In 2006, Epic Games released Gears of War, a third person shooter set on planet Sera; and it took the market by storm.
Gears of War 2 got the same response from fans and critics alike; the chainsaw had become the new light sabre.
After waiting for three years; Gears of War 3, the epic ending to the trilogy, is upon us. Epic released a multiplayer beta to give us a taste of the game, and I am having a blast playing it.
After playing the beta for a couple of days, it’s safe to say that Epic has got it spot on. Everything from your ground movement to the flow of the game feels a lot more fluid. Moving from cover to cover, tossing grenades, shooting, it all feels better.
Aside from the changes is gameplay, we got to fiddle around with the some new toys; the Retro Lancer is a fine example. Packing more damage than the original Lancer, this weapon is deadly at close range. If you thought the Lancer chainsaw was cool, the chainsaw charge of this gun will blow your mind!
The Hammerburst now has Iron Sights; Incendiarygrenades, Digger launcher, Sawed-off shotguns and One shot are great new additions and can blow your enemies to bits. Gear of War 3 also features dedicated servers which eliminate any advantage the host had in the previous games. Every player gets the same amount of lags which was almost negligible.
The experience is however not without frustration. It still may take you up to 20 minutes to get into a game, or in some cases you might not find a match at all. The guns don’t sound as powerful as Gears 2; but these issues will be handled before the official launch.
It looks like Epic has focused a lot on the animations and the overall feel of the game. It’s amazing to see how polished the game is five months before the launch date; we can only expect it to get better. Gears of War 3 is releasing exclusively to the Xbox 360 on September 20, 2011.