Article by Tim Dekowski | Photography by Joshua Eller | Owl Staff
Have you ever dreamt of destroying underground aliens in a squad of trained military personnel? How about blowing everything to bits with futuristic weapons in an extremely realistic environment?
Released in Fall 2011, Epic Games’ Gears of War 3 lets us close the book on the story of Marcus Phoenix and the rest of Delta Squad. Eighteen months after the sinking of Jacinto that flooded the Locust Hollow, Marcus’ father, Adam, who isn’t dead, but kidnapped, claims the emulsion is killing the planet and spawned the Lambent in a message Marcus receives from Ex Chairman Prescott. Adam also says he’s on an island somewhere, claiming he can end the War and stop the Lambent from consuming the world in one shot. The only problem is, you have no idea where it is, and you have several million Locusts and Lambent between you and the island.
“Released in Fall 2011, Epic Games’ Gears of War 3 lets us close the book on the story of Marcus Phoenix and the rest of Delta Squad.”
Aside from the new campaign, it features a revamped Horde Mode and the new Beast Mode. Several new Gears will make an appearance and many of them, shocking to me, are from the books, as well as some new baddies and weapons. In the revamped Horde Mode, the points you gather by killing enemies helps you build defenses like turrets, distractions, mortar strikes, and barriers. You can also buy the robotic exoskeleton “silver back”; it sports two mini guns attached at the arms, and can transform into cover for your allies and a missile launcher platform.
The Person-vs-Person Multiplayer mode is almost exactly the same as Gears 2, with the major differences being the medal system and the new gun skins. One thing they have yet to fix is the shotgun two-piecing which causes a lot of rage in my normally peaceful demeanor. The saving grace from that is the Beast Mode where you take the role of a Locust and kill all the humans (AI) before time runs out. With different levels of Locust, the more points you earn helps to unlock the other levels. The top tier is where I get a lot of enjoyment when I take control of the Berserker.
With all the new downloadable content that will be released, and there are supposed to be a lot of them, new story lines, characters, and multiplayer maps will add a lot of fresh blood to an old system. All this in mind, buy this game: 9.5 out of 10.