Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Year: 2011
Developed by: Epic Games
Published by: Microsoft Studios
Platforms: XBOX 360
#162
Feeling Like: Contra, is that you?
I’ve played and beaten six Gears games. I’ve liked them all, and not just a little bit. While the luster has faded over the years (much like Halo, another Microsoft focused shooter franchise that’s seemingly left the video game royal family), the quality hasn’t. Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 both landed in my Top 10s for their corresponding years and if I’d been doing The 500 or Snackbar-Games from 2008 onward, every Gears of War game would have their spot in the limelight too.
What started out as the main reason to own an XBOX 360 evolved in both gameplay and storytelling by the third. What didn’t change, however, was that I played through every campaign in co-operative mode with my good buddy F. Scott Murray.
For summer jobs back in our university days, we both worked at a prominent whale watching company here in Victoria. No, I won’t mention which one since I’m not entirely convinced the owner wouldn’t file some kind of legal threat to take down the blog if I did so.
Anyway, everybody in the office had call signs. Scott was “Commodore” and I got “Shackleton”. After reading Alfred Lansing’s “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage”, I cannot think of a less appropriate nickname, but his middle name WAS Henry, so I suppose everybody just let it slide.
There aren’t any Commodores or Shackletons in Gears of War 3, but that didn’t stop us from calling each other that every few minutes. Usually when one of us had gotten into a visceral pickle and needed a revive. I don’t think I ever approached a single level with any reservations; I knew I was going to be having a good time, all the time. The huge set pieces had us both hollering with joy, the quiet story moments gave us a pause for reflection and the gravely, HGH fueled voices from Marcux Fenix led to a lot of poor recreations. John DiMaggio we are not. It’s not a role playing game, but the Commodore and I are about the furthest thing from a roided up soldier with 24 inch biceps so in a way, it was.
Gears of War 3 was very different from the first two; these stages were wide open, a result of us decimating the horde’s forces and now they were more scattered. The pits that constantly spawned enemies were replaced with goopy, fleshy towers….that constantly spawned enemies. Ok, maybe not totally different, but the lambent type of locust did switch things up. They exploded upon death, so a simple chainsaw attack wasn’t so simple anymore.
I liked the expanded cast; it’s about time a playable woman character entered the fray. I also dug the continuing storyline following the fall of the COG. Humanity may all be on the same team, but that doesn’t mean conflicting personalities won’t clash about who is responsible for what.
A Gears game is just meant to be played co-op. Combative arenas are almost always wide open, with plenty of opportunity to hide behind waist-high barriers and roll around without stepping on your comrade’s toes. Ammunition and weapons are plentiful, ensuring there weren’t many arguments about who gets what gun. When you clear an area and that classic guitar riff sounds, you both have to imitate it. It’s the law. As always with this type of thing, it’s not necessarily what we were playing, it was that we were playing together.
Scott is one of my smartest friends, he always did exceptionally well at school – though academic prowess was sometimes stalled when he stubbornly argued a point with a teacher who may have deducted a % or 2 as a result of these verbal melees. I did well at GNS myself, but never quite to his height. However, I played a butt ton of video games which meant we were about on equal footing in co-op. I always was happy to pull my weight, better as a Gears buddy than a partner on a history project I should think. I still don’t know which direction the Battle of the Bulge bulged.
Gears of War 3 may be third place on the 500, but it had the single best emotional moment in the series. Dom, never having recovered from his wife’s confirmed death in Gears of War 2, is mostly a ghost throughout the game. He’s there, but he’s not there. Other characters, like Baird and Cole, seem to pick up the slack when it comes to banter, or discussing upcoming strategy. There are a few poignant scenes that seem out of place among this dude-bro shooter franchise, but I felt they were well earned.
In a brilliant bit of direction, Dom sacrifices himself to save the group from a massive attack. Desperation is seeping in and the enemy ring is closing. Dom drives a truck far away, and then back again right into the heart of the enemy stalk-spawning thingy. Explosions, Marcus screaming at Dom not to do it, confirmation that he’s gone were followed by stunned silence from the Commodore and Shackleton.
Well, not quite.
“….Is that Mad World from the commercial???”
This is one of the best video game trailers of all time. Games, TV and Movies always try to land the sad sounding song that possibly contrasts with visuals or heightens what viewers are seeing, but it’s often done clumsily. Here, it’s done perfectly. The genius part of having this song play in Gears of War 3, at this very moment, is because the tune is NOT on the soundtrack for Gears of War, or Gears of War 2. It’s indefinitely associated with the franchise, but only indirectly.
And they saved the perfect moment for it.
Chills, absolute chills. Grieving for Dom, the guy I controlled for 2.75 games while seeing him go out in this heroic fashion with this song playing had the kind of impact only a few games have pulled off and it is utterly unforgettable. Saving THE Gears of War song for this, and only this scene, heightens its effectiveness. Outstanding.
I’m not normally a bully, but I bullied the hell out of Commodore to finish Gears of War 3 late in the night of December 28, 2011. He was heading out of Victoria the next morning, early, to head back east to his lawyer-ing. The holidays were now equal parts exhausting, since as an adult you can’t just relax around family. We were hardly fresh, maybe we should turn in?
Nuts to that. We may never get another opportunity to finish this trilogy, together. Oh sure I could tackle the final boss solo, but again – nuts to that. We’d done the entire series together, not a single stage by ourselves and I was going to have to mentally motivate Commodore to forget he was only going to get a precious few hours of sleep tonight. We’re beating this stupid end boss.
Naturally, it took us forever to find the weak point. We died a handful of times. Energy was fading.
“Shackleton, I have to GO HOME!”
“You’re not going ANYWHERE, come on, we’re nearly done.”
“Ok Shackleton, this is it. I have to go now.”
“Well hang on, you have to stay for the end credits…”
We eventually did it, but I’m still not ready to apologize for my egregious behavior. We never did sit down for another Gears session, it’s too difficult to coordinate schedules now and plus there hasn’t really been a “must play” Gears for a while. I think that time has passed.
But there’s a reason all three Gears games are high on the 500; the shooting is terrific, the active reload adds a lot of interactivity to a previously mundane action, the characters are outlandishly endearing, every area is fantastic to comb through and I wasn’t bored for a single second. The set-pieces, state of the art graphics and surprisingly emotional moments made sure of that.
Naturally, without the Commodore by my side, this would be just another video game instead of Gears of War 3.
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