Here we are, the start of the second half of Gears 5. Act 3 begins with us going to a near region. This time we are going to a desert area, where the COG and the UIR, another human faction, were at war with each other in the past. Seems like they are on good terms at this point though as Baird leads Kait and Del to meet with the leader of this group. His name is Paduk, and he’s a grumpy old man who hates the COG and old people. Go figure.
Kait and Del are tasked with finding the Hammer of Dawn satellites and rocket that are located at the rocket hangar. These satellites are not COG’s so we actually have no idea if they will be useable for the Hammer of Dawn, but it’s all we got.
Side note: The lore that is introduced within Act 3 is so interesting to me that I wish there were books on these. I know there are some from the Pendulum Wars, but this stuff is definitely new. I want to know more!
Surprise! JD and and Fahz show up. Kait is pissed off, expecting JD to tell them they need to go home. Turns out JD is there to help, and so is Fahz. He tells Kait she’s in charge and he will follow her. This also shows the issues that JD and Baird have. Remember, Baird used the Hammer of Dawn in Act 1 because JD told him to do it. This is what got a lot of people killed. Baird walks away from JD and I instantly feel some sympathy for JD. He did not know that the Hammer was going to go haywire. It just sucks and I feel that sadness.
Side note: No you’re crying shut up!
So my brother and I did the side missions first before going to get these rockets. The map is significantly smaller than Act 2’s open area. This is honestly fine with me. It’s nothing that’s essential for the Gears games in my opinion. I think Act 3 had a better idea of what these aide missions should have been anyways. You were helping Paduk and his people by getting their water pumps working again. Act 2 just had you explore random things for really no reason other than to get new things for Jack. Actually helping people within the area just makes more sense to me. Gives me more incentive.
After doing this though we head to the Rocket Hangar. This just gives more lore on the issues between the COG and the UIR.The Rocket Hangar actually doesn’t have the rockets I guess? This part kind of confused me a bit. It has the rocket nose cone? I dunno. This all just felt like a way to pad out enough stuff to do to go back and forth within the map and have enough chapters.
You just kind of get all the stuff you need to create a rocket to send to space. After finding the main bits, you put it all on a train and accidentally send it towards the launch area. The bridge to this launch area isn’t down, so it’s a mad dash through a flare storm to beat the train. It’s actually pretty intense. Everything was on me racing this train as I drove the skiff. Hitting these glass trees or almost getting sucked up into a tornado would freak me out. It was great though. An actual moment in the game that felt really action movie like.
Side note: It might sound like I’m harping on Gears 5’s mission design, but it really is fun in the moment. Rethinking about it and writing it all down just would not be interesting ti read about. At all. Nothing huge and story interesting happens till close to the end of the chapter ultimately.
After the train rolls in, you head back to the rocket hangar to get the rocket I guess. Again, all of this just seemed like going back and forth. All I know is we were building a rocket with satellites to launch into space. At this point, we were retrieving the rocket.
Of course the rocket hangar is infested with more Swarm. You have to take out two Snatchers and this definitely was a pain. It took my brother and I a handful of times to actually get it down. Afterwards we realized there was so much more area that we could have been using so it probably would have made it so much easier. Whoops.
After shooting some Juvies everyone jumps onto the rocket as it takes off towards the launch area. A cut scene begins and we see Del. Instantly all I can think is he is about to die. A Snatcher drops down and is about to attack Del, when Fahz jumps into action and and tackles the Snatcher. They both fall over the backside of the rocket. Now I’m freaking out. Fahz was a douche bag in Act 1, but all throughout Act 3 you really warm up to him. He seems to actually have a conscious, and he has a pretty fun personality. Yeah, he’s still full of himself, but fighting alongside him throughout Act 3 really made me grow attached to him. So now I’m thinking that they’re going to kill of this character that had just gotten some sort of redemption arc.
All my worrying was for nothing. Fahz kicks the Snatcher off him and he survives. Now he’s saved Del and has become one of the better characters of this story. For me, anyways.
Now it’s time to launch the rocket. The launch sequence begins, a little early because of Jack, and the team start to rush to get off the launch platform. This is where out end boss enters. It’s a giant sand octopus. It reminded me of Gears 2, I believe, where they enter that giant worm monster.
You go through several stages with this bad ass worm. Shooting these giant holes on its tentacles and fighting leeches and the flock that emerges from it. Eventually you make it to ground level, but your trapped underneath where the jets will fire for the rocket. Now you go through three different steps in this final boss. It’s honestly pretty easy. You just keep shooting its weird tongue tentacle things. There are times that I got grabbed by the tentacles, but playing coop really helped. My brother just would shoot it and we were good.
Side note: Is this where the Flock comes from? These giant octopus sand worm things? At the very least it’s some sort of symbiosis going on.
Finally we escape and get picked up by Baird and Paduk. The rocket launches and completely annihilates the sand octopus, as the rocket launches and sends out the satellites. Hooray!
This is the end of Act 3, but it slides right into Act 4 pretty seamlessly. I won’t go into any of that in this post. I plan on finishing the game this coming Friday with my brother though, so stay tuned for that!
Ultimately, The start of Act 3 was fine. I enjoyed the banter between all four of the characters and really made me like all of them even more. The fire fights were still enjoyable and difficult, but playing coop really made these first few chapters fly by. The last bit for Act 3 was the best stuff. The character moment for Fhaz was great and fighting that giant octopus was super exciting in the moment. I love fighting these giant monsters. It gives me flash backs from the original trilogy and it’s exciting.
Did you enjoy Act 3? Let me know below!
The Tired Obsidian 