3. Gears Of War 3 - The Sacrifice
Gears of War 3 had a lot to live up to. When the original was released, we were blown away by its graphics, cover system and tight, focused gameplay. It just so happened that many games developers were also blown away by this and proceeded to implement these features in every game released since then. This meant that GOW 2 needed something more - a good story. It seems that Cliffy B and Co. agreed with this sentiment and so they hired comic book writer and novelist Joshua Ortega to inject some much needed pathos into the GOW universe. Ortega chose to focus the story on Dom and his search for his wife. This made GOW more relatable on a human level and led to one of the most heart breaking scenes in the franchise. It also set up an awesome revenge mission for GOW 3. And this is where Gears of War 3 fails. Instead of a deeply personal revenge mission, we were treated to a nonsensical plot involving Locust and Lambent, which seemed to exist solely as an excuse to fill the screen with as many different enemies as you can think of. Whilst this is admirable in terms of trying to shake up the gameplay a bit, it completely took away from what could, and should, have been an extremely emotional character death. The Gears are trapped in a town called Mercy with, seemingly, no way out. Until Dom decides to drive a fuel tanker straight into the heart of the battle and subsequently wipe out himself and all the enemies threatening the Gears. It should be noted that I recognize this cut scene as a beautiful moment in the game (the inclusion of Mad World made my hairs tingle), the problem comes afterwards. I just don't care. GOW 2 established Dom's story as the one that was really worth caring about, only for GOW 3 to kill him off two thirds of the way through. I really wanted to see Dom take down the Locust after the despair we witnessed him go through in Gears 2. Perhaps my frustration is enhanced by the fact that I played every GOW in co-op campaign mode. This meant that I (and my fiancee) had become really attached to Dom. He was Marcus' wingman from the very beginning and it was really jarring to know that he would not see it through to the end, leading to a general feeling of apathy in the final missions.