With its stripped-down unlocks ladder, gut-vapourising shotguns and burrowing bombs, Gears of War 3's multiplayer component is already quite the charmer. But the best is yet to come. OXM is proud to present first details of Horde Mode 2.0, a reimagining of the second game's wave-based player vs. AI throwdowns that takes the grand old dame of Xbox 360 shooters into the realm of action-strategy.
There's a relentlessly in-depth eight-page feature in issue 74, available tomorrow (10th June), but we've generously decided to portion out certain details a day early. (I know, I know, we're the loving mothers and fathers you wish you had.)
The developer took the tactic and piled on layers, adding bases, defences and a resource generation aspect to create something that's half Gears and half Company of Heroes.
Fortifications include Lancer turrets, cardboard Cole Train decoys which lure the scabs from their attack vectors, and laser fences, which put a crimp in even the largest Locust stride. And the Locust can be very large indeed, with Berserkers and Brumaks rearing pug-ugly faces in tougher boss waves.
"Somehow they have the ability to spawn unexpectedly," OXM editor Jon Hicks notes of the Brumaks, "as we discovered when we ran across the bridge in the Drydock map, turned around, and discovered a 100-foot dinosaur with mounted rocket-launchers between us and the base. Stomp."
Cash earned from kills dictates both what defences you can buy and who you can revive. That's right, health isn't free in Horde Mode 2.0. Cash can be shared between players to muster the funds for bigger purchases, like the Silverback mech - "a hell of a machine", in Jonty's words, and "the ultimate weapon", in those of executive producer Rod Fergusson.
We've taken some video of the new mode in action straight from E3's show floor. Have a look, see what you else can deduce and watch out for Issue 74 tomorrow.