Gears 3 Beta

What up, Dear Reader,

We’ve only got a week left in the “Gears 3” Beta. Can you believe that crap? Say it isn’t so. Personally, my experience thus far has been identical to that of the “Reach” Beta: initial ennui bordering on skepticism, softened by the familiar feel of an old friend, then molded into flat-out enthusiasm by a few choice tweaks.

“Gears 3” is shaping up to be a massive winner in my book, but I still have one grave concern that needs addressing. Hit the jump to learn what it is.

First off, it’s a ballsy move not to give us any kind of Horde mode in the beta. They know, and we know, that Horde has become not only their bread and butter, but that of the entire industry as well. “F.E.A.R,” “Call of Duty,” “Left 4 Dead,” “Halo,” they’ve all taken notice of Epic’s pioneering game design and followed suit.

Yet I think in spite of this, the folks in Carolina are unhappy. You have to remember, these dudes made “Unreal Tournament,” they always fancied themselves the kings of competitive multiplayer. And so they hand us a dog-eat-dog warm up, a bold statement of purpose: don’t just buy this game for Horde/Beast Mode. Or perhaps a beta indicates this is the area Epic most wants help on. Either way, it’s important to them.

Frankly, I’ve never given two seconds’ thought to deatmatch (or “Warzone,” as they so charmingly used to call it) up until this point. No matter how they tweaked it through the last two games, they found themselves with a simple problem: winning was no fun. The only way to be competitive in “Gears” Warzone was to action-load your shotgun, roll right up to your opponent, and then jitter around him like you were tripping acid so you could blow both of his shoulders off.

But who wants to play like that? Winning that way feels like you’re juking the game, not expertly massaging its core fundamentals. No matter what Cliffy, Rod and company did, the game was over-reliant on close-quarters head-trips, and almost completely bypassed firefights, which were supposed to be the heart of the experience.

But no longer.

I don’t know for sure what they did, but something feels different. Good different. Suddenly, I’m seeing players laying down suppressing fire while a teammate flanks. Suddenly, I’m on my Lancer from time to time, and not just for the chainsaw (which is no longer a bug-riddled disaster zone, by the way). It’s not perfect yet, but “Gears” competitive is beginning to feel of a piece with the campaign and Horde mode.

I’m about 60% percent sure that this change comes from a simple decision: nerfing the shotty. Not heavily, mind you, but enough to make its use a choice instead of an inevitability. Some of the power of the old shotgun went into the new sawed-off, which wisely trades clip size and reload speed for its awesome kick. The result is two interpretations of the shotgun ethos, each balanced against each other.

With all of this said, I’m still not thrilled with the Lancer, which I still think needs another 10% stopping power; even the Hammerburst sometimes feels a little soft. They simply must fix this. I think we’ve all been in countless situations where we had an enemy dead to rights, and they were afforded an almost supernatural escape in spite of a storm of bullets plowing through them. I am reminded of the maddeningly impotent assault rifle from the original “Halo.”

If you want firefights, Epic, if you want the kind of duck-and-cover bullet-ballets that the campaign and Horde mode create, you have to give us a powerful mid-range deterrent. The fire hose effect was a good start, but I need some wallop backing it up. You are very, very close here. It would be a damned shame to slightly miss your mark on your last shot.

-AA

eye have become a world unto myself