14 DAY TRIAL // What it is: The GoW saga is preparing for the last hurrah in its first planned trilogy, so you know that the team at Epic Games is working hard to make Gears of War 3 the best game yet.
We’ve seen the company showcase the polished multiplayer mode in the recent online beta for Gears 3, and we’ve also heard about the single-player campaign, which will be the longest and most expansive designed by Epic.
At Gamescom 2011, together with the game’s publisher Microsoft, they demoed the cooperative mode of the game, but not the actual Horde we already know from the second game, instead opting to showcase the all-new Beast Mode.
How it is: Beast mode is pretty similar to the Horde one, but, instead of players fighting as COG (human) soldiers against the monstrous Locust, they’ll now be on the other side of combat, controlling various specimens of the Locust horde.
These range from the small tickers, to regular Locust soldiers who can use weapons, or much bigger enemies like Berserkers. Every time the player spawns, he can choose which beast to be, each having an associated cost. While small units cost relatively little, if you want to spawn as bigger ones, you’ll need to pay a lot of cash, which is earned by killing the humans or destroying their fortifications.
Speaking of humans, they get tougher each wave, starting off with “Stranded” ones, which don’t have any powerful weapons and don’t use a lot of cover, going through COG soldiers to COG Heroes, like Marcus Fenix or Dominic, and ending with boss characters like Richard Prescott and his Onyx Guards.
The action is quite hectic but players should always remember to work together and take down enemies, especially once more powerful ones appear later in the stage. Besides that, it’s pretty similar to Horde mode, except now you’re on the other end of the battle, trying to take down those pesky humans, and having quite a lot of fun during the experience.
When and on what: Gears of War 3 is out on September 20 exclusively for the Xbox 360 console.
We have a special page with all our Gamescom 2011 coverage.