An epic ending to an epic series!
The story itself took me and a friend about 5 or 6 hours to complete on normal mode, this was with taking breaks every now and again and generally having a laugh, so can probably be completed in even shorter time than that. Each chapter alternated between playing as Marcus and Dom, and Cole and Baird, along with 2 other minor players which in our case was A.I. Also....there is a 3rd Carmine, and he is badass!
During the campaign we venture into Cole's past a little bit, and we also see Dom do soemthing epic, i won't ruin it, but from now on Dom is my gaming hero. We also learn more about the locust, and the lambent. Including what happened to Dom's father. You must find all of this out for yourselves!
Where this game excels is ofcourse the multiplayer. Everything is back as it was last time out, but with new maps, new guns, and new ways of killing each other! Me and my aformentioned friend spent most of the time playing Wingman. Where 4 teams of 2 face off against eachother in an elimination type match. The other game modes are pretty much what their names say, and are similiar to the ones in Gears 2.
This years 'extras' as i call them are Horde mode ( as always ) and the brand new, Beast mode. Horde mode is the same as usual, you are humans, you must survive the oncoming Horde. You are able to place walls and turrets, thats about the only difference. Beast mode is basically flipping the entire thing upside down. You play as the Locust, and your task is to eliminate all CoG troops in the area within the time limit. As you kill people, break barriers or generally help your team, you gain points which let you level up, at eachlevel you unlock a set of 'beasts' you can play as. Starting at tickers, if you are able to get to the final tier... you can play as the famous Berserker.
I gave this game an 8.5/10. Yes it was a good game. Yes it probably was the best in series. However in some cases it also felt very samey to gears of war 2. The new features were nice, but in the end all they really added was new guns, maps, and 1 new game mode. That does not mean i didn't enjoy this game, or the series as a whole. Infact, this is probably one of my favourite game series of all time.