Gears of War 3 Hands-on Preview

It feels like Gears of War 3 has been a long time coming, and you can elegantly observe the passage of time in Dom’s new beard. But other than having characters sit around and grow facial hair, where is Epic even supposed to go with the third title in a series which received perfect 10/10 scores for both its first and second games?

At this point in the marketing avalanche, and with the single-player campaign still shrouded in mystery, we’re only currently allowed a glance at the new multiplayer component in the form of a public beta launching on April 18 for those with a 360 copy of Bulletstorm, or April 25 by pre-ordering Gears of War 3 at a branch of GAME or Gamestation.

Epic is clearly taking Gears of War 3’s multiplayer very seriously, putting its money where its mouth is and investing heavily in a global network of dedicated servers to ensure a rock-solid online experience. Gears of War 2 had over 1.5 million players trying to access the game in its launch week, and by focusing on dedicated servers the third game should be able to deliver a competent online arena without any of the matchmaking issues which plagued the second for months.

Running until May 15, the beta will predominately revolve around Team Deathmatch playlists until its final week, when Capture the Leader and King of the Hill modes will be mixed into the rotation. While all three modes are based on previously existing templates, each has been slightly changed: Team Deathmatch now gives each team a stock of 15 lives to burn through before the traditionally tense one-life-and-you’re-out standoff; Capture the Leader wedges Guardian and Submission together to have you downing and holding randomly selected team leaders; and King of the Hill is now a rejuvenated Annex mode.

You’ll be able to play every mode on the four maps selected for the beta. One of the maps, Thrashball, revels in the close-quarters skirmish, with each team spawning in red and blue locker rooms and then spilling into a central arena with benches, tucked away corridors, and a mammoth scoreboard dangling delicately on a string overhead. During a match you’ll be able to shoot this down and flatten anyone unlucky enough to be underneath, with the collapsed scoreboard subsequently cutting off the line of sight between both sides of the map and serving as another object to manoeuvre around.

Checkout offers up a similarly packed battle in a rotting superstore, with players breathlessly roadie running down littered aisles and pokey shelves in a fruitless bid to escape constant claustrophobic pressure. Teams revolve around shattered tills and cracked special offer displays looking to catch the other from behind, as there are no prime spots for head-to-head confrontations.

The other two maps – Old Town and Trenches – have been selected by over 11,000 voters on Facebook. Other than indulging mankind’s natural urge to gib innocent chickens, Old Town is set in a rickety wooden town of intricate tunnels and complex hidey-holes, with the daunting size offering up some interesting tactical options and decent flanking opportunities.

Trenches, too, is another large-scale map littered (unsurprisingly) with various dug-in locations scattered around a Locust mining colony. Flat sands offer up clear lines of sight across the map, requiring very careful use of cover from players, and occasional hellish dust storms obfuscate everything and encourage the shotguns to come out to play.

Gears of War has always been one of the more impenetrable online experiences but, like an old age pensioner trying to navigate around a shopping centre, one of the key considerations for the third game is accessibility. Top-down views of maps are displayed during loading and while you’re waiting to respawn, which is such a simple but useful change you wonder why it hasn’t been part of the series since the beginning. The Tac-Com, too, has been upgraded to a sleeker, shinier (and possibly sporting a Retina display) model that can display where weapons spawn and the location of your squadmates if you hold down the left bumper. There’s even the ability to spot enemy players for your team by clicking the left stick whilst aiming, with you earning a few bonus points for good measure.

New intricacies have been added to go alongside the newfound accessibility. A wider selection of guns has been folded into the mix, allowing styles outside of the traditional combination of Gnasher and Lancer. The new sawed-off shotgun instantly delights, with ridiculous power and a wide arc that can obliterate up to three enemy players in one shot (I only managed two, sadly), but it’s also a gun which requires players to be so close they could kiss. The retro lancer has powerful rounds but skittish firing tendencies, and replaces the series’ traditional chainsaw with a bayonet which can be used to skewer enemy players while sprinting.

There are new heavy weapons spawning on the map, too. One of the more creative examples is the Digger, a portable explosive which can burrow underneath cover and pop out before exploding a pack of enemies into gooey mush. It’s easy to avoid if you know it’s coming, but if you manage to fire it directly into a player it’ll bore through their chest and drill out of their face. Lovely. Fans of both sniping and heavy weapons will also be delighted by the One-Shot, an aptly titled rifle so powerful it fires explosive bullets, blasts through shields, and turns anything it touches into a mist. To compensate for the ridiculous power it’s cumbersome, heavy and slow, requiring a few seconds of aiming before allowing its owner to fire.

As an added incentive for eager players, the game comes with a bevy of dangling carrots and shiny trinkets for those tempted by those sorts of things. Completing 50 matches during the beta period will unlock the Thrashball Cole outfit in the retail game, and the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer will be made available to anyone who finishes 90 matches and a further 100 kills. It’s all part of Gears of War 3’s heartfelt desire to bombard you with endless processions of ribbons and accolades that get pinned to your online service record and will probably unlock a few Achievements along the way, too.

Gears of War’s multiplayer has never been the easiest game to get to grips with, but its brutal mix of close-quarters gibbing and strategic flanking has never looked so engaging. The wide range of additions and refinements should easily grab the attentions of a fresh generation alongside returning veterans come April 25.

The Gears of War 3 public beta launches on April 18 for those with a 360 copy of Bulletstorm, or April 25 for those pre-ordering Gears of War 3 at a branch of Game or Gamestation.