Gears Of War 3 Beta - First Impressions

It’s now been 2 months since the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta ended and the mammoth task of sorting through reams of data, statistics, Youtube footage and angry forum rants began. According to Epic over 1.29 million players participated in the beta itself, racking up a collective 249 years of gameplay. Over 927 million kills were achieved, more than 23 million of which at the business end of a chainsaw. That’s a lot of blood on your hands, folks.

But what should we take away from the Gears beta experience, and how has the experience changed from the previous 2 instalments? Will new players be encouraged and how will veteran ‘Gearheads’ react?

I’ll be upfront and honest, I’m a massive Gears fan. The original game was the first title to drag me away from Halo 2 (oh those good ol' days) and I played well over 2000 games in total, making a solid group of online 'friends' and spending a significant amount of time (and my girlfriend’s patience) chasing my 'Seriously' achievement. When the second title arrived I was prepared to overlook the terribly broken multiplayer component and play through the horrific lag situations, host balancing issues and smoke grenade debacle. With over 1700 games played my Kill/Death ratio stands at a (slightly smug moment ensuing) 1.9, mainly through Guardian matches.

So it's safe to say that I'm Epic's target market with Gears 3. I'm actually interested in the macho fist-bumping storyline, and I find myself slightly enamoured with the stereotypical characters. When it comes to the multiplayer however, standards are high. Epic cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the Gears 2 launch, the connections must be reliable and much fairer, weapon balancing must be a lot more consistent and for crying out loud, no knock-down from the smoke grenades!!! The fact that a beta was on the cards at all was a step in the right direction, however the real story comes from playing the beta itself.

So what can we expect from the finished product, based on the beta?

Well, the matchmaking and back-end have been greatly improved, and the party system from Gears 2 has been refined, polished and finally feels like a tested system. Overall the connections are much better, having dedicated servers really does make all the difference and although host advantage is still around, it's much less noticeable than before. The vast majority of the time the engine behaves itself with flinches and animations, and hit consistency is improved if still less than perfect. During my extended time with the beta (I gained early access through an ‘Epic’ edition of Bulletstorm) I suffered only a couple of issues with players dropping out, both times due to personal connection issues. A far cry from Gears 2, where players would often disappear, or even be substituted into lobbies in completely different games away from their friends.

Anyone who experienced the Gears 2 multiplayer will instantly realise how these invisible changes have affected the gameplay for the better. Vastly reduced lag means no guesswork in where to shoot, the improvements in hit detection make shotgun battles more of a test of skill than an exercise in prayer, and less noticeable host advantage means that you won’t spend your time cowering in the corners of the map as far away from the seemingly invincible player on the enemy team. As a result everyone seems a lot more willing to get ‘stuck in’ and really throw themselves into the action with pace and confidence, leading to frantic shotgun duels and frenzied battles over power weapons or objectives. The pacing of the game feels much closer to Gears 1 than its successor, the speed of running and rolling has been increased, gone is the slow, tactical, sometimes plodding nature of Gears 2.

Along with a new back-end system arrives new gameplay tweaks and weapons, for example grenades can now be tagged onto the backs of ‘meatshield’ enemies and launched at regular players. The new Retro Lancer is a powerful, slow-firing automatic rifle with a bayonet and a charge mechanic, holding down the B Button launches the player into a sprint and spectacularly impales any unfortunate enemy in your path. Is it too powerful? Well it certainly downs people with very few shots, combine that with a truly lethal stopping power and you can see why it quickly became the weapon of choice for so much of the community. The original lancer returns along with its chainsaw execution, as does the Hammerburst although it has now morphed into a semi-automatic rifle with iron-sights and a longer effective distance.

However the real controversy and primary source of forum bitching is the new Sawn-Off shotgun. Basically it's a single-shot weapon with a huge field of range, although very limited reach. You get 4 rounds and the reload time is about 3 seconds (in Gears time, an ice age). To put it bluntly, it's a ‘noob cannon’. Sit around a corner, wait for some unsuspecting bugger to wander by, lean out and blow them away, then leg it. Experienced players are up in arms, claiming that it's massively overpowered and should be a power pick-up weapon if it remains at all but Epic have made no secret in their intention for it to be a balancing weapon, giving newer players more of a chance in 1v1 encounters. It's fair to say that Gears’ online multiplayer is extremely unforgiving on newer players, even more so than the likes of COD or Halo. Ultimately, as a seasoned ‘vet’ I found it fairly easy to predict the movements and actions of those holding the dreaded Sawn-Off, and therefore I believe many skilled players will simply explore new ways to counter it, but if it helps grow the community then bring it on. The Gnasher remains as it always has done, a staple of the series and now a familiar friend to many. With the improved hit detection and reduced lag it’s more lethal than ever, gibbing enemies sometimes with a single shot.

The beta gameplay modes included new variations on Annex and Capture the Leader, both of which Gears 2 players will recognise. However also debuting was the new ‘Team Deathmatch’ mode, pitting teams against one another until one side runs out of life ‘tokens’. Epic have promised that older gametypes and staples of the franchise such as Warzone and Execution will return, however I personally found the new modes refreshing and exciting, they certainly translated well into the game and people were generally positive about them.

However, the beta was not without its pitfalls. Graphical issues cropped up on a regular basis, including power weapons falling through the floor, players being downed but appearing to be standing up, along with getting stuck on the occasional invisible wall. Some levels and gametypes also suffered from spawn-camping and kill-farming on a sometimes alarming scale, however Epic is promising to address all these issues before final launch. Overall the quality of the beta was incredible, the odd issue not detracting from an altogether fun experience, a testament to 2 solid years of development and the dedication shown to the franchise by the team at Epic.

So, what can we expect on September 20^th? Well, on the multiplayer side at least Gears 3 is shaping up to be a blast. Frantic fast-paced shooters always sell by the bucket-load on the Xbox360, and Gears’ unique art style and gameplay have helped it carve out a loyal online following. Epic are also releasing more and more details about the single player campaign and the new Horde 2.0 mode, which has added battlements, a between-round currency system to purchase defences and extra weaponry, along with enormous boss encounters. Will it be enough to satisfy the hungry gaming horde’s anticipation? Based on the beta experience I had, they won’t be disappointed.