September 21st, 2011 
Mikey 
September 20, 2011. The big day – “Re-emergence Day” – has finally come and gone, and Gears of War 3 was released to much fanfare. Similar to when Halo: Reach came out, they held several events in NYC to celebrate the affair. In addition to all that hoopla, the game had three different versions (Standard, Limited and a whooping $150 Epic Edition) and a special edition console to boot. With all this craziness going on around you, it can difficult not to wonder what all the fuss is about.
I will not be joining the party.
That’s right. I said I will not be buying Gears of War 3 at any point. It may seem a bit odd, especially considering the fact that the 360 is the only current-gen console I currently own, but hear me out. I’m going to give my reasons for not seeing this trilogy through.
1. I’ve never been a big fan of Gears
Yes, I own the first two games and have completed the campaign for both the original Gears of War and the sequel and, chainsawing aside, I didn’t really enjoy them much. The first two games carry a relatively weak story, which is excusable since it’s a shooter. We tend not to expect much more than a reason to shoot at things from this genre. What I cannot excuse, however, are the cumbersome mechanics of these games. Gears of War was really the first game to have a good cover-based mechanic. Press ‘A” to stick. However, since bringing this idea to the table, it hasn’t improved, even as other titles have taken this idea and made it better. In Gears, I find myself getting stuck in cover far too often when trying to do, well, anything else. I appreciate the game wanting to keep me safe, but let me run into the battle when I choose to.
Oh, and the running. It’s bad enough they’re crab-walking the whole time (shout out to LeBron James), but the stopping power mechanic is crazy. In no other game I’ve ever played to the bullets slow your sprint to a crawl. When this happens to you, you’re almost guaranteed to be downed and hoping your partner will be nearby to revive you. Individually, these are small gripes, but together, they can ruin an experience. They’ve done that for me.
2. Grenade Tagging
Yeah, this one gets a point all to itself. Gears of War 2 introduced grenade tagging. For those who don’t know, it basically allows you to stick a grenade to anything, People routinely put a grenade on some random spot on the map and forget about it because someone will inevitably run across that area and blow up. They have no hope of survival, because it will explode immediately. This sort of gameplay tactic cheapens the game, since there is no work involved to get the kill. You’ll rarely see people actually using grenades the way you’d expect – by throwing them at people (note: I’m primarily referring to regular grenades, though ink grenades are abused, too). It leads to a lot of frustrating deaths, which lead to…
3. Inconsistent Spawning in Multiplayer
I understand that some game types have different respawn circumstances. Sometimes you get one life, sometimes you respawn when you don’t control the hill, and so on. However, it has not and will not ever make any sense to me how long the timer can run sometimes. There are times I die and respawn almost immediately, then there are other times that I’m waiting a full 15 seconds. And that 15 seconds is in addition to the time it takes to complete my death animation and the camera to zoom out. In Gears 2, that meant I’d generally spend more time watching the fight than participating. And that’s no fun.
4. Glitches
The first game wasn’t too bad, but the second was absolutely filled with glitches. And a lot of them were really bad, too. The second game had a total of four major title updates with the goal of fixing glitches, and yet many can still be found in the “final” product today. Recently, I was playing the “Road to Ruin” level with a friend (sneaking through) and he was dropping a crate to distract enemies before the big doors had even opened on my screen. And that was just a campaign level. Similar issues are found in multiplayer all the time. People still bridge for host to gain a big advantage, lag switches have been used, and there is no host migration, so if the host quits, the game ends. I cannot think of any other major shooter where there is no host migration. Yes, I’m aware several of these issues will be/are resolved with the addition of dedicated servers (and host migration added for when servers are not available), but the sour taste is still in my mouth from my previous experiences. And to top it all off, some people have had their levels reset for whatever reason. I’ve known of some who were level 85 or higher, working on getting their wings (awarded at level 100), only to have all their progress erased. The original had a similar issue with losing track of people’s kills.
5. “Seriously?”
It’s a relatively minor complaint, especially when compare to the above (and the fact that it doesn’t affect the actual gameplay), but it is a problem for some, so it is worth mentioning: some of the achievements are ridiculous. I’m not saying they’re hard – this isn’t Ninja Gaiden, after all, but some are ridiculously time consuming. The first game had “Seriously”, which requires 10,000 ranked kills in the online multiplayer. That’s a lot of kills, and will not even be considered by some people because of the sheer amount. I don’t have too much of an issue with that – they want you to play their game to death. Unfortunately, the above issues (glitches that erase kills, the lack of host migration) can make it take even longer and it becomes really infuriating. Some have even gone as far as 20,000 kills to unlock their achievement.
Thankfully, the “Seriously 2.0” achievement is more forgiving, allowing all campaign and unranked kills to count. However, they still added in the aforementioned level 100 achievement which is much more time consuming than either one of the “Seriously” achievements. In Gears 3, they’re at it again with the “Seriously 3.0” which requires you to reach level 100 AND earn every Onyx medal. That one will take some serious dedication – I can only hope it’s less frustrating for those who choose to pursue it.
6. The true cost of admission
This is the sneaky one. As shocking as it may be, Gears of War 3 will cost most people far more than the $60 sticker price. Assuming you only buy the standard edition, that’s what you’ve paid so far. But you know there’s going to be DLC – otherwise, why would Epic be selling a Season Pass for 2400 Microsoft Points (read: $30)? If you choose not to take advantage of this “bargain” (and why wouldn’t you if you’re going to get the DLC later anyway?), then you’ll be shelling out around $45 for the DLC that would’ve been included in the Season Pass. Oh, and apparently they’re selling individual weapon skins. If, for whatever reason, you chose to buy ALL of those (and hopefully you wouldn’t do that…), then that’s another $45. Epic may not be done with you yet, though. They left the description for the Season Pass open by saying “the first four DLC packs” are included. It’s not unreasonable to think that there may be 1-2 more after that that would need to be purchased separately.
That’s a lot of money. I’m not saying that other games are not going to have DLC, because they will. But I’m saying I’m not going to drop that much money (again) on a game that I’m not going to spend an intense amount of time with. I’d much rather give my hard-earned dollars to someone who will craft a more polished, enjoyable experience for me. This holiday season, I’ve got games like Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Halo: CE Anniversary and Goldeneye 007: Reloaded to fulfill my shooting-related needs.
Because of my past experiences, I don’t have any faith in Epic as a developer. I tried to like Gears 2, but I just couldn’t do it. I’m not down with E.P.I.C.
Posted in 
Tags: 
lol good thing you’ve opt out of playing Gears 3…….Now be a good boy and play Uncharted its more appropriate for Gays lol.
@ PP um is that why UC2 received the GOTY title and is considered one of the best game series all around not just on ps3? For gays? Really? Lol the ignorance is ridiculous. Based on your comment I can tell that you clearly don’t know how to fairly break a game down presenting the pros and cons. You just go off of hype and what you like. Mikey gave good points and reasons as to why HE didn’t like the game and the mechanics. The next time you want to defend a game that you like I suggest you give your opinions as to why YOU like it and maybe help change the mind of the writer and his readers in agreement instead of not taking his words into consideration and stupidly throwing a AAA title game(that had nothing to do with this in the first place) into the discussion and immaturely tagging on the word “gay”.
I will be getting Gears. I love the game. I did not like the MP on Gears 1 or 2. That’s the truth. I want to finish the story.
To your point on achievements, HOLY CRAP did I think “Seriously” was outrageous. I can see why you’re turned off by the game. The game isn’t for everyone.
As for the comment before mine – great argument (sarcasm). ‘Nuff said.
I wanted to like Gears – I really did. I tried to force myself through the multiplayer but I just couldn’t do it. As for finishing for story, it’s just not compelling enough for me to want to finish it. Maybe I’m spoiled since I grew up playing mostly RPGs, but the tale seems rather forgettable to me.
Since a lot of your reasoning is personal preference, I’m definitely not going to do the “Offended Internet Commenter” here but.. “polished, enjoyable experience” and MW3 go together? There’s essentially no single-player experience. Or is the FPS single player experience not what you’re after?
Full disclosure: I’m a big Gears fan and dislike MW (mainly due to its online community).
Lol, I’ll give you the MW3 thing. It’ll probably have some game breaking glitches at release (in MW2 was any indication). However, these days, it seems like most shooters have the campaign just to have one, then throw in some co-op. The multiplayer is where the meat is. If you can’t enjoy that, then it gets hard to like the game.
It’s worth noting that I’m not a huge CoD fan, but I do play them on occasion. For fun.
I have to seriously disagree with most of your points. I respect them though.
You shouldn’t have to buy any game. But I think some of your points were a little off. Unlike you, I have complete faith in EPIC as a developer. I’ve been playing the game now for a week and cannot stop playing it. The campaign is deep and kept me very engaged in the story. The other two were lacking in this department, but EPIC did an awesome job with the third.
I’m not sure what your point is with the DLC. Any game of this caliber is going to have some serious DLC. EPIC is not making you buy any of it. You CHOOSE to buy it. It is no different with Reach or COD.
Seriously, 2.0, and 3.0—I agree the first was crazy. I never got that one. But then again, I was playing a lot of other games as well. 2.0 was a lot better. Horde and the final chapter of the campaign helped a lot of people get that one. And all I can say about 3.0 is it makes sense. It’s the final game of the trilogy. Ofcourse EPIC wants to you play the hell out of it.
All I can say about grenade tagging is…adapt…adapt…adapt. Most of the time grenades are tagged in places that other people placed them in previous games. Learn the popular locations that people like to use.
I agree with the glitches. Gears 2 was horrible. Cheaters were horrible. Like you said..bridging for host, lag switching. There isn’t much you can do with lag switching. Hosts on the other hand, did get advantages…but they were not god like. Work as a team, and you will go far.
Lastly…”lost stats”. People getting reset “for no reason”. I’m a Gears vet..and people get reset for two reasons. CHEATING and MODDING. It’s not different for Reach. “Oh I didn’t do anything wrong though” Riiiiiight.
@ *facepalm*
To me, the story in Gears has at least attempted to engage players, but it never grabbed me. But, as I’ve said previously, I may be expecting too much since I have a solid RPG background. I’ve read that Gears 3 does a much better job of pacing and all, but I can’t say I’m dying to see what happens next after the second one.
As for the DLC, I do understand that it’s the norm nowadays, which is why I put at last (I contemplated not putting it at all, actually). But the wording with the Season Pass thingy really kind of irked me. It doesn’t definitively cover all future DLC, which bothers me a bit.
Seriously 1.0 is hurtful. I still plan to get it, though. Seriously 2.0 isn’t as bad, admittedly, though Veteran Gear is still going to be a pain for me. Seriously 3.0 requires level 100 AND all Onyx medals – which will take a LOOOONG time to get. I don’t know if I could even stand to boost long enough to get something like that, especially in a game with mechanics I just don’t like. But yeah, no doubt they want you playing it forever.
With the multiplayer in Gears 2, any disadvantage was huge for me. I already don’t care for the core mechanics and third person games are a bit awkward for me, add in stopping power and glitches/host and you’ve got something I just couldn’t take for very long. I tried so many times to get used to this stuff, but I just couldn’t tolerate it. I don’t know how good I COULD have been, but I think I would have been average at least if everything played out like it should. But I’ll never know for sure.
And I know at least once in each game, I heard of the leaderboards being reset (whether intentional or accidental, I don’t know). In the first game, I lost about 150 kills (started at zero) and I never did anything bad (other than die… a lot). I was lucky I didn’t lose any progress in the second.
And don’t worry, I’m not taking in the wrong way. I understand everyone’s opinion is different and I didn’t exactly expect a lot of positive comments when I wrote this piece. I thank you for responding logically and competently.
And like Gifftor said…I am not offended and I do not want you to think I am attacking you. Everybody has their own opinions and you can play whatever the hell you want.
[...] as it was the number seven game on my top 12 most anticipated games of 2011 list, I felt I needed to go pick this up. After all, I love the X-Men universe and it looks like a [...]
[...] a difficult decision for me. I was able to at least remove Gears of War 3 right away because of my well-documented dislike for it. I’ve seen RAGE played a bit in person and it looks very solid, but I didn’t have the [...]
Or you know, you could just go play a diffrent FPS. I’m sure Reach or CoD will be much more fun than Gear’s of War.
I’m a big RPG player myself but i enjoy a few other games myself. The story is good but it is hard to understand since we are usally concerned more about killing the enemy first.
Just my $0.02 bit
Gears isn’t a FPS – it’s a TPS (third person). That is part of the reason I don’t enjoy it at all. I’m a big RPG player (mainly JRPG – not big in WRPGs) and the story for Gears, although stronger than most shooters, is weak overall. Just my opinion on it, but thanks for the comment.
*Facepalm*You*Facepalm*Suck*Facepalm*
Hi there I am so happy I found your site, I really found you by accident, while I was researching on Google for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a tremendous post and a all round interesting blog