For more on Gears of War 3, check out our full Gears of War 3 review. Or, for more of the best Xbox 360 games for a 10 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
With the ability to turn off the swearing and violence, Gears of War 3 can appeal to a much younger audience than you may imagine. Letting you turn what's otherwise an outright 18 into more of a 12A experience, Gears of War goes from gore fest to accessible, and outright fun third person shooter with the flick of a few settings in the menu.
Set on an Earth like planet named Sera, Gears of War 3 follows the story of a group of COG marines, locked in a war with an alien race known as the locust, who had lied buried beneath the Earth's surface for years. When they emerged, they attacked - and Gears of War 3 picks up the story as the war reaches its climax, and takes a very personal turn. The main character, Marcus Fenix, receives a video message from his father, who he's long presumed dead. He's being held captive by the locusts - and it's up to you to rescue him.
Gears of War 3 is a third person shooter, which is actually fairly easy to pick up and play. The third in the series, this is the most accessible yet, with a cover system that lets you protect yourself between popping off a few shots at the locusts. It's also got a great sense of humour, and an involving storyline, making this great for anyone who liked the previous Gears of War games, or is perhaps looking for something a little bit slower than first person shooters like Modern Warfare or Halo.
Gears of War 3 is a funny one, as it's a game which features a setting that every other blockbuster game really should feature - the ability to disable extreme content. So while, with the settings off, the game's a trip into profanity and violence, with splats of blood flying everywhere, and f words ringing out, you can choose to disable either the violence, the swearing, or both.
While disabling the violence works pretty well, as chainsawing an enemy no longer results in splats of blood, and instead simply sparks as you run it down his chest, making it look like you're simply overpowering him, sadly, it doesn't seem to work all that well for the swearing. While most of the swearing gets starred out in the subtitles, and replaced by static in the voice over, it would have been nice if we'd have actually had a true alternative. At times, the static barely covers the swear word in question, and words such as "ass" and even "b*stard" still find their way in with the filter turned on. Luckily, things like "s*it", and "m*therf***er" are filtered out, though.
Gears of War 3 has a great compliment of multiplayer modes, each of which can be played in split-screen, and online. Letting you play through the entire storyline together, you've also got Horde mode, which pits you against ever increasing numbers of Locust in a fight to survive, Beast mode, which switches the sides round, and has you joining the locust horde, while there's also a range of traditional multiplayer team deathmatch, deathmatch, and king of the hill modes to round things out. All in all, very impressive - and with its split-screen, great for families with older kids!
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
