Like its predecessors, Gears of War 3 is a third-person shooter that emphasizes the use of cover and squad tactics in order to survive combat situations.

If they press the button outside this section, this temporarily jams the weapon, leaving the player vulnerable and taking longer to reload.

The player and their allies and enemies can use nearly any structure as cover, firing blind from behind it or leaning out to take aimed shots while usually exposing their head more.

Gears of War 3 takes place two years after Jacinto, humanity's last stronghold, is destroyed in an effort to completely eradicate the Locust Horde.

As the Lambent begin to invade Vectes, Marcus Fenix and his comrades retreat to the CNV Sovereign, a helicopter carrier, and take refuge at sea, whilst Hoffman leads other survivors back to the mainland to find haven at Anvil Gate.

Delta Squad now consists of Marcus Fenix, Dominic 'Dom' Santiago, Anya Stroud, Damon Baird, Augustus 'Cole Train' Cole, Jace Stratton, Clayton Carmine and Samantha 'Sam' Byrne.

Before dying, Prescott gives Marcus an encryption to the disc that Colonel Hoffman has and reveals that his father, Adam Fenix, is still alive but captive on Azura, a secret COG base.

Marcus, Dom, Cole, and Baird fight their way to the Anvil Gate Fortress, where Hoffman possesses the necessary equipment to decrypt Prescott's disc.

[4] Upon arriving at Anvil Gate, Marcus and his comrades assist Hoffman's soldiers in repelling a combined Lambent and Locust assault.

Upon further analysis of the disc's content, Marcus learns that Azura is protected by man-made hurricane generators, making the island only accessible by submarine.

[5] During extraction, the Gears are nearly overrun by Locust and Lambent; Dom sacrifices himself to create an explosion that wipes out the hostile forces.

Griffin's forces sustain heavy casualties in the ensuing battle, but the Gears are ultimately able to escape and reach the shipyards where they have to fight the Locust as they repair and fuel their submarine.

Adam quickly explains that he has created a device capable of eradicating all Lambent and Locust life forms on Sera.

[13] Shortly afterwards, the machine emits a blue wave of energy that sweeps across Sera, destroying the Lambent and Imulsion, and seemingly wiping out the Locust.

To speed up the Kryllstorm, Locust General RAAM leads an elite unit throughout Ilima, decimating COG resistance and summoning Seeders to black out the sky faster.

Throughout the battle, RAAM is instructed by Queen Myrrah who sees taking Ilima as a stepping stone towards reaching the COG capital city of Ephyra.

Repelling multiple waves, Zeta ultimately uses the Hammer of Dawn to finish off the attacking Locust and is reassigned to help another squad defending a bank with civilian survivors inside.

Zeta fails to save the other Gears and most of the civilians, but discovers a young Jace Stratton holed up inside of the bank's vault.

Reaching the high school, Zeta finds it to be a COG evacuation center which has been overrun by the Locust, including a Berserker, packs of Wretches and several giant Serapedes.

Upon their return to the orphanage, the Gears and Jace face off against multiple waves of Locust led by RAAM himself from atop a Reaver and weaponizing the Kryll against them.

The group manages to shoot down the Locust General's Reaver, but Barrick is forced to stop the vengeful Kim from making a suicidal attack on the trapped and injured RAAM.

Impressed with Jace, Barrick commends the young man's courage and states that he will make a great Gear in the future.

[19] The game was officially unveiled on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by Cliff Bleszinski, with a teaser trailer featuring the song "Heron Blue" by Sun Kil Moon.

Carmine is more competent, witty, and muscular in the third game, with tattoos of his brothers and the reasons they died on his arms (Keep your head down!

[27] It was announced during E3 2011 that Ice-T's band, Body Count, would be reuniting to make a song titled "The Gears of War", which was featured in the Horde 2.0 trailer.

Designs aka "PJD", the company of Paul Teutul Jr. from the Discovery series American Chopper, revealed their commissioned Gears of War trike.

Discovery episodes chronicled their efforts to build the trike, visits to Epic and them interpreting various merchandising and promotional material into the bike.

[29] On 29 August 2011, Microsoft and Epic Games announced a "Gears of War 3 Season Pass" that entitles gamers to the first four installments of downloadable content (at a discount) that will roll out over the course of the next year, with the first releasing in November 2011.

The DLC includes five new multiplayer maps and also introduced four new character skins and a new system that allows players to rank up through level 100 multiple times.

"[50] Game Informer gave it a 9.5/10, saying that "Gears 3 is a fantastic idea polished to near perfection by an enormous crew of talented developers and a bottomless budget," with "a constantly shuffling deck of threats that encourage players to experiment with new weapons and tactics," "hilariously over-the-top set piece moments," and a "smart approach to network play.