Review: Gears of War 3 Beta

Hello my fellow Gears!

WARNING: There are HUGE spoilers about Gears of War 3 and the previous titles ahead. If you wish to not know them, please only read to the red line below.

Finally, as I type these words, the Gears of War 3 Beta is coming to a close and while this is some sad news for us GOW fans, this is a time to celebrate and remember the matches and how utterly great the game is so far. Here I am going to review how each match played as and how the weaponry was.

Firstly, what I would like to make a note of is how utterly gorgeous the game looks so far. This has been the longest any GOW game has ever been polished and even though its only a beta, the game itself could have easily been released in April as originally planned. But however, there were some bugs from time to time and so far most of them have been fixed. What surprised me most is the amount of effort the developers are going to make sure that the final Gears of war is the best.

To those who do not know, during the 3rd week of the beta, 10 developers created games in all three gametypes (Team Deathmatch, Capture The Leader and King of the Hill) and were willing to show off their skills and hear direct feedback from the players of the beta. I had the opportunity to play with one of them (Australia's Developer visit was the 7th of May) and he was very open and he told us of how much polishing has gone into the development. Already over HALF of the game itself has already been brought back three times to be polished and redone. That half would most like been the end of the campaign and bits of the multiplayer, as the campaign has been mostly done since April 2010.

The weaponry feels exactly the same as the previous games, but the new weaponry took some time to get used to, particularly the Retro Lancer (A lancer from the Imulsion War, many years before the Locusts' appearance). I quickly became adapted with the Sawed Off Shotgun, as I have never been quite good with the Gnasher but it still seams as if the Gnasher has dominance over this weapon. The Gnasher has nearly the same amount of damage range up close as the Sawed off but is limited to one shot and it takes at least 6 seconds to reload (8 if you let the dial continue, 11 if you fail the quick reload) and it would only seem fair to give it one more round in the chamber or a slightly quicker reload time, seeing as the Gnasher is good at mid-close range and the Sawed Off only gets a kill if you are literally face to face with your opponent and in that case, it comes down to internet connection and speed.

However, the Retro Lancer, while a spraying weapon, is perfect in burst rounds and especially in close quarters, being very powerful.

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Lets move off weaponry, as I went on a rant, sorry.

The game's campaign is also going to be exciting after gamers had the opportunity to lead the fate of Clayton Carmine, the third and eldest brother of the Carmine family. As you may know, the Carmine family are not a safe bunch. Anthony Carmine, the second eldest, died by a sniper shot to the head. Ben Carmine, the third or middle child, died inside a giant worm as bug like antibodies ripped out his stomach and as the youngest Carmine isn't even over 10 YO, Clayton Carmine is the last surviving Carmine in the War. Gamers were given the opportunity to buy T shirts indicating their choice (seen above) either on Game Marketplace or in real life and all the proceeds went to a charity called "Child's Play". Just as the poles on who was winning the competition,  "Save Carmine" was in the lead and those who bought the shirts had raised over $150'000 for the charity.

Finally, in summary, I have been a huge Gears of War fan since the very beginning and I was privileged to participate in this Beta. I highly look forward to finally buying the completed game and completing my review on it. This game series has been very generous to others from the past and to now and it is a shame to see it coming to an end, but all good things must.

I recommend to you, the person reading this, to watch the video's of the Beta, read the books, play the old game titles, in any form you wish but please, do not miss out on such a brilliant and terrific game.

This will be a game to make history.

(Gears of War 3 is set to release on the 20th September worldwide)