I’ve just finished Gears of
War 3. This was a long time coming. Just like a few other video game series, GoW
has become one of my favorites because of its innovative take on the third
person shooter genre. Along with this
revolutionary duck and cover system, comes a stunningly intense story line,
lush and grungy environments, loveable personalities that few developers are
able to create in their characters, and an intense soundtrack.
This time around, in GoW3, one would expect this conclusion
to the trilogy to end with a bang. It
does, but more on that in a bit. The
format is the same. Take cover, fight
with [gun]fire [or frag grenade, flame thrower, or a wide variety of other
weapons], advance, and watch a cut scene.
It is repetitive, and yet somehow I was driven to continue thanks, in
part, to the intriguing story line. Each
cutscene serves as a reward to a job well done, revealing a little more about
what exactly is going on in Sera, and then you’re thrust right back into the
action.
In this iteration of the Gears saga we get a better look
into the backgrounds of some of our favorite side kicks [Expect to feel much
more sympathy for Dom and Cole]. We also
get to see more of the Queen of the Locust, who, somehow, has lost all of that
stuff that was on her back in GoW2…
The sound in this game is on par with the rest of the
series. There are a lot of new
additions in terms of how the Gears are able to fight off their Locust [and
Lambent] enemies, yet a lot of the sounds seems to be recycled from Gears 2
[including the music].
I’m not sure whether it is because we have reached the
pinnacle of what game designers are able to achieve on the current platforms,
but Gears of War 3 seems to “just” the next game after Gears 2. One would think that in order to
counterbalance the fact that we can only go so far with the development of the
sound and visuals, a more engaging and interesting twist would have been added
to the main campaign. Perhaps I’ve just
become jaded over the years, but as much as I love the Gears series, I can’t
help but feel that there was no reason for the delay here. Yes, it runs smoothly [the game is more fast
paced than 2, but not as fast as 1], and yes the story is concluded, but it
feels kind of rushed, especially at the end.
Overall, I do see why it was awarded high marks. It is a good game, but that’s just it.
Now it’s time for multiplayer. Anyway, that’s where all of the fun is!
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