Her review with Tracey
This game was not made for me, nor me for it. This is crazy when you think it has all the classic ingredients for a tasty Locust pie; dramatically twisting science fiction storylines, epic locations, hot weapons, slick cover, cool combat and a multiplayer mode so addictive your thumbs will bleed. Why oh why don’t we get on? I love pie…
The tempestuous relationship I formed with the original Gears title which I found shallow, slow and meatheaded pervades my opinions still whilst the tremendously joyful surprise I got when playing Gears of War 2 with its brilliant worm digestive sequence and amazing multiplayer remains unrivalled. I felt some sort of peace at the end of GoW2 and for me the story could have ended there. Returning to the planet Sera, entering the third and final instalment in the series brings for me a curious mix of trepidation and excitement, which I think is important to take into account here.
Marcus Fenix, after sinking the last human inhabited town Jacinto is holed up on a giant rusty tub until the Locust decide that’s far too cosy for the COG’s and a giant leviathan munches his way through the decks. Meanwhile, Cole Train – by far and away the most interesting, authentic and dynamic character in the series – is revisiting his old stadium stomping ground on a mission to collect supplies. Not only does Cole have a sepia sporting flashback to his glory days, the overall mission is a beautiful and brilliant use of time manipulation that allows you to witness the opening attack on the ship from different points of view. So in true GoW style, this excellent story telling device isn’t revisited or expanded upon anywhere else in the game. As Ian agrees later, everything that is the Gears single campaign always feels brief, lacking and under developed. This kind of sums up my overall experience of GoW and why despite there being a plethora of things to like, I find it very hard to love. Yes the cover and shoot system is perfectly polished and yes, carving up Locust with a lancer is gruesome and good. The inventive design of the Locust is awesome too from the skittling tickers to the lumbering Boomers and GoW3 has gone above and beyond with a new range of intelligent, mutated baddies to blow your mind – literally. There’s a good enough range of weapons to suit most styles with the Retro Lancer from Gears 1 making a jaggety good appearance plus there’s the mighty new silverback to strap yourself into - a metal suit enhanced with fearsome firepower, rockets and some serious stomping boots. Depending on which weapon you have to hand, depends on which graphic method of execution you land on a downed enemy. Similarly to yourself, enemies can also bleed out, crawl to safety behind a concrete slab and get revived by buddies so the battling can be thrilling from far away or menacing close up. It’s exciting but never peaks as there are cut scenes littered throughout which although pretty, are unemotional and frustratingly break up the momentum as does the fact that you have to hold down X rather than just tapping it to pick up or interact with items – waaaaaa! Lemmie at ‘em!
With his tiny pin head balanced atop a swollen body, gruff “lets just do this” attitude and rather basic conversational abilities, Marcus isn’t a character brimming with personality, charm or even a glimmer of depth. He’s certainly not a looker yet despite the over the top body shapes, the perfectly formed combat and the undercooked story, loyal fans have bought over three MILLION copies since it’s launch last week, which has earned the franchise over one billion dollars in lifetime sales. This is no mean feat and clearly means this isn’t quite the jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none that you might be led to believe. As Ian discovered, the game is geared towards making it accessible for newcomers then swiftly introducing the awesomeness that is multiplayer.
So I’m not a Gears Groupie but plenty of people are. I’ve always wanted to love this game but for whatever reason I just don’t. If you want to get stuck into sci-fi, you should get stuck into this, just think of the story as full training for a mega multiplayer mash up! In fact, don’t think, just do.
His Review with Ian
Welcome to Gears of War 3. It’s a strange place, for a newcomer like me, this world of Sera. It’s full of huge men who cuss like sailors, dress like armoured turtles and savagely execute anything that moves. Yet the main thrust of the single player campaign is to follow Marcus Fenix (the main man in the Gears trilogy) who has recently found out his father is alive as they run, shoot and cut scene their way across five acts to try and rescue daddy against mighty Myrrah, a lot of Lambent and a little bit of Locust.
The worlds that the COG team inhabit (created by Epic Games) are visually beautiful; they’re rich in texture, brimming with colour and are a modern work of art. The ash families (frozen in a modern day Pompeii) in act four, reminded me of Anthony Gorlmley’s human casts and I love the way they disintegrated upon touch. They’re so delicate and fragile and do a grand job of reminding us of previous atrocities in the world of Sera. However, the lead characters of Marcus, Cole, Baird, Dom and Anya ruin and pollute the environment because they’re as authentic as the ash people themselves. A totally one-dimensional portrayal, lacking in any depth and I can’t dig into their back-story, because there’s nothing to hook into and little to respond to.
Whenever, there were moments of intensity or emotion, they were glossed over. You were left with no time to dwell upon them and consequently I felt rather hollow and unaffected by it all. If you found out your father had not been killed, you’d spend a little more time reacting and questioning the impact on your world and life. Those revealing cut scenes left no trace or impression on the mood, the actions of the characters or the overall gameplay. Why be so cold? It all felt too smooth, too polished, and consequently I just didn’t care about Marcus, his father or the plight of Sera. Tracey reliably informs me that this game is the most complex in terms of emotion and story; I would not like to experience what has come before and you could smell the ending a mile off.
The game progression was linear as linear can be; traversing through the five different terrains with only small variations on the cover, shoot, move sequencing. Chapters where you play as Cole (has he been eating cheese before bed?) or protect a lorry or split up as the squad take a room from above and below felt all felt a little throwaway and didn’t serve to enhance the game, the play or the story.
However, for all that’s distinctly average on the single player campaign, what you’ve got on multiplayer is the holy grail for developers, worlds in which you can spend hours and hours and hours, get totally addicted and still want to come back for more. I love Horde 2.0 mode! Playing cooperatively with up to four others, you have to survive round after round of enemies who ramp up in quantity and difficultly, with a tasty boss appearing on every tenth wave as you try to reach the hallowed 50th wave. With each kill, players earn cash to help fortify areas, upgrade decoys and man turrets. There’s also something distinctly satisfying about receiving medals and ribbons congratulating you on your efforts in each round, saving your comrades with their squeals of “revive me” as you dash across a bullet strewn shopping mall to make sure they don’t bleed out and keep the fight alive whilst executing your enemies in one of 24 different ways, depending upon which weapon you’ve chosen to end someone’s life with that particular time.
All the multiplayer modes have pace, strategy, huge choices of weapons and heart quickening tension. Yes you’re going to die, but you respawn, get a chance to revenge kill and get a revenge kill ribbon in the process. An instant motivator! The locations are many with Mercy (open square with sheltered outer passages) and Checkout (abandoned supermarket with little cover) my particular favourites. With the constant accumulation of kills, levels, medals and ribbons keeping stat fans happy, the multiplayer mode is an absolute giant peach and completely saves the mundane single player campaign. I will undoubtedly be playing GoW3 multiplayer for many, many more hours to come and that is the reason that this multiplayer experience is without doubt the finest online sci-fi combat experience that has ever been created.
Gears of War 3 is out now on Xbox360.
