Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 4

Remarkably uneventful day in terms of Dark Souls, since I have been too busy with pesky real-life business to get much done. I've still had a few hours of play, and want to get one or two more before bed so this'll have to be a quick post. Basically, I'm grinding. Kaiden just doesn't seem quite tough enough to handle any of the areas that are available to me right now, so I'm tediously killing a few enemies over and over to level up. There are probably much better grinding spots elsewhere in the game than the one I've chosen, but at this rate I'm going up a level every five minutes or so. I'm also focusing on levelling some weapons, which leads me onto another point I wanted to briefly touch on.

The upgrade system in this game is deep. There is a lot going on, and, in typical Dark Souls fashion, the game won't really tell you much about it, leaving me to figure out what I can by myself, but basically, you collect different shards, which can upgrade your weapons in different ways. Rarer shards will add elemental damage and the like, while the more common ones will simply improve strength. At certain points when levelling your weapon, you can choose which path you want to take with it, for example, I levelled a sword to '+5', at which point I was given the option to continue levelling it all up to '+10', or create a 'Raw' or 'Divine' sword with my rarer shards, giving the weapon different characteristics. I've also collected some souls from a couple of bosses, which are also apparently used to create unique weapons, although how I would go about this remains to be seen. It turns out, playing this game without a guide is pretty darn tricky, but I'll stick to it.

So, apologies for this brief post, to make up for it I'm about to write another little article about Dark Souls that you'll hopefully enjoy or find useful. And then more grinding for as long as I can stay awake.

Kaiden out

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 3

Day 3, two bosses beaten, well over one hundred deaths now logged, some sweet wraith-style armour discovered, quite a lot happened, but day 3 will always primarily be remembered as 'Day of the Insects' in my Dark Souls Journey. 

Having ventured on from where we left off yesterday, me and Kaiden found ourselves in a swamp, an area I specifically abhorred in Demon's Souls, and this was no different. Not only is the swamp poisonous, but it plays host to some of the creepiest creatures in the entire game. Huge mosquito-types that spray you with blood, some giant fly/spider hybrids, and leeches, which are also obviously wonderfully oversized just to make them that much scarier.

This area is not fun. I'm sure, when Dark Souls was being developed, this is the part where they just let the extra-sadistic half of the office design an area, the enemies are terrifying, every step you take poisons you further, and the place is so dark that you can barely see a few feet ahead of you, let alone figure out which way you should be going. Oh and, just so you don't feel too pleased with yourself when you do finally make it out, the very next area is a tunnel covered with spider webs, leading to one of the hardest bosses in the game.

As you may have noticed, I've had a rough old time with Dark Souls today, I've now logged about 23 hours with the game, but the last few of those hours have really pushed my limits. As with Demon's Souls, the first couple of areas of the game seem hard at first, but once you play them for a few hours, they become much more manageable, you feel like you have some control in those areas once you know where the traps and enemies all are. I know that I can run through the first few castle areas now without too many problems, I know the enemies, I know the layout, I'm in control. Down in the dark swampy depths, I lose that feeling of control entirely. When you're in a huge open area with enemies rushing you from every direction, the ground poisoning you as you trudge slowly along, and the lighting so dim that navigation becomes a chore, it seems nearly impossible to suggest that you could ever really learn this area well enough to feel comfortable in it, and it certainly seems impossible to suggest you could ever enjoy it. Maybe that's the intention, they clearly set out to design a treacherous, harrowing, oppressive environment, and they succeeded, but in doing so, they've made an area that I never want to visit again because nothing about it was fun. 

This same thing happened to me in Dark Souls, and it might just be one of my own personal issues, but I dislike the fact that any time I play this game again, I'll always dread that area and wish I could skip it entirely. I suppose it's an unavoidable element in a game like this, when the game is specifically designed to frustrate and scare you, there will undoubtedly be parts of it that fill you with dread. But, in this instance, it's not a case of being scared of the swamp, I've already conquered the area, I know I can do it and the enemies there aren't particularly challenging, it's simply a case of finding everything about that swamp to be tedious, unfair, and completely lacking in any enjoyment whatsoever. Maybe it's just me, or maybe it really is a case of the developer's going a little too far with this one. There are always those odd levels, even in your favourite games, that you sometimes wish you could avoid, the 'Library' of Halo: Combat Evolved, Ocarina of Time's 'Water Temple', those bits in the last-gen GTA games where you have to control RC planes, you get the idea, and I really think these swamp sections are the 'Souls' series' absolute worst bits.

Anyway, enough of "Mike's Pet Peeves", on with the story. After finally making it out of the swamp and reaching the spider's lair, I was treated to yet another brilliant and ridiculously challenging boss battle. I won't lie, that one took about fifteen tries, and the feeling of satisfaction from finally beating it was quite overwhelming. That's probably the best thing about these games, the feeling you get when you finally do it, when the thing you've been desperately hammering away at over and over finally falls down. There are times when I literally have to set the controller down and jump for joy, it feels that good. People will always criticise these games for the amount of time you spend in a state of frustration and anger, but what they don't realise is that, at least in my opinion, the rare moments of elation you get from eventually overcoming whatever obstacle is frustrating you are totally worth it. I spent about three hours, getting more and more annoyed, grinding away at that area and boss, but when I finally beat her, my moment of triumph felt pretty damn good, and it really felt like I'd accomplished something. I think that's the real driving force behind people who play these games, the sense of achievement and overcoming the odds when everything is stacked against you. Emotions that, sadly, are somewhat hard to find in games these days. Dark Souls provides them in spades. 

My feeling of triumph turned out to be short-lived after the spider's demise. I was killed shortly afterwards by a colossal lava demon called Ceaseless Discharge, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I went back to the relative safety of the castle, searching for new routes, ended up in a forest where the insect theme continued in the form of a battle with a giant laser-firing butterfly. I might as well stop putting words like 'giant' in front of everything, you could just assume from now on that most things in this game are stupidly huge. The butterfly didn't put up much of a fight and was defeated quite easily.

Now I find myself in a bit of a pickle. There are four or five possible routes to go, all of which seem to contain enemies that might just be a little too tough for me, so I'm back to grinding, the trouble is, I'm at the point where it takes quite a lot of time to even go up a single level, so it doesn't really seem worth the trouble. I've switched off the game for the day while I mull over my next move. We're nearly at the halfway point of the week and I feel like, if I continue at this pace, I can definitely finish the game by Sunday, but the move I make next could prove vital. I have no real idea which way to go or what to do next, but I'll have to decide one way or another.

Tune in tomorrow to see how it turns out...

Death count: I have no idea anymore, but it's easily over 100

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 2

Note: Blog was down for a while so that's why this has gone up late, apologies.


And so we reach the end of my second day with Dark Souls. I made a lot more progress today than yesterday, at least it certainly feels that way. Death count has also risen exponentially, let's just say it's over fifty at this point, I lost track. Playing for quite a long time leads to complacency, which, in turn, meant I made some really silly mistakes and died pretty often in my last hour or so of play. Nevertheless, Kaiden has journeyed well today. 


So, the story so far: After a little more grinding, I proceeded on to try and find the next boss, or bosses, as it turned out. A pair of gargoyles, an awful lot like the pair of gargoyles you may have fought in the last game. Ok, I'll end it with the "Hey this is just like that part in Demon's Souls" bit now, because it'll get annoying and is pretty unfair to the game, because frankly, for everything in this game that seems to be a copy from Demon's Souls, there'll be something else entirely new to remind me it is a completely different game with a lot of fresh content.


After a few tries with the gargoyles, I finished them off. One cool thing about the boss fights in this game is that most bosses will have tails, tails which can be removed with carefully placed strikes, an act that rewards you with special items. So, for the sadists out there who think these boss battles aren't hard enough already, there's an extra level of strategy you can try and indulge in to earn all these items. Personally, I just duck, roll, and flail wildly at the big, scary monsters until they fall down, but luck was on my side with the gargoyles as I somehow managed to lop off one of their tails and claim a nifty axe as my prize. It came in handy in the areas that followed.


Another, quite remarkable thing about Dark Souls is that it literally does not tell you where to go next. There are so many alternate routes and paths and areas to explore, that, really, you just have to pick a direction and hope for the best. It's yet another quite ingenious way of immersing the player in the experience and make this feel like a true adventure. Cautiously taking steps down an untrodden path, wary of what you might find, never feeling safe, desperately hoping you've chosen an easy route, moments like this are so commonplace in Dark Souls and truly do create this feeling of exploring an unknown, and dangerous world. There are so many role-playing games out there where you can feel relatively safe venturing from your beaten path, secure in the knowledge that your character should be more than a match for any enemies you might find. In Dark Souls, it's very different, there are places in the game that you can most certainly try and journey through, but unless you're ready for what that area has in store, you certainly won't live to make it to the other side. 


There are side paths you might take, just to see where they lead, and suddenly find yourself falling through a hole in the floor, unable to get back, forced to make your way through some new mysterious area, completely unaware of what fresh terrors await you. Fear, caution, and doubt are all commonplace, but so is the spirit of adventure! There's so much to see and find, so many places to explore that are wildly different, a ridiculous amount of terrifying creations out there ready to hunt you down, and the best part is, you never know what you'll find next. Each path you choose and step you take feels like an important decision that could have untold effects on the way your story plays out, even the mistakes you make are your own and define your adventure, ensuring that no two Dark Souls journeys will ever be quite the same.


An example of this came today in my own journey. After defeating the gargoyles, I found myself with no real sense of direction, I wasn't sure where to go next. There is no clear path marked out for you, so I began exploring the area a little deeper to try and progress. It was then that I stumbled on a new area, Darkroot Garden. I was foolishly optimistic that this area might be suited to my level after how quickly I had disposed of the previous bosses, so began exploring. After a little while, and a few turns onto some side paths, I became hopelessly lost in the area and found myself wishing to be back at the castle. Then, in the distance, I spotted something moving and went to investigate. That was yet another mistake. The movement turned out to be a nine-headed hydra monster thing that killed me as soon as I got in range.


At this point I realised that the Darkroot Garden might not be my cup of tea, so began the search for another way. I found a new path taking me deeper into the castle and decided to follow this, it turned out to be much more suitable to Kaiden's abilities, and I made my progress quite steadily, defeating the area boss on my third attempt. Luckily, the path continued from this point with little deviation so I followed it onward to the next area, the Depths. This turned out to be a sewer maze, everyone's favourite part of an RPG. I decided to just try and brute force my way through, sprinting whenever I got a chance, slicing through any enemies I found before they could attack, and boy were there some creepy looking enemies down there. Bug-eyed freaks that seemed to be able to turn their victims to stone, gelatinous blobs falling from the ceiling, and a giant rat, naturally. 


It was in this area that I had my first taste of the game's competitive multiplayer. With no real warning to speak of, a player entered my world, rising from the ground in front of me, and proceeded to get destroyed by that nifty axe I mentioned earlier. He or she didn't seem very good at the game, but the experience itself of fighting another player was beyond terrifying. It just adds more levels to that fear and adventure I spoke about, not only do you not know what the world itself holds in store for you, but at any moment these other players can infiltrate your game and strike you down, the level of tension all of this creates is unreal, so much so that at this point I just try to block it out and let each death not bother me too much, all of them have to be treated as learning experiences otherwise you may literally go mad with frustration playing this game.


At the end of the Depths area I spent about a full hour trying, and eventually succeeding, to defeat the boss, a hideous, and ridiculously large dragon. After this I have journeyed on to the next area, delightfully, and fittingly named Blighttown, and it is here where the adventure has ended for the day. Beating three area bosses feels like a decent amount of progress, if I can keep that up maybe there's a chance of finishing by the deadline, but it still seems like the game has only just begun, and I can't help feeling it's about to get a lot harder from here.


There's little more I can say about Dark Souls at this point, the exploration, varied environments, hidden secrets, terrifying creature designs, and wonderfully challenging combat are helping it secure a place as one of my top games of the year. On the negative side, there have been some pretty severe frame rate issues, and despite how well-designed some of these areas and creatures are, I'm yet to see an environment that really feels entirely new and different to anything I played in Demon's Souls, it's not that I want the game to be completely different, and I appreciate that the RPG genre naturally confines itself to some cliché environments, the game was always going to have to have a castle area and a sewer area for example, but I do hope to stumble on at least one unique place before my journey ends. Despite these criticisms, I'm enjoying Dark Souls more and more as it goes on and look forward to seeing what I find tomorrow.


Death count so far: 50+ 

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 1

Well, here it is, the first day of my Dark Souls challenge. I spent a pretty decent amount of time with the game today, but not as much as I'd have liked, and I didn't make nearly as much progress as I might have liked, but still, today was a refresher, and boy did I need it. 

It's been quite a while since I played Demon's Souls, and, let's not beat about the bush here, Dark Souls is almost identical to its 'spiritual predecessor', so it took a while to get back into that mentality. The whole "I need to move slowly and cautiously and keep an eye on my surroundings at all times because there are traps and if I- OH MY GOD DRAGON!" mindset took a little while to sink in at first. These games really do require their own specific approach, the same as any other game really, it's just that with Dark Souls, the approach you have to take is to be as attentive, careful, and patient as humanly possible.

So, yeah, it's a 'Souls' game through and through. The combat is slow and methodical, the lock-on system is shocking, death is inescapable, and you really do need to concentrate. A friend keeps on describing the game as 'oppressive', and I'd be inclined to agree, but just because that word isn't exactly glowing with positivity doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a criticism. I suppose it could certainly be taken as one, there are a lot of people out there who would say this game is just too much, too brutal and unforgiving, oppressive in the way that it saps their enjoyment and forces them into concentrating much more than they would want to while playing a video game. I, on the other hand, love that side of it. Yes it's brutal, yes it's unforgiving, yes it will give you that feeling of wanting to tear out your hair and go play Viva Piñata instead but, when you're really into it, there's nothing quite like it. 

So, for me, the fact that the game is oppressive merely means it is incredibly engaging, it sucks you in, in a way few games can, it forces you to really get into it and immerse yourself as fully as possible if you want to succeed. It's as though the game itself is saying "Hey man you're gonna really play me ok? Don't go looking out the window, don't go making yourself a cup of coffee, don't think you can play this with one eye on your computer screen! Pause button? You don't get one! If you want to succeed at any part of this game, you are gonna have to pay attention!" Personally I really like that about this game. It's a kind of crude 'forced immersion' technique when you really look at it, but it works, and that's kind of all that matters.

So how am I doing so far? Well, Kaiden, my pyromancer, made it through the first tutorial area without so much as a scratch! And then proceeded to be impaled, slashed, and burned alive no less than fourteen times in the first area. Keeping a 'death count' for the purposes of this blog is a little depressing, but at least I'm a long way from triple digits for now. Currently I'm grinding the first area, which I've pretty much memorised at this point, levelling up, buying some better equipment and tools from the local merchant, and getting ready to try and storm through the next few areas, this is pretty much how I went about the first game. It probably won't go as smoothly as I'm hoping but I feel like I'm much more in the 'Demon's Souls' mindset than I was when I first started playing, which should help my progress. The idea of finishing this game by Sunday night seems impossible at the moment but I'll keep at it. 

Kaiden is looking pretty snazzy at the moment with some new armour I found, and wielding a battle axe along with his fiery magic, I'll try not to lead him into too much peril. On a side note, when creating a character, you are given the option to select a 'Gift', an item to start the game with, now this can be one of any number of things, there's a full health potion, an explosive firebomb, a key that will unlock any door, and a couple of somewhat more mysterious objects. I chose something called the Old Witch's Ring, an item with no apparent use, but I am desperately hoping it pays off into something awesome later on in the game, I could easily search for it online and see what it does, but one of the rules is no strategy guides so I'm avoiding all that sort of info. I'll let you know when I finally figure out what this ring does, and when it inevitably turns out to be disappointing compared to my expectations.

I don't particularly want to go too far into spoiler territory with this but there are just some things I won't be able to leave out over the rest of these posts so do be warned. So far I think Dark Souls is excellent, it takes an awful lot of cues from the previous game, right down to the fact that the first area involves running across a bridge beset by a ferocious dragon, but there's definitely a lot of new content here, it seems like everything I was hoping for. Can't wait to play some more.

Death count so far: 14

Dark Souls: Trials and Tribulations of Gaming Pride

That excessively long title can only mean one thing. 

Yes, a new mini-feature for the blog. Basically, I'm setting myself a challenge. I'm buying Dark Souls tomorrow, and the challenge will be to have it completed by the end of the week. 

I have very little idea whether or not this is a realistic goal, and I know it took me longer than a week to complete Demon's Souls, but what the hell, that's why it's called a challenge. Along with actually playing it, I'll be posting daily reports of how I'm doing and how I'm finding the game, which will more than likely involve colourful tales of the many ways I have died.

Rules:

1) I have from around 9:30am on Monday until 11:59pm on Sunday to complete the game.

2) No strategy guides or anything like that.

3) Unless I am literally slain by a mythical demon in real life, or somehow otherwise unavailable, I must post a daily report of how it's going.

4) These daily reports must be amusing and interesting. (Frankly I think I'll struggle with this rule)

If this goes well and is fun to do, which I think it might be, then I hope to do it for lots of other games in the future too, kind of like those 'let's play' video walkthroughs some people do. But instead of my monotonic voice over clips of my feeble gameplay, you'll get a written report instead, that way you won't have to know about all the embarrassing mistakes I make.

Wish me luck!

Looking Ahead: The Holiday Season

So, finally the summer has passed and suddenly we're in October, that can only mean one thing; games are coming out again. After the usual barren summer months where releases are few and far between, we're about to get swamped with a whole mess of big games. In fact, it's already begun, the likes of Gears of War 3 and Dark Souls are already on store shelves, with Forza 4, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and many more certifiable hits fast approaching. 


'What does this imminent onslaught of releases mean for my gaming blog of choice, Attack Button?', I hear you cry! Well, the fact is, I simply won't be playing every single one of these big games, I'd love to, believe me, but I'm limited by funds, time, and... well, mainly funds and time I suppose. So, in order to make this feel at least somewhat official, and to set myself some targets and deadlines, I'll try and outline how the next couple of months are going to go.


Basically, I plan on buying a few of the big releases. Gears of War 3 was the first, which I played for a week or so and then reviewed, I always want to be as fair as possible when writing a review for a game, it takes developers years to make these things so it's only fair to spend a bit of time with them before judging, that's why you sadly won't see reviews popping up on launch day. I never want to just post what I call a 'first-impressions review' without even giving the game a chance to show what it's got. The first few hours with a game can be misleading, some are slow-burners, some start great and then trail off as you go, sometimes you can have all these preconceptions about a game as you start to play that will affect your judgement and take a little while to fade away. That's one of the amazing things about gaming, your whole perspective on a title can change entirely with the more you play. For example, with Gears, I wanted to explore every facet of the game before making an overall judgement, I spent time in every mode, over a dozen hours in the multiplayer, and ran through the campaign twice. Now that's maybe a little more of a thorough job than I would give to a game I don't enjoy playing, but no matter what, if I'm reviewing a game, I will always complete it and explore its options thoroughly to give a fair and informed opinion.


Now, the reason I'm explaining my own philosophies here is to show why it'll take a little time for reviews to appear. In the future, with more time, and maybe even more writers, there'll be a lot more content, including reviews, put out at a much faster rate, I'm committed to making that happen someday. But for now I will work as hard as possible, since I know at least a couple of people have visited, to keep this blog up to date, and I'm planning on working out some ways to enable me to post a lot more regularly, starting immediately.


Going back to what I said earlier then, I do plan on buying a few of these big games, Gears was the first, Dark Souls will be the second which I intend on picking up tomorrow. Now, that game doesn't have as many modes as something like Gears of War, but it's still pretty damn big so I'll have to spend a bit of time with it. Plus, I have to finish it, and I don't know if you know this but that game is damn hard. However, since I was a big fan of Demon's Souls and am very excited for this game, I've got a few ideas of how to share my Dark Souls experience with this blog, and I'll write another post about that later.


As for the next game I'll buy, I frankly don't know yet. There's an awful lot coming out so we'll have to see, but I will try to play, review, and generally write as much as I can. I know that, at the moment, this blog is about as small-time as you can get, but that's not how I'm going to treat it. If I'm ever to run a site or work for one or anything like that, I'll need to get used to a more demanding pace of work, so this is a perfect way to practice and I'll try to treat this as though it were infinitely more important and popular than it really is. So expect to see a lot more content over the coming weeks, some of it might not be too great since I'm not used to writing under pressure, but hopefully I'll get better.


Roll on Christmas!

Review: Gears of War 3

Well-oiled Gears

'Here we go again...'

In 2006, Epic started something special with the release of Gears of War, the game was a big contributor to the early success of the Xbox 360, and showed the world what ‘next-gen’ gaming was really all about. It was one of the first games to offer the feeling of actually playing a sci-fi action blockbuster, and defined the way third-person shooters would be developed from that point on. It’s fair to say the state of gaming today would be quite different had Gears never been released. With the release of Gears 2, Epic improved on the formula in nearly every possible way, the battles were bigger, the bosses were ridiculous, and the action was ten times as intense. In Gears terms, the game was badass. Now, we finally come to Gears 3, a game with all the hype in the world to live up to, the finale of one of the most important franchises in gaming and the defining series of the Xbox 360. I can safely, and happily, say that Gears 3 provides everything I was hoping for, a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the storyline, a campaign that improves on nearly everything seen before, refining the things Gears does best and letting you enjoy every bit of the ride, stunning graphics, beautiful environments, fantastic boss battles, the ultimate Gears multiplayer experience, and a decent amount of new weapons, characters, and modes that really make this feel like the perfect end to the series. 


Of course, it probably won’t actually be the end to the series. The Gears franchise is so huge and important to both Epic and Microsoft that I doubt we’ve seen the end of Lancers, Locust, and Lambent, but the game certainly at least captures the feel of an ending. When you finally reach the end of the game, having seen these characters go through hell and back all over again, it does definitely seem as though this is the end of Marcus’ story. Without delving into spoiler territory, I’ll simply say that most loose ends are tied-up, and you won’t be left wondering what just happened, the end of your journey across Sera is satisfying and well-executed. 

He doesn't look too friendly

And what a journey it is. The campaign should take around 8-10 hours, but that can vary depending on difficulty setting and number of players, and it really is, in typical Gears of War fashion, a thrilling ride from start to finish, but with a few new twists. The COG has disbanded, Marcus’ dad might be alive, Dom’s psychological breakdown is ongoing, and in fact nearly every character just seems pretty tired of all this fighting. This set-up adds a fresh emotional feel to Gears 3 that we haven’t really seen before, and provides added motivation to see the story through, if you’re even half as invested in these characters as I was, then you’ll literally want to keep fighting in the hope of finally granting them the peace they deserve. For all the criticism the series has received over the years for its exaggerated dude-bro style and corny dialogue, the game manages to be pretty emotionally powerful at times, you'll really see the more down-to-earth nature of some of these characters and the game tells a great story.


The disbanding of the COG and the rise of the Lambent also contribute to making this experience vastly different from the games before. You’ll no longer have an organised military force backing you up, forcing Marcus and friends to trade with the Stranded and scavenge for whatever supplies they can find, and the Lambent have developed from effectively being glow-in-the-dark Locust at the end of the last game, to real monstrosities in the two years that have passed. Some are like spiders scurrying across the ground, others are great hulking brutes that can hurl balls of imulsion at you, there are plenty of new creatures to fight, keeping the combat fresh. Similarly, the mixture of battles with both Locust and Lambent add further depth to the fighting, so as long as you enjoy Gears gameplay, you really will never get bored throughout the story. Every area feels different, and, as usual, there is plenty of variety in the fighting, along with a few unique levels here and there to break up the action.

Some of the new Lambent enemy types are pretty terrifying

Strangely enough, my biggest criticism of the campaign is also my biggest praise, in that it feels like a ‘Best of’ Gears campaign, that is to say, you’ll recognise an awful lot of the sequences here, and they’re all, most likely, the parts you loved most from the earlier games. There‘s the optional stealth section when sneaking into an enemy base, the vehicle level, the corpser fight, the 'survival horror' bit, and plenty more. At times it feels like Epic looked back at their first two games and chose the best bits from each campaign, then just put them all together. You've definitely done most of this before, and you‘ll be able to tell, there were several points throughout the game where I literally said "Oh this is just like that bit in Gears 2", but to say the campaign is nothing more than a rehash would be doing it a great disservice, there is plenty of new material here and even the old ideas are presented in new and exciting ways to make them feel just as unique as they were the first time. Similarly, the fact is that the first two campaigns were so good that you wouldn't really want an entirely new campaign because it wouldn't be true to Gears, Berserker fights are some of the most terrifying boss battles in gaming and I wouldn't have liked Gears 3 as much without one, the same goes for a lot of the other content. It’s been done before, but it’s so good that you want to do it again. Gears 3 gives you the chance, along with the new ideas, they bring back classic sequences and perfectly refine them to give you the ultimate Gears of War campaign experience.


This experience can be had in a variety of ways, there’s standard singleplayer, up to four player co-op, an arcade mode giving you points for kills, and leaderboards to see how you stack up against the world, and even a bunch of unlockable mutators like big head mode, infinite ammo, instagib melees, and a few more obscure ones. The variety of ways you can play the campaign and the absolute fantastic quality of it provide cause to revisit the story time and time again, but there’s a lot more to enjoy in the Gears 3 package.

Seems like a fair fight

The versus multiplayer is back, and arguably better than ever. The game ships with ten maps, with the promise of more to come, and the usual modes return, along with a couple of new additions. It’s not often that you can call Team Deathmatch an innovation to a series, but this really is the first time we've seen it in Gears multiplayer, and it’s done well. Each team has fifteen respawns, which, while not technically being much different to the standard TDM formula, gives every death a greater sense of value and encourages players to stay alive, help out their teammates, and revive others whenever possible. I’m sure there are many extreme hardcore fans out there who would disagree, but, as a long time Gears player, I’d say the multiplayer feels well-balanced, there are one or two specific weapons which offer casual players some easier ways to get kills but overall the classic team-oriented, methodical strategy of Gears multiplayer is intact, and the days of exclusively using the shotgun have long since passed, with the machine guns and new weapons having a much more effective presence. Having said all that, the competitive game is still something an acquired taste and can be difficult for the uninitiated, something that Epic must have been aware of since they included a ‘Casual’ mode just for new players, a method used elsewhere in the likes of the Halo series to ease players into the multiplayer environment. It’s hard to say how well this works, but it’s at least an option for anyone looking to try and get into the versus mode.

An appendectomy, Marcus Fenix style

If all those shotgun-duels and frag-tagging aren’t your thing, Epic have still got you covered. Horde mode returns, better than ever. The original wave-based survival mode that inspired the likes of Halo’s ‘Firefight’ and Call of Duty’s ‘Zombies’ has taken a few cues from these imitations to add new layers of strategy to the gameplay. Horde 2.0 lets you build barriers, turrets, and more to fortify and defend key areas of the map, currency is earned from kills and assists, and must be spent on repairs, upgrades, weapons and ammo. You’ll also have bonus rounds, boss rounds, and the like to spice up the progression and keep it varied. These new additions come together well and provide a much-needed modernised depth to the mode, ensuring people like me will no longer get bored after the first ten waves. Overall Horde 2.0 is a big improvement on its predecessor, and is further proof of how good Epic are at building on, and perfecting, their own ideas.


There’s also Beast mode, what you might call ‘reverse Horde’, wherein players take control of the Locust creatures themselves and attempt to break through the human defences and wipe them out in a series of increasingly difficult waves. As you would expect, it feels and plays much differently to Horde, waves are timed, and you’ll be granted a few extra seconds for every kill but the mode feels frantic and fast-paced, a welcome change from the somewhat slower Versus and Horde modes. Also, using a class-based system, Beast requires you to earn money for kills which you can spend to spawn as different species of the Locust. Everything from tickers to corpsers are playable, with each having their own abilities and uses, pros and cons, and all being very fun to play. Very little compares to slithering about a supermarket as a giant armour-plated serapede, or crushing all in your path when charging as a berserker, for some Gears fans, playing as these creatures will be a dream come true.

Playing as the Locust is great fun

Overall, the multiplayer side of Gears, just like the singleplayer, is exceptional. The robust offering of modes will appeal to a wide variety of gamers, ensuring there’s something for everyone, and if you ever get tired of playing one mode, you can hop into another for an entirely different experience. The switch to dedicated servers was long overdue for the series, and vastly improves the quality of online matches. There’s also, as in every online shooter these days, a pretty deep progression system and stats screen. Battlefield-style ribbons are earned in every game mode, even the arcade campaign, and XP can be gained through just about anything, unlocking more characters and weapon skins as you level up, as well as nameplates and emblems that you‘ll earn for completing various actions. The progression is deep and engaging, and the whole stats page is well-presented, offering a surprising level of detail. The whole multiplayer experience feels as though it has been refined in every aspect. 

He wasn't quite at the front of the queue when they gave out good looks

That’s the word I would primarily use to describe the entire Gears of War 3 package; refined. It feels polished, perfected, as though what Epic first set out to do with the Gears games has been finally fully realised. This game gave them the opportunity to go out with a big bang and create the absolute best Gears experience they possibly could, and they seized that opportunity with both hands. Usually I’d try and at least write some semblance of a paragraph detailing my main problems with the game, but it’s really too hard to find any, this game is undoubtedly the most well-made in the series, down to every little detail. I even struggle to think of many complaints you could have about the first two games, but if you had any, they are more than likely addressed here. Gears of War 3 looks better, plays better, and has a lot more content than either of the first two games, and is sure to please any fan of the series. Epic are good at what they do, and they have proven it in crafting the perfect realisation of the series they began in 2006. Gears of War 3 is everything you could want, in one incredibly well-made package.