The Gears of War 3 beta came to an end last Sunday and I am here to tell you guys all about it and whether or not it looks like Gears of War 3 will live up to expectations. I’m a big fan of Gears of War and I was really excited to play the beta and see how the game was coming along. The beta was well put together and by that I mean I didn’t notice any bugs or glitches. There was an occasion were the characters and map took a second or two to load all their detail but that isn’t much of an issue since it used to happen all the time in Gears 1 and 2 so the fact that it only happened once in the beta actually seems like a good thing to me. The graphics have been upgraded but not drastically, there is a lot more light in this game than the previous two which helps to show off some of the improvements and finer details on the characters. However the beta was all about the multiplayer so it is time for the break down.
During the beta there were four different game types consisting of Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Leader and Torque Bow Tag. My favourite of the four was Team Deathmatch which is slightly different from the usual version. As always your goal is to kill the other team but this time rather than reaching a certain amount of points both teams start with 15 spawns and every time a teammate dies they lose a spawn. Once they run out every team member has one life left which makes the battles at the end way more intense in a close game. It also means that eventually everyone on a team dies so even the campers who abandon their team will be hunted down once everyone else is dead. Torque Bow Tag is a TDM variant that changes every weapon on the map into Torque Bows. For those of you that don't know what a Torque Bow is it's kind of like a high-power crossbow that sticks into your enemies and explodes killing them with just one shot. I like Torque Bows and the game type is fun but some of the maps just aren't really built for it and it makes it kind of annoying. King of the Hill is just like you would think it is, you stand in a circle for a period of time and you get points. The only difference is that you can capture the hill so that you can take cover outside of it and still get points. It's a lot of fun and great for racking up experience points in order to reach higher ranks which you might be used to thanks to games like Halo, Call of Duty and Gears of War 2. Finally my least favourite of the game types, the only one I didn’t like; Capture the Leader. It’s kind of like a mixture of Submission from Gears 2 and V.I.P. from Halo 3. In CTL you must capture the leader from the other team and hold him for 30 consecutive seconds. Now this may not sound hard but it is challenging to keep your meatshield when five guys are consistently rushing you for 30 seconds. My problem with the game type is that one team has to completely dominate the other in order to win. One team must stop every attempt the other team musters up for 30 seconds plus they had initial victory that allowed them to capture the leader in the first place in order to score a point which isn’t fun because either you aren’t being challenged or you’re just getting crushed. If the game is closely matched it will just go on forever. I think Epic needs to change it to a total amount of time you have to reach like with Skulls in Halo. That way the game can be close which should make the matched more fun.
The weapons in Gears 3 are mostly the same as previous instalments with a few new additions. The Sawed-off Shotgun is a new starting weapon that is ridiculously powerful but has a very short range and a long reload time. I prefer the Gnasher because of its longer range and large clip for enemies who try to escape but the Sawed-off has torn me apart often. The Retro-Lancer is the other new starting weapon which isn’t as accurate as the Lancer but is way more powerful. It also has a bayonet instead of a chainsaw which you can gore enemies with. The One-Shot is a new type of sniper that zooms in a lot and charges before firing. The zoom is annoying because you have very few places that you can position yourself that are far back enough to still be able to see however if you hit someone they die no matter where you hit them. Incendiary Grenades are really powerful and instantly kill you if you get hit directly with them. Digger Launchers are really cool because they can shot through cover by going into the ground then exploding dealing massive amounts of damage to all those nearby. It’s also the weapon that I believe adds the most to the multiplayer by changing your strategies because you can’t take cover from it and have to find another way to deal with it. I found that all of the old weapons handled the same way with the exception of the Hammerburst because I felt it wasn’t as accurate and is meant to be used with a scope but none of the maps were really set up for it.
Speaking of maps there were four maps in the beta none of which were based on maps from the previous games. First off is Checkout which is a very small store with a few separate departments and a lot of counters and shelves to take cover with. It is a basic but fun map and is my favourite alongside Thrashball from the beta. Thrashball is a stadium that Cole used to play in before the war with the Locust broke out and has a scoreboard which dangles from the ceiling and can be shot down as well as to bases on each side. Old Town is a good map for but has a lot of narrow paths for people to just take cover at each end and fire from. However it is the largest map and the best for King of the Hill. My least favourite is Trenches because of the easy to pin down spawn points that usually get assaulted at least half way in to the match so when you spawn you step out and get shot by guys with higher ground and better cover. Also there is a spot with a One-Shot that is very easy to camp at because it is at the top of a big hill and if you try to run up it alone you will be destroyed by something like a Retro-Lancer. However it does have sandstorms which are cool.
The beta was great, the gameplay isn’t very different from the first two so if you liked them then you will like this and if you didn’t well I guess you won’t like this one. The maps could use a little work and I really hope they bring back Gridlock because I always loved that map. The weapons feel solid and are fun to use with some nice additions to shake things up a bit. The graphics are great like always along with the sound design. TDM is better than ever but CTL needs to be changed. Gears 3 was my most anticipated game of 2011 and after getting my hands on it I still feel the same way, I can’t wait to finish off the Locust, save the world and play some multiplayer this September.
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