Developer(s) Epic Games
Publisher(s) Microsoft Studios
Producer(s) Chris Wynn
Rod Fergusson
Designer(s) Cliff Bleszinski
Writer(s) Karen Traviss
Composer(s) Steve Jablonsky
Series Gears of War
Engine Unreal Engine 3.5
Platform(s) Xbox 360
Release date(s)
NA/PAL September 20, 2011[1]
JP September 22, 2011[1]
Genre(s) Third-person shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Gears of War 3 will feature four-player co-op for the first time in the series.[5] A fully controllable mech suit, called a Silverback, will be available for use in certain parts of the game, armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher. They have two operating modes, in assault mode it is controlled like a standard character, in stationary mode, they lock into position and deploy their armor, as well as cover for other Gears from their legs.[6]
The player will once again play as Marcus Fenix, although at several points throughout the game, control will change to other characters.[7]
There will be several new Locust enemies in the game, including the Savage Grenadier, the Savage Theron, the Digger Boomer, the Locust Siege Beast and the Kantus Knight, as well as the return of the Berserkers (both ordinary as well as Lambent). Additionally, the game introduces the new Lambent enemies, such as Drudges, Polyps, and Lambent Stalks. There will also be new weapons; the Retro Lancer (a lancer with a blade bayonet attachment that fires slower), the Digger Launcher (a gun that launches small digging creatures through the ground at high speeds that explode), the Sawed-off Shotgun, Incendiary Grenades, the One Shot (a heavy sniper rifle that, as the name suggests, kills enemies in a single shot), the Vulcan (a machine gun that requires two gears to operate, one for the gun and one for the ammo) and the butcher's cleaver.
Four new playable female characters will be introduced: Samantha Byrne, Anya Stroud, Queen Myrrah, and Bernadette Mataki, a character from the Karen Traviss novels. Other new playable characters include Jace Stratton, a battle-hardened soldier who appears in the comic series and is mentioned in the second game, and Griffin, leader of a group of human survivors called the Stranded. Hip-hop star Ice-T will voice the character of Griffin, while actress Claudia Black will be the voice of Samantha.[8]
There will also be an enhanced progression system with players able to gain experience and level up through all modes, including the campaign. the final level is 100, as announced at the horde 2.0 G4tv interview. Also, in this interview weapon swapping, money swapping, and ammo swapping was confirmed.
Multiplayer
Gears of War 3 will include a new mode called Beast mode. Similar to Horde Mode in Gears of War 2, the player instead attacks COG members as the Locust creatures (starting with weaker creatures such as wretches and tickers). Tokens are earned for killing enemies, allowing the player to upgrade their character to a stronger class of Locust such as the berserker and boomers.
Horde Mode is also featured in the third installment, dubbed "Horde 2.0".[9] Instead of previously being a simple "find a spot and hold out" game as in Gears 2, Horde 2.0 plans to be far more strategic. Players will now choose an area as their "Command Post" and earn cash from kills which can be used to build defenses around it, such as wire and laser fences, automatic and manual turrets, the silverback mech, and exploding decoys. Every tenth wave will now feature boss monsters from the campaign, including Brumaks, berserkers, Lambent Berserkers, and more.
Epic has announced that the game will run on dedicated servers due to fans complaining of several issues that hampered the multiplayer in Gears of War 2. Variants of the original multiplayer modes will appear in Gears of War 3. In Team Deathmatch, a similar game type to Warzone, every team has a total of 20 lives per round, and when all the lives run out the match turns into a mixture of Warzone and Execution rules. Capture the Leader is a combination of Guardian and Submission, where the leader will have to be captured and held for 30 seconds. However, the leader will still be able to struggle and knock his captor around, which causes minor damage and can turn a match around. Also, there is King of the Hill, which is very similar Annex from the two previous Gears of War games. Additionally, players can earn awards based on their performance and unlock several different character variants. New executions, weapon skins, and mutators (customizable options for private matches), can also be unlocked.
Stereoscopic 3D
Gears of War 3 will include a stereoscopic mode for 3DTV sets. It uses TriOviz for Games Technology, which is integrated with Unreal Engine 3, for stereoscopic 3D support. All "Gears of War 3" gameplay and cinematics have S3D support, and this extends to split-screen play as well.
Latest Americas Preorders Chart
| 1 | Gears of War 3 | X360 | 2 | 173,049 | 1,758,816 |
Synopsis
Eighteen months after the fall of Jacinto, the survivors of Jacinto moved to the island of Vectes to rebuild. After a generally quiet period, the Imulsion infected Lambent began to emerge from the ground. Hiding something, the COG head of state, Chairman Prescott, abandoned the COG. Now leaderless and being forced off the island, the COG disbands and separates to the safest places left. Victor Hoffman takes some survivors to Anvil Gate while Delta squad sets off on the "Raven's Nest" naval ship with the remaining humans to avoid further Lambent incursion. While on the Raven's Nest, Marcus learns from Prescott that his father is still alive, and they must journey to find him on a hint that he has found a way to help save humanity.
According to Cliff Bleszinski, the game will "answer the majority of the questions that players have about the history of the world and what's going on".[11] The story is being written by science fiction author Karen Traviss, who has authored four Gears novels and is working on the next one.
