Gears of War 3 Beta - Detailed Thoughts & Impressions Epic Needs to Review

Gears of War 3 is a beta that I really enjoy playing a lot, especially with my excellent home theater setup that actually influences game play. You often know when someone is coming up behind you because of which surround or stereo speaker you hear the sound of footsteps coming from. The graphics are absolutely amazing – far better than any other Gears of War game. The color palette has been enhanced, there are far more customized items, and the draw-distance allows you to see further than in previous Gears of War games. Even the weather has an impact on both graphics and game play in Gears of War 3.

At this point I’d like to share my thoughts with Epic. During the course of a beta, the developers of a game are supposed to be listening to what gamers have to say in order to fix problems that exist. I am now going to explain some of the situations I have experienced with both glitches and game play. I will also be pointing out some issues that I am impressed with that Epic needs to keep in Gears of War 3.

* The first thing I noticed about Gears of War 3 is the fact that you now need to hold down the X button for a half second in order to pick up a new weapon or extra ammunition. This is a wonderful addition to game play because it completely solves the problem of accidentally picking up the wrong item unless you are in the perfect spot. Now, a visual X shows up on the screen and a white arrow moves around it in a clockwise rotation so that you see exactly what it is you are picking up. If you don’t want it, just let go of the X button. This is a great addition to game play!

* Spots! The ability to pull the Left Trigger and then press in on the Left Thumbstick in order to put a "Spot" on an enemy that you have seen adds a tremendous amount of teamwork to Gears of War 3! This type of ability to put a mark on an enemy that is hiding out makes it so your entire team can work together to track down an enemy that is hiding. This is a form of game play that did not exist in previous Gears of War games.

Previously, if an enemy was hiding out at the end of a match, it was annoying that your team could not work together to find the enemy and isolate the enemy. If there was one enemy left and three people on your team, you just needed to grab your shotgun and hope that one of you would be able to kill the enemy since the odds favored your team. Thankfully, Gears of War 3 adds teamwork!

Now, if you or one of your team members spots the enemy, you can put a mark on the enemy. This will allow each of you to go after the enemy from a different direction. Or you can use machine guns to pin him down from a greater distance than the shotguns would allow. This is a great part of Gears of War 3 that truly does add awesome team-based game play! Epic did a great job adding this feature!

* The next thing I should mention is that I once experienced a glitch with respawning. My character spawned in the traditional spot, but I was not able to move. I was frozen in the same spot and I could see all around me, but I was unable to fire weapons or move. Apparently the only way this was able to come to an end was when someone killed my character. And the strange thing is that I believe it was one of my teammates that needed to come in and shoot me with a shotgun. This only happened once, but I sure hope Epic makes sure this doesn’t happen again.

* I’m not sure if it was a glitch, but it is very annoying the way the Gears of War 3 beta sometimes works when you try to shoot an enemy while using a heavy weapon near a ledge. Several times, I was using a heavy weapon while balancing it on a ledge when I saw someone trying to sneak up behind me. Instead of letting me shoot in the direction I wanted, the ledge behaved like a magnet and forced my heavy weapon onto it. This was not fair and it caused my character to die.

For example, when I saw someone trying to get behind me,  I pulled the large weapon off of the wall and faced the enemy that had gotten close to me. I tried shooting the enemy that was close to me (now with my back to the wall that I was previously using as a type of tripod rest for the heavy weapon). But rather than letting me shoot in front of me like I wanted, the Gears of War 3 beta instead forced my weapon back onto the ledge so that I was literally shooting 180 degrees in the wrong direction. The enemy just walked up to me and shot me in the back because there was nothing I could do. This problem definitely needs to be fixed by Epic.

* There are several close spots on a couple of maps. These close spots can cause problems because the Gears of War 3 beta currently does not always recognize what it is you want to do. In the old town and on the map where there is a loud horn, I was trying to take cover. I wanted to run forward by holding A. Instead, the game made me move over to the next side of the wall, as if I tapped the A button in order to try and seek cover there. I think Epic might want to make it so there are very few “tight spots” like that in Gears of War 3.

Whenever a map gives gamers the “opportunity” for something to go wrong, it significantly increases the odds that gamers will be complaining that something went wrong – especially when millions of matches will be played. The solution is to get rid of that part of the environment.

* Hammerburst is a weapon I enjoyed using in Gears of War 2. The Hammerburst is a weapon that I absolutely HATE using in Gears of War 3. In Gears of War 3, the Hammerburst is the weakest weapon I have ever seen in a videogame. I have literally lost count of the number of full clips I unloaded into enemies running right at me, and it didn’t kill them!

What is worse is that after I started shooting the Hammerburst, hitting the enemy the whole time, they just start running directly at me! The people being hit with the Hammerburst have the intention of taking all those shots until they get close enough to fire off ONE round with the Sawed-Off Shotgun, Gnasher Shotgun, Chainsawing you with the Lancer, or stabbing you with the Retro-Lancer. The single round from the very powerful Sawed-Off Shotgun instantly kills. I’m not saying the strength of the Sawed-Off Shotgun is a bad thing, since that weapon has a very long reload time and is risky to use. What I am saying is that when you spend five seconds unloading a full clip into someone, they should easily die! … Epic, please take the time to fix the Hammerburst weapon by making it more powerful.

To be honest, Epic really should have spotted this problem already. When you choose your default weapons, you are allowed to choose the Lancer, the Retro Lancer, or the Hammerburst in one arm. And you can place the Sawed-Off Shotgun or the Gnasher Shotgun on your back. The two shotguns make a great choice – you can’t go wrong either way. Some people will like the extra close-range power of the Sawed-Off Shotgun, while other people will like the extra range of the Gnasher Shotgun.

But the Hammerburst is a weapon that is immediately identified as an inferior weapon. The Lancer and the Retro Lancer vary in power and range, so some people might like one and other people might like the other. But the way Epic currently has the Gears of War 3 beta, only an idiot would want the Hammerburst. The menu shows a range and power rating that visually makes it 100% clear the Hammerburst is inferior to the Lancer weapons. Epic should have noticed this and done something to make it so the Hammerburst is mower powerful. Seriously, it is a shame that the Hammerburst is so weak that you can unload a whole clip into a character and they will still live!

* Sawed-Off Shotgun is a weapon that I really like. It is incredibly powerful – it easily kills in one shot at close range. In fact, there have been two times when I witnessed the Sawed-Off Shotgun simultaneously kill two characters! If someone is hiding around a corner and waiting for you, it means the instant you turn that corner you are going to get blown to pieces by that powerful weapon! I’ve found it helps to run around corners the long way in order to get a better point of view of what might be hiding, sort of like taking the outside track in a racing game.

The Sawed-Off Shotgun has awful range, though; it is not the sort of weapon that you can use in an open environment against people with long-range weapons. The Sawed-Off Shotgun takes a very long time to reload, too. But in all honesty I think this is a good thing for game play in order to make things fair. The Sawed-Off Shotgun is so powerful that if it reloaded quickly it would mean someone using it would be invincible. The way things are now, if you risk using the Sawed-Off Shotgun but miss, you better start running away immediately in order to have some time to reload the thing. Epic has things very close to perfect with the Sawed-Off Shotgun, so I recommend keeping things as they are.

* Mortar is a heavy weapon that seems to function perfectly right now. The range, power, and reload time are excellent. I recommend Epic keep things exactly as they are with this heavy duty weapon. It can take out an entire group of enemies, but you need to aim it perfectly and it usually has only about three rounds of ammo. You are also 100% vulnerable while using the Mortar, which is fair, since the Mortar is so powerful. This adds strategy to the game, too. Don’t use the Mortar to fire those heavy-duty shells unless you have someone there to cover your back.

* Retro Lancer is a weapon that adds a new element of team game play to Gears of War. The accuracy and precision is not as good as the traditional Lancer, but the Retro Lancer has extra power and kickback. You can literally feel the controller of the Xbox 360 vibrating BIGTIME with the Retro Lancer, which is awesome! Epic has done a nice job in this area and should keep things the way they are.

The Retro Lancer has a very unique form of Melee Attack, which Epic should keep the same. In the same way that holding the A button causes you to run, holding the B button will cause you to run while holding the Retro Lancer. This does a great job of simulating what it would be like to Charge against the enemy. The part of game play that is interesting is the way you need to hold down the B button for a long enough time period in order for the bar in the upper-right side of the screen to turn red. Once this happens, it means you will slaughter the enemy.

This Retro Lancer is also a great form of team combat. I’ve seen several intelligent groups of online gamers stick together while each of them held the Retro Lancer. Each of them would start holding the B button at the same time, while charging at the same enemy. This meant there wasn’t much the person being charged at could do, since three people were simultaneously charging right at him! One of the three Charging Retro Lancers almost always got him.

I like what Epic has done a lot with the Retro Lancer. The one and only area Epic might want to change is making the Retro Lancer be a little bit more mobile. If you are running with the Retro Lancer, it is common to accidentally charge into a wall. But, if Epic did make the Retro Lancer more flexible it might make the Retro Lancer too powerful. Epic needs to take this one into consideration and evaluate what people say – maybe I just needed some more practice.

* Lancer is the traditional chainsaw-equipped automatic weapon we all know and love in Gears of War. In Gears of War 3, the Lancer still has excellent range. The strength of the Lancer seems to have been slightly toned down, though. The Lancer is one of the weapons where it is not entirely uncommon to empty an entire clip into an enemy running at you, with a reward of being killed in one shot with some form of Shotgun. I believe if you empty a full clip into someone, they should die. With that in mind, I am asking Epic to please increase the power of the Lancer.

The chainsaw element of the Lancer still kills the enemy effortlessly. The chainsaw duels also have the same type of game play we saw before. The one part of the chainsaw that seems to be different is that if you decide to use the chainsaw by pressing the B button, it takes a very slight amount of time longer to start it. This means that if you are holding a Lancer waiting to peak around the corner and use the chainsaw, but your enemy is holding a pistol, you will lose the battle more often because it takes longer to start the chainsaw. This seems fair to me because the chainsaw always results in a death when you use it.

* Digger Launcher is a new weapon that many people believe is their favorite new weapon. The Digger Launcher is incredibly powerful; it can kill off an entire group of enemies at the same time. The Digger Launcher is fired in a direction where it causes what appears to be a type of earthquake that you can see coming at you. The first time you see this, you will be saying “What is that?” and then you will die. But, once you realize what the Digger Launcher attack looks like, you will realize the way to counter it is by tapping the A button to roll out of the way. Just make sure you get the heck out of the way of someone using the Digger Launcher and you should be alright. I really like what Epic has done with the Digger Launcher.

* Boltok is a pistol that definitely needs to be modified by Epic. This weapon is incredibly weak and it takes too long to reload. If a weapon like this is going to take that long to reload, it should at least be powerful enough to take out an enemy with a headshot at relatively close range. It was very disappointing the way I would hit enemies three times with the Boltok, including two headshots, and the enemies would just keep running at me. Epic, please change some things with the Boltok; it needs a faster reload time and/or more powerful ammunition.

* Gorgon is a pistol that fires multiple eight-shot rounds. This weapon can be very powerful if you fire it at close range. In Gears of War 2 this weapon seemed like if you hit the enemy with all, or at least the majority, of the rounds, you would put the enemy down or set him up to be taken out with the next shot. In Gears of War 3 it doesn’t seem to be like that. The Gorgon appears to have lost some strength, which is annoying.

The simple fact is that most gamers come from the camp of “If you empty an entire clip of ammo into an enemy while he is running at you, it means that enemy should die.” The Gorgon no longer functions in that way. You can keep shooting an enemy repeatedly while he runs at you, but the enemy will not die! Most of those rounds will miss. As soon as the enemy is close enough to you (after running at you while you were shooting them with the Gorgon), it means they will shoot you and kill you with one shot of the Sawed-Off Shotgun or the Gnasher Shotgun. This is simply NOT FAIR!

Epic, make some changes in terms of power with the Gorgon. Nobody has a problem with dying when they are hit that much! If an entire clip of ammo is emptied into your character, people expect to die! Even people that live say things like “Man that wasn’t fair to the guy shooting me all that time.”

I’d like to make something clear to Epic that they really need to focus on. On one map I grabbed the Gorgon, and then I ran behind an enemy that was scoping enemies and firing. I walked directly behind the enemy at close range – the point that I was almost touching the enemy. I shot the Gorgon, and all of the shots hit the enemy. I then shot again, and all shots appeared to hit. But the enemy did not die! Instead, the enemy switched weapons and hit me one time – killing me instantly! This is NOT FAIR! Epic, please upgrade the power to the Gorgon!

* Epic Forums: If you have suggestions that you want to make for improvements, visit the Epic website here: http://forums.epicgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=400 

* If you don’t feel like taking the time to create a screen name for the Epic website, you can post your comments here and I will gladly share your thoughts on the Epic forum.

I will be writing an update within the next several days about the Grenades and some of the other weapons in the Gears of War 3 beta. It is difficult to find out what using the new grenades is like because people are always in such a rush to grab them on the maps. I will write an update within the next few days so that we can share thoughts with each other.

Note: I am currently unemployed and seeking work. If Epic or anyone else would like to hire me as a writer, business manager or in areas of marketing, I possess the qualifications to be hired in these areas of work.