There aren’t many titles on the market that can compete with the breath of multiplayer options available in Gears of War 3. Returning is the series’ staple cooperative mode, but this time you can play through the game’s entire campaign with up to four players instead of just two. It’s a feature that fans of the series have been clamoring for since the first Gears, and thankfully Epic delivers the goods for this final chapter.
Standard multiplayer modes and Horde mode return for Gears 3 as well. When it comes to Versus multiplayer, the standard modes you expect most online shooters to offer these days are present: deathmatch, team deathmatch, king of the hill, capture the leader, etc. Horde mode also sees a pretty substantial upgrade for Gears 3. The mode now features some tower defense elements that let you purchase and fortify your stronghold from incoming Locust threats.
Probably the largest addition to Gears of War 3’s multiplayer is the brand-new “Beast” mode. Think of this as reverse Horde, where you now get to play as the Locust, but instead of settling in for a marathon session of fifty, progressively harder rounds, Beast mode’s 12 rounds are played for speed. You start with a minute on the clock and you must kill pesky humans as quickly as possible to earn more time to continue playing. Killing computer-controlled humans earns you money which can be spent on reviving yourself and opening up bigger and badder beasts to play as, including the Berserker, Corpser and Boomer. Beast mode makes for a nice counterbalance to Gears’ classic Horde mode.
Full Disclosure: CraveOnline received 1 advance review copy of Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360 from Edelman. We were held to the embargo date of Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 12:01am PST. Before starting our review, we completed the entire campaign on medium difficulty. We also played the game’s multiplayer component and every mode available for a handful of hours.
To understand how we score games, see our officially defined review guidelines.
