Ginzaki reviews Gears of War 3

Game: Gears of War 3
Genre: TPS
Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Platform(s): Xbox 360




It is the norm for a game series to get worse as the sequels roll out. The first game makes the money, and the sequels set about ruining everything. This why it's amazing that in the Gears of War family the sequels reign in the first game, then hog tie it and dump it in the closet.

I say this because Gears has always had it's market in the pizza box strewn hallways of the college dorm. With the average player amounting to a sweat stained dillweed. And if you are one of these people reading this review I will be shocked that you actually came to a forum.

The game itself is a testament to the newest in gray/brown graphics sprayed with blood from the guy who just got his ovaries chainsawed off. The characters generally sound like the jagoffs they are marketed towards. I wouldn't gripe about that, but this is a military shooter, and throughout all three games only one characters ever sounded like a man in uniform.

The sound effects are what you'd expect. Bullets fly around, chainsaws rev up, and Marcus says nice or sweet every time you pick up ammo or reload without shoving the gun up your ass. The music is nothing to gush over, except for the orchestral version of Mad World that most of the gun toting yuppies out there will never hear.

The story actually seems to have themes and morals, and now that Dom's wife is dead we don't have to hear him jumping that train anymore(but he will anyway). The characters overall have gotten some depth added to them that the previous titles seemed to lack, and I almost cared for what happened to them at the end. Though we do have to deal with them dumping in a bunch of characters from the comics, but they never seem to clog anything up. Oh, and Ice-T shows up in easily the most gratuitous under-use of voice-acting talent the world has ever seen (except for maybe Captain Picard in Oblivion, and Liam Neeson in Fallout 3).

Now let's get on to what you really care about, the multiplayer. We have 4 general modes for your enjoyment. Arcade allows you to team up with up to 4 friends and ride a train through the story. Horde is well...Horde. Beast mode lets you play as beasties from the Hollow and wreck some human S***. And every flavor of PVP multiplayer we've already had with some team deathmatch to bring re-spawning into the game.

Overall the multiplayer experience is better than ever, and you even have an expanded player base as the Call of Duty guys have made the migration. However this bring about my biggest complaint about Gears 3, the complaining. There is no end of the complaints coming from the previous game's alumni. People hate the retro lancer because it doesn't work for them, and they hate the sawed off shotgun because it provides a reason to not use the Gnasher. They also hate the new blood that has come in to smear on their screens. Honestly, the complaint about new players playing the game is the stupidest thing ever. Let me get this straight, you love the game so much that you don't want Epic to make more money? How does that make any sense?

So long as you leave your headset off during the multiplayer, or only play with understanding/ awesome friends there are far worse ways you could spend $60.

nice job