This is exactly the sort of game that makes me proud to be a 360 owner.
The game does a great job of making you emphasize with characters and worry about them. Conveying desperation and hopelessness has been a strong point of the series, but this is the first game to fully flesh out the cast of characters and convey that hopelessness through their interactions with each other. Those who are not as familiar with the Gears universe are probably going to have some issues following this story,
Gears 3 starts eighteenth months after the second game. The plot of the game is the usual Michael Bay's action movie, save the world from the bad guys. The main protagonist, Marcus Fenix received a video message from his father, Adam Fenix, who supposed to be dead, about an invention that can destroy the Locusts and Lambants. Marcus' crew that includes old favorites like Dom, Baird and of course Cole Train joined by newcomers Sam, Anya (not really new since she was in the first two games) and the third Carmine brother. They all travel to try find and rescue Adam and his invention. The story flows really nicely this time around thanks to the great writing by Karen Traviss. Unlike previous title, Gears 3 actually jump deep down into the stories of characters, not just "let's kill that!" or "let's go there!" If you ever felt curious why Cole gets called Cole Train, this game will tell you that story, which was kind of touching. Continuing the story from Gears 2, players will also experience the Dom-Maria story. Of course, you will also be able to see why Marcus hates his dad.While I don't believe that this is the end of the Gears of War franchise, this title certainly gives the impression that we won't be playing as Marcus or his COG team anytime soon. I wouldn't be surprised to see an announcement of a new Gears game with a different team of COG members, but, that's not a bad thing because the story is wrapped up nicely. Gears 3 does a fantastic job of answering many questions people have had for years Well done in telling the story Epic Games!
The campaign is divided into a couple chapters that are nicely paced. After an intense gun fights, players are given some calm moments sprinkled with some nicely done cinematics. The cinematics are plenty but never take players out of the game since they are less than 2 minutes each time. Because of the great pacing, the campaign is undoubtedly better than the first two games. The campaign can be finished in about 10 hours or so depending on whether you are looking for collectibles or not. For the first time in the series the campaign can be played up to 4 people in co-op.Four player online coop campaign is something that the series has desperately needed for quite a while and I'm pleased to see it finally implemented. While the story is engaging and exciting, there's just something about running into a group of enemies knowing that your friends have your back. Additionally, throughout the campaign there was never any bit of lag between my teammates and I which rounded out an enjoyable experience. Anyone who has been on the search for a kick ass game to play with your friends, Gears 3 is more than capable of fulfilling that wish. Another new feature is Arcade mode for the campaign. The game plays just like the regular campaign but this time you or your teammates get points after each kill. The points are totaled at the end of every chapter. This mode adds a little competitiveness to a stale co-op concept.
The gameplay of Gears 3 is pitch perfect thanks to the extra year of development time. The polish shines through how great in shooting guns, how the characters stick to the covers and of course how beautiful the game looks, Unreal Engine 3 is perfected on Xbox 360. Everything about the game feels so satisfying. Signature guns from the series return such as Lancer, but this time around Epic adds cool weapons such as Retro Lancer, in which you can use to stab enemies when you sprint at them with it equipped. The fans' favorite is of course the sawed-off shotgun, which has only one round per reload but it can kill multiple enemies if you use it correctly. The game also has its share of set pieces, which are almost exclusively on rail shooting sequences.
The multiplayer now uses dedicated servers. By doing that, Epic fixes the host advantage problem from the second game. Competitive multiplayer is actually competitive now. Epic pissed a lot of people by selling a garbage-ton of weapon skins in the marketplace. I suggest nobody to buy into this scam.
Horde mode is also back this time around as Horde 2.0. It has 50 waves for people with a lot of free time to go through. From what I heard, it will take about 5-6 hours to go through all 50 waves.Beast mode is a new addition and plays very similar to Horde just with a slightly different perspective. In this time trial players take control of different types of beasts from the Locust and attempt to kill all the humans in the area. By taking out fortifications and enemies, the Locust are awarded bonus time and finances which, rather than spent on fortifications, are spent by spawning as a bigger and badder Locust. As more points are gained different tiers of Locust are unlocked and soon you'll be crushing puny human skulls as a massive Berserker, or making their life difficult with the Giant Serapede. While this mode is a tad short with only twelve rounds, there is a sick glee that I get when I run up to a scavenger down on his luck and blow him to smithereens. A fantastic mode that is a great addition to the Gears of War universe.
The presentation and technical aspects of Gears 3 are where the most obvious and most substantial changes have occurred. The game looks wonderful with great high quality textures and solid lighting. This is one of the best looking games on currently on the Xbox 360. Texture pop-in, the bane of the Unreal engine, has also been mitigated. If textures pop in at all they do so quickly it's almost impossible to notice. An occasionally inconsistent frame rate, especially in cut scene, mars what is otherwise a very proficient technical package. The scenery has changed as well. You'll still have fights underground and in gray destroyed cities, but these are spaced between battles in deserts, forests, and some other locales I do not want to detail for the sake of the story. After two gears games with very similar locales it's nice to see some greater variation.
The audio of the game is superb just like other entries in the series. Guns sounds great and explosions sound ears-piercing. The best part though is the voice acting of the characters. The voice of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago sound better than ever. They sound sad when they are supposed to be sad, they sound angry when they are supposed to be angry. And oh, did I mention Ice T is in the game? Yes he is the game. I'm pretty sure this game would at least get a nomination for best audio in a game.
When the credits roll at the end of the campaign, I finally feel justified buying an Xbox 360. It is this exact game that makes me glad that I own a 360. From a roller coaster (and sometimes gut-wrenching) of a campaign, super-chaotic but fun Horde 2.0 to the fun competitive multiplayer, I salute Cliff Bleszinski and friends for making a game that deserves their studio name...EPIC!