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Video Game Review: Gears Of War 3 Beta
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Merkader   |  

Gears of War 3

Gears of War 3
Beta
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Epic Games, Inc.
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Release date: September 20, 2011 (full product)

The Gears of War series has been one where I have loved the single-player campaign; it’s got lots of action and is just really fun to play. I have always felt the multiplayer lagged behind other games, especially Halo and Call of Duty. With this said, I was very anxious to try out the final game in the series, Gears of War 3, and see if they had brought their multiplayer up to snuff. Several of my gripes have been dealt with, others not so much. Hopefully they can be fixed before the final build; this is after all only the beta. Here are my long-standing complaints with Gears multiplayer and how they have been addressed.

Slow match making: This always drove me crazy. In Gears 2 I would wait FOREVER to get into a match. I’m happy to say this has been totally addressed in the beta for Gears 3 and I have only had to wait a fraction of a minute to get into playing. Sometimes I’ve noticed that I’m stuck as an observer while a computer controlled player is still going, but I’d rather that than a wait screen.

Slow player movement: The people just feel so clunky in Gears. I always felt this more in the multiplayer. The movement speed is definitely faster than in Gears 2, but still feels slow in comparison to other games. It could be the third-person perspective, but I always feel like I just can’t get where I want to in time.

Poor weapon balance: This is still there. There are way too many one-shot weapons that can be used. All too often, the game becomes about who can memorize where the power weapons are and get to them first. This always frustrated me the most about these games. They are just so over powering that you can’t compete. At least the power weapons in Halo each have weaknesses that go with them. Not much weakness in the Boom Shot, besides slow reload speed.

The beta also has some other new hotness. There are two new starting weapons, the retro Lancer and the sawed off shotgun, as well as two new weapons you can pick up along the way, the Digger Launcher and One Shot. The One Shot is a weapon that brings in a kind of air strike. I haven’t used this weapon, nor have I seen it used, so I’m not sure if it actually made it into the beta. The Dig Launcher I have seen, and used, and it’s really fun. It throws a grenade underground, and it travels until it comes into contact with someone, when it will pop up and explode — kind of like a traveling land mine. It only goes in straight lines, but it’s great for flushing people out of cover or taking care of campers. The sawed off shotgun is a smaller, supposedly more powerful shotgun, but it only holds two rounds. I haven’t found this to be any stronger than the existing shotgun and it holds less bullets, so I’m not impressed. The Retro Lancer is just like it sounds, an older Lancer. Big difference is instead of a chainsaw there is a bayonet on the end, which you can use to charge your enemies and impale them on the end, which is really cool if you can get it to work. The bad thing about this weapon is its accuracy is awful! At any distance you can’t hit anything because of recoil. I would have liked a new rifle in the game that you could actually use.

Also new in the game are a slew of new executions. I won’t spoil what they are like, so that you get the, “holy crap that was awesome moments” when you do each one. They look great! Also looking great are the maps. Very textured and a very nice size. The inclusion of some interactive elements is a nice touch as well.

In all, some nice improvements have been made for this final chapter in the Gears trilogy. I very much look forward to its final release, and hopefully a few more tweeks.

If you haven’t been able to play the beta, each person currently in it will have some invites to hand out starting Monday. I may have a couple extra to hand out. I’ll keep you posted.

7 Comments »

  1. Just a few corrections regarding the weapons:

    – The One Shot is a massive sniper rifle that basically kills in one shot, regardless where you hit.  It can be found in the map “Trenches”. The “air strike” weapon you’re talking about is the Mortar.

    -  The sawed-off shotgun is much more powerful than the regular gnasher, but its bullets spread much wider, so it’s only useful when you’re right next to someone and there’s a better chance of most of the bullets hitting your opponent.

    – The retro lancer is less accurate but more powerful than the regular lancer. It’s best used at mid-range and fired in bursts.  If used correctly, it can take people down pretty quickly, especially if they’re trying to charge at you with a chainsaw or shotgun.

    Comment by Migs — May 16, 2011 @ 7:15 pm

  2. The sawoff has 4 bullet not two.

    Comment by Darktwister98 — May 16, 2011 @ 2:32 pm

  3. Ok first things first if you are going to write a review of a game even if it’s a beta test version, PLAY THE GAME FULLY FIRST!! I only had the code for a couple of days and played with everything in the game and had added the hammer and a new torque bow tag gametype. Yes it still has some problems but not everything you said there as MIGS before me stated about the weapons.

    I’m not being an ass but seriously if you want to post a review of a game at least know about what your posting about and not just post what you think it should be without testing.

    Comment by Gaguy_385 — May 16, 2011 @ 9:36 pm

  4.  lol did you even play the beta? Your gripes with the weapons makes it sound like you didn’t spend much time with them.

    Comment by Ron — May 16, 2011 @ 10:22 pm

  5. Without Kevin Reipl doing the music, this game is just a piece of s***.

    Comment by Dude231231 — May 17, 2011 @ 12:56 am

  6.  and the betas over,

    wow no offense, but you almost have no idea what ur talking about Lol
    tho you do make some pretty good points

    Comment by Damian — May 17, 2011 @ 2:41 am

  7.  Also, regarding the slow player movement… that’s the whole point of Gears of War.  It’s a cover-based shooter starring a bunch of ‘roided up soldiers in armor.  They’re not going to be light and nimble on their feet. Don’t confuse this with other action games where your character turns on a dime and can spin on the spot with ease. You’re controlling 250 lb musclebound barbarians with large guns and armor.

    Comment by Migs — May 17, 2011 @ 5:10 pm

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