Replaying Gears 3: Second Thoughts?

 

A little less than 2 years ago I stood eagerly in the front of a Gamestop, with many other die hard gamers, in order to get my midnight release copy of Gears of War 3. I've never been big on the Gears multiplayer, but the story line and world this title has created made me desperate to engulf in the new campaign so that I could finally see how Epic would conclude their fantastic trilogy.

This isn't a game review, but I will say without a doubt I loved this game. I played through on normal (I know, should have done Hardcore) and thought the campaign delivered a perfect balance between a dramatic story, intense heart-pounding action, and a satisfying conclusion. I would have liked to see more of a character wrap-up, like a scene in the future possibly of Marcus and Anya getting married or whatever, but it's not too big of a deal! 

Anyway I finally popped the disc back into my Xbox to get through my solo insane play through (something I do with all the Gears games). Now I am no stranger to the highest difficulties in games. I've conquered the Halo games on solo Legendary, trampled the Call of Duty's on Veteran, but this is something else! Something exhausting. Something, I imagine, like hell. 

The Gears 3 cast, looking beefier than ever

I'm basically writing this just to complain. By no means is this something I can't beat. It's only been two days and I'm halfway through, but the time has not been enjoyable. On Insane, so many of the firefights are overly complicated, with unfair enemy tactics and terrible checkpoints, that by the end they weren't even enjoyable or satisfying to beat. 

On a small note here's my problem with the checkpoints; they are not given in significant or necessary moments! You may plow through dozens of Lambent, Locust, whatever, but some of the "waves" are so drawn out that you may think you've gotten a checkpoint, but if you die it's back to the early beginning. Also there are many places where you die, but instead of spawning back to the point of conflict, you spawn a good way away from the fight, having to continuously trek forward to the enemies. And the problem is this gets really old and repetitive since you die so much on Insane!

Now I enjoy a challenge and believe me this game delivers, but it gets old fast. Especially some of the new enemies. 

A Gunker: the worst spawn of Satan you come across in this game

Referring to the picture above these Gunkers make me want to rip my hair out. They should be hard to defeat of course, but their abilities are way to exaggerated. The imulsion balls these things hurl at you have way to big of a kill radius. So much of my hair was ripped out while rolling away from these attacks only to find I was still killed in one hit from a relatively reasonable distance. Also since I'm on solo, a lot of the time my AI would advance without me, get downed by the Gunker leaving me to either defeat it quickly by myself of die trying to rescue my team. These Insane Gunkers are worthy adversaries, but in my opinion a little to powerful for their own good. 

The Lambent Beserker

Another one was the Lambent Beserker. This guy wasn't as bad, but still pretty dang tough. The fight was very repetitive and in all reality I would of much rather faced off against the regular Beserkers we all feared, but loved from the first game. 

Epic did a good job in creating a challenge for the gamer, but I just think they overdid it. At the end of the night yeah; I'll still end up beating this game (but many cuss words and thrown controllers will occur) and continue to love the series because of their great storytelling and the fantastic sense of care they help us form with their characters. The problems I bring up aren't too big of a deal on the lower difficulties because you don't die that much, but I do think on Insane they should have held back a little and fixed these errors. 

What Gears game is your favorite? Did you play through on Insane? Do you agree or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments!

Also I will be getting my laptop fixed in the days to come so this will be my last post for a week or two!