Gears has always been one of my favorite shooting franchises, and Gears 3 has it all: bloated monster blimps, meat shields, chickens, and weapons with names like “mulcher”. Blood flows like water, and limbs rain like… well… rain.
This game has all the trademark elements Gears is known for including taking cover behind barriers and reviving down members of your squad. You’ll forge through a post-apocalyptic world with memorable locations like a football stadium and a bridge that gets pulled down by a leviathan.
One notable new weapon is the “digger” gun that burrows underground before exploding on contact with an enemy. You can man catapults, and you get an awesome view of the flaming rock as it approaches its target.
The graphics have a realistic, gritty look, but there’s not much eye candy. The dialogue isn’t exactly Shakespeare but it definitely gets an “A” for sarcasm. The controls are intuitive but I hate how the camera shakes when you run. It makes me ill! The campaign mode (which can be played cooperatively) is linear but the difficulty is fair and there’s never a dull moment. Still, the game gets repetitive at times. I don’t know if it’s the “Beyond Thunderdome” scenery or familiar bosses like a giant spider, but the developers seem to be running short on ideas. The horde mode is always a crowd pleaser, and you can now fortify yourself with between waves by buying barriers like barbed wire and weapons like turrets.
It’s addictive, but the insanely difficult boss stages can bring your progress (and fun) to a screeching halt. Gears of Wars 3 gives fans more of what they want, but I think the formula is starting to wear thin.
Used by permission © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.
