Gears 3 to feature "light" RPG elements

Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski has said that Gears of War 3 will include minor RPG elements.

"You'll see a little bit more RPG elements in the next Gears game that are very light," he told Gamasutra.

Bleszinski also reiterated his belief that "the future of shooters are RPGs".

"The shooters that I've liked the most lately are ones like BioShock, which had some light RPG elements, as well as Borderlands, which I continue to gush about," he continued.

"Moving on from there, game developers have a way of cross-pollinating an immense amount. Gears was influenced by Resident Evil, then Resident Evil 5 was influenced by Gears. So, maybe you'll see elements from more RPGs, or Heavy Rain narrative style elements, start bleeding into the genre."

Later on Bleszinski talked about his feelings on Mass Effect, another series that relies on the cover-based shooting for which Gears is best known.

"The thing that was cool was that Mass Effect is kind of an RPG for me, with the cover-based shooting. I think there's a reason why it's been successful. Because gamers love Gears," he said.

"It's like well, here's something that's like Gears, but even has more depth, and a different setting. It's Star Wars for this new generation, right? Well, and the addition of the potential for having sex in a video game is also very powerful."

Gears of War 3 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 8th April 2011.