerful rather than long and painful. Well, at times it felt long and painful lacking in diversity and innovation in gameplay while more towards the end, it find short and powerful. Also, unlike my experience with Resistance 3, I found the final push to the final boss extremely rewarding. It was a big push to the end and when you hit the final boss, you knew it, the game capping off with that rewarding ending. Stellar!

Design Director Cliff Bleszinski

But, the big reason most gamers will play Gears of War is simply for the multiplayer. Gamers will be pleased with the multiplayer offering though, I think it will feel all the same to them. Horde mode got a change of pace adding some new things to change the experience up but ultimately, things feel pretty much the same. While they may have tweaked things from what they'd received in the beta, it still feels like the beta. Even graphical things like clipping still happen and can make things feel awkward. The core idea and experience remains the same but, you can tell that Epic really wanted to push the envelope and give gamers what they're looking for in that experience. It all feels very much like Battlefield: Bad Company. Play through the game, level up, get medal's and unlockables and move on. But, multiplayer is best experienced with your buddies by your side. Playing alone just doesn't seem to do it, at least not for me. Xbox Live still remain's the same. The same mentality and views. Its a very competitive environment and even though the whole community has a headset, they won't talk to you, work with you, stratagize with you or coach you. Though Xbox may have a larger online community, I still prefer the PlayStation Network and how so many I've played with work together to teach and help each other along. Something the Xbox community could learn from to improve the experience and their match turnouts. That's not to say the PSN doesn't have the occasional immature ten-year-old because it does. But, the more its played on, the more its understood and the better the experience you have. Its true they may not all have mics, but those that do are there to help you against a community where everyone has one, and they'd rather ignore and cast you out like a scarlett-lettered leper.

OVERALL 

Overall, Gears of War 3 is the complete experience for those who own an Xbox 360 and will continue to be the one game PS3 gamers will always covet. A crying shame it can't expand its boarders and take on new fanbases with the freedom Epic Games has but, is a welcomed addition to the Xbox family and a true badass experience 360 gamers can brag about. Through the long drought, Gears of War 3 is a breathe of fresh air stepping back into the swing of things prepping gamers for the months ahead and feeding that need.

The game isn't perfect. The story is still a little weak, the dialog isn't perfect and the graphical capabilites aren't perfect, but the story still impacts you and satisfies you, the musical score is amazing and adds to that feel of desperation and fight and the graphics are still absolutely magnificent and I will say it to the end of times that as of now, Gears of War 3 is the BEST! looking Xbox 360 game. They've had a lot of experience and learned a lot of things over the years and its simply beautiful.

SAVE CARMINE!

The gameplay has finally been mastered. Controls are tight and finally responsive though, the AI could have been better. When I first looked through the game, it was decided it felt like a 8.9 game. But, when I finished the experience, overlooking some of the smaller gripes, the dedication that Epic Games has to its fanbase, and its game, that drive and love of development on its own merits the game much more. Gears of War 3 is definitely the most polished Gears of War 3 ever and is absolutely deserving of Game of the Year for Xbox 360. I'm excite to see what Epic Games has is store for the future, and I pray continually that Cliff Bleszinski will continue what he's been doing by finding new and innovative ways to bring a different gaming experience to the masses. That he'd chosen to set aside the FPS genre and venture out and take a gamble on something new irregardless of Microsoft trying to snuff them during the first game by trying to force them to throw out the lancer. It was a fight they weren't going to cave into and I'm glad they didn't! Gears of War IS the REASON to own an Xbox 360 and I do sympathize with my fellow PS3 brethren that don't have a 360 telling them, hey, Epic Games isn't done developing games and hopefully they bring that same style and love and total new and crazy experience to the PS3 and Nintendo Wii U. That some of the nitpicks of consoles won't dig at them so much but, that they can develop games because they love what they do and as President Mark Rein stated "I want to be everywhere. Do I want to take all those Resistance and Killzone fans and make them say, 'Yeah, Gears is awesome!' I do. Maybe it will happen and PS3 gamers will get something designed by the crew themselves rather than a breakoff from some other affiliate." If you have an Xbox 360, go get this game now! If you have a 360 and haven't played a Gears of War game, go pick up the triple pack for $20 and play through them, and cap off and Epic Games Epic Trilogy with Gears of War 3. It'll blow you away!