Like so many third entries of this time period (think Spider-Man 3) Epic Games saw fit to include a new class of enemy to avoid Gears of War 3 falling victim to monotony. Granted, all of them have the personality of a wardrobe - which is odd, since their wardrobe is so appalling - but they’re easy to become engrossed in, and that’s what matters.īut the Locust weren’t the only threat to deal with this time around. All of our favourites return, yet they’re bearing war scars that make them deeper and more relatable.

Dominic Santiago has gotten really into gardening, while Marcus Fenix has grown into a more seasoned leader who has begun to learn from his past mistakes. Gears 3 was special because it wasn’t afraid to take us into the future, leaving behind the relative blandness of its two predecessors in favour of a brighter, more colourful world where our heroes were now living aboard a ship, carving out a life as they waited for the Locust threat to rear its head once again. Related: Quantic Dream Is Everything Wrong With Modern Storytelling In Games Well, at least until Microsoft decided to bring them back for another trilogy, one where I’m still confident that the iconic protagonist should be killed off to make room for a new generation of heroes. While I might decry Gears of War 3 as a generic bore today, it’s hard to deny its influence on the medium, and how this third and final entry in Cliff Blezinski’s original trilogy saw Marcus Fenix and company go out on a spectacular high. Resident Evil 4 carved a new path for third-person shooters, but Gears of War came along and stained that road with scorch marks that became unmistakable. Epic Games’ hyper-masculine shooter series defined a generation of action titles, spawning hundreds of imitators who were more than happy to join Marcus Fenix as he ducked behind chest-high walls and executed potshots against endless hordes of enemies.

Gears of War 3 celebrates its tenth anniversary this week, which means I am well and truly prepared to crumble into dust.

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