Gears of war 3 should i buy

But as far as I'm concerned, "Brothers to the end" has less to do with any pre-written narrative and much more to do with the game's greatest achievement: its fantastic multiplayer. In Beast Mode, "slaughter" and "laughter" finally rhyme. The breadth of Gears of War 3 's multiplayer options is staggering —this game has been designed from the top down to be a comprehensive, perpetually connected experience, and every part of it is better with a friend. For starters, the entire story campaign is playable cooperatively by one to four players, and each level can be played in "Arcade Mode," which allows players to compete for high scores as well as add "mutators" to make the game easier, more difficult the difficult ones offer XP bonuses , or just goofier one mutator enables a laugh-track that plays along with the game.

It's a fantastic addition, and gives those who have completed the campaign an excuse to go through it again and again with their friends. Probably best to skip that submarine level, though. The brand-new "Beast Mode" offers players a chance to play as the Locust Horde, raining bullets and death down upon a platoon of AI-controlled human soldiers.

Every Locust character in the game is available, from a tiny fence-chewing ticker to an atomically savage, tank-like Berserker. It's brilliant fun; in Beast Mode, "slaughter" and "laughter" finally rhyme. Gears of War 3 also offers the standard host of competitive multiplayer options, running the gamut from deathmatch to capture-the-leader to king of the hill. But the thing I've never liked about versus-mode multiplayer in Gears of War is that the traditional Gears rules do not apply.

Combat does not revolve around strategic cover-based shooting, but rather frantic close-quarters encounters chock-full of somersaulting and shotgunning, like the world's worst Cirque du Soleil routine. The pleasurable, meticulously designed rhythm of Epic's combat system is dismantled by the evolutionary necessities of deathmatch, and new, strange mechanics take their place.

Gears of War 3 presents what must be the most refined version of this particular cheeseburger, but while it will provide a lot of meat for longtime players, versus-mode continues to be my least favorite type of multiplayer. All of these multiplayer modes are good fun, but none of them can compare to the joy of Horde Mode.

The original Horde Mode was something of a surprise hit in Gears of War 2 —up to five players would team up to fend off wave after wave of increasingly difficult Locust attacks, with a maximum and barely attainable level of The new Horde, dubbed "Horde 2. I'm not entirely sold on the way the game "gamifies" itself by adding layers, unlockables, and even microtransactions, each of which feels designed to hook players and keep them coming back.

Horde 2. Players build a base and establish defenses around it, and a currency system rewards kills with money, which can be spent between rounds to upgrade and repair defenses, build gun-turrets, and purchase new weapons and ammo. Each tenth level is a "boss level," which pits players against an unholy combination of Grinders, Berserkers, armored shock troopers, and rocket-spewing reavers. In what has become de rigueur for multiplayer console games these days, all of Gears of War 3 's various modes are united under a persistent umbrella.

Whether you're playing the campaign, co-op, or competitive multiplayer, experience points earned carry over to your master profile, creating a constant sense of coherent progress. It all feels a bit hinky, and as more and more games add persistent leveling, leaderboards, and paid unlockables, the sulfuric whiff of exploitation grows ever-more pungent. Developer motivations aside, these systems combine to create a profoundly intoxicating cocktail of progression and challenge, and it's all framed by an energizing amount of real teamwork.

A recent two-player bout in Horde brought me and a friend face to face with a supercharged Lambent Berserker. We frantically corralled it, leaping out of its path while spraying its weak spot, Ghostbusters -style, with streams of flame from our Scorcher flame-throwers. Tight-chested with dread, we vigilantly covered one another's' backs, quick to assist if one of us got knocked down, yelling enthusiastically over our headsets as the fight dragged on and on.

When we finally defeated the beast, I felt a moment of ebullient, visceral video game camaraderie the likes of which I haven't experienced in ages. And so here we have Gears of War 3 : Maniacally refined mechanics and design, a clunky campaign that works more often than it doesn't, and one of the more varied and enjoyable multiplayer suites I've ever encountered.

Even as the culmination of the series, Gears of War 3 's high level stuff—its story, themes, characters, and drama—never quite manage to get where they were going. But then, this game doesn't do "high level. They're coming, the onslaught. Drive your way forward, knee-deep in dust and guts; your gritted teeth, your wild eyes, the sun vanishing into a pink haze of battle-rage.

Slam in a fresh clip, pick a target, and shoot, and shoot, and shoot. You can contact Kirk Hamilton, the author of this post, at kirk kotaku. You can also find him on Twitter , Facebook , and lurking around our tips page.

The only people who don't like gears, are trollers with no lives, PS3 and Nintendo fanboys, and those gamers who pride themselves by sticking to one or two genres of gaming.

Otherwise it's a refined game from first to last, and it really doesn't have that many draw backs. The campaigns could be a little longer for sure, but the game play is pure arcade fun.

Versus is the mode that fans had a taste of in the beta earlier this year in which up to 10 players — five a side — can have it out with each other across a series of maps in a variety of match-types.

All the match types from the beta are present and correct; there's Team Deathmatch which does what it says on the tin , Capture The Leader in which players win points for their team by capturing the opposing team's leader and hanging onto them for as long as possible and King Of The Hill where players have to take control of an area that sporadically moves around the map.

On top of that there's Execution, in which kills can only be scored by "Execution"-style kills — like curb stomps , Warzone Team Deathmatch , but with no extra lives per round and Wingman in which teams of two try to eliminate the opposition.

Then there are the co-op modes: Horde and Beast. Horde is a suitably beefed up version of the same mode that appeared in Gears Of War 2 and which has appeared in a ton of other games under numerous monikers since then. Once again, players work together to fight their way through 50 waves of increasingly difficult foes.

However in this new variant, they face a boss battle every 10th wave, which can be anything from a Lambent Beserker to a series of adolescent Corpsers, to a gigantic Brumak.

To aid their survival, players earn cash for every kill they score, and presumably to encourage teamwork every teammate they revive. They can then spend their hard-earned cash on fortifications, gun turrets and remote canons. They can also pool resources to upgrade any of their equipment, or buy items that are slightly out of their price range — like the rather expensive Silverback battle mech. Every other wave they're also given tasks — such as accumulating a designated number of kills with their chainsaw bayonets — which, if they accomplish, will earn them ammo and weapon drops.

Beast mode is similar to Horde, except players take on the role of the Locust monsters, and their objective is to kill all the human bots on the map. They begin by using low level infantry — such as the claw-wielding Wretches or the suicide bombing Tickers — but will eventually unlock and end up controlling Kantus who can heal other troops and Beserkers essentially walking tanks.

Players who prefer the multiplayer to campaign mode will also be delighted to hear that Epic has dedicated servers in place for Gears Of War 3's online play. Gears Of War 3 is a robust gaming package. Aside from the multiplayer and campaign modes — the latter of which can also be tackled in co-op or in arcade mode — this game is filled to bursting with unlockables; ribbons, skins, weapons — everything players need to establish their online shooter credentials. If Gears Of War 3 is indeed this franchise's swansong, Epic can rest easy knowing their world-conquering series ended on something of a high note.

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