Gears of War 3

[Volvagia]

Played through GOW2 again after a two day period of hard work and 5 hour breaks and 4 hour sleep nights, in between Site Managment and Job Work. Was fun, I must admit.

Refreshing my mind on the second game made me realise why I hated the first one so much, and it's because it kept you on edge with everything.

The game itself threw you into this world where you had no idea what the fuck was going on, what a COG was, who the hell this Marcus Phenix is or why the hell he was in jail, why these stupid bat bastards come down from the sky at night and eat you. There is no explanation for this at all. And yet, I still kept playing, and I think it's the suspense that kept making me play over all, I wanted to learn about it and figure out what happened to this destroyed world these people live in, so, more or less, the first game was all about "What the hell happened? Who am I? Why am I at war with mutated monster assholes with guns?" "Why did Carmine get sniped when he had a full coat of armour that looks unpenetrable and a full helmet on?" all those stupid moments kept making me play because I wanted to learn more about why all of this was possible and/or was happening.

The first one ended really abruptly, and kinda left you at a moment of "...What?" - Yeah, you defeat the general, so what? Doesn't mean you've saved the world. There is millions of them out there still as far as they're aware. Yeah, you hit them hard, but it doesn't mean you killed them all. And I still want to learn about Marcus and why the hell he was in prison, and why his Dad had shit on the Locus, where is Dom's wife? Etc.

Left me with a "Gameplay was good, but... what the fuck?" - If anything, minus gameplay, it leaves me with the same sort of feeling Lost does every episode they bring something new, confusing, and mind pondering into the show. "Wow, but what the fuck?"



Few years later, second one comes out, starts off two years after the events of GOW1, the new gameplay mechanics that are introduced to you right off the bat in the training mission are interesting, fun, and unique, but it also shows you the old shit (zzzz...) along with showing us Carmine, who, right then and there, we know is going to die and basically turns into the "Kenny" of the Game (Show up in the next one and be fine, die a few hours (or minuets if you're comparing it to south park.) down the line.) shit goes down at the hospital, gotta rush over there kick ass; you learn this is the last strong hold that the Gears have and the rest of the world is in shit and people are hiding under ground a few good miles away from where the Locus apparently live/reside if they're not on the surface already where the Gears are, but it's still a battlefront up on the surface anyway.

Shit goes down on the way, your mission is to go underground and get them at the hive, you go down, giant earthworm (Yeah, seriously, what the fuck? I'll agree this is fucking stupid also, if anything, I just basically called it "an excuse to let Carmine die, again.") is making tunnels under the earth, the very same tunnels you're travelling along within 10-20 mins down the road, go on Grunt prisoner holding boat, find tourchered friend (who's name escapes my mind right now as he was only alive for like 10 mins anyway.), throw friend shotgun expecting him to be alright cause' you know he's a COG right, he's meant to be bad ass and shit, well, friend commits suicide right on the spot. Main characters seem shocked and horrified by this and you progress further into the hive to stop this shit from happening.

At this point, I'm basically saying "k, they didn't take prisoners in the first one... why are they now?" - it's clear they're getting desperate and don't know what else to do, it's basically they're way of sending fear to the COGs, by taking them hostage and beating them to the point where they just want to die - and leaving their friends to find them/watch them kill themselves. It's pretty fucking sick anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happens all the time in real war, you see shit about soldiers being captured all the time, but never any pics etc clearly.

Continue forth, get eaten by giant worm, carmine dies due to wounds (and again, in somehow what appears to be unpenetrable sheilding and protection.) touching stomache acid of the worm burning right through all his organs and skin and killing painfully, other gears mourne the loss of their friends strongly and move on chainsawing (yeah, no fucking joke, it's stupid but it's bad ass.) through the damn worm and escape.

Go to old lab, find info on Locust' and Marcus' dad, go to underground again, fight through place, find queen, queen flees, fight queen's gaurd and almost kill him/presume he is dead, go back to last stronghold where the locust' are attacking, protect all your friends and remaining earth forces from being slaughtered, be told to go underground and totally level the whole last stronghold to kill all the grunts underground.

...

Yeah at this point my mind is blown to the point of "How can they even make a third one?" but clearly in the trailer there is land, DIDN'T I JUST LEVEL PRACTICALLY THE ENTIRE FUCKING UPPERWORLD ON THESE ASSHOLES?

...But, the second one actually did show a lot of character development, which I think, overall is why I held it highly. The first one left me with a big WTF over my head whilst the second one showed me the bonds between the characters;

Dom and Marcus appear to be long time friends and not just since the first game - yeah, we knew they knew each other, but we didn't really know who they were, or how well they knew each other. In the second one, it's clear that Marcus knew Dom's wife and really tries to help him keep it together after Dom kills his wife because she's so brutally tourchered she doesn't even recognise him or know how to speak... almost lifeless and probably about to die anyway... Even towards the end of the game when Dom tells Marcus to hang in there when they think Anya and the whole other squadren of GEARS are dead it's clear he's returning the favour showing he gives a fuck about him and isn't like "Every man for himself." which in war, if it's a few die for the lifes of many, a few fucking die. Whilst in this game they show that they don't want a single person to die and try to save them.

Baird and Train have a good relationship going on also, they throw jokes back and forth at each other and sometimes talk about the old days. (for example Cole being a Football player or some shit and how he asks if Baird remembers the days when he made some shitty shot that no one gives a fuck about really in the game as there is no scene of it.) and Baird is basically reminising with him as it goes on. It's clear that they have a good bond and that even in the army you have to have buddies or you're nothing.

I'm not sure why, but the second one really opened my eyes to the potential of the characters development, but didn't really answer any questions I wanted answered, like;

Who is Marcus' Dad and why did he help the Locus?
Why was Marcus in Prison?
Why was Dom seperated from his Wife, and didn't he have a kid too?
How many fucking brothers does Carmine have?
How does Marcus' know every fucker on the battlefield before really going into anything, he just knows every Gear, I sure would like to see the FUCKING BACKSTORY.

But like I said, it's like Lost, answers nothing and adds more shit... but when the developers feel like it, sometimes answer shit.

If the third one doesn't answer everything, then everything they've put on the table so far is worthless. It's clear they've been trying to build up a lot of hype as to who Marcus' dad really is and why he helped the Locus, also in the Labs it looked like people were being transformed genetically into Locus and taking revenge out on humans for doing it to them, but those things in the Lab were insane and fucking freaky.

The point being, the story has potential to expand, go further, be good, but only if the third game does it right, those who are bitching about the first two need to let it play out completely before they call it "Shitty story" all together. It's a trilogy, all three pieces need to be assembled before an opinion is formed. This kinda shit almost stopped the third Matrix from being released etc.

Just wait for the third one, see if it clears everything up, and if it doesn't. What the fuck were the developers on.

The whole reason I even liked the campaign is because it's leading up to something and building a lot of questions I'd like to see be answered. It's what keeps people interested in things like lost, questions = viewers and sales, people want to know the answers.

Though, it's a video game, and any game with a gun = sales.

tired of writing about gears now, played the online earlier with a friend again, my god how fucking awful. /end.

[StarPilot]

*climbs wall o text*

I think the prison thing was answered in one of the novels, something about derilection of duty or something during the Pendulum Wars which happened before the games. Marcus was going to get a death penalty, Dom knew Marcus well enough to testify for just a prison sentence.

[Volvagia]

*climbs wall o text*

I think the prison thing was answered in one of the novels, something about derilection of duty or something during the Pendulum Wars which happened before the games. Marcus was going to get a death penalty, Dom knew Marcus well enough to testify for just a prison sentence.

makes sense. and wall-o-text is for mongler as I said I would do it like 2 days ago but have been busy