GearsBlog

A Beast Mode session rolls out in waves up to 12. At the start, it’s just you, as one of an initial selection of five types of beasts, against some wimpy humans. You play on any of the game’s multiplayer maps. The humans are computer-controlled. They automatically place traps—barricades, turrets and dummies—the kind of defenses that players can deploy as humans in this new game’s “Horde Mode 2.0.”

The most important thing to know about playing Beast Mode is that you start with only one minute left on the play clock. In one minute, the Hammer of Dawn will strike from above and kill everyone on your team. That would be bad. Thankfully, you gain time on the clock every time you kill an enemy or destroy an emplacement.

You also earn money with each kill, healing moves and damage caused to pathetic human emplacements. That’s handy, because you must pay money to become a beast. Each time you die, you have to pay to become a new one. As you earn certain large amounts of money, you’ll unlock new beasts to choose from and have an increasingly enjoyable time mauling pathetic humans. But as the waves of Beast Mode progress, you’ll also find yourself no longer just going up against easily-shredded ordinary male and lady soldiers. Heroes of the Gears-verse will appear, one at a time, then in groups. They are harder to kill and, worse, they have heavy guns. Anya’s got a mortar. Cole’s got a Boomshot. Hoffman has a Hammer of Dawn.

General Beast Info:

• You play as the Locust, ranging from the big monsters like Beserkers to small monsters like Tickers. Cash is used to decide how many spawns you have, and what you can spawn. Each enemy plays differently and includes unique abilities, such as the Ticker’s fast speed and ability to explode.
• The objective of the game is to kill all enemy human forces within the wave time limit, with each wave becoming progressively harder.
• Some bigger monsters (like Beserkers) will need to be unlocked with play in the game.
• The mode size is built for 5 player co-op (like Horde)
• Play as a ticker, scurry around to your enemies and explode!
• Play as a Berserker and smash your way to victory, even over the large Silverback Mech!
• Finally embrace the Mauler as you club COG forces to death.
• Scurry around as a wall crawling Wretch.
• Dual wield Gorgon Pistols as the fear-inspiring Armored Kantus! – Armored Kantus is not available in MP
• Wild Ticker – Short on explosives but long on claws
• Savage Corpser – Mini =/= Safe!
• Blood Mounts – Slash with those claws for a change!
• Savage Boomer – Fire and forget with the Digger Launcher!
• the waves get harder, of course, and climax with a level-12 onslaught from 10 members of the elite Onyx Guard and the head of the Gearsmilitary, Prescott. – Kotaku
• Tickers cannot revive teammates
• “Heroes” are later staged opponents (characters from game)
• Heroes carry specific weapons (Cole = Boomer) (Anya = Mortar) (Hoffman = HOD)
• Heroes cannot be killed at a distance. Must be executed
• Class limitations = 2 Berserkers at one time. No other limitations
• If you have money to respawn and time on the clock, you can buy back in every time you die
• Wretch’s let out a sonic wave that stuns stranded.
• Armored Kantus roll kills downed opponents
• Berserker’s can charge through most fortifications

 

 

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The First Beasts

Wild Ticker

(Cost: $75)
- Wild Tickers are quick but frail. Their melee attack is fantastic for destroying enemy fortifications, and automated fortifications cannot damage them.

• Melee Attack (RT or B)
• Eat Grenade (X)

The cheapest beast is the Wild Ticker. For a mere virtual $75, you can be this scampering, fast little pest that excels at munching through spiked fences. It can eat grenades, but that’s a useless skill unless you have a friend playing as a grenadier unit. (This would turn you into a virtual suicide bomber. See the next unit for why that’s good.) You want to be this guy if you want to chomp through defenses.

 

Ticker

(Cost: $75)
- Tickers are walking bombs. Their only attack is self detonation.

• Run (A)
• Explode (RT or B)

The Ticker is also only $75 and very similar to his wild cousin, except he’s always ready to blow up. He can detonate as soon as you pull the trigger, so make him run into a crowd and blow himself up. Try not to think about what the real-world equivalent is.

 

Wretch

(Cost: $225)
- Wretches are melee attackers that can scream to stun nearby enemies. They can also jump over barriers using their jump attack.

• Melee Attack (B)
• Use Cover (A)
• Stun Scream (X)
• Jump Attack (RB)

The Wretch is a basic melee unit. His best ability is a scream attack which can stun humans. As Fergusson noted, you want to think about team strategies for Beast Mode. If I’m the Wretch, I can stun guys into position. Then you can run up as a Ticker and blow them up. Good plan?

 

Savage Drone

(Cost: $450)
- Drones are standard locust troops. These savage variants are equipped with retro lancers. All standard controls apply.

• Shoot (RT)
• Use Cover (A)

If you want to wield a retro lancer, be a Savage Drone.

 

Butcher

(Cost: $300)
- Butchers are large but slow melee creatures.

• Run/Mantle (A)
• Melee Attack (B)
• Swing Cleaver (RT)

This guy is a Butcher. He is very slow but can take a beating. He’s a walking tank, if a tank had a machete instead of a cannon.

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The Second Tier of Beasts

As you kill and destroy, you are clearing waves of human enemies. Each player is also amassing a pile of virtual money that they draw from each time they die and need to spawn (you’re never locked into being the same beast, so you can pay to respawn as whichever beast you can afford). As you reach certain money goals, you unlock a new tier of more expensive, playable beasts…

 

Kantus

(Cost: $975)
- Kantus cannot take cover, but they can revive enemies from a distance and heal nearby enemies. They are also equipped with ink grenades.

• Heal/Revive Scream (X)
• Shoot (RT)
• Evade (A)

I hate, hate, hate the Kantus when I have to fight him in Gears games. He’s a shaman of sorts, and it turns out he’s great to be. He has a gorgon pistol and inky poison grenades. Better is that he can heal and revive injured and downed allies. Healing earns you money, so it’s worth doing.

 

Bloodmounts

(Cost: $750)
- Bloodmounts are primarily melee but have an AI-controlled gunner that can be directed using spotting, allowing them to attack two targets at once.

• Run/Mantle (A)
• Melee (B)
• Spot For Rider (LS)

Fergusson told me that the Bloodmount was hard to control. That sounded like a challenge. And sure enough, I made sure the Bloodmount ruled the battlefield (briefly). You control the beast here, not the rider. You’ve got a melee attack and the ability to spot enemies for the rider, who is constantly shooting. This is not a beginner unit, I’m told, but it is awesome.

 

Mauler

(Cost: $1350)
- Maulers are siege creatures. They can close themselves by protecting themselves with thier shields.

• Raise Shield (LT)
• Flail Attack (RT)
• Run/Mantle (A)

The Mauler has a shield, as you can see. Fergusson said that one of his team’s strategies in Beast Mode is to form a phalanx of Maulers and then march them ahead of a few Boomers who fire boomshots over their heads. That is a hell of a tip, from Rod to you. Use it!

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Beasts: Tier Three

As noted above, you start each wave with one minute remaining on the clock. Kills and destruction of emplacements add time (so, bear in mind, if the clock is about to run out, some backfield beast can save the day by munching through an unattended enemy fence to add some time.) If you and your teammates all die and have to re-start the wave, three minutes of penalty time are added to the total time tabulated for getting through Beast Mode. You don’t play those three minutes. They just make your completion time look even worse. Remember, the goal is to finish Beast Mode’s 12 waves as fast as possible.

 

Giant Serapede

(Cost: $1350)
- Serapedes are vulnerable at the tip of their tail, but are very tough otherwise. They attack by biting their enemies.

• Bite Attack (RT or B)

The incredibly awesome Giant Serapede is a heavily-armored, fast centipede of sorts that you control. It’s weak spot is its tail. It’s killing moves come from the pincers around its jaws. This thing lets you live out whatever monster-movie fantasies you’ve ever had, if your favorite monster movies involved giant snakes and if you wanted to be that snake. Surely, that’s at least one of you out there? This unit costs $1350, by the way.

 

Savage Corpser

(Cost: $900)
- The Savage Corpser is a large, armoured creature that gets in close to crush enemies. It can also burrow underground to hide and heal itself.

• Burrow/Emerge (X)
• Leg Stomp (RT or B)

The Savage Corpser is another wonderfully evil unit. It is sort of like controlling a giant hand. It has a brutal melee attack and, even better, can burrow under the ground to heal… then pop out to murder.

 

Savage Grenadier

(Cost: $1050)
- Grenadiers are powerful Locust shock troops. They wield shotguns and frag grenades.

• Shoot/Throw (RT)
• Use Cover (A)

If you like using the Gears of War shotguns, play as the Savage Grenadier. He’s got a shotgun. And he can throw grenades, though Fergusson said that his ammo stock of grenades restores slowly, since grenades are so powerful in this mode. Note that this guy has grenades. So he can stick one to a wall in order for a Ticker to eat it and then run off and bomb someone. Teamwork!

 

Boomer

(Cost: $1500)
- Boomers are slow, lumbering creatures who can lob explosive rounds from range.

• Run/Mantle (A)
• Shoot (RT)
• Melee Attack (B)

The Boomer needs little introduction to Gears fans. He’s got a boomshot. Those things are like cannons. Pay $1500 to be this unit and your money’s been well-spent.

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The Best, Baddest Beasts

Fergusson and I played with a cheat unlocked that gave us about $100,000 from the start. So by wave five we had all four tiers of beasts unlocked. That is not normal, and so our relatively easy march through human enemies was atypical. You really should be playing this mode in groups. You can randomly matchmake to assemble a crew, though once the match starts (hosted, initially on the lead player’s system), other players can be added by invite only.

 

Berserker

(Cost: $5625)
- Berserkers are nearly blind, but also nearly indestructible. Fortifications and humans can be destroyed with ease.

• Charge (A)
• Fist Smash (B)

Your goal for Beast Mode should be to be the Berserker. These big ladies (yes, ladies) are partially blind, so when you play them, the periphery of the screen is clouded in blackness. That’s about all the disadvantages you have. For a mere $5,625 you can run through enemies like a linebacker, murdering them as you stride through them. Or you can stop and smash them. In other words, you can be the Flash and the Hulk, only evil… and female.

 

Armored Kantus

(Cost: $3375)
- Armored Kantus are virtually immune to bullet damage, can revive or heal nearby allies, fire dual Gorgon pistols, and can roll into enemies to damage them.

• Roll (A)
• Heal/Revive Scream (X)
• Shoot (RT)

I didn’t play as the Armored Kantus, but his deal is that he’s like the Kantus but has spiky armor. As a result, he won’t take much damage while he’s busy healing his teammates. Bonus: since his armor has spikes, he can roll into humans and perforate them to death. (If the beasts were nice and gentle, they wouldn’t be beasts, right?)

 

Savage Boomer

(Cost: $1350)
- Savage Boomers launch powerful underground digging projectiles.

• Run/Mantle (A)
• Shoot (RT)
• Melee Attack (B)

I didn’t play as a Savage Boomer either. They are, Fergusson explained, a great fire-and-forget unit. They are because they shoot burrowing projectiles that won’t detonate until they are near a target. So aim at a scumbag human, fire your shot, and then turn away to the next victim with the confidence that the first one is probably about to be blown up from underground.

In Beast you play as the Locust, ranging from the big monsters like Beserkers to small monsters like Tickers. Cash is used to decide how many spawns you have, and what you can spawn. Each enemy plays differently and includes unique abilities, such as the Ticker’s fast speed and ability to explode. The objective of the game is to kill all enemy human forces within the wave time limit, with each wave becoming progressively harder.