Previews// Gears of War 3: Multiplayer Beta

These tactics are useful for some of the other stages you’ll get to play in the Beta, Checkout and Trenches. In Checkout there’s not really a lot of space - you are fighting in an abandoned supermarket after all - and so close-range combat weapons become the key to overcoming your enemies swiftly.

Once you’ve had a face full of shotgun there’s no coming back, but if you get downed you have the option to crawl to safety like in Gears of War 2. Or you can stab the A button repeatedly and revive yourself, but this takes a long time to pull off and if your enemy is still looking to finish you off there’s not a lot of hope for you, friend.

Trenches is set in the middle of a sandy dune in the Seran Deadlands, where the Locust have carved a base of operations. It’s near-symmetrical design means that there will be huge face-offs on either side to reach vantage points that house a Mortar and the new One-Shot, a gun that can take out an enemy in… well, one shot (it takes a while to aim though and it’s easily detectable by the laser sight). When you hear the bells toll, a sandstorm will engulf everyone for a short while, giving players a chance to make a move while their opponents are blind.

Old Town is my favourite map of the bunch, probably because once I got my Gears edge back I was winning as much as Charlie Sheen. A Seran island that has been well-defended against the Locust Emergence until now, Old Town is an environment full of brick buildings and cobbled roads, with a few side roads and forked avenues that can offer a great strategic location for team matches. Plus, you can stomp on chickens!

Epic is including some rather curious twists on classic online battle modes for the multiplayer Beta. Team Deathmatch pits groups of COG soldiers and Locust against one another on a map, but instead of fighting for frag points your aim is to whittle down the number of lives the other team has.

The number of lives for each team sits in the corner of the screen, and when a team’s number depletes its members can no longer respawns, giving opportunities for last-man standing situations. Best of three rounds wins. King of the Hill plays as you would expect - occupy zones to gain points - but indicators on the screen help you identify where you need to go and what you have to do once you get there.

Gears of War 3’s multiplayer is looking very solid and promises a lot of good old-fashioned fun, and this should be apparent when the closed Bulletstorm-enabled Beta opens between 18th and 24th April (public Beta runs between 25th April to 15th May).

Perhaps the most compelling reason for hardcore fans to play is the rewards you’ll get for doing so - Beta Tester Medals, a Thrashball skin for Cole Train, and skins for a Gold-Plated Retro Lancer, Flaming Hammerburst, Flaming Lancer, Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun and Flaming Gnasher.

All of which will be carried over to the final version of Gears of War 3 when it launches on 20th September 2011. We’ll see you on the battlefield.