Gears of War 3

With a day off Tuesday I sat down and finished Gears of War 3. I am a big fan of the series and had big hopes for this, the last part. Did it disappoint?

Story

This takes place a while after the city of Jacinto is dropped on the Locust, end of part 2. The survivors, Marcus and the gang of soldiers, are holed-up on a ship making ends meet, or just surviving. The main baddies are now the Lambent.

These are Locust that have been infected with the fuel of this planet. A fuel that runs underground and was vented into their cities to kill them all off. Well that was the plan. Instead it has infected them and caused them to mutate into glowing and sometimes mutating creatures. They are none too happy and are looking for payback.

Then there is word that papa Fenix is alive and has a way to stop the Lambent. Well hooray lets do that! So off you go to save the planet. All you have to do is fight through the Lambent, and the always unhappy Locust.

Sure there is a bit more, but that is the jest of it. Kill stuff to save the day. That is really the whole premise of this series.

Play

This is still the same run, gun and cover game as the previous two. So there really is not much to complain or rave about here. You shoot stuff, there is ample cover to keep safe behind and stuff dies in glorious blood and bits! If anything, it might be the easiest of the three. This is strange, but not unwelcome.

Extra Stuff

The main draw for this series, for me anyway, is the details. The little stuff like being able to flank entrenched Locust, the heat and smoke that the gun barrels show while reloading, the grime, the bleak environments, the bit of dark humor and the various executions.

• Take the scorcher, the game’s flamethrower. When you light a Locust up, he will stop, drop and roll.
• You can stick incendiary grenades to baddies, if you sneak up on them, and when they explode they run around on fire.
• The curb stop!
• The execution move that has you driving a running Lancer into a wounded Locust belly or even better his face!
• The voices of the Boomers are always fun. Very reminiscent of Shunk from Invader Zim.
• The running Alamo-esqe fort battle.
• The Silverback exo-suit!
• Kicking “tickers” into enemies.
• The return of the Berserker!



"I'm back and all glowly!!!"



All this is just a small bit of the stuff that makes me enjoy this series and this game.

Back to the original question, did it disappoint? Well yes and no. The story is more of an after thought for me. It is fine that has a conclusion and all that. I love the game play! If anything I was a bit let down by the fact this last part didn’t have an F-bomb moment.

This is where there is a sequence that is so irritating that it has me screaming a string of profanity at the tele. It was the Berserker hallway sequence in the first game. It was the rail shooter Reaver escape from part two. This part….well it didn’t have this sequence. I felt almost let down by it. I kept waiting and that F-bomb moment never happened. It was both a welcome and unwelcome surprise.

Even without that this is still a great game. If you have made it through the first two, you have probably played this already. If you haven’t played any of this series, go get the first part and enjoy! If you liked the Space Marine game, this a similar, if not better, style of play (and violent action). Seriously, who doesn’t like a game where your main weapon is a gun with a chainsaw bayonet?

A small moment of silence for the passing of the greatness that is the Gears of War series……….

Now onto Bioshock 2!