Gears of War 3: Campaign and Horde 2.0 E3 Summary
By Catriona MacDonald | June 10, 2011 | Previews | No comments | Share
Following the multiplayer beta release in April, fans of Epic Games’ upcoming Gears of War 3 have been waiting anxiously to hear more about the campaign, and the updated version of the popular Horde mode.
The campaign (the biggest a Gears of War game has ever had) is set two years after the events of Gears of War 2, following the destruction of Jacinto and the rise of the Lambent. According to Rod Fergusson, Executive Producer of Gears of War 3, the COG (Coalition of Organised Governments) has fallen, and the final struggle between Humanity, and the Locust, and Lambent, has begun.
Fergusson also mentioned that the Lambent infection has, at this point, taken over the planet. This was illustrated to fans during the Microsoft press conference at the E3 2011, earlier this week. In this live campaign demo, Delta squad are fighting what appears to be a sea-creature similar to that which Marcus and Dom fought at one point during Gears of War 2, except in Gears of War 3, the creature is lambent infected.
The demo also showed fans the new exoskeleton suits (named Silverbacks) which are available to players at certain points in the game. Silverbacks will act as an offensive and defensive measure for players, coming equipped with a machine gun and rocket launcher, and have great armour strength (allowing other Gears to use the legs of the Silverback as cover, when stationary).
Fergusson explained that the scale of the game will be much bigger than the previous two: this game is about a whole planet. The game is also set to be much more personal than its predecessors, especially because there is going to be no governmental body giving orders to the Gears, and this is illustrated in the Gears of War 3 campaign trailer, which was first broadcast on TV in May, and features the prominent slogan “Brothers to the end“.
A major contributor to the success of Gears of War 2 was the compelling story, and personal level at which the player began to understand the characters they were playing as. Gears of War 3 promises character journeys, and the fact that everybody will have their moment.
Marcus and Dom have long been the two characters whom players hear most about, personally, during the campaign of previous games; but Fergusson also mentioned that players will still see things from a Marcus and Dom point of view, and will also have the opportunity to see things from the other members of Delta squad’s points of view.
When asked if the mysteries of the series will be solved in Gears of War 3, Fergusson went on to indicate that there will definitely be a satisfying conclusion to the game, but not all of the mysteries will be solved. There will be some unanswered questions to the series as, according to Fergusson, there should be an aspect of mystery to it all, even at the end.
As well as the regular campaign mode (which will still offer co-op), a new arcade mode is going to be introduced on top of it. Arcade mode is intended to bring a competative aspect to the story of the game, as it will allow players to compete over leaderboards, and allows them to replay levels, and try to attain higher scores.
Another great aspect of Gears of War 2 was Horde mode, and it isn’t going to end there: Gears of War 3 will see the introduction of Horde 2.0. In this updated version of its predecessor, Horde 2.0 is set to make for a much more rewarding and interesting play.
Every ten waves, a ‘boss’ creature will be introduced (a brumak, berserker, etc.), which will definitely keep players on their toes. Another new element to Horde 2.0 is the addition of defensive measures and fortifications, such as barriers, sentry guns and decoys (the decoys appear to be cardboard cut-outs of the gears). In order to build and access these defences, however, players will have to spend in-game money which they earn by killing enemies. This gets more complicated though, as the money that players earn is also what is used to purchase weapons. Either way, players have only thirty seconds to build new defences after each wave.
There will be, at times, opportunities to earn a lump-sum of cash during a wave: bonus objectives. These bonus objectives appear from time-to-time during play, and, if met, will earn the player a considerable amount of extra money.
Other bonuses include some fun mutators, which can be unlocked. Some of the mutators which were mentioned by Cliff Bleszinski (Design Director of Epic Games) are: the big head, squeaky voice, flower blood, and 80s laugh track mutators. Though the first three are self-explanatory, the 80s laugh track mutator seems slightly confusing at first. It refers to a sort of ‘canned laughter’ effect following a kill. Mutators are bound to add comic value to the game, which will balance out nicely with the seriousness of the campaign.
All-in-all, the information which was released about Gears of War 3 this E3 has been met with excitement, and for good reason. It certainly seems that Epic Games have a promising release on their hands this year, and appear to have a tried to improve upon all the things which made the first two instalments of the Gears of War series such sucesses. If this is the case, then Gears of War 3 will be a game to remember.
Gears of war 3 will be released on the 20th of September 2011 worldwide, exclusively for Xbox 360.
