Gears 3

[PeZook]

Tbh I think they were angling for the bomb accelerating some stuff, but yeah, the migration pressure on Locust was the lambent. It was only portrayed to the humans above by the government as a war of genocide to justify their ridiculous mass-murder businesses and keep everyone in line.

I think it's mentioned somewhere that the bomb woke up the huge worm-thing the Locust used to fuck up human cities and that you kill in Gears 2, so that may count.

It's also not QUITE government propaganda that the Locust were genociding humans, really. The irony of the whole thing, of course, is that humanity fought over energy resources (ie. greed) for a long time, and that created the perception amongst the Locust that the ground-dwellers couldn't be dealt with diplomatically.

In they didn't fuck the story up in Gears 3 there could've also been added irony in that the abusive research at New Hope created the Queen and her desire for revenge or something to that effect.

In G3 they actually say IT JUMPED THE SPECIES BARRIER AGAIN, so apparently we're supposed to think lambency is a disease and not some kind of super toxicity. And man, we all know what the Locust are, it's really heavily implied in Gears 2, but doesn't get a look-in in Gears 3. Who cares anymore, after all?

Yeah, origin of the locust was one of the most interesting mysteries in the series, but it was ignored. God...

Man, in Gears 3 the Queen is basically human; she doesn't even have her wierd tenatcles anymore; she's just a slut in a bodysuit. But then she follows you for no reason (never sticking around long enough to kill you, and showing up late at the one place she knows Marcus is going) and then falls over. Man, imagine if there'd been a whole act around just what the government had been doing underground all that time, and if the first game had suggested Professor Fenix had some kind of detailed knowledge of the situation before he disappeared!

It's terrible, because Gears 1 managed to make a complex multi-faceted character out of Marcus with just a few lines of dialogue here and there, so the guys who wrote it and Gears 2 should've been able to handle complex issues. You really see the writer for Gears 3 is different than 1 and 2.

The funny part is that imulsion is pumped out of underground drilling rigs. But apparently underground is absolutely wall-to-wall locust. I was expected a bunch of stuff about how imulsion was in the groundwater now and how the environment was even more fucked etc, but all you really get is 'zombays'.

Maybe the Locust were grateful the humans were draining Imulsion from the hollows?

Ah, whatever. I don't actually have a problem with Imulsion being dangerous via zombies. It's cliche and leaves a massive plot hole but not really all that terrible compared to the rest.

[Jordie]

Man, in Gears 3 the Queen is basically human; she doesn't even have her wierd tenatcles anymore; she's just a slut in a bodysuit. But then she follows you for no reason (never sticking around long enough to kill you, and showing up late at the one place she knows Marcus is going) and then falls over.

And just before that you find a memorial bust for a woman who died mysteriously out in the open at the beginning of the last level, leading me to think "oooh, foreshadowing for answers!". But noooo, Locus+Lambent killmachine goes off, doesn't do anything to the Queen whatsoever and we don't get an explanation as to what she is.

[Darksider]

after a bit of thinking, I've come up with some ideas that might have made the ending more palatable.

-The device does not kill of the locust wholesale. The ones on Azura itself are caught in the wave of exploding lambent, but the rest of the horde is fine

-Marcus' father does not die. His death seemed utterly pointless to me. Just another way to kick marcus in the nuts before the end of the series. At the end, he takes up a position as senior researcher to whatever's left of human civilization, using his considerable knowledge to help humanity rebuilt

-With Myrrah's death, the Locust horde fragments into various factions. The "Official" successor faction calls an uneasy truce with humanity since the lambent are gone and they can return to their tunnels. Under no circumstances is this truce going to be permanent. There should be a strong implication that both sides still want to wipe each other out, but they're too exhausted from the fighting and devastation to continue. They aren't so much calling a truce, as a time out to get ready for the next round.

What do you guys think?

EDIT: Oh, and we get some explanation as to who or what Myrrah was, because she obviously wasn't a Locust.

[Stark]

Do you really think that improves anything?

First, obviously all the locust aren't dead or EPIC just killed their property stone dead, and all the lambent probably aren't dead either because there's still imulsion everywhere. That just amplifies the awful storytelling. Adam constantly uses the word 'hurt' to describe what it does to locust, but then they go out of their way to show locust dying. Storytelling failure, no matter how much later on they say there were guys that survived. The shot from space of the blue special effect was just awful.

Marcus's dad has to die. He's a character useful only insofar as he motivates Marcus. Killing him does nothing, and that he invents everything is fucking stupid bullshit. I'm glad he died.

Why should 90% of locust even give a shit Myrrah is dead? She commanded them only insofar as she could show up and yell since the destruction of her palace and government. If Traviss wasn't a horrible author she'd have constrasted the shattered horde with the broken-up human government, but this is barely touched on, because using her self-insert characters is way more interesting.

The idea of a truce with the locust offscreen is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Nobody remains alive that know about the pre-E-day contact. The entire human race knows the locust plot genocide, and they appear to have survived better than the humans have.

[Darksider]

I was just trying to create an ending that wouldn't be completely grimdark. I'm not looking for a happy fluffy bunny ending, but 40K-style RAR endless war! being the only outcome is just too depressing. That's why I wouldn't have killed of Marcus' dad. The poor bastard deserves some good news at this point.


What would you have done?

[Stark]

Dude, the awful writing has nothing to do with 'grimdark', and the Gears3 ending is amazingly optimistic. Were you paying attention? They win. Marcus gets the girl. World saved.

Grim... dark???

If I had to keep the first four acts, I'd just have Adam's weapon be yet another superweapon that kills a bunch of guys and creates bigger problems later on. I wouldn't go out of my way to show a blue special effect destroying ALL ENEMIES EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD like some kind of American fantasy.

I mean, it's clear the lambent are chasing Fenix, and so blasting the local stalks could be construed as 'defeating' the intelligent, guided part of the lambent. The island is clearly a major concentration of post-Jacinto locust military shit, so killing them is a big victory. Everything else could be exactly the same, only without cheapening the entire story.

In short, anything other than 60 hours of game trilogy ended with AND THEN ALL THE BAD PEOPLE DIED would be better. Fixing the overall plot would take more work, but the sense is that the finale is definately the weakest part of the entire trilogy. It's clear that Traviss has almost no idea what the lambent are supposed to be (with her biological, infection narrative) and splintered locust and humans having to fight them was interesting enough without OMG ZOMBAYS GONNA KILL EVERY1.

[Darksider]

then how would you create an ending with some positive aspects for the main characters that isn't a complete DEM the way the magic weapon is. Having it create more problems may be a recurring theme of the series, but its too depressing for a final end to the series, which Epic seems insistent that this is.

Having the war still continue at the end basically means nothing has changed except the human and locust populations continue to drive each other closer to extinction, and now Marcus has lost his best friend and his father. He's got no one left except Anya, and that's a damn depressing way to end a game series. Crafting a decent ending would probably require either re-writing a significant part of Gears 3, or extending the series past three games. I was just trying to work within the constraints of Traviss' writing to create a better ending, but i'm not sure if that's possible.

As for Marcus' dad, He doesn't really offer much as a character, but killing him seemed like one blow too many against Marcus. After all the guy's been through, I just feel sorry for him.

[Stark]

That's a really stupid basis for narrative decisions. And did you just ignore the answer I just gave you?

If you think a thematically consistent ending is 'worse' than a literal magic wand making the bad men go away, then maybe Gears is the game for you. Things change constantly in the setting, but it's not anyone's fault that Traviss decided to totally ignore the New Hope stuff about the locust and human relationship and actually do anything plotwise to bring an end to the conflict. The climax of the game isn't everyone dying; it's Marcus losing his dad, and the difference this highlights between Dom and Marcus. You can thus remove the amazingly terrible ending without actually affecting the drama.

Protip - if you think there will be no more Gears games, you might want to rethink that.

[Darksider]

Hmm. Perhaps you're right. I keep trying to come up with an upbeat ending for the series, but it doesn't really fit does it? I suppose the ending you suggested with the battle of Azura being a major victory could work. As for more games, There's definitely more material that could be written, but this feels like an end to Marcus' story. He's basically where Dom was at the end of 2, though he's got Anya to help him through it. I suppose you could show him getting over the death of Dom and his father, but there really doesn't seem like enough material for another game with Marcus as the lead. The dynamic between him and Dom was one of the things that made the series so great, and with Dom dead, that's out of the picture.

[CaptHawkeye]

What's really great Stark is that I bet everyone thinks the writing quality of Gears has significantly improved with the 3rd game.

[Stark]

I've read that Traviss 'brings Gears alive in Gears 3' and that the finale is 'amazing and adds depth to the setting'.

I'm not kidding. The writer adds... her own characters from comic books. She takes away ... the entire crux of the setting.

All your questions will be answered! OKAY NOT REALLY!

Darksider, the lack of 'banter' in the latter half of the game is really noticable - poor Jace is a totally flat character (who appears so young he should barely remember pre-E-day) and having him and Bland Sam try to provide the Act 4 banter is a complete failure. At least once Baird and Cole come back the plot starts to pick up again, but increasing the cast should have required actual work on the new characters.

[Darksider]

I have no idea why they basically shunted Cole and Baird off to the side for chapter four and most of five. I was hoping for another chapter that focused on them, since Sam is actually not boring if she's arguing with Baird. The way they just show up outta nowhere with the coalition fleet makes me think they're going to release it as a DLC, but it really should have been part of the game.

As for Jace, I didn't read the novels or comics, so my impressions of him were from the three or so lines he says to Marcus in Gears 2. I thought he was going to be an experienced soldier buddy of Marcus' but you're right, he looks like he's twenty years old.

[Stark]

20 years old... with cornrows.

Even if the other characters had been in communication with the guys onscreen it would have been fine - the other games had sections like that that worked fine, inculding some of the best (like New Hope and the train). Frankly it just looks like Traviss wanted to make her own characters a major part of the plot (like Hoffman's bizarre cowardice powered by 61-year old pussy) and so Baird and Cole miss the middle of the game, which means the storytelling suffers. Their reactions and the first 30s after they come back in act 5 has more drama and convincing characterisation than all of act 4 put together.

And man, the 'coalition' fleet - the UIR! The Graziani! All our buddies from the comicbooks nobody who isn't massively fat ever read! Luckily, the COG's opponents in the Pendulum Wars use exactly the same equipment the COG does, right down the the stuff invented by Adam Fenix. It's not like Traviss inserted that shit to boost novel sales AT ALL!

The laugh is that that's the real reason Hoffman is written out like a bitch - because she wanted Trescu the Russian from a Novel to show up instead. Opportunity for Hoffman to say 'I AM THE SUPPORT, BOYS' lost to boost her novel sales.

[Chardok]

So, Final verdict from you cynical mofos - Buy now or wait for price drop?

[Stark]

Mechanically the game is good. Horde and Beast are fun, and once you get used to it even Versus is fun. The story is just ass after act 3.

It's just galling that EPIC allowed the story to suffer so much for novel references. People were cynical when they bought in Generic Scifi Author for Gears 2, but the results were great. Bringing in Author Famous For Ignoring A Setting and what happens?

[Darksider]

And man, the 'coalition' fleet - the UIR! The Graziani! All our buddies from the comicbooks nobody who isn't massively fat ever read! Luckily, the COG's opponents in the Pendulum Wars use exactly the same equipment the COG does, right down the the stuff invented by Adam Fenix. It's not like Traviss inserted that shit to boost novel sales AT ALL!

Not to mention they all have COG insignias. Look at the cutscenes. They're all dressed exactly like Gears. I'm convinced that Traviss forced some kind of last minute change to shoehorn in another novel character after they'd already rendered them as COG forces.

The laugh is that that's the real reason Hoffman is written out like a bitch - because she wanted Trescu the Russian from a Novel to show up instead. Opportunity for Hoffman to say 'I AM THE SUPPORT, BOYS' lost to boost her novel sales.

I have no fucking idea why they didn't have Hoffman join the team or at least show up with the reinforcements. He seems exactly like the type of gung-ho son of a bitch who'd get a kick out of a mission like that.

[Stark]

Almost his entire character has been built on loyalty to his men and the military. Staying in a totally destroyed fort full of corpses with a creepy pensioner woman when the world is in more peril than ever is just bizarre - almost as bizarre as a city being called 'char' before everyone in it is TURNED TO ASH. I thought his leaving the ship and helping settlers was a great thing, because he's a father figure, but it turns out that was yet another act 1 plot hook that was just abandoned. Were there even any civilians in Anvil Gate?

[Darksider]

Wait. Char was the city's actual name? I thought it was originally called something else before the Hammer strike.

[Stark]

Seriously. It's never called anything else by anyone. Even Dom calls it that when he's in Mercy.

This is what they hired Traviss for. The worst part is that nobody even tried to sell it; Ice T never yelled about how the COG turned the people of Char into ASH PEOPLE. That's just the city's name. Probably founded by Adam Fenix.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

Mechanically, it's still Gears. Horde's upgrades are interesting, personally I never play Versus and haven't tried out Beast. Though, I'll iterate again, that someone at Epic decided it would be a good idea to spawn Lambent Beserkers as bosses in Horde with identical abilities and vulnerabilities as campaign.

I have no idea why they basically shunted Cole and Baird off to the side for chapter four and most of five. I was hoping for another chapter that focused on them, since Sam is actually not boring if she's arguing with Baird. The way they just show up outta nowhere with the coalition fleet makes me think they're going to release it as a DLC, but it really should have been part of the game.

It's doubly annoying because either Char and Mercy could either be cut or combined. Char especially seems to exist solely to say "Not everyone is crazy about the COG." Well, that and repeating what we learned in Mercy.

And then, when we get to the Naval Base... we have to find fuel anyway. Which reminds me, we never did see what made those webs... unless they're saying the Serapede's were supposed to. You've also got to love that the flooding controls for the dry dock are inside of it, below the water line...

[aieeegrunt]

Jesus Christ the campaign was horrible. Just a giant chore from start to finish. The story turned into absolute garbage. Good thing horde is so much fun otherwise I would have returned it the morning after I bought it. Now that she's done ruining Star Wars and Gears I see Karen Traviss will be unleashed on Halo.

I've tried co oping it twice now, with people who loved the first two games (my wife and my best friend) and both had me shut the game off half way through. Amusingly this has become my wife's Halo 2 moment; she finally understands the depths of my hatred for Bungie's betrayal.

Why God Why doesn't Space Marine have Co Op? That campaign did everything Gears 3's campaign failed horribly at, most noticeably being fun to fucking play!

[CaptHawkeye]

How does Karen Travis have everyone so fooled into thinking she's a good writer?

[Chardok]

How does Karen Travis have everyone so fooled into thinking she's a good writer?

Because she's a ZOMG GURL HOTPLACE TO STICK MY NERD PENIS AND SHE WROTE A NOT THE WORST EVER STAR WARS EU BOOK

[lordofchange13]

I really Liked Gears 3. story was better then the last game, at last the beefy man war comes to an end! a great crescendo to the game series.

[Stark]

Why God Why doesn't Space Marine have Co Op? That campaign did everything Gears 3's campaign failed horribly at, most noticeably being fun to fucking play!

Because Relic is literally retarded, that's why.

The laugh of the 'fanservice' in Gears3 is that maybe what, 100,000 people bought the dumbass novels? 10,000 bought the stupid comics? Millions bought the game, and ended up thinking 'uh, Vectes the what island?' and 'Bernie the who Traviss insert?'

Sounds like quality writing to me.