Things you may have missed in the Gears of War 3 trailer

A female soldier. Doing actual shooting and stuff, rather than just answering the phones. Excellent! We're not sure whether there have always been female COG Marines, or whether her appearance is down a new "Screw the women and children rule, all hands to the pump" philosophy within the COG, but either way we're glad she's here. And is it just us, or does she seemheavily modelled on Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica?

Note though, her protection of Dom. Do we smell a redemptive relationship in the air? We reckon we do. Cue even more complicated relations between Dom and Marcus. Our guess is Marcus being all "Go for it" and Dom holding back because of loyalty to his dead wife.

Loads of Locust

Once again, the COG plan to wipe them out has failed. Badly. And this time they're really on the rampage, presumably trying to hunt down the last of humanity and exterminate it now that it's wiped out its own last safe haven. Expect the message of flawed humanity being the architect of its own destruction to be even more prevalent in Gears 3.

Cole and Baird are back

Yay! We knew they would be, but it's nice having their safety confirmed.

Massive Lambent beasty

It's already been leaked by our sister magazine Edge that Gears 3 will feature huge tentacled monsters that will pull you out of cover. Well here's where you meet them.

Note though, that the soldier it pulls from the battlefield is a Locust rather than a human. This backs up the implication in Gears 2 that the Lambent (a new strain of Imulsion-mutated Locust) are a race all of their own, with no love of their original species. We've long-held a theory that the humans and Locust are going to team up against a common foe (corrupt COG or Lambent) in Gears 3, and we reckon this trailer confirms it. Notice how everyone, Locust or human, turns round to start shooting the crap out of it? That's symbolism right there, that is.

It's all about Dom

One of the biggest things we take away from this trailer though, is just how much Dom is focus of it. Comparatively, Marcus is barely seen, and Cole and Baird even less. Building on Gears 2's plot-line, we think Gears 3 is goingcentre aroundDom's continued emotional landslide and the friction and distance is causes between him and the rest of the squad in the run up to the end times.

It's backs-to-the-wall time

Symbolism time again. The trailer ends with Delta alone and pinned down amongst hundreds of Locust and Lambent. Make no mistake, Gears 3 is going to be brutal and probably pretty dark. Jacinto is gone. Maria is gone. Hell, for all we know at the moment, COG contact could be gone and the squad could be hauling ass through the post-apocalyptic ash of outer-Sera in a desperate bid just to hide and survive.

Note though, that the female COG appears to be at least a semi-permenant member of Delta now, being as she is the only previously unseen character fighting along with them. Let's just hope she isn't a Carmine.

But what do you reckon? Is there anything we've missed? Have you interpreted things in a different way? How do you see Gears of War 3 going? Let us know in the comments, and via our portals onFacebookandTwitter.

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.