Gears of War 3

Still squeezes just enough beats in there to be entertaining, but the sudden angle of Marcus' dad being alive is dull and the mid-game Gary Jules' Madworld segment is where the rest of the game takes a firm nosedive, to say nothing of the already lightweight and episodic pace. Does make strides in difficulty, however, with more varied enemies to meaningfully break up the stop and pop.

EDIT: Honestly, the story beats are probably the best in the series, and the search for Adam Fenix is a decent hook even if the Madworld scene is still terrible. The difficulty goes down a few notches thanks to a revival mechanic finally being added to single player, but it also releases some of the frustration of the series. Still gets a bit tiresome near the end but the final act is nowhere near the slog of the last two games.