Gears of War 3 - Finish the fight in style!

Back in the day I would say Gears of War 3 is a game that warrants the purchase of an Xbox360. Today after seeing how Microsoft has been doling out nothing much casual stuff in recent times, I can happily say it is now the game that has managed to redeem the Xbox360. It is a violent, bloody and an unapologetic conclusion to one of the Xbox360’s most beloved first party titles. If you own an Xbox360, there’s no two ways about it; you have to buy this game.

The game puts players into the war hardened boots of Marcus Fenix once again as he strives to end the Locust menace plaguing his planet since Emergence Day. Unfortunately this time round, he has a new menace to deal with in the form of the Lambent. Now these guys are bad news not really caring about who they infect and kill going after both the human as well as the Locust race. And the whole concept of the enemy of my enemy is a friend doesn’t really work here so you’ll pretty much kill everything that isn’t human.

You one ugly mofo man

Epic are fierce believers of the “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” philosophy so if you’ve played either of the previous games, you’ll know exactly what to expect here. You’ll play as one of four burly macho dudes, spend a lot of time taking cover, chainsaw enemies in half, blurt a ton of cocky one liners and grin from ear to ear at the over-the-top violence. While I have no problem with this formula, I do wish Epic had switched things up a notch because after three games, doing the exact same things albeit in different environments can feel a bit stale.

Yes there are new enemies, weapons and enough set-pieces to give Naughty Dog a run for their money but at the end of the day, Gears of War is a giant laundry list of clichés. Throughout the game’s eight odd hours you’ll go through the whole gamut of conventional video game missions like flipping switches, surviving many ambushes, watch people sacrifice their lives for the greater good and so on. Thankfully they’re hidden by the game’s near perfect pacing and its relentless action. Towards the end of the campaign however, I still felt a bit of boredom setting in. It was like Epic had kind of run out of steam and were just forcibly increasing the game's length.

Horde mode is a blast

You can run through the entire campaign by yourself or team up with up to three of your friends over Xbox Live to tackle it co-operatively. While playing solo, friendly AI does a fairly decent job of backing you up. Sure they do stupidly charge into a horde of enemies at times but for most of the game they can hold their ground in battle just fine. The campaign’s just the tip of the iceberg in Gears of War 3 and you can continue the co-operative experience by engaging in some Horde or Beast mode.

Horde mode returns from Gears of War 2 with some Tower Defence like features. For those who haven’t played it at all, it’s very simple. You need to survive 50 waves of enemies, each of which progressively get tougher. After every round you’ll have a few seconds to regroup and purchase supplies like ammunition and explosives. This time round, money earned from killing the enemy can be used to further boost your defences like setting up fences, turrets, decoys and lots more. After every round you can either fix your damaged defences or even upgrade them to become tougher. If a turret or a fence is destroyed during a particular wave, you will not be able to repair it until that wave is over. Team co-ordination is essential because if a team mate dies, he has to wait out the entire wave (unless he has enough money to buy his way back) making it that much tougher for the remaining survivors.