4 May, 2011
As all good games should aspire to do, Gears of War seems to go from strength to strength upon each instalment. Having been fortunate enough to sample the Gears 3 Beta, it seems Epic’s latest is going to continue the tradition, unequivocally. Modewise, the Beta hasn’t really offered anything new to the series: you have Team DeathMatch, King of the Hill and Capture the Leader, all of which have featured in some form in previous Gears games. However, each have been tweaked and refined to ensure that they are fresh and exciting within this world. Being completely honest, most of my time online in Gears 2 was spent on Horde mode. For me, the other modes just weren’t as polished or fun. However, I am really enjoying my time with the Gears 3 Beta, and each of the modes it has been bundled with. Already, I think it is a vast, positive evolution over its predecessor.
The Beta was designed to allow Epic to test their dedicated online servers and naturally any bugs or glitches that can only be identified by people playing against each other in an online realm. And now that we’ve had some time with the Beta game, what do we think?
Team Deathmatch – currently my favourite mode – sees both teams start with fifteen lives each. Lives are lost every time someone on that team is killed. When spawns have depleted and teammates are killed, players are eliminated from the game and forced to watch their team mates fight for survival from the sidelines. This is my favourite mode in the Beta and one that I have spent many hours on already. When the game releases in September, I can certainly see myself playing this much more.
There’s not much to say about King of the Hill or Capture the leader that you don’t already know but, just in case, here they are in brief: King of the Hill sees you compete against each other to assume control of certain areas on the map, and the winning team is whomever finishes up with the most points’. There is also a Capture the Leader mode. Here, one person on each team is designated the leader and it will be the objective of the opposing team to capture that leader to score points for their team. Remind you of Juggernaut, perhaps?
So with such familiar and established modes, what has Epic done to up the stakes and make Gears stand out in such a competitive genre?. The Beta ships with four maps: Old Town, Check Out, Trenches and Thrashball, each of which is vastly different from the other. While Thrashball is an indoor, almost stadium-like scenario. Trenches is outdoor in the intense heat of the desert. Old Town falls somewhere between the two with most of it being set outdoors but with some buildings for you to take cover and conceal yourself from enemies. Check Out, also an indoor scenario, takes place in a rather desecrated supermarket. In my experience, I have rarely found four maps that I like as much as the ones found in Gears 3. Each really provides something different to each game type and keeps them interesting with true diversity.
Brothers to the end ... apparently.
In addition to this, Gears 3 also introduces new weapons to the fray, the Incidendary Grenade, the Retro Lancer, The Sawed Off Shotgun, the Digger Launcher and The One Shot. Epic have also tweaked the Gorgon Pistol (Now Gorgon SMG) and the Hammerburst. The Sawed Off Shotgun will take some getting used to, with one bullet and a lengthy reload time and the Retro Lancer, while it has good burst power, basically forces you to charge and spike your opponents from afar in order to take advantage of its melee opportunities. The Digger Launcher, by far, seems the best new edition to the series, which fires a bullet reminiscent of a mole, that goes deep underground and pops out on an unsuspecting opponent, blowing their head off their shoulders.
You can also knock your enemies back and out of cover if you’re crouched the opposite side from them. This is a great new feature that adds even more tactical warfare to the game than ever before.
On top of all this, Gears 3 provides an XP/unlock system, that players may recognise from Call of Duty. This absolutely suits the Gears of War series and works in harmony with the rest of the new features added into Gears 3. Dependent on the kills you get, the consecutive amount of kills you have, the variety of weapons you use or any other number of variables, you can earn experience points, boost your level and unlock character and weapon skins and medals. In fact, by completing certain things in the Beta, you can unlock features in the full game when it releases in September, such as flaming lancers and Thrashball Cole!
On a personal note, I am loving this beta. I’m noticing that while I’m still performing well, I need to change up my strategy due to the new weapons, environments and subtle tweaks that have developed in the transition between Gears 2 to Gears 3. I am getting trounced regularly by opponents, purely because I haven’t got to grips with these new weapons yet. But is this a problem? Definitely not. Epic are forcing veteran players to change their game to ensure that they’re not left behind.. Playing the Gears 3 Beta makes you realise that while it is the same game, it is also vastly different – chiefly for the better!
Honestly, in a year where Microsoft’s gaming catalogue is looking slim, Gears of War 3 is going to provide reason enough for people to want to jump into Epic’s World once more and continue the battle between COG and Locust. This Beta has made me want September to come all the faster. In terms of what it offers and how fluid it is, this even rivals last year’s Reach beta in terms of quality. Fantastic!
I was fortunate to get some hands-on time with Beast Mode at Eurogamer. Now I’ve coupled my experiences of that with the beta, all I can say is, September is too far away!
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