Gears of War 3 Review

Releasing with lofty expectations, Gears of War 3 had fans clamoring for the trilogy conclusion nearly two years before its release.  The first trailer featured new COG members and enemies, plus awesome music (Check out “Gears 3 Ashes to Ashes” on YouTube).  Information leaked slowly, followed by a beta, and finally the full release.  Is Gears 3 worth the wait?

Gameplay

If you’ve played either of the first two games, you’ll already know the gameplay has been polished from the start.  However, as the 2^nd game brought new additions, it also brought new headaches, mapping many actions to one button, causing frustration.  Thankfully Epic listened to the user community and corrected these issues this time around.  In addition, they sped up character movement by roughly 15%, creating a more frantic pace in both the campaign and online.  The cover system has been tweaked, and although there are inadvertent “attachments” to certain objects in the game, it happens very little and the game does a good job of interpreting what you’re trying to do.  Everything thing feels very solid, albeit a few hiccups here and there, and my only wish is that they would’ve tried to innovate a bit more over Gears 2.  Best and smoothest controls of the series.

Graphics

Epic chose to run Gears 3 on its Unreal 3 engine and the game looks fantastic.  They’ve made many adjustments, especially with lighting and the color palette.  Most of the environments in previous games looked “the same”, populated with washed out greys, browns, and oranges.  The first level of the campaign takes place on an aircraft carrier, and you’ll see a bright blue sky, sunshine, and lush green vegetation.  The new lambent enemies explode in bright yellow bursts.  I think one of the coolest effects for me were the lambent “trails” left by the Lambent Berserker.  Once you check them out I’m sure you’ll agree.  The graphics aren’t perfect however, as I noticed quite a bit of clipping in places and some other strange glitches.  However, it doesn’t hinder the experience, and overall, the game looks great.

Sound

Everything sounds crisp and clear.  Gears has always been known for the one-liners tossed around by players in-game, and they certainly don’t disappoint here.  Griffin (Ice-T) will definitely make you laugh out loud on more than one occasion.  Explosions, guns firing, and character voices really jump out of your speakers and the music is dramatic and fitting for all of the set pieces throughout the game (catch Mad World playing on Gridlock!).  My only gripe is minor, but can lead to confusion.  Footsteps sound like they are coming from everywhere.  They are a good indication that someone is nearby, but even with my surround sound, at times I can’t distinguish from where.

Campaign

Fans of the series have been waiting a few years to see how this story would pan out.  Thankfully, Gears 3 has a satisfying conclusion and closes out the trilogy well.  The campaign itself is the best since Gears 1, and Epic added 2 more players for co-op, which means you can bring 3 friends along for the ride.  This is definitely the best and most fun way to experience the campaign.  The change in environments throughout the game is welcomed, keeping things fresh and fun.  The new enemies are well thought out and require strategy to take down, and large scale boss battles make their return, requiring the player to do more than lay down some mortar fire to finish the job (ala Gears 2).  Epic also added Arcade mode, a way to play through the campaign while competing for high scores.  In this mode you can turn on mutators (similar to Halo’s skulls) to change your experience, all the while being rewarded with multipliers for holding it together as a team.  Although it seems like a small addition, it works really well and gives players another reason to tackle the campaign a second (or third) time.  I’ll close by saying the final boss battle is a bit much, and is almost impossible to beat with a team of four (humans) on higher difficulty levels.  It can definitely be frustrating.

Multiplayer

This is crazy.  That’s what I thought to myself after first delving into the multiplayer modes.  There are SO MANY things to do here.  Versus returns, leaps and bounds better than the 2^nd game.  Host advantage is nearly gone, with dedicated servers powering the online matches.  Shots and damage are consistent and the game emphasizes team play, much different from COD and other online shooters.  Team Deathmatch debuts for Gears, and it’s a great addition.  King Of The Hill is a blast, and other modes such as Capture The Leader, Execution, and Warzone have returned as well.  The maps are all well designed, with only a few exceptions.  The guns are VERY well balanced, and you can play in a way that best suits you and still compete, regardless of the weapon you choose.  Horde 2.0 has been completely overhauled…waves no longer have the same enemies every time, and fortifications make their debut.  Building up your base is the focus, and setting up sentries, turrets, and barricades is a fun and creative addition to Horde.  My only complaint is the inability to place items where you would like, as you are restricted to pre-determined locations on the map.  Beast Mode puts you in the role of the Locust, scrambling to take out the COGS and other humans.  Although there are only 12 waves, using the abilities of each unique Locust and working with a team towards victory is a lot of fun.  Lastly, Gears 3 adds medals and ribbons to the multiplayer and campaign universe.  Working towards acquiring these is challenging, yet rewarding, even though you may never achieve them all.  There’s not much more you could ask for from the material Epic has crammed into this game.

Summary

Overall, Gears of War 3 is a fitting conclusion to the trilogy and improves upon its predecessors in almost every single way.  The campaign environments are fresh and colorful, and Arcade mode gives you a reason to give the story another whirl.  Boss battles are engaging, aside from a rather extreme final confrontation.  Multiplayer offers so much for the player to do.  Versus loses the lag issues of the past, Horde is completely revamped in all the right ways, and Beast mode is a fun way to work together towards a common goal.  Medals and ribbons provide incentives to keep working at becoming a better player, and are very rewarding to achieve.  In addition, there are many unlockables you can work towards, from additional characters, to executions and mutators.  They are laid out in manner where they don’t ever seem completely out of reach, providing a good goal to strive for.  Last but not least, Epic is very reasonable with their DLC, charging $30 for a season’s pass, and even giving away 5 multiplayer maps!  Gears 3 might not be a perfect game, but judging based on fun factor and value, it’s pretty damn close.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Review

The fifth Call of Duty in five years comes to us in the form of Modern Warfare 3.  Continuing upon what seems to be a yearly record breaking release; MW3 looks to expand upon the games that have come before it.  I personally have chosen to skip every other COD release.  I only own the Modern Warfare games and will be taking those games into account when reviewing this year’s title.

Gameplay

If you’ve played the Call of Duty series (I can’t imagine many people HAVEN’T) you already know what to expect from a gameplay perspective.  Not a lot has changed here.  Staring down the sights, reloading, running, and throwing grenades are all smooth and feel like they have in previous entries.  There may have been some improvements over MW2, but honestly you probably won’t notice them much.  For the most part, gameplay is very solid, albeit for a few hiccups in the form of “curving bullets” (dying after you’re around a corner), knifing sometimes not registering, excessive shots needed to down an opponent, and headshots that don’t amount to much.  There are a few other small missteps, but nothing earth-shattering.

Graphics

Graphically, MW3 feels as though it’s getting a bit dated.  I thought that Infinity Ward might overhaul the graphics and step it up this time around, but there are times in the game where I actually feel as though MW2 looked BETTER.  That’s not to say this game doesn’t look good, but I remember playing MW2 for the first time and being amazed at the level of detail and art style throughout the first few campaign levels.  That wow factor is just not there this time and it’s a little disappointing.  There are still some great environments and views, but it doesn’t push the envelope.

Audio

Historically the audio within the Call of Duty series has been really good and that doesn’t change here.  Every explosion, bullet, grenade, and helicopter whizzing overhead sounds crisp and clear.  It never manages to get lost in itself, especially with the large amount of things happening all at once.  The voice acting in the campaign is pretty well done, and the music, in both the menus and in-game is appropriate to the action on screen.  The only small complaint is that sometimes characters will get stuck on loop and someone will shout “take down that chopper” ten times without taking a breath in between.

 

Campaign

As of writing this review, I’ve completed the campaign with 100.3%, going through twice, once on normal and once on veteran.  The story is about what you’d expect (COD4 was amazing and it’s been downhill since), with a jumble of characters thrown at you, a bad guy they want you to hate, and jumping between locations and missions on a whim.  The first half of the game feels really disjointed and you’ll often wonder what you’re doing.  It gets better in the second half, but it never truly feels like a cohesive story.  There are some really cool set pieces here, but many of them feel a bit empty.  You fight in NYC, but not many staple sites make you feel as though you’re really there…same with Paris and London (although the Eiffel Tower shows up).  I found myself missing the lack of stellar sniping and specialty missions, however, the last few levels are very fun and the conclusion is definitely satisfying.  My biggest gripe is the omission of co-op.  This many games into the series, you need to start adding some notable new features.  The lack of co-op is almost unforgiveable, regardless of what they may say about working it in.  Just a side note, for those of you worried about the difficulty of veteran, don’t, it’s not too tough this time around (expect endless spawning still though).

Multiplayer

In the world of online multiplayer, again, everything is pretty much as you’d expect it to be…unlockables, a bunch of guns, and a ton of ways to customize your classes.  The addition of weapon leveling is nice, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t do much other than make you hear the “leveling up” noise more often.  You’ll unlock weapon level “perks” like kick, range, and focus for the specific weapon you’re working on.  The new streak system is nice, catering to those who can or cannot string together kills without dying.  Support streaks keep going even after you die, but the rewards are more team oriented rather than offense/kill oriented.  Assault is the same as previous COD games, and Specialist enables a player to turn on more and more perks until you’re running around as a super soldier with everything.  These are cool ways to customize the game to fit your play style.  Keep in mind all of these additions mean more menus and screens to get through, even when simply choosing a gun, which can become cumbersome at times.  As you can see, multiplayer is very feature-rich, but unfortunately it’s held back by the map designs.  After putting 12+ hours into the online component, I can’t help but feel as though the maps are pretty weak.  They are filled with debris, and every room and hallway has 3+ ways in and out of it.  This translates into getting shot in the back a lot.  Some say it discourages camping, which I find is both true and false.  More people seem to be running around, but I find others sitting behind “that burning car over there” quite a bit too.  I’m not saying this because I’m bad (I’m almost always positive on my k/d every game) but the maps just aren’t that FUN.  There are no areas to fight over as a team, and I often find myself running around without a purpose.  The lack of standout maps make almost all of them forgettable (with a few exceptions) and, to me, they don’t match the quality of MW1 and 2. 

Spec Ops returns and there’s the new Survival mode, which is fighting off waves of enemies.  Spec Ops saves multiplayer for me, because it’s a lot of fun working together with a buddy to figure out each scenario.  There could be a few more missions, but the selection in the game is fun to play through.  Survival mode is a good addition, and is similar to zombies in BO and Horde in Gears…except its only 2 player instead of 4.  Again, it probably wouldn’t have taken much additional time to add this capability.

Summary

In conclusion, MW3 is another solid effort from Infinity Ward, but this time around the lack of progression in the series is pretty glaring.  From a gameplay perspective, it’s smooth and quick, it looks good graphically, and the audio is on-point.  However, the campaign is short and confusing, with some good set pieces and scenes thrown in the mix.  The online multiplayer is full of great features, but poor map selection (Bootleg and Downturn may be the worst maps I’ve ever played, in any game) holds it back from true greatness.  Spec Ops and Survival are great modes and a lot of fun for fans of series.  On its own, MW3 is a good game and will provide many hours of entertainment…but when taking MW1 and 2 into account, it’s tough to recommend paying the full price of admission to experience something you have before.