A masterpiece, brimming with content, a jaw-dropping campaign, and an excellent send-off to a genre defining classic
I have had a soft spot for Gears ever since the first one came out. It was the first game I ever got for 360, and I thought I had witnessed something truly special the first time I saw it. It was visceral and hectic, but presented itself as delicate, and the characters felt like real people, and the story was well crafted. You don't see such a complete package very often in gaming anymore. Sure, there are games that are insane fun to play, but fall flat on the story (CoD, Battlefield (NOT bad company- great story), SOCOM, Assassins Creed 1), and then there are those that tell a fantastic story, but kind of fall flat on gameplay (Heavy Rain, Indigo Prophecy, Splinter Cell: Conviction, HomeFront, BulletStorm... not all of Epic's games are winners). Gears had a unique mix of storytelling and badass action, and that's something that has always set the series apart. The second game came out swinging with great set-piece battles and really pushed the graphics and cinematic storytelling to a brand new level. And above it all, Gears has always had a half-cartoony, half gritty realism that kind of sticks with you, and sets the whole experience head and shoulders above some more tactical, far more realistic gaming experiences, because Gears has always managed to be as serious as it gets... without taking itself too seriously. And that is very important.
Gears has always been one of those graphical benchmark-type games. Every time a new one comes out, it pushes the limits of existing technology, effectively raising the bar for the games that follow. After I got my HDTV a little over a year ago (42" Vizio 1080p), I had a number of games I could have used to calibrate the TV. Which one did I choose? Gears 2. Why? Because it's cinematic, the lighting isn't static and the action doesn't stand still. It was the obvious choice in my undeniably large game library to test the features of my new HDTV. I had all the other top titles, but Gears 2 was the one I chose. Well, Gears 3 continues Epic's tradition of graphical overdrive by introducing a number of beautiful new graphical touches that are easy to overlook if you don't stop to smell the roses once in a while. You may miss them, but your brain will see them. The way tendrils of green mist rise from immulsion pools, the way real-time shadows cast ghost-trails of blackness in shafts of light as you walk through them, and the satisfying explosions of the Lambent infantry units when you pump enough bullets into them all look insane. The character models have gotten a very nice touch-up graphically, and the environments have a very GOW-esque grittiness to them that feels organic and lifelike. Just about every aspect of the game has gotten a visual touch-up. The animations, the depth of field... it all looks fantastic. At times, you DO get some texture pop-in, and it's pretty noticeable when it happens, but it's obvious that this game is taxing the hardware with all the crazy stuff happening onscreen at any given time, so a little texture fudge-up is acceptable. There's more happening onscreen, and texture pop happens less than in Dead Island, so don't assume it will be nearly that bad.
As with other games in the series, the audio is an impressive aspect of the game, although it can be a bit lopsided at times. The voice acting is kitchy, but poignant. There's some action-movie cliche BS in there, but I'm sure this was done on purpose as a design choice. The acting is all very solid, and crafts the narrative really well. The way characters react and move and interact, both in cutscenes and in actual gameplay, just feels more real and tense than in other shooters. You feel like they are badasses, but that they are vulnerable and even a bit powerless. The characters aren't as one-dimensional as they might seem to a casual observer. Marcus has his own demons that he still hasn't come to grips with. Dom has an innate need to care and nurture something besides himself, and this is even more apparent after the horrific death of his wife in the last game. Cole needs to feel adored and powerful in order to feel like he has worth. These are simple observations based on how the characters interact with each other and how their facial expressions really signal their mood in the moment. It's actually quite impressive how emotive the characters in this action game can be at times, and a lot of that is thanks to the audio. The soundtrack isn't anything super special, but it's very effective and it does its damn job pretty well. It lets you feel what you're supposed to feel, and never takes you out of the experience. The stereo-to-5.1 mix is quite good, and immerses you in the action exceptionally well.
So. Now we're at the big part of the game. The gameplay... This aspect of Gears has never been doubt, I think... I've always felt like Gears has been the gold standard of cover-based third-person shooters (at least on the 360) and if you take a step back and look at the series as a whole, one of the things that's so great about it isn't so much that the gameplay has evolved so much since the first game... it's that so much of it stayed largely the same, with small tweaks and improvements that tightened it up and made it flow better. In Gears 3, the cover system, active reloading, running, executions, melee... it's all very similar to Gears games past, but tighter, more refined, faster... like the characters got better at their jobs by... well... doing them for three games. And that's not a bad thing at all. Some games have their protagonists gain lopsided new abilities every game and it becomes so ridiculous you can barely remember which game uses what set of weapons/power-ups/modifications/abilitites, and it gives you a headache (yes, I'm talking about the Halo series- pistol zooms, pistol doesn't zoom, one game I don't have deployable shields, next game I do). Gears doesn't feel that way at all... Sure, there are new weapons, which are all awesome. There are new vehicles, and they're destructive and brutal and fun to play with. Yes, there are a couple refined mechanics, which are all at the top of their game in this installment, but that's a design and control perspective, rather than a complete gameplay overhaul... no... Gears hasn't changed much. And the fact that Epic has managed to keep our interest, get us excited about the experience, and tighten up the feel of the game to give us something brand new while immersing us in the undeniably familiar has been called "lazy" or "boring," but it's neither of those things...
it's freaking genius.
Pick whatever rivalry in gaming you can imagine (MW vs Battlefield, for instance). One side will always cling to the argument that the other's game is the same old thing over and over again and that it's boring (statistically, games accused of this tend to be all-time best sellers). People on the other side say the first group's game is inconsistent and tell them that it lacks identity. Gears 3 toes the delicate line in between those extremes, adding new concepts and design decisions while keeping the overall gameplay experience familiar and grounded in series canon, which makes you care about the characters. You've seen their plight, and you know what they're capable of, and what their limitations are. You feel vulnerable, and that leads to more tension in the course of the drama. It's this feeling of familiarity with the characters and their abilities and their limits that forms the backbone of the story arc of the entire series. Their pain feels real and the hardship they go through is almost palpable, using the stunning graphics and audio as tools to complement the story, rather than tacked-on action movie schlock. This is indeed a very well made game. It's not perfect, but it comes very close. Leading up to a holiday season literally brimming with high quality titles bursting forth from a plethora of genres, it's nice to see that a third-person cover-based shooter with humble beginnings has grown into a powerful franchise that will give even the front-runners a run for gamers' attention, and money.