Back in 2006, Epic Games introduced the gaming world to the first Gears of War video game in a planned trilogy. Gears of War, which was set on the planet Sera, marked the debut of Delta Squad and their leader Marcus Fenix. The game also laid out the ongoing 15-year war between the Human armies (including the COGs) and the ground-dwelling beasts from hell known as the Locust. The COG’s were in a struggle of survival against the massive Locust army who emerged from underground on what became known as “Emergence Day.” It was essentially a story about hope, survival, and most-importantly Brotherhood, as the player(s) got to see the story through the eyes of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. Marcus is a decorated war hero from the Pendulum Wars, who was imprisoned for leaving his post in order to try and save his dad, scientist Adam Fenix (this comes into play in Gears 3). Marcus is set free by his best friend Dom in a last-ditch effort to save humanity from the unrelenting Locust. Little did we know back then, that Dom coming back to set Marcus free from his cell, foreshadowed the bond between the two childhood friends and the rest of Delta Squad. It was truly the first sign of what would be an ongoing theme in the Gears franchise, “Brothers to the End.” So now that you’re properly introduced to the series and ready to play Gears of War 3, sadly this is the closure to the Delta Squad trilogy, you probably think you know exactly what to expect after playing the first two Gears games and the GOW3 beta?
Let me be the first to tell you that you’re wrong, so fucking wrong it’s not even funny. Epic Games has taken nearly 3 years to craft this gaming masterpiece after deciding to push the release date back from April 2011 to September 2011; to their credit this move probably made the game much better and definitely not worse. The first game established the franchise and introduced gamers to the characters in the Gears Universe, but lacked a truly compelling story as admitted by Epic Games. Epic brought in famed comic book author Joshua Ortega to write the story for Gears of War 2 and by doing this, the story improved leaps and bounds compared to the first game. Ortega also penned a spin-off Gears of War Comic series that introduced fans to many new characters such as Jace Stratton and others. In the time it made to create the Gears of War trilogy Epic Games released a couple novels that filled in the events and time-periods in between games. For these, Epic turned to author Karen Traviss, who made a name for herself in the geek world by writing several of the popular Star Wars novels. The Gears of War book series flushed out even more of Delta Squad’s background story and many of the events from the Pendulum Wars, Emergence Day, and in the end leads readers right up the start of Gears of War 3.
After the success of her book-writing Traviss was brought into the video game industry to write the story for Gears of War 3, and she brings many of the characters from the comics and novels into the game that had never been mentioned previously. The reason I’m detailing all of this is because if you have not read the comics or novels many of the new characters will not seem familiar to you. I recommend that you pick-up the novels and give them a quick read because they are excellent and with Gears 3 launching in a mere 5 days; at the very least drop by the Gears of War wiki page and read about some of these new characters background stories. Without spoiling any of the Gears of War 3 plot for you, the final chapter begins 18 months after the end of Gears of War 2 and as previously mentioned will close the book on the Delta Squad trilogy. Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski was quoted saying, “You can expect that we’ll answer a majority of the questions players have about the history of the Sera and what’s going on,” continuing “we’re not going to answer everything, but I can tell you that this will be the end to that specific trilogy.” The game opens with what minimal remains of the COG forces left after fighting the Locust for the past 15 years. The COG are basically disbanded once Chairman Prescott went missing (abandoned his post), after making the choice to sink and flood the last COG stronghold Jacinto at the end of Gears of War 2. Thinking they have eliminated the Locust for good and are too far away from the Lambent, the former COGs are just trying to live out their lives in whatever peace they can find.
I will stop there with the plot-line to make sure you aren’t spoiled to one of the greatest stories ever to make an appearance in a virtual experience. The game’s story brings the Gears universe to life like no writer has done before, or probably could do if they had been given a chance. By blending in story lines from novels and the 2 previous Gears video games, Traviss pulls you directly into the character’s feelings of desperation to live, as well as the loyalty to one another that hits you in the gut like a Mike Tyson uppercut. The story campaign also introduces 4 Player Co-Op for the first time. Unlike the previous 2 games, players will not be forced to play as Marcus and Dom the whole game. You will get to branch out to other members of Delta Squad and see how different events unfold through their eyes (we’ll leave that information for you to find out while playing). There are also many new Locust and Lambent enemies that will try to obliterate you and your teammates into extinction. The new lambent forms of Locust are the one enemy you really need to keep an eye on because they can often morph into different forms, raining disaster down on your whole team with extreme force. The design team at Epic Games portrays Delta’s anxiety of facing the ever changing lambent forms by spacing out supplies to make it feel like you’re always on the run for ammo and/or cover. The campaign is longer than the previous 2 games and as I stated above, “One of the Best Stories of Any Game I Have Ever Played.” The story mode (played by yourself or with teammates) alone is worth the $59.99 price tag, but that’s not all that Gears of War 3 excels at, the award-winning multiplayer is back and better than ever.
This feature review continues on the next page, please click Page 2 below to read more of our final thoughts on Gears of War 3's multiplayer.
