Gears of War 3 Xbox One X Enhanced Preview

Gears of War 3 was one of the biggest Xbox 360 games and the sorrowing finale to the original trilogy. It followed a group of desperate and sea forced COG as they attempt to just survive against growing Locust and Lambent threats.

This has players once again jump into the shoes of Delta Squad for intense four player cooperative action. It also had a large multiplayer offering from the competitive side to some cooperative against the AI aspect. This included straight up traditional versus, a Beast mode where players could become the Locust and a larger more in-depth Horde offering with actual base buildings.

The game is presented in an excellent 1080p (textures, awaiting confirmation on that though seems to be the case) while rendering at 4k resolution according to captured images with various smaller graphical tweaks to unlock the full potential like Halo 3 received. It runs at 30fps as it has to for cross-play reasons as Xbox 360 users can play with Xbox One users.

There's sadly no added HDR functionality, but the game itself looks fine without it. This would have honestly been nice to have, since I do find that HDR can make a quick and large change to the way a game is presented. For the most part this is a massive change for the game as it hadn't aged very well when I checked it out on the Xbox One X hardware just a week ago. This was part of my check up for old Xbox 360 games running on it and now the game is damn sharp. This Gears of War 3 Xbox One enhancement was certainly a well welcomed upgrade.

It really does help to further the case for Xbox to push for more Xbox 360 games to get an upgrade. From what I've seen in the small selection available thus far this absolutely must continue to happen. I'm not sure if there's a lot of work involved, but it makes a big difference. I feel that a part of the reason why some games get left behind or abandoned later on is due to visuals and to get these games up to current standards can help negate that.

Gears of War 3 looks great here, the textures are smooth and there are no jagged lines. It seems to have a completely solid fluidity despite the 30fps and it looks better than ever. Once again, it's just like how you remember it in your mind, but running at a 4k resolution. I did however find that the characters looked strange against the back drop with the higher textures making them stand out more.

This is felt through the game whether you work through Campaign, Horde or Multiplayer. While the game's world might not seem so gritty now, it still looks fantastic. The campaign was particularly great though I did notice some textures were slightly rougher than others. This is opposite of the multiplayer where the levels are purely solid, the character models are amazing the guns shine with their custom skins.

I played a selection of multiplayer King of the Hill, tested a bit of Horde and went through a couple campaign levels. The opening prologue was a really good example as the wavy textures looked awesome and even the opening menu for the game now has a much more vibrant omen. This Gears of War 3 update gives the game a well needed touch up and it's greatly appreciated for the longevity of this title.

Read our Xbox One X Review
Our Xbox One X Hub
Our Gears of War Hub