After a month of available playing time, the Gears of War 3 beta shut its doors, leaving players a long wait until the full games September 20th release date. In that month, 1.29 million players from 145 different countries competed in over 11 million games, firing almost 23 billion bullets.
 
Whilst those players in the main just wanted to play the game early, the experiences they had will shape the retail release come September. The sheer amount of data captured means Epic have much to work with. When creating a game, you can’t ever really be sure how it will perform in the wild, and this extended showing will give Epic much greater confidence in the online side of Gears of War 3. Enough of the developers though. From a player’s point of view, was it actually any good and is it worth it if you didn’t get on with the game in the past? The answer on both counts is an emphatic yes.
 
The first two games featured a multiplayer that was harsh and unforgiving – a single life in the deathmatch modes – that turned off as many as it hooked in. In a game that lives or dies by teamwork, the single life meant that many players found the majority of their play time spent watching someone else, making it difficult to learn and appreciate the mechanics, or indeed the map layout. The beta though featured a new mode called Team Deathmatch where each team had a shared pot of 15 lives, before reverting to the ‘die and you’re out’ of the earlier games.
 

The effect of this is drastic. Whilst many adopt a more cavalier approach, the inevitable death simply sends them back to the spawn point, allowing the player to get to grips with the game. It’s unlikely to be a mode that relies as heavily on tactics as Warzone or Execution did in the first two games, but a well organised team of lower ability will still triumph over a team that’s higher skilled, but disorganised.
 
Another new mode is Capture the Leader, which for veterans is a combination of Guardian and Submission. Rather than earning capture points, you simply have to grab the enemy leader for a period of 30 seconds unbroken to win a round. To capture them, you must first down them and a captured leader can only be released by killing or downing their captor, or with a well-placed smoke grenade. Should both leaders be captured, the countdown freezes until one is released, resulting in a tense affair where players debate protecting their capture, or going to free their leader.
 
The final mode featured (aside from Torque Bow Tag, a throwaway joke based on an X-Play sketch that's frankly awful to play) is King of The Hill. It differs from the mode of the same name featured in the second game, and is effectively Annex. The idea is to reach 170 points before the other team, which you do by capturing the Hill. This means standing in it for a few seconds, after which you can leave, and your team still scores points. The Hill moves when it's countdown reaches zero, and will count down regardless of whether or not it's been captured. This feature means that it's often worth 'breaking' (running into basically) a Hill captured by your opponants even when it means certain death. As a delaying tactic, this can turn certain defeat into victory as you leave the other team just short of the total whilst the rest of your team wait at the next location for the Hill.
 
Players will constantly earn ribbons during play, which are awarded for a range of events, including being the first to die in a round, earning 5 assists in a round, capturing the leader whilst leader of your own team, and spending the most time in cover. Some are more wanted than others, and judging from the experience in the beta, are guaranteed to provide a steady stream of laughs as you announce your haul to your team mates.The new weapons seem to have been the cause of controversy. The Sawed Off Shotgun in particular was singled out for a beating by many, but it’s actually a fairly balanced weapon. If you hit it right, it's absolutely lethal. Its useful range is appropriately short though. When killed by it, it's one of two things usually, running round a corner without looking, or the other person's been quicker on the trigger. There are few occasions where death by it seems unfair.
 

 
The problem though is the behaviour the Sawed Off encourages. Many players choose to spend the entire game hiding behind a corner waiting for a cheap one shot kill. This can really harm the performance of the team, as they are effectively a player or two down, and can find themselves over-run by an organised set of opponents. That’s an issue that’s unlikely to be solved whilst people prize Kill-Death ratio above all else.
 
The improved Hammer of Dawn saw introduction in the final week, and whilst it’s no longer a niche weapon for players who know every nook, cranny and column of a map, it’s gone the other way, and now completely dominates. Trenches was the only map it featured on, but it was soon established that whoever gets control of the Hammer of Dawn will win the game, regardless of the gametype. The team not in control will quickly be suffocated at their spawn point, as a Hammer of Dawn or two is deployed there against them. It’s simply far too difficult a weapon to take down, and is far too easy to use for the damage it deals.
 
Despite the negative note struck there, the overall experience was very enjoyable. As ever, teamwork is key to success in Gears of War 3, and if you can manage to fill an entire team with friends, you’ll have a much better time than if you are on your own. Even solo though, it’s well worth playing for the last second heroics in Capture the Leader, the tense stand offs at the end of a hard fought Team Deathmatch, or the dive to break a ring capture in King of the Hill that swings the round back in your favour. Gears of War 3 looks to broaden the series appeal, without diluting the things that made it great in the first place. On the evidence of this beta, Epic has succeeded in spades.