Gears of War 3 Beta Review

I contacted my friend Tgisme to get his thoughts on the Gears of War 3 Beta. He's a huge fan of the Gears franchise and has been playing the beta since it's early release date. His review offers some great points whether your a hardcore cog or just starting out.

Since its release in 2006, the Gears of War franchise is one that has enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence in the multiplayer community. With a unique blend of innovative weaponry and a revolutionary cover system, Gears offered an experience that had not been brought to the table by any other shooter on the market. In 2008, the sequel, aptly named Gears of War 2 was released to even more positive reception with some minor tweaks to the way the game was played.

On April 18th of this year, the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta was given a limited release. Those who purchased Epic’s Bulletstorm were able to play the game a week before the pre-order beta was released. It was on this Monday that I had my first taste of Gears of War 3.

The game stays true to its roots in the third installment, utilizing the cover system and multitude of weapons as its predecessors did. Adding a few weapons, weapon executions and characters not seen in previous installments and a new game type for the Gears series (team deathmatch), all hosted on a forum of maps made specifically for the game, is the beta in a nutshell.

Outside of the actual game-play itself, a new rewards system is introduced where people can unlock medals, weapon skins, characters and performance ribbons based upon meeting certain criteria in the game. This feature greatly expands the desire to not only play the game, but play in ways that you may not have otherwise.

While the game succeeds in delivering an enjoyable experience like its forerunners, it lacks any daring innovations to keep the game fresh. After logging enough hours in the beta that the newness of a couple new maps and weapons had worn off, I felt as though I was playing Gears of War 2 all over again. Hopefully for the final release of the game there will be a little more pizzazz to draw people to the game-play for longer, as even the new and incredibly welcome rewards system will eventually run its course.

Review by: Tgisme

I hope this review was helpful and remember you have the chance to win a beta code. In keeping with this is post, we'll do a live (well not really...pre-recorded) drawing tonight for the Gears of War 3 Beta code. It'll be posted tonight by 6 pm EST on the blog. Results will also be shared via facebook and twitter.

As Always,
LadySnip3r