Without even going into a discussion of its mechanical achievements, Gears of War 3 is a compelling work of narrative and the most polished entry in the franchise. It is a rejection of the concept that storytelling is anathema to the shooter genre, and developers could certainly do worse than mimic Epic’s masterpiece. It is savage, stirring, and unashamedly sentimental.
There. How’s that for a summation?
Critics of the Gears franchise have consistently labeled it the flagship of the so-called “frat-boy” crowd, that hard-drinking, testosterone-dripping, aggressively anti-intellectual chunk of the population polluting the pristine nerd heritage of gamer culture. And sure, there are some trappings on display: big guns, big men, swearing and gore seasoned liberally to taste. Gears of War 3, like its predecessors, is one of the most unabashedly manly titles on the market.
Where the superficial analysis fails is in assuming that just because Gears is manly, it must therefore be brutish. Gears of War has always had a plaintive, even sentimental undertone and the trilogy’s apparent conclusion embraces the melancholia. It may seem a curious standard-bearer for games-as-cinematic-art, but it’s in surprisingly good company.
Masculinity and machismo aren’t really synonymous with stoicism and ignorance. If you’ve ever read any of the great warrior epics (The Illiad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, the list goes on…) it’s clear they felt no shame at their masculine paragons displaying strong emotion (and yes, including soft emotion such as the dreaded L-word). Even contemporary classics like John Woo’s cinematic collection are built upon the bonds of male love as well as bad-ass vengeance upon the wicked, and it’s a disservice to simply reduce this to jeers about homoeroticism.
Gears of War 3 avoids such things handily.
The game begins with humanity pushed not just to the brink but already over it, clutching to the cliff face with one desperate hand. As tends to happen in the Gears universe, humanity’s sinking of Jacinto Plateau at the end of the prior title came back to bite them, destroying the last vestiges of government. The last surviving refugees dwell in shantytowns and fortified enclaves scattered across the surface of their planet. Deprivation and division prevent any new society from taking shape, and the surviving Locust – and a new, sinister spread of “Lambent” mutants that burst like fruit from tree-like tendrils of writhing flesh – gradually wear down humanity’s last dregs.
Our hero Marcus Fenix and his surviving friends now live aboard a converted aircraft carrier. The opening paints a picture of sheer desperation – vending machines emptied, books reread time and time again, and even crossword puzzles treated as too precious to use up. Only weapons and ammunition remain plentiful, replenished from old war stockpiles. Good thing, too, because fighting with Lambent breaks out almost immediately after former head of state Chairman Prescott shows up with a message for Fenix from his presumed-dead father warning that the Lambent pose a threat to the entire planet’s ecosystem.
Thus begins the single longest and richest campaign in the Gears series. It also features the largest and most diverse cast, though to the game’s credit it feels quite natural rather than trying to fulfill some token checklist of ethnicity and sexes. The core quartet – grim Marcus, grieving widower Dominic, boisterous Cole, and choleric Baird – get the most screen time, including a surprisingly moving sequence where former pro-athlete Cole revisits his old stadium to find a host of mournful memories. But the other characters are well-painted, particularly the women now serving on the front lines, which are never once objectified or ostracized – yes, Gears of War 3 passes the Bechdel Test handily. Marcus’ de facto love interest Anya Stroud shares Dominic’s role as second-in-command, and snarky newcomer Sam has an excellent wisecracking dynamic with the other leads.
The script of Gears 3 is pedestrian in most of its details, but it has a few surprises. In particular, a choice about halfway through the game isn’t surprising in what happened so much as when it happened. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it – the scene itself is clearly Gears 3’s Wham Moment, and it’s filmed with surprising tenderness.
It really shouldn’t surprise that Gears 3 has a mournful tone. If you look beyond the outlandishly big guns and the savage thump and splatter of its trademark vicious combat, the series has always prided itself on a “destroyed beauty” theme, and that naturally requires tapping into the sadness we feel when looking at a desecrated ruin. Gears 3 is no exception.
Patient and confidently paced, Gears 3 is content to spend long interludes between combat wandering through the ruins, or showing off the grim squalor of Stranded and even Locust settlements. The ruined cities of Sera feature dozens of small touches to tug at the imagination – shelves long stripped bare, faded signs and advertisements, abandoned blankets and sleeping bags, corpses and weapons evoking desperate last stands. Another standout worth mentioning specifically is a desolate cityscape filled with the ash statues, Pompeii-style, of civilians caught in an orbital bombardment, many frozen in last moments of terror or affection. This is a very lived-in world, even in its death throes.
But even though faded colors are the norm in some areas, the game uses other vibrant hues deliberately to startle. The Lambent are creatures of sickly yellow-green, and some of the later areas’ verdant and lush environments are stark contrasts to the washed-out deserts and faded inner city ruins. Environments like a deserted Mediterranean-styled town, or a secluded resort island, inspire hope- but also a bit of dread. The corpses and marks of war littering these places bring home the savagery of the conflict.
It’s almost pointless to discuss how good the gameplay is for the third game, because it’s basically a refinement of the first two with the addition of a new faction of enemies. If you played the first two and enjoyed them, you’ll enjoy the third. Using a Lancer to carve open a Locust’s chest is just as satisfying as ever, and combat is just as visceral as before. Gameplay is regularly spiced up with turret and even sneaking sections. But the new foes- the Lambent- add an unusual Resident Evil tone to gameplay, especially since one of them tends to mutate after a bit of damage. Many of these deformed horrors are much more fierce in close combat than worth the trouble, encouraging a ranged game and adding another dimension to combat.
Gears of War 3’s single-player campaign is one of the best on the market. To dismiss it as a fratboy exercise is a grave mistake, especially from the folks who snapped up a genuine fratboy exercise with Duke Nukem Forever. If it takes an entry with chainsaw bayonets and savage carnage to act as a standard-bearer for manly emotion, so be it.