Detailed Analysis - Main Narrative
The End of the Road
Beginning the final Journey for Delta against the newly introduced Lambent and the returning Locust horde feels like the fight has evolved while also reminding the characters how far they’ve come in the world and what they’ve had to face. 17 years of surviving against the Locust and the Lambent has helped to ensure that the bonds between these characters are unshakable and has created loyalty and trust that runs deep, even before the Locust war.
At this point, the men and women who represent the last remnants of the COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) have been through the wringer, whether it’s through the stories told through the games or other stories told throughout the extended media that Gears of War had spawned. Where Gears of War 3 picks up, the heroes of our journey, specifically Marcus Fenix is faced with a new, seemingly difficult mission. Not difficult in the sense that the obstacles he will face are any more difficult than anything before but because he will have to come to terms with his family and his past.
As explained through a rather chilling nightmare, Marcus and Dom along with a handful of Gears (COG Soldiers), abandoned their post so he could go to save his father, Professor Adam Fenix. Marcus and his best friend and squad mate Dominic Santiago fought to protect Adam from Locust forces only for Adam to be killed in the attack and the battle Marcus should have been fighting was lost, which is what led to his court martial and eventual imprisonment.
Waking up from this nightmare, we join Marcus on a ship, 2 years after the sinking of Jacinto with the members of Delta squad who are in a much different head space than they were before and it’s clear that the last 2 years have been rough on them. In the years since losing Jacinto, the crew had found a remote island where they tried to start over but unfortunately, the rising of a new threat, the Lambent, made this home too dangerous to inhabit and eventually forced the COG to disband and their leader Chairman Prescott, leaving some time ago. The ship is a representation of who the characters are, functioning but not pristine
Seeing Marcus you can always guess that Dom isn’t too far away and wouldn’t you know it, he lives in a room next to Marcus, where he has taken to growing tomatoes. As we sail, we get a glimpse at how the Lambent have evolved since the last time, we as the players, have seen them. In earlier games, the Lambent were only a few mutated variants of the Locust, from the wretches in Gears of War 1 to the Locust drones in Gears of War 2. Now the Lambent have evolved to the point where they managed to destabilise the island they found and have kept the remnants of the COG from finding a home as is evident from the comments Marcus makes to Dom and new member Jayce Stratton.
Reconvening with the original Tactical controller and now formidable Gear, Anya Stroud, Delta learn that someone has come back from the dead, or at least someone who they didn’t know was alive or not, Chairman Prescott. The ex-chairman of the COG who left some time ago for unknown reasons returns as if nothing happened and doesn’t act at all sincere instead coming to give someone a mission while also passing off a disc to Fenix. The disc, is a message from Marcus’ long-dead father who seems to be not so dead after all and he claims that he has a solution to the Lambent problem but of course, it’s badly damaged and Baird is nowhere to be found.
Speaking of Baird, he and Cole are on a mission to find supplies in Cole’s hometown with newcomers Sam Byrne and Clay Carmine. That’s right, another Carmine, I’m sure this one won’t get killed and in all fairness, he’s unlikely to go down unless it’s in a blaze of glory. Some time in Hanover brings some mixed memories for Cole as he sees his home in ruins and we also get to see the dynamic between the newest iteration of Alpha Squad. Baird continues to be the sarcastic man that he’s always been but there’s a hint that he’s taking it in his stride, something he’s always done but this time around he’s not so easily offended when someone claps back. Cole maintains his boisterous self but he’s mellowed since Jacinto, most likely after returning to his home field and finding it overrun with the Lambent.
Both teams come across their oncoming struggles which they take in their stride but always manage to get back together again no matter how the dice fall, the team splits up and it always manages to be Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird. A fine dynamic considering that they fight well together and they’ve known each other for years since the original Lightmass offensive and it makes sense that at the very least we would start the newest mission back with these 4 again.
Journeying through the landscape of Sera to find information on Marcus’ father, gathering forces and surviving through the emerging Lambent and returning Locust forces which also includes the long-thought dead Queen, the men and women of Delta come across many hardships on their journey which challenges their resolve at times and puts them through the wringer. The most devastating loss is unfortunately Dom who sacrifices himself to save his squad mates by the halfway point.
Dominic has been with us since the very start of Gears of War and has proven himself to be a valiant soldier, a good man and an even better brother. We knew they were never coming out of this unscathed but to lose Dom, after everything he’s been through and everything he’s survived, even before the Locust War, it was difficult to believe that Dom was gone but the road leading up to this felt like the obvious outcome. From Dom suggesting getting fuel from his late wife, Maria’s, hometown to visiting her grave and telling her he’ll see her and their kids soon. The loss of Dom is felt by everyone, but none more so than Marcus who has lost his oldest friend and brother.
Reaching Azura, you can feel that Delta are so close to the end now but there are still so many obstacles that stand in their way and after a long fight, plagues with doubt and threats all around them, Marcus and his team finally reach Adam and a solemn reunion between father and son. After so many years of guilt for not saving Adam and losing so much since then, Marcus has found his only remaining family but this reunion is short-lived as they are running out of time to destroy the Lambent. Here they learn some uncomfortable truths when Adam expresses regret for the Locust.
No feelings of guilt but instead responsibility as he met the Locust long before the war and tried to convince them to stay underground in exchange for finding a solution for the Lambent. Adam knew the Locust war was coming and didn’t warn anyone, instead thinking he could solve the problem himself, which he ultimately failed to do. Despite his good intentions, Adam left humanity ill-prepared to face the impending threat of the Locust and the Lambent and humanity suffered a 17-year-long war because of this with their cities destroyed, their people decimated and a world in limbo.
Moving past this, Marcus and the team set about activating Adam’s device which will kill all Lambent cells including the Locust who have greater exposure to the Imulsion than most of whatever is left of humanity. It is here that they have their final confrontation with the Queen, the Locust and the Lambent. After a lengthy fight, the machine activates and begins killing the Lambent and Locust in proximity but also affecting Adam. To make sure the device would work and not kill everyone, Adam injected himself with Imulsion and forced it to progress to determine the safe thresholds. In his final moments, Adam has only one request, for Marcus to go and live a life for Adam before he perishes, turned to dust by his invention.
Marcus has lost the only blood relative he had left, After fighting so hard to find his father, it ends with his father turning to dust, leaving only his lab coat and his COG tags in Marcus’s hands. Before Marcus can even process what has happened, an injured Myrrah approaches. Instead of accepting defeat, she continues to rant about Adam’s failure and gloats at his death which only prompts Marcus to kill her with a knife from Dom. As she dies the device reaches full power and destroys the Locust, the Lambent and destroys the Imulsion. The war is over and everyone is in high spirits, all except for Marcus who has lost everything, save for Anya who can see a tomorrow now for the world and perhaps more importantly, for her and Marcus, something they've wanted for a long time but never had the time for but now they do.
The Bonds of War
After 2 and a half years fighting alongside each other the men of Delta and Alpha have gotten to know each other pretty well and by now they usually consider themselves a single squad no matter how they split up on missions. Despite having some of the typical codenames like Delta and Alpha, the respective squads change quite frequently throughout the campaign that they can all be considered to be a single unit, which is pretty much true.
While the 1st iteration of Delta we are a part of consists, of Marcus, Dom, Anya and newcomer Jace Stratton it quickly changes as we begin to swap out members like Anya and Jace in favour of Cole and Baird. Because of the expanded squad list, it also made sense to be able to focus on another aspect of the heroes. After some time with the 1st iteration of Delta, we spend some time with Alpha squad, led by Cole, joined by Baird and newcomers Sam Byrne and Clay Carmine. Yet another Carmine brother but unlike his brothers Anthony and Benjamin, Clay is a massive contrast, calm, steady and confident and a proven soldier. Sam on the other hand has enough sarcasm to counter even the likes of Baird, which often ends with the 2 of them annoying each other in funny ways.
Because the developers decided to essentially double the number of characters we can meet, it makes it difficult to get to know all of them, especially since all the members of the team have gotten to know each other over the past 2 years. Being able to juggle these different characters isn’t easy as they are each likeable in their own way but often they don’t leave much of a mark on the player and it doesn’t feel like they get enough time allocated to them to bring any meaningful development.
In this case, it’s fine as instead of trying to build on its new characters, the plot is used to build on the momentum of the past characters in the series while trying to finish their arc in fitting ways while also capitalising on the player's connection to them. This is done with Marcus and Dom who are the oldest (in appearance) characters in the game and from their very first scenes, we were able to feel the bond between these 2 soldiers that was only built upon in Gears of War 2 with Marcus helping Dom find his missing wife and supporting him during her death.
Now in Gears of War 3, we find that their bond has not strained in the 2 years since Jacinto, but Dom is not the same and his recovery hasn’t been that great. On the way to get to Azura, the team need fuel and so Dom suggests the pumping station town of Mercy. The place where Dom’s wife Maria was from, the place is often a reminder of some of Dom’s failures, when he reflects on not being able to bury Maria or their children. When he finds Maria’s family graveyard plot he lays his COG tags there and speaks to his wife in spirit about how he will see them soon. What he wouldn’t realise is that it would be a lot sooner than he’d think.
Trying to escape from Mercy, the whole team is nearly overrun by the Locust and the Lambent. There is no way they are all going to escape, so Dom decides to blow up the fuel station, destroying the Lambent and the Locust but at the cost of his life. Dom’s death weighs on Marcus throughout the rest of the story and he even uses a knife that Dom gave him to eliminate the Locust Queen. Thanks to Dom, Marcus was able to find his father and activate his device which killed the Lambent and the Locust and ended the war. Creating a character as believable as Dom isn’t an easy task and creating an end and legacy for him is even more difficult as his death was paved with foreshadowing and suspense through the entire mission in Mercy making sure we all knew it was coming.
Gears of War 3 does an excellent job at making sure the focus on the main characters isn’t wasted but sadly as it strives to introduce new characters for the goal to set up legacies and good character endings, the focus at times feels wasted and it feels like many of these characters should have been properly introduced in the last game but thankfully the characters we care about have an excellent end in sight and the introduction of some of these side characters helps to compound the legacies these characters will hopefully leave behind.
Remnants of the COG
At the very start of the game, there is a very revealing intro narrated by Anya Stroud. We learn that after the fall of Jacinto, the COG were able to find a new home that they were making there’s but during their stay, they fell victim to the rising of the Lambent. Anya reveals that during this, Chairman Prescott left a little while after Jacinto and without a definitive leader or infrastructure the COG fell apart. After 15 years of fighting the Locust war and countless years before fighting the Pendulum wars, the Coalition of Ordered Governments is finally decommissioned but that doesn’t mean that the heroes of our story can’t function without it.
The remnants of Delta are continuing to work through their issues like Dom trying to move on from Maria and Marcus trying to be there for him. Without the COG, Baird doesn’t have all the tech and equipment he usually has but continues to be the team’s technical crutch and Cole continues to support him while also making sure his mouth doesn’t get him into too much trouble. While they still bear the armour that identifies them as soldiers of the COG they come to terms with their situation and in Anya’s words, they’re all stranded now and every aspect of the story only compounds this conclusion.
If the last game’s goal was to make us feel like we had support then Gears of War 3 is about making it clear that Delta and in addition the player feel like they are on their own despite the companions we make on this trip. Sadly because Gears of War 3 takes place 2 years after sinking Jacinto, we have missed quite a lot of character development and sadly as narrations go, it doesn’t provide us with a lot of information as most of the time we enter a situation where we don’t get a lot of context.
When Marcus and the rest of his team are en route to Anvil Gate, a fort that Colonel Hoffman is defending, they come across a depot under siege by the Locust and defended by Dizzy Wallin. Dizzy, who last we saw in-game, stayed behind in Landown to protect Marcus and Dom as they went into the Locust hollow. He was presumably killed but after we found Tai Kaliso, a Gear who was with Dizzy, on a Locust torture barge, a new theory entered our minds that Dizzy was captured and tortured alongside Tai but he was never found. Now we see him again 2 years later defending against Locust which was honestly confusing, even more, so Marcus and his team aren’t even surprised. Storytelling gaps like this are some of the pitfalls that make Gears of War 3 feel rushed and short.
As Prescott returns, he hands Marcus a data disk revealing a message from his father, Adam Fenix, who has long been thought to be dead. Due to it being damaged, Marcus gives the disk to Baird and the message is cleared up. Adam reveals that he’s been held captive in a facility, Azura, the clincher, he’s been there since Prescott abducted him. Prescott had Adam taken immediately after his supposed death so the whole time that Marcus was in prison for abandoning his post to save his father and didn’t even succeed is a truly despicable act, as Prescott could have set the record straight but didn’t and Marcus paid for it.
When Jacinto sank, Prescott stayed with the survivors for a while before he left for parts unknown, which is what caused the COG to fall apart. He was in Azura the whole time but let’s focus a little on what it is. Azura is a secret COG island that doubles as a resort and research facility where after some exploration, we can find documents and find that it’s a luxurious island, filled with historical art and has been used to house several COG officials and scientists that were all either missing or killed. While the Gears were fighting and dying to protect Sera, the high-level personnel of the COG were all relaxing and staying safe.
Jameson Depot was a first glimpse of the despicable secrets the COG has kept. Azura just continues to show the deep-seated corruption and the actions the COG have pulled. To see that the developers decided to just double down on this in an extravagant way shows that the discovery of Jameson wasn’t just a one-shot adventure and Azura opens the floodgates for all sorts of secrets that could potentially be revealed in the future. For an apocalyptic-style game, where players should ideally be focusing on surviving it’s interesting to see how well the conspiracy plotlines have been balanced so well with the outstanding action and conflicts.
Desperation of the Locust
After the end of Gears of War 2, we had hoped to have seen the last of the Locust Horde. In Gears of War 2, they were sinking cities around Jacinto so that the city would fall and then flood the Locust hollow and the Lambent at the same time. When Delta found out about this they enacted their own plan, sink Jacinto themselves before the Locust evacuate and the war. 2 years after there had been no sign of the Locust for some time, instead, they were replaced by the threat of the Lambent. The first signs of the Locust were returning were made by Alpha squad: Cole, Baird, Sam and Clay when they encountered them in Hanover.
Fortifying their position on a bridge, the Locust were trying to build up an encampment, using old Lancers as turrets and weaponizing whatever they could. Baird, with his scientific observations, makes a valid point. In the Hollow, they were organised but it seems the past 2 years have been just as rough on them as it has been on the COG as they have grown savage. There still seems to be a hierarchy with the Locust but it is clear they have fallen a long way from where they were and it is evident through their weapons and armour.
Making a nauseating return is the Locust Queen, Myrrah who has come to annoy Marcus and the rest of his team yet again. It figures that the moment we meet her again, it’s due to Marcus starting to look for his after and as it happens, she is the one who is currently holding him. Coming across a new stronghold that the Locust are making shows the ingenuity of the Locust and shows their ability to thrive and rebuild, something that was evident in the last game when they survived the Locus Horde.
As Marcus continues to find a way to get to his father she continues to plague Delta with her forces and starts to ramp things up with some of her more dangerous forces. When Marcus finally gets to Azura, he arrives to find the Locust digging in and trying to build a new base for themselves. The island of Azura is certainly more habitable and ideal for them but this wouldn’t last as Delta would bring down everything they have on them in their last-ditch effort to destroy the Lambent and beat the Locust.
As Marcus makes his way to his father, Myrrah and her Locust attempt to stop him and Delta at every turn but fortunately they have been hardened by years of war and are not so easily killed. When Marcus finally reaches Adam, we learn that this is a last-ditch effort for the Locust as well as they are dying due to the Imulsion sickness. Myrrah is fighting hard to ensure her people get a chance but continues to show her mercilessness and disdain for humanity.
Even at the end, as Adam has activated his machine and disintegrated into Marcus’ hand, she still holds her arrogance and disdain for humanity as she criticises Adam’s life before being silenced by Marcus, with the Knife that Dom gave him. With her death and the activation of Adam’s machine the Locust are wiped out, as the Imulsion in their bodies has matured too much and so with its death, the entire Locust species goes with it. The Locust have been a nightmare for 17 years as Marcus and the rest of Delta would always be on their guard but now after so long and many setbacks and losses, the Locust have finally been defeated along with the Lambent and now they are gone.
The Locust have been a recognisable enemy in the Xbox series and have been the nightmare that Gears of War needed to find its footing. I use the word nightmare a lot when it comes to the Locust but it feels like the only true word that matches. What else would you call an enemy that comes from the depths of the world itself to destroy you and no matter what, comes back and grows even worse as they come back committing the evilest of atrocities? You could use other words like Malignant, Sadistic and Pure Evil but these descriptions don’t sound just as good as Nightmare.
While there are still many unknowns about the Locust like how long had they been down in the Hollow, why did the Locust Queen look human and just how far does their history intersect with humanity? These questions may never be answered but they always lingered in the back of our minds and that is what helped the players become so drawn into the Locust war. Not just because we had an enemy to fight that had us playing the underdog but because the Horde is shrouded in mystery and we always listened out for as much info as we could. Who knows what could in the future but for now, the Locust chapter is closed and it comes to a very poignant and well-earned end.
Rising of the Lambent
Imulsion. If you’ve thought you’ve heard that name before you have as it has popped up time and time again in many different circumstances throughout the series. A commodity that was fought over during the Pendulum Wars, the war that proceeded the Locust War, and valued by so many. As with other fuels it had it’s dangers as consistent exposure would eventually cause an illness caused Rustlung with terrible effects.
During the first Gears of War game, Marcus and the rest of Delta would encounter glowing wretches, which were caused by the Imulsion exposure. In Gears of War 2 when exploring the Nexus and fighting their way to the Locust Queen, Delta find signs of infighting between the Locust only to discover it’s much worse than that. Nexus is housed above a massive Imulsion field and was turning a number of Locust into what we would learn is the Lambent. The original plot for Gears of War 2 was based around the Locust losing their home to the Lambent and attempting to flood them by sinking Jacinto.
Thankfully, the COG beat them to the punch and they flooded the Hollow, ensuring that both the Locust and the Lambent perished along with Jacinto. After this we learn through an excellently narrated prologue that the remnants of the COG managed to find a remote island to start again but was unfortunately invaded by the Lambent, which forced them out. 2 years after the sinking of Jacinto the scourge of the Lambent was spreading and evolving to points that the COG were struggling to fight back against, and the abandonment by Chairman Prescott didn’t help.
With the emergence of the Lambent, it’s put humanity on the edge as they must be constantly on guard as just like the Locust they can emerge from anywhere, even the sea. The mutations that come from being exposed to Imulsion long-term are even worse as they enhance the Locust beyond their typical strength and make them more lethal. It’s clear that with the varying species and mutations that are caused by Imulsion sickness are more lethal and far more troublesome then the Locust ever were.
Mutations like the Drudges are in a league of their own as even when it seems there about to die they somehow spawn a new body part that continues to try and kill everyone it sees. While the Drudge is lethal perhaps the most lethal is something like the Lambent Berserker. Much like the original variant that was nearly unstoppable, the Lambent version isn’t blind, and leaks Imulsion that is just as dangerous. If the Locust were the nightmare, then the Lambent are the nightmare on steroids as they are arguably even worse.
Learning information from the Disc, Adam sent to Marcus, they learn that Sera is dying because of the Imulsion due to it’s mutations. Luckily, in an act of Deus Ex Machina, Adam has created a solution to the problem. After losing the ship that they called home and hoping for a chance at survival, they set out on a mission to find Adam and his solution. Along the way their path becomes even more dangerous and urgent as they learn that the Imulsion has jumped the species barrier and now infected humans. Formers are a harrowing realization for Delta as if they don’t hurry the entire planet could be nothing but Lambent and the same could happen to them.
The squad has never let anything phase them before, but the discovery that people can become Lambent, puts the pressure on the squad to find Adam and use whatever he’s working on to finish the Lambent. After a long journey filled with loss and resolve, Delta finally make it to the Adam’s home (or prison) Azura. When trying to open up the island to allow for reinforcements they manage to open up a comms channel with Adam. Adam informs the group of perhaps the most important revelation when it comes to the Lambent. Imulsion isn’t just a fuel but is actually a living organism, a parasitic life form that will soon reach a critical phase in it’s life cycle unless it is stopped and that by this time everyone is infected but not all are affected by it yet.
Adam’s plan is simple, activate his device that will completely destroy the Imulsion and all Lambent cells in every organism on the planet. At this point, when it happens, not only with the Lambent die but also the Locust so if it works then it will end the war on Sera and prevent them from coming back. Admittedly it sounds a little too good to be true and Baird brings this up several times with Adam justifying himself constantly and the rest of Delta supporting Adam.
When Delta finally reach Adam and after a quick reunion between Marcus and his father, Adam expresses his regret to not being able to save the Locust as well, only because he feels sorry for them. We finally learn the truth about the first Locust attack. They were driven out of their warrens because of the Lambent and attacked humanity to take the surface, something Adam knew about and was working on a solution for. The fact that the Lambent have been the true cause of the Locust war really hammers home how dangerous they are. An excellent narrative choice by the devs, planting the seed for a much greater and world shattering enemy and it shows that some serious thought went into every aspect of the series.
After a lengthy fight with the Queen, Adam activates his device but in order to ensure it worked, Adam injected himself with Imulsion so the device would affect him to. The device activates and kills Adam, the Lambent, the Locust and completely destroys the Imulsion on Sera. The humans of Sera now have a chance to move on and create a future free of conflict and war and start a new chapter. It will be hard for them as they have lost their fuel source but before he died, Adam handed Baird a data disk with ideas that could prove valuable in the future. The Lambent were an evolution of the worst nightmare the humans of Sera ever faced and they beat it, they’ve lost a lot but now they don’t have to lose anymore.