The Game for the True GEARHEAD...
After having played Gears of War (PC), Gears of War (360), and Gears of War 2 (360), I can finally say that EPIC is now a master of their craft.
I was very impressed with the content available during the week of its release, and to this day, I am still impressed with not only the improvements, but the ever-growing content and DLC's for the game.
I am a fan of FPS as well as 3PS, but one thing that has annoyed me about shooters for years is the 1-dimensional gameplay that tends to take place after the initial bells and whistles wear off.
Sure, plenty of games will get the thumbs up from their fans due to the graphics and realism of AI, but when sequels to game titles become nothing more than a continuation of a story that you're honestly only going to play once or twice, for $60 a pop, I needed more content. I wanted as much content as can be compared to an RPG or even a open-world adventure title. This is an achievable feat. Halo: Reach has done it, with stats-tracking software like Waypoint, map design features like Forge, and even mini games like skee-ball and rugby-style battles. All of this within a shooter.
EPIC must have been paying attention, because now there have been many notable tidbits that we, as Gears fans, have never seen before.
Gears 2 introduced a few things like the War Journal, and a mini news feed that could be viewed from the main menu. The news feed would tell you when something was coming up, but in order for it to tell you anything new, EPIC had to put out yet another of its million (exaggerated) title updates just for a tiny little change of text.
I am unaware of the updates to whatever editing software they are using in their toolkit to mainain such a large game as Gears 3, but what I can tell you from first glance is that they finally are paying attention to the opinions of their long-time fans.
Now, without the need of a title update, weekly, and even sometimes daily, game modes will be available not only in Matchmaking, but in Horde as well.
You still have the option of playing matches offline with friends, or bots. But, like the Nintendo 64 version of 007: GOLDENEYE, you can apply mutators to the gameplay, but they need to be earned from achieving set goals within the game. Some of these mutators include unlimited ammo, super reload, and even invincibility. But even one of the most common among Gears games, is the friendly fire mutator, which is no longer available simply by putting in the game disc.
One little thing I thought was kind of cool, which may not even be intentional, is that if you customize the weapon pickups, (ie. Boomshots are now grenades, etc.) if the system chooses you as a game host for Horde, now all of the players will be playing on your custom weapon pickups. So... if you feel like using this as a loop hole for making it easier to reach wave 50 by putting OneShots, Mulchers, and Torque Bows everywhere, I won't judge you.
The campaign is perfect. The pace between battles and the difficulty of the missions are all gauged very well. And although the areas are no longer the monotonous grey from Gears 1, or ridiculous winter white-out seen throughout Gears 2, you definitely feel like there's almost nothing left in the world of Sera.
The guns are breaking down, so turrets now are simply automatic rifles strapped together and mounted to a stand.
Dom is the man. Enough said.
I'm not going to talk about the storyline, but I will at least say how happy I was to see the ending scenes. Well done EPIC, well done.
It's finally a shooter with DLC's worth buying. EPIC gives you your bang for your buck by releasing Map Packs with so much more than just maps.
If you even slightly liked Gears 1 and 2, at least try Gears of War 3, it is the perfect end to a trilogy.