Gears of War 3 Campaign & Horde Review

[Flibbity Floid]

Title: Gears of War 3

 

Developer: Epic

 

Publisher: Microsoft Studios

 

Platform: Xbox 360

 

"At Ease Soldier...."

 

Being the final chapter in the Gears saga (from the looks of it), Epic made good on ending a trilogy in a good way. The pivotal moments aren't as in your face as the last game, save for about 3 or 4 of them, but the progression is a nice pace of back and forth between the plot build and then firefights. My stars...the firefights. Not only are you dealing with Lambent to start off with, who explode at the end of their lead lunches, but of course, the Locust return. Majority of the campaign revolves around the search for Adam Fenix who is presumed alive. The other half is not so much following but keeping background notice on the Locust following Delta Squad. As mentioned, the revelation wasn't what I expected but it gives you something to think about. The final Carmine brother, Clayton certainly gets his rank as the best brother so far. The rest of the crew isn't much to talk about as they don't do much background on Sam, Jayce or Anya. Griffin (Ice-T) plays a much smaller role than I'd thought but there's an interesting scene between him and Marcus to the point where shit almost got too real. Other than that, a semi-cliche moment before the actual ending but they did a great job on combining insurmountable loss mixed with hope and faith in a tomorrow. A well deserved sendoff for the series in my honest opinion. It has been an honor serving (I know. I have the medal to prove it. HA!).

 

"Horde, More HORDE, MOAR HORDE!!!!!!"

 

 Make no mistake, Horde 2.0 is truly an upgrade from the last round. The idea now instead of straight up defending, relies more on fortifications and defensive positions. There are systems of upgrading/repairing:

Fences - Barbed wire, razor wire, spikes, laser barriers.

Decoys - Carboard cutouts, target dummies, Cole Train Standee

Turrets - Man-able turrets, Automated turrets

Silverback - COSTLY mech suit with turret and missile capabilities.

 

There are weapons lying around for purchase - Grenades, Hammer of Dawn, Mulchers, Mortars, Snipers, etc. Each player starts with $1000 to spend however they choose and it all builds per wave and kill. Do you stock up on weapons every round or play it safe behind a nice slew of distractions and barriers?

There is also the option to Buy Back In if you happen to fall but be wary, starting at $1500 - it goes up $1500 every 10 waves. Your final set of 10 will cost you a lovely $7500 to buy back in!!! You can trade money as well during the session but only if you're close enough to each other. Ammo too!

Now, every tenth wave is a true Boss Wave this time around and it is a doozy! So far, not only does it randomly change should you happen to fail, but it is unrelenting and strenuous to the maximum degree. Mixed with a few casual enemies like Tickers, Wretches, Polyps, Shriekers, Lambent, Locust, Grinders, Boomers, Maulers, Flame Boomers and so on, they decide to add actual Bosses. MORE THAN ONE!!! So far, encounters have called in:

3 Berserkers at a time

2 Brumaks (one after the other)

3 Reavers and a Brumak

Mini Corpsers and Reavers

Lambent Berkersker and 2 Reavers

3 Gunkers and a Brumak

 

Obviously, it likes to fully randomize it. However, for some reason, the 50th wave did NOT seem as hard as say 40. The last stretch of waves WILL test your patience and perseverance. Brumaks and Berserksers will take forever to take down even on Casual.

 

--- The Breakdown ---

 

Graphics - A major upgrade this time especially during cutscenes. Most reactions and pivotal moments are glorious to watch.

 

Sound - See any previous Gears game. Disappointment rises nowhere here.

 

Story - An Epic ending to a well done trilogy IMO. Delta Squad and humanity have come a long way and the culmination will least than likely disappoint the masses.

 

Controls - Changes to certain buttons are made in order to separate the frustration of picking up ammo when you're trying to revive a teammate. Otherwise, See Gears 2.

 

Replay Value - Moderately high due to the much improved Horde Mode and it's Beast Mode counterpart. MP has been given a slight upgrade with dedicated servers but I'm still not the most trusting being that matches are still NOT timed. I dare not take part in the Kill Farming Bonanza. However, most of the new weapons and executions will be gold to work on an unsuspecting noob.

 

All of this mixed with a much more easier to follow "War Journal" in the form of Stats and Awards, you'll receive Ribbons for completing certain feats towards unlocks and Medals to atatch to your COG on the loading screens. Examples:

 

Deadpool Psycko - Tour of Duty: Proudly Served(casual) or Served With Honor(normal) (Campaign Completion)

Mudvayne Psycko - Beta Tester (duh)

And there are many more for weapon proficiency, loot spending, assists, beast/horde modes, etc. Lots of medals with individual titles.

 

All in all, the game was a great end to a great series that helped kick the Xbox into stardom.

 

Bliggity blogged by Flibbity Floid

[Irishbrewed]

I have yet to try the horde mode, shame on me. I agree with the story review I think the ending/wrapping up was a little underplayed or somber I guess. But I have no alternatives so what can I say.

[Flibbity Floid]

@ Travs - See, what I read there was - "The square root of my nerdality is equidistant to the velocity of a homosexual african swallow to the division of negative X plus Pie in my mouth. The answer? Cock = Good."

 

Xbox 360 = Xbox+. It's the same fucking company. All they did was take it's online gaming more mainstream and increased it's overheating capabilities. BTW - You seen the Reach Challenges? Another above 2000k apiece and up to 4343! The weekly is a new one too for 28343 - 300 Precision Kills.

 

@ ZackAttack - Holy shit! The first time, they threw 3 Gunkers at us on Gridlock. We took down one and eventually, all went down at once. Happened again but we got rid of 1 and all the smaller enemies. Both Gunkers took us out one by one. Finally...We all get to the middle building and we just see the big fucking maw start blasting it's turret from around the far corner and then it reared it's ugly head. Once we took it down, we focused too much on what we thought was left as another one spawned about a minute later.

[eZACKe]

I haven't seen a Brumak at all yet in Horde. I can't imagine getting one (or two) for wave 10 though haha. I've had the Lambent Zerker a couple times though, he is a pain.

[Travers36]

It wasn't on the Xbox, it was on the Xbox 360.  Halo launched the Xbox into stardom.  The OG Gears of War showed what the 360 could do.  Just putting that out there Mr. super smarty.

[Flibbity Floid]

[ChegsTheTainoTank]

That was a hell of a round 40 Zoidy. We still managed to knock all 50 waves out though, so fuck it.

[Flibbity Floid]

Ditto. It just oozes replay value.

 

We got stuck on Wave 40 the other night for almost 2 hours!! Those fucking Berserkers are no joke! So far, the best strategy on them (IMO) is have someone using a Scorcher to weaken them while everyone just unloads on it, preferably someone with a Mulcher and/or Hammer. If someone can, stick an Incendiary on the bitch.

[eZACKe]

I'm loving Horde. It's my favorite part of the game so far. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get in games with anyone really good and haven't made it far. Was in a good game the other night and we made it to level 29 without too much trouble, but then 3 out of the 5 people left.