"Well, we're not here to sell cookies..." - Marcus Fenix

Gears Of War is a bit like marmite. You either love it or hate. Or never bothered to give it enough time. And if you're part of the latter group then you're seriously missing out and I'm going to tell you why by talking about Horde 2.0.

Brothers To The End

Gears Of War 3 is the last game in the Gears Of War trilogy (obviously) by Epic Games. It concludes the epic tale that began way back in 2006. Marcus Fenix and his fellow COG Soldiers, Dominic 'Dom' Santiago, Damon Baird and Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole are in the middle of a 14 year war that began on Emergence Day (E-Day) where a race of reptilian and insect looking creatures called the Locust came out of the ground and starting killing all the humans they could lay their grubby hands on. Predictably, things aren't going well for humanity. The Locust are very powerful and vast in number. But we have some muscly dudes that have guns that are also chainsaws! So... yeah! Take... that... scum! Yeah!


Alongside the campaign and the traditional versus mode sits Horde. Horde originally came about in Gears Of War 2. The concept was simple. You fight wave after wave of Locust. After 10 waves the difficulty increases. It continues to increase at wave 20, then 30, then 40 until 50. If you mange to beat wave 50, you win. Fairly simple? Well, you clearly haven't played it.


You can have a team of up to five people. There are weapons on the map and various places to try and hold while the grubs try to kill you. It's all fun and games up to about wave 25 where things start to get really difficult. 
There are various strategies to be played. You can run round the map and kill anything that moves but if you get shot down (but not killed) you'll be hoping someone is brave enough to travel across the map to revive you. The best strategy was always to hold a certain location, cover all entrances and let the enemy come to you.


So Gears Of War 3 came out and the guys at Epic Games noticed how people had been playing the game so they introduced a cash and fortification system in Horde 2.0.


It basically works the same as it's predecessor but with a nice twist. There are various command posts you can purchase throughout the map. Buy one and then you can buy and build fortifications around the map. These include spikes to slow down and injure enemies, decoys to confuse them, turrets you can man, automated guns and mech suits. These are all upgradeable. Spend more money, get better defenses. Weapons and ammo still lay around on the map but you have to purchase these as well. 
So how do you get more money? Easy. Kill and survive. But Horde 2.0 has one more little twist. Rounds 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 are boss waves. Not only do you get the usual Locust attacking you but you also get a nice Locust boss to fight off. This could be a couple of Berzerkers, Reavers, Corpsers or even a Brumak. This made things extremely tough and could halt your game in an instant.


I love these kind of modes.. Left 4 Dead has Survival mode but it's basically just a case of how long you can survive. 30 seconds in and the first Tank could ruin everything.

Tank beats everything!

I always wanted Halo to have a mode like this and then Bungie introduced Firefight in Halo 3: ODST. It was great fun but far too tough. The first few rounds were good but then the skulls kicked in. You could only get health by hitting the enemy, your bullets wouldn't work on shields etc. Once you ran out of lives, that was it. 3 hours down the drain and no achievement. It made the whole thing a bit too punishing.

The ODSTs doing what they best.

They refined it in Halo: Reach but they made it more of an arcade casual game in which you were insanely powerful. Still fun but not something seen as a challenge.

Killtacular!

But Gears Of War has mastered it. It really is just you and your friends against an entire army. At times you feel like you're the best damn COG there ever was. At other times you're panicking like crazy and screaming "Someone help me up! I'm going to die! I'm going to die you bastards!" The guns you're given are powerful enough to take on most enemies. Ammo is scarce enough to make you keep an eye on your ammo counter but not scarce enough that you run out every round.

The best thing is that you feel like a real team. You pick your ground and you stick to it. (I get incredibly possessive over the area I hold, screaming at the Locust "THIS IS MY HOUSE!") You work together. You communicate. You laugh at each other's mistakes but you've got each other's backs. And it's insanely fun.

I managed to get to wave 50 yesterday. But it wasn't easy. I was playing with Jack Purling, Sam Bircham and Ben Goodyear. We played Gears 2 a bit together so we were well versed in Horde and each other's playing styles. After trying several maps we picked this one: Overpass.

Overpass. Where we made our last stand.

On the far side of the map are some stairs. We ran up the stairs and chose the command post underneath the tall roof. This gave us a view of most of the map. Attackers could only reach us by coming up the stairs. We had a turret at the top of the stairs and a turret on the bridge that could turn a full 360 degrees to give us some cover and take out the big guys.


It was tough. We fortified hard, looking after the turrets in particular. The only problem with our spot was that the nearest ammo was on the ground beneath the bridge. So we only went for it occasionally, relying on the in-between wave replenishment and the goods the enemies occasionally left behind with their corpses. We had a few problems. They mostly involved Jack deciding to run downstairs and attack enemies with a cleaver and then getting blown up by Tickers.


But we got to wave 50. We had the usual panic at the start of a boss round.. "What's the boss?" " I don't see the boss, do you see the boss?" "It better not be Berzerkers!" It wasn't. It was a Brumak. 

Brumak: Actual size.

He spawned behind us, just behind the bridge. Sam and I were on the bridge so we focused our fire on the Brumak. Ben and Jack held the stairs, fighting off the rest of the Horde and buying us time to take down the boss. The Brumak is a total monster. It's a massive lizard beast with huge machine guns on it's wrists and a giant rocket launcher on it's back. The key to bringing it down is to take out it's weapon's first. Sam ripped into it with the turret while I focused my fire on it's machine guns. With enough shots from my Lancer, I quickly took out each machine gun. This pissed it off. But then I was out of ammo in my Lancer. Sam's turret ran out of juice too. We took to our pistols, firing everything into the rockets. I got the lucky shot. The rockets blew up and took the son of a bitch with him.


We couldn't believe it. Now all we had to do was mop up the stragglers. But a couple of minutes later Sam shouted over the microphone "THERE'S ANOTHER BRUMAK!" I didn't believe him. We had fought Brumaks before in other boss waves and there had only ever been one per wave. But I turned around and right  where we had killed the first one, another stood in his place. But things were worse this time.


We didn't have the turret anymore. It had been blown up. Ben and Jack had been killed by some other Locust. Although they were dead, they watch the game and spot enemies for us. With their help, Sam and I managed to kill off the remaining troops so that only the Brumak remained.
Where as the other Brumak had decided to stay put and fight us, this one decided to go for a wander. He walked across the map to the bottom of the stairs and decided to fight us there. We kept getting hit by rockets but we fought back. Soon though, we were out of ammo. Following another salvo of rockets Sam was blown to pieces. It was just me. The Brumak obviously thought I was lonely so it started heading up the stairs, taking a flight at a time. I picked up a Scorcher flamethrower but I was dead before I could fire it.


We were gutted. We got so close. So damn close. So we tried again. Straightaway. That's what this game does. It leaves you wanting more even when it's made you it's bitch.


During our next attempt we fought another Brumak. I managed to kill it by shooting a canister on it's back that exploded. The panic in the Brumak's face just before it died gave me such a feeling of satisfaction. But we didn't get much further in that wave. We then caught a break and got a much easier boss and managed to complete the wave. Which was awesome.


But now I'm just hungry for more. It was so much fun. Backs against the wall, just you, your friends and a few rounds of ammo between you and complete annihilation.


I would pay the money for Gears Of War 3 for Horde 2.0 alone. So what are you waiting for?!