The Best Gears of War Games: All 5 Ranked

Fire up your Lancers, Delta!

4: Gears of War 3

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Gears of War

The big question hanging over Gears 3 was “can Epic stick the landing”? Ending a trilogy is hard, especially when your second installment blew nearly everyone away. Gears of War 3 had big shoes to fill, starting with delivering a multiplayer experience that couldn’t have the connectivity issues that Gears 2 had. Not only that, but they had to tie up the narrative loose end left at the end of Gears 2 and finally give fans who dug into the lore the satisfaction of seeing Marcus Fenix reunite with his long lost father.

The multiplayer is the bread and butter of the series, and Gears 3 certainly delivers. Epic’s beta certainly paid off in lessening the connection issues that otherwise plagued the previous game. There were still some issues, but they didn’t plague game nearly as bad or as long as Gears 2. There’s a better sense of balance across the weapons and map variety the previous two games didn’t entirely have, and the game overall feels more geared (heh) towards teamwork. Small things like being able to tag enemies for your teammates or swapping weapons make even competitive modes feel cooperative. If you’re a fan of the series’ multiplayer, it’s definitely where you’re going to get your money’s worth.  

Not to say that the campaign of Gears 3 is bad, but Gears campaigns have always had their high and low points, and this campaign is a bit more on the miss side. It definitely starts out with a bang, having Marcus and the rest of Delta fight on their rig to keep a giant Lambent fish (no seriously) from bringing it to the bottom of the ocean. The set piece moments, combined with the addition of four player co-op and modifiers, are the stars of the campaign, and they deliver in that aspect. Some of the encounters in the final two acts rank up there with the series’ best. But it feels like the series very well realized that they sort of blew their emotional load with the Dom/Maria stuff in Gears 2, so the whole stuff about Marcus’ dad falls flat to people who haven’t read the novels. At the end of it all, Gears of War 3 isn’t bad if you’re solely a multiplayer fan, but if you’re in it for the story, you may come out disappointed.


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Author
Justin Carter
Justin was a former Staff Writer for Twinfinite between 2014 and 2017 who specialized in writing lists and covering news across the entire video games industry. Sometimes a writer, always a dork. When he isn't staring in front of a screen for hours, he's probably reading comics or eating Hot Pockets. So many of them.