Believe the hype this is Gears at its best, this is gaming at its best. Gaming gets no better than this.
Gears 3 start off with an awesome kick ass dream sequence, it's very short but boy is it fun, the guns feel and sound much more powerful. One shoot and the locust explode in spectacular fashion. It's awesome and pity you never goner get the same excitement anywhere else pass this short sequence. After the dream, Gears start off with the boys living in a ship. For a minute there you may be scared thinking Epic ruined Gears. It breaks all Gears traditions. The action is out in the open on a boat and there is just too much light and its way too colourful. Then comes the part where you play as Cole Train.
It's only half way through Act II that Gears 3 get back to its roots and feels like a true Gears of War game. It gets darker, the pace increases and it throws a tonne of enemies at you non stop. There is no time to stop and marvel at this graphical master piece or look for collectables. Gears 3 constantly and seamlessly pushes you from point A to point B, from one fire fight to the next fire fight. By the time you done with Act II you would have fought and killed all enemies' type you have ever encountered in all previous Gears games. All this enemies have to die by your gun no Hammer of Dawn here for now. Brumak, Corpser, Berserker, Reaver you name it and you would have killed all of them in what seems like one long non stop action sequence spanning Act II and Act III. Its fun it's a blast to play it's what gaming should be like.
The cover-based combat has never been better. You have to constantly be in cover or you will constantly be no your knees crawling towards your highly efficient A.I teammates to revive you. The action is varied from the Locust and Lambent which you can pretty much take town with any weapon while taking cover Gears style, to the Formers (think zombies) which attack in large numbers and pretty fast. They will run at you and there is no need for cover here just a short gun will do. Then there is the Armoured Kantus, they are tough to kill and no gun will kill them you will need explosive for that or Torch Bow.
The few "almost" issues that I found with Gears 3 are that it's just too easy on hardcore and anything less; the A.I team mates are way too helpful. The Silverback doesn't feel quite as powerful and awesome as I had expected. There are some on rails vehicle sequences that for me really slowed down the fast paced on-foot fights and worse off takes away the control from you as all you can do is shooting. Lastly the final boss battle is a really let down after such an exciting fast paced campaign.
In short this is Gears of War at its best. Gears 3 is superbly superb; it manages to deliver a fast paced action sequence in what seems like one long continuous action packed sequence. It's no Shakes Spear but the story is awesome and serves the action well and still somehow manages to deliver heart felt emotional moments.