Sorry for jumping on the bandwagon late on this one its just OMG, this is actually happening. I've been busy playing it to write this.... until now.
For those of you that are either anti-XBOX/Microsoft or just been living under a rock for the past couple of months, the Gears of War 3 BETA went live on 18/04/2011 for Bulletstorm Epic Edition holders and 25/04/2011 for people who pre-ordered the game via Game or Gamestation.
In a word, WOW. And I don't mean the overly excessive MMO game I mean OMG. If the 'actual' game (released 20/09/2011) is as good as this BETA, I am a happy man. Theres new weapons in the name of the retro lancer (like the other lancer except a big blade instead of a chain saw, also the execution requirea a run up. Sawed-off Shotgun/Double-Barrelled Shotgun (DBS), Digger Launcher, incendiary grenades and the Oneshot. Plus there is 4 maps available to play: Thrashball, Checkouts, Trenches and Old Town. And 3 gamemodes to play at the time of writing which include Team Death Match (TDM), King of the Hill and Capture the Leader (CTL) which are all very good.
My favourite is Checkouts, its not too big and the weapons are split out evenly you have the Mulcher, Digger/Longshot and the Gorgon pistols and grenades. Its set in a rundown supermarket which is a nice touch, nice to see Epic are thinking about this now. Other than having rundown factories etc. I feel this is to Gears3 what Gridlock was to Gears.
Thrashball is an interesting map, its set in a Thrashball stadium (for those that don't knowThrashball is Sera's NFL, a character in the game 'Augustus Cole' used to be a Thrashball player) because it features a scoreboard (which actually works!) but the thing about this scoreboard is that after 90 seconds or so, it becomes loose from its grip and a well placed shot will send it crashing to the floor crushing everything/everyone in its path. The Torque Bow/Digger Launcher is placed directly under it, The player can freely go into a part of the crowd and theres a tunnel on the other side with grenades.
Trenches is a Locust themed map which is run of the mill Gears of War style map. Theres a Oneshot directly at the top of a hill, a mortar to counter the oneshot and a digger launcher/Scorcher (flamethrower) in the middle, again hats off to epic for a well balanced map here. A nice touch is a foghorn type noise sounds a part way through the round and dust fills the area making it difficult to see, especially with the OneShot. Theres ya healthy dose of nades near the spawn, which you can lob over to the OneShot.
Old Town is the last map and its a damn fine one, Epic have done well here, AGAIN its a well balanced map with your Torque Bow/Longshot on one side and your BOOMshot on another, the BOOMshot is a powerful grenade launcher, theres also Smoke grenades up for grabs. And did I mention theres two scorchers? Out of all the maps in this game this one can get out of hand. With all the powerful weapons going down its hard to see why it won't.
Now for the weapons.
The sawed-off shotgun is basically an easy way in for beginners or those who find the gnasher shotgun too difficult to control, I mean its easier by saying of you stand within a couple of feet of multiple enemies. There dead. No questions asked just blood splatters on the floor, however to obtain such awesome power your reload speed is sacrificed, drastically. Your reload time with the sawed-off is easily 4 or 5 seconds (even with an active reload) slower than the gnasher shotgun, so its just a case of speedy reloads over power.
The Digger launcher is my favourite of the new weapons, this jumps in the same class as the torque bow and Longshot (sniper rifle). The Digger Launcher fires a creature type thing which digs through the ground and pops up and explodes when it hits a target, which is great for blasting an enemy in cover without the fear of them blasting you with a shotgun.
And finally the latest edition to the Heavy weapons. The Oneshot, this is basically a sniper rifle that kills you in OneShot, see what they did there? although it is a heavy weapon and a pain in the arse to lug around and it is also quite difficult to get your target. This weapon is brutal. Perfectly placed on the map trenches atop of the hill for all to see, however this does leave you exposed.
The games modes are all different that you'll probably not get fed up of the BETA until it finishes on May 15th. The games modes are simple. TDM is basically Warzone with more lives, each team has 15 live and then after these have ran out each player has 1 life. Simple. This is my favourite mode because it just becomes pure massacre and plus Warzone was my favourite up until now.
King of the Hill is basically Capture the Flag, its the first to 170 points (seconds). Each team must capture an area of the map, each area is worth approx. 75ish points, for each second you hold off an area you earn a point, and so on... This game-mode is more tactical than TDM simply because its all about infiltration and you have to think about your approach more than just running around with the gnasher. This game-mode can get a bit out of hand but its still great fun, when people are guarding and looking the wrong way and you sneak up behind them with good old mr shotgun, or the fantastic retro lancer execution.
The final game mode is Capture the Leader (CTL), in this game-mode each team is given a leader. Locust Queen (Myrrah) for the Locust and Chairman Richard Prescott for the COG. The goal is simple, Down the enemy Leader and Meatshield them for 30 uninterrupted seconds. Arguably the most tactical of the Modes. I am not very good at this one. I am a Rambo Gears player i.e Run and Gun with the Gnasher, thats what I do best, however with that said I can be sly with the Longshot etc.
The Gears3Beta consists of many hidden prizes including:
Gnasher, sawed-off, Lancer and hammerburst with flaming skins: complete one match in week 1,2,3 and 4 of the BETA.
Cole in his Thrashball uniform: complete 50 matches and then 10 matches as him.
Golden retro Lancer: 90 matches then 100 kills with the skin.
There are more goodies than that up for grabs but these are the eyecathers ( I have them all ;)).
So in conclusion, its Gears. Whether thats a good thing for you, or a bad thing? who knows. It has alot of new gameplay mechanics that are just tiptop, like when you have an enemy for a meatshield, the ability to be able to grenade tag them and boot them into a load of enemies is genius, plus as soon as you play it you'll start to think, yeah. This is just what Gears of War needed. And not to sound like a pessimist, I would have to say this is what Gears of War 2 should of been. No offense to Gears2 I like the game and everything just, to me it made all the wrong decisions by making the game 15% slower which to me didn't work and when the servers were knackered pretty much the day of release, I'd lost all hope. Gears of War was a peach and this is the sequel it deserves, multiplayer wise any.
The new gameplay modes All I can say is, BRING ON THE RETAIL RELEASE!!
This is the sorta thing that gets you ready for a the Campaign.
Thanks for reading
JT
P.S My XBL gamertag is WheelJack88 if anyone fancies a few rounds.
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