Gears of War 3

GEARS OF WAR 3
Platform: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Studios

Gears of War 3 is popcorn gaming, and the third iteration of a successful formula.

Gears of War ushered in the modern era of third-person shooters with aim that doesn't suck planets through straws, and it also brought us the current prominence of cover mechanics, which… well, honestly I think rapidly-recharging health incentivizes cover-seeking behavior far more effectively than a cover button does, so I'd credit Halo with the majority of the success here. But good cover mechanics (the ones that let you move between cover smoothly) are fun to use, so yay to that, too. God knows Mass Effect would be a much worse game without Gears of War's influence, so that's something I will thank Cliff Bleszinski for eternally.

Gears 3 plays like a polished Gears 2, which played like a polished Gears 1. I'm not opposed to this, because I've seen too many sequels that try for revolutionary change and instead discard old, good ideas for stupid, novel ones (not just talking about video games!). Epic Games found a formula that works. Good for them. It does leave me with a bit of a conundrum when writing this review, though, because there isn't much to say beyond "If you like previous Gears games, you will like this one."

Maybe the most interesting thing about Gears 3 is that it has a story this time? Karen Traviss, best known as a somewhat controversial Star Wars Expanded Universe novelist who had her take on the setting obliterated by the Clone Wars CGI cartoon, wrote a bunch of Gears of War novels, and she also wrote the game. She's pretty good and, as a result, the protagonists occasionally feel like people this time, rather than fratboy caricatures. Epic tried that in number two with the whole "Dom's wife" arc but it didn't quite work. Here we have Cole Train's introspection in the first chapter, which is genuinely touching and thought-provoking. Unfortunately the rest of the game never reaches that height again, but at least it establishes context—see my Resistance 3 review for my thoughts on the benefits of such. A friend of mine informs me that the end of the game is full of callbacks to the novels, which I guess is fun if you read Gears of War novels. I'll have to take his word for it that, being by Karen Traviss, they're significantly better than one might expect.

It's popcorn, but "popcorn gaming" is not a criticism in this context. Gears doesn't want to be thought-provoking, just polished. Epic seems to have achieved their goal here, and the game is a fine couple of hours of escapism. I'd rather spend my gaming time elsewhere, but I don't regret the hours I put into Gears of War 3, which is more than I can say for a lot of games I've played. You know my take on multiplayer, etc.. Still getting a better internet pipe in November, still hope to start reviewing multi when that happens. On the other hand, haven't I spent every holiday season since I got this gig promising to start reviewing multiplayer properly Real Soon Now? I'll have to check the archives.

This review is based on a retail copy of Gears of War 3 provided by Microsoft for review purposes.

Previously - Catherine