Gears of War 3 Review - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Warzone: Same as Team Deathmatch, but with only one life. Matches tend to be quite fast in this mode

Execution: Similar to Team Deathmatch, but enemy players must be killed with an execution. 

Capture the Leader: Each team has a leader and if that leader is captured by the other team, that player holds him as a meatshield and a countdown timer begins. Free your leader before the countdown ends or lose the match. If both leaders are captured, all countdowns stop. 

King of the Hill: A ring opens up somewhere on the map and teams must move a player into that ring to capture it. Once captured, the opposing team must move into the ring to break the capture and then remain in it to capture it. Once captured, each “tick” adds a point to the team total. First team to 150 points wins the match. KOTH is my favourite mode, as deaths do not matter for wins, so my Kill/Death ratio of .3 (yes, that's 10 deaths to 3 kills) is not as much of a penalty to my team.

Wingman: Also another great mode that is less played. Four 2 man teams take the field and work to kill all the other teams. One life for each teammate. Points are awarded for kills, downs, etc. The team with the most points wins the match. Being the last team alive does not guarentee a win.

Horde Mode: This is the mode made famous by Gears. Five players work cooperatively to stand against up to 50 waves of locus beasts. Players gain money for kills and assists and then use that money to buy fortifications, targets, turrets, sentrys and silverbacks to help them keep back the hordes. Although you get some ammo at the start of each wave, you will have to scavange ammo during each wave. Getting to level 20 is fairly easy. Anything after level 30 is a challenge. There are various challenge modes that pop up which give bonus ammo and weapons (survive the wave without any player being killed, kill 7 enemies with chainsaw bayonet, etc) and each 10^th wave is a boss wave. There is a bit of a persistant element to Horde mode as the amount of money you spend on each type of fortification is counted and the more you spend, the more advanced fortifications are available to the player in future games. A lot of fun, but be prepared to spend 1-3 hours to finish.

Beast Mode: I love beast mode. This is the other side of Horde mode. The players choose a locus beast to play and attack the AI which are set up as per Horde mode. There are up to 12 waves and each wave is timed. As the players complete a wave they are given more money which unlocks up to 4 levels of beasts, including the highest level, which includes the boss level beasts. Although you can lose a wave if you are not paying attention, it is pretty easy to clear all waves. High scores are based on clearing the wave with the fastest time. Being the bad guys is always fun, so this is my favourite mode due to the pure, animal carnage. 

Conclusion: Gears 3 is a great game. If you enjoyed Gears 1 or 2, getting 3 is a no brainer. If you enjoy story driven FPS then you will love the campaign. Multiplayer has enough game types to appeal to everyone, even a crappy player with a K/D ratio of .3

Update: This weekend has an event running, Big Head Mode. It is similar to Team Deathmatch, except the head are bigger and all voices sound like they have snorted helium.

This guide provides a video walkthrough to the locations of all collectables (Spoiler Alert). It is so complete, you could just watch all the videos in order and get the story.

First DLC on November 1 - Details here. 

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