'Gears of War 3' ups ante for gamers

When "Gears of War" first hit the Xbox 360 back in 2006, it became a hit that revolutionized the shooter genre as gamers knew it. Today, the over-the-shoulder cover system alone has become a de facto standard of third-person shooters. Fast forward about 5 years and two sequels later, although "Gears of War 3" may not be quite as innovative as its predecessors, it's undoubtedly just as fun.

"Gears of War 3" picks up about a year and a half after "Gears 2" left off. The last human city has fallen to the Locust Horde and Marcus Fenix has to lead his squad of soldiers through Locust infested territories in order to find answers regarding the whereabouts of his thought-to-be deceased father. The story behind the "Gears of War" series has always been a little bit more thought out than most shooters on the market, but "Gears 3" has really upped the ante more on the storytelling aspect of the game. The story no longer relegates itself to just Marcus, but follows the different character perspectives as well.

[This even translates to gameplay as well. For instance, there's one scene in which a character you play, who was an athlete before the war began, slips into a flashback of him running on the field during a return visit to his hometown. The player must control him running to the end of the field, avoiding locust's as he aims to dispose of a bomb he is carrying. Little touches like this are what really elevate the meaty single player campaign a cut above most other shooters.]

The gameplay of "Gears" remains generally the same, although slightly fine-tuned to give off more of an arcade-like feel. Taking cover and moving from cover is more responsive than it has ever been and the difficulty has been scaled much more appropriately. Casual mode is much easier this time around, and the higher difficulty settings are far better designed, as well. The already solid mechanics of the series have been polished to sheen.

Even the multiplayer seems to have gotten a significant upgrade. Players now has the added ability of reviving themselves when initially gunned down, meaning there's an added focus on self-reliance in the matches as you are no longer at the mercy of your teammates' position and ability to help. This is a complaint that I have had with "Gears of War" multi-player for years. [Unfortunately, there are the occasional weapons here and there that are subject to being spammed by players (the sawed-off shotgun of particular note), but this is the first time that I have genuinely had fun with the multi-player component of "Gears of War."] 

If I were to have any complaint about the game, it would be that as fun as it was, I never truly got a sense of anything new. In sheer technical aspects, "Gears of War 3" may be the best game of the series, but I never felt that sense of awe and discovery that the first two games instilled in me. What the game does, it does well, but it's unfortunately not as fresh as it was the first two times. "Gears 3" gave me a sense of consistent solid quality, never dipping to a low point, but never quite becoming as great as you would want it to be. As pretty as its tricks are, we've seen them all before.

With that minor issue aside however, "Gears of War 3" has easily satisfied my expectations of a quality experience. Fans of the series should enjoy the conclusion to a story arc running across 3 installments, and shooter fans should have fun with the well polished mechanics of the game and its modes. I just hope that whatever the franchise has planned for the future, it seeks to innovate a bit more while doing it, lest it run the risk of becoming stale.