Gears of War 3 avoids planetary annihilation

If Cliff Bleszinski had his way, Gears of War 3 (Microsoft; Xbox 360; rated mature) would end a lot differently.

“At the end of this game, I wanted to blow up the whole planet,” the game designer told the Georgia Straight. “Just blow it all up.”

Bleszinski made the admission during an interview in June at E3 in Los Angeles, as he was showing off some of the crazed action that has made the video-game franchise, an Xbox 360 exclusive, so popular. The designer of all three Gears of War titles for Epic Games was pulled back from the brink by executive producer Rod Fergusson, who suggested complete planetary destruction might be a difficult scenario to get out of, if the franchise continues.

So the planet Sera does not get blown up. But Bleszinski promised that Gears of War 3 ends “in a satisfying manner”.

The game, set to be released on Tuesday (September 20), ends a planned trilogy. But if sales of the title come close to meeting expectations, it won’t be the end for Marcus Fenix and the ragtag band of soldiers who are his friends.

Gears of War 3 is set some two years after the events of Gears of War 2, which ended with Fenix and his squad of soldiers flooding the core of Sera with seawater in an attempt to extinguish their Locust enemies. Humans are eking out an existence on whatever seafaring vessels they can find, and the game’s heroes are growing food on the deck of an abandoned aircraft carrier.

In a phone interview, lead level designer Jim Brown explained this game is the biggest that Epic has ever developed. “Not only in terms of the length of the campaign,” he said, “but in terms of the scope of the game in its entirety.”

For the first time in the franchise, four players will be able to play through the story cooperatively. “You can fill out an entire squad of your friends on Xbox Live,” Brown said.

There’s an arcade mode that has gamers accumulating points, which Brown called a more casual way to play. The Horde multiplayer mode has been expanded, and a new Beast multiplayer mode lets gamers play as the monsters and “squish the puny humans”.

It’s the kind of refined and accomplished game that comes with experience. “We’ve become more confident in our abilities to tell good stories and find good gameplay,” Brown said.

Gears of War 3 may not end with a planet exploding, but the characters suffer nevertheless. “I’m a big fan of making you fall in love with characters,” Bleszinski said, “and then beating them down a little bit, once in a while, so you really feel their plight.”

He may have been referring to an incident in Gears of War 2, in which the character of Dominic Santiago locates his missing wife, realizes she has been tortured and is close to death, and chooses to euthanize her.

“There’s some great, fun moments in this game,” Bleszinski said, “but there’s also some sad ones—to be revealed.”