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Review: Gears of War 2
- Title: Gears of War 2
- Developer: Epic Games
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- System: Xbox 360
- Reviewer: Soulskill
- Score: 9/10
In the first game, humans on a planet called Sera were locked in a struggle against the Locust Horde — a group of misshapen humanoids and their monstrous pets and cohorts. The game's main character, Marcus Fenix, led a group of soldiers known as Delta Squad into the depths of the planet, where they left a very large bomb to try to demolish the source of the Locusts. As we learn in Gears of War 2, that didn't quite work out. The Locust Horde is back, literally digging humanity's last remaining cities out from underneath. Delta Squad's job is to head back into the caves and tunnels of the Locust stronghold and find a way to put a stop to it.
The game is played in third-person mode, usually looking over Fenix's shoulder as he moves throughout the world. Its focus for combat is on the cover system made popular by the first game. Get near a wall and tap a button, and you'll spin around and put your back to it. Using the aiming trigger, you'll peek past the corner, with a cross-hair showing where your bullets will go. You can take cover behind a large variety of objects; tables, half-walls, overturned cars, even mortally wounded enemies. It's very advantageous to take cover; the damage you sustain out in the open is often far too much for a "run-and-gun" style. Some types of cover are better than others; it's pretty funny to blast apart a rickety wooden table with your shotgun, leaving the enemy who was behind it scrambling to get away. You also get a selection of moves you can do from your covered position. You can hop over small barriers, dive from side to side, and shuffle quickly to another covered spot. The AI uses cover as well, and does so realistically for the most part. Enemies lose track of you if you're sneaky, and your teammates don't (typically) get themselves killed easily.
Weaponry in the game is varied and interesting. You have your standard shooter-game implements — handguns, machine guns, shotgun, sniper rifle — and then some flashier hardware as well — flamethrower, grenade launcher, mortar launcher, chain gun. You're also frequently given special weapons to use that are mounted to a platform or vehicle. Turrets, cannons, and volleys of rockets all make an appearance, and they're all quite fun to use. You also have your trusty chainsaw. In most games, a melee weapon is an afterthought; something to use when you've run out of ammo, but nothing more. Gears of War 2 gives you many opportunities to use your chainsaw, and occasionally for very impressive results. The selection of guns for typical room-to-room use is quite good. You can almost always use whichever gun feels best for the task at hand. Between that and the frequency with which special weapon missions are interspersed throughout the game, you really won't have a chance to get tired of a particular style of fighting.
Gears of War 2 maintains a strong focus on changing things up for the player. You'll very rarely find yourself fighting the same enemies for very long, or even fighting in the same way. It's clear that Epic consciously went about stitching together the levels in a way that wouldn't leave the player bored. You'll fight some grunts, then some more impressive enemies, then hop in a vehicle and defend it, or sometimes assault something that's in your way. You'll defend a base with a turret by shooting down incoming mortars, you'll split up the team and take turns covering each other as you move through separate areas, and one section of the game is almost like a platformer. Without spoiling too much, it isn't enemies within the level that are working to send you to your death, but rather the level itself. Even when you're digging out Locust forces room-by-room, you can count on seeing many variations of the "trying-to-kill-you" theme. As drones try to snipe you from cover, Tickers — dog-sized suicide bombers — and packs of scrambling Wretches will swarm toward you. Every so often you'll encounter shield-toting, mace-swinging Maulers, or the tough, ninja-like Kantus. You'll frequently get a chance to engage the large, impressive heavy-hitters of the Gears world — Brumak, Reavers, and Corpsers.
The game's story is more fleshed-out this time around, but not overly so. The cinematics and smaller cutscenes are to-the-point, and are often capped with a Keanu-Reaves-like "Whoa.." moment. In one section, you're driving through a dark, icy cave, trying to avoid notice. When you're faced with no option but to drive off a cliff, the screen goes dark as you land and the vehicle's power fails. As a member of your squad works frantically to get it started again, nasty things roar and rumble at you in the dark, setting up a rather tense situation when your lighting is restored. Other scenes are character-driven; the world is ending, and Epic doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the atrocities of war. Torture, suicide, euthanasia — this is not a game for young kids. The cutscenes set up enough interest and emotional investment to make you want to grab a rifle and head toward the next objective without taking momentum from the actual fighting; it often seems like you're playing a story that ranges from cool to impressive to downright brutal.
Fighting often seems intense and hectic; Epic isn't above giving you a ton of things to shoot at, but your comrades are reasonably competent, and can be trusted to handle their share of the fight. Several times you'll rush to defend something and end up needing to man one of the aforementioned turrets to shoot down incoming bombs or flying enemies. The turrets are somewhat harder to succeed with, mainly because your targets are usually dodging and weaving through the air, and it can take some practice to keep up with them. You'll also get to fight battles at high speeds on various vehicles, and on... well, on things that aren't strictly vehicles. Things that don't necessarily want you riding them. The game does well at setting up situations where you think, "Man, I wish I could use that," and then actually letting you do it later on.
The levels themselves flow well; you naturally look and go where you're supposed to go, without being obviously herded along. As I mentioned earlier, there are several places where you split up the team, and get to choose one path over another. It's entertaining in the Solo campaign, but even more so in Co-op. You usually have some way to affect the other path, either via objects in the environment, throwing down cover fire, or perhaps lending a helping hand grenade to disperse some enemies who are focused on your partner. The levels look amazing; they use expansive backdrops to feel like really epic spaces, and the art really contributes to the atmosphere of the game. They look much bigger than they are, but you'll still be surprised at how far you can explore them sometimes. Particular events or "gimmicks" tend to be over quickly, like with the "platformer" level I mentioned earlier. You do something enough for it to be entertaining, but not enough to become tedious. This goes back to the game's theme of keeping things moving along, always changing. Gears of War 2 is also filled with a bunch of nice touches — at one point you're trapped in a building that's fallen on its side, and started burning. You head for the elevator, which just barely still works... sideways. As you slide past other burning floors, you get glimpses of various beasts trapped and struggling to get out.
Gears of War 2 does have its annoyances. When you deal a ton of damage to an enemy, he'll drop to the ground, mortally wounded, and start dragging himself away. If one of his teammates reaches him in time, they can heal him, and bring him back into the fight. Unfortunately, with the cover system in this game, it's quite common to make an enemy fall, but have no way to finish him off before he gets revived. It can be frustrating to have this happen several times in a row. The nature of the cover system also impedes movement at times, causing you to become briefly stuck in a place you don't want to be, or to leave cover in a manner other than what you intended. It can be bothersome at times, but I don't know how they could avoid it, especially in the more cramped spaces. There are also times in the game where you simply have too much to shoot at, or the things you need to kill are moving too quickly. I could swear one of the levels near the end took pity on me, after a few tries, by having the incoming Reavers land and stand still so I could mow them down with my turret.
The multi-player aspect of the game shines as well. Going through the campaign on Co-op is a lot of fun, since many of the levels were designed with a second player in mind. You can also have multiple saved campaigns now, which facilitates the occasional game with a friend, or a quick couple of levels at a party. There's also the "Horde" multi-player setting, which is even better for group play. Up to five players cooperate to fight wave after wave of enemies. Each wave gets stronger, and there are 50 in total. They get quite difficult after a while. Tougher enemies start joining the drones, and all enemies start gaining health and doing more damage. You'll have to start managing your ammo, and work with your teammates to keep from getting picked apart one-by-one. If you quit for a while, you can easily return to the wave at which you left off, which is nice for regular group play.
More familiar multi-player modes are available as well. In "Execution," you can only mortally wound enemies with your weapons. To kill them, you need to run up and administer a fairly gruesome killing blow by hand. In "Submission," a character is labeled the "meatflag." Your goal is to mortally wound him, then use him as a human shield while you drag him to a particular spot on the map. There's also "Wingman," where you fight in five teams of two, and of course, "King of the Hill." Other modes include your typical deathmatches. The updated UI and the camera functions are a big improvement over the first game. All of these modes have bot support, which is great for playing alone or in small groups.
Gears of War 2 retains its character as a testosterone-filled action hero game. It reminded me a bit of the movie 300; I get the feeling that the developers routinely went over a design and asked "How can we make this more over-the-top?" The dialogue contributes to that quite a bit. It's harsh, filled with swearing and macho one-liners. Augustus Cole a.k.a. Cole Train is back, and he's just as hilarious as ever. The cutscenes occasionally show members of Delta Squad doing some ridiculously cool stunt that would be right at home in a Mission: Impossible or James Bond movie. And, as I mentioned earlier, you get to interact with some huge, intimidating friends and foes, which lends to the game's epic feel. It's definitely a better, more polished version of the original game, which is really what we were hoping for.
No mention of the fact that this game won't be ported to PC? A bit of a let down for PC gamers...
Where is the -1 Pile Of Crap moderator option for the article itself?
...and then I got married.
My wife says that she absolutely does not want Gears 2 in our house, so I may just end up purchasing "Ears of Boar" instead *cough cough*.
What was that honey? Oh.. uh... they must have heard me wrong! DOH it's opened already, can't return it!
Too bad the multiplayer matchmaking system is so broken it ruins the game. You have to wait for three...four...five minutes to find a match after each game. It's ridiculous.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
second post
Not much of a gamer, but I've played both Gears Of War games. Can't somebody do something about the obnoxious split-screen?
Maybe zoom the cameras out a little, or split the screen left/right instead of top/bottom since played on a widescreen, or maybe show both players on the same screen with a 3rd-person view as appropriate?
Playing split-screen is like driving a car with a pair of binoculars.
Is the tearing as bad as in the first installment?
I was really surprised to see that - I always thought smooth graphics were console games' strong point. It's not a problem with the console, because there are games that don't show tearing and keep mostly constant framerate (PGR4, CoD4 at least).
... Grow a pair nancy!
I have five of them, plus reverse.
The commute is all the war I need.
I haven't started the game yet, just finishing the prequel book Gears of War: Asphos Fields. It gives really good back story. Dom, Carlos(Dom's brother's and Marcus as kids and growing up in the Army, Marcus and his father, Dom and his missing wife. It is also written by a good author Karen Traviss which is the reason I picked it up. The world has a lot of depth. To me it is essential to the story.
Done! Get another TV, another 360
But then that erases console gaming's big advantage over PC gaming: low cost per player. If you're going to splurge for a separate system for each player, you might as well play a PC shooter instead of Gears 2 and benefit from mouse aiming.
Recently I've rented the PC version of GoW and I was little dissapointed. I played it after finishing call of duty 4 and crysis, and I feel the gameplay is so simplified (when gaming with traditional WASD+mouse) that you end playing with walk->hide behind a column->zoom->fire->walk->repeat. Of course, it's a perfect combination for a gamepad but PC gamers expect a slightly more elaborated controls (ie. _something_ more to do) to enjoy a game. Moreover, its linearity is what killed the fun; when you master the technique of hidding+fire you can play mindlessly because you doesnt have any mision apart from kill every beast that moves.
Of course, graphics, sound and ambient in general are still superb, but I returned the gamed a couple of days after the rental.
Aside from the cover-fire system, this game is nothing new. Sure it has great graphics and sound...but it's the same fire, fire fire, run, press a switch, fire, open a door, fire gameplay.
Typical, type-A personality crap. I'm sorry, but I desire more from my games.
We will not be talking about this game in a year or so. We will, however, still be talking about games like Bioshock, Dead Space and Fallout 3 which (in this writer's estimation) revolutionize the gamer's interactivity and immersive experience.
Flame away if you like, but I suspect I'm not alone in this opinion.
something short that blocks you way, you cant jump over.
Same old with new flashy.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Curb stomp.
The only difference between Gears and Pong is that in Pong, you want to get hit by moving objects, and launch moving objects past your enemy, and in Gears, you want to avoid being hit by moving objects, and launch moving objects into your enemy.
Its a great game, the automatch time and bugged shotgun need fixing though. Its missing some features you thought would be for sure- like the ability to see pings, the ability to quickly mute people, the ability to quit out of the game without turning off your xbox 360. Etc.
My biggest complaint is the automatch time and the fact they took out the grind-up/grind down noise when you die/retry.
"The nature of the cover system also impedes movement at times, causing you to become briefly stuck in a place you don't want to be, or to leave cover in a manner other than what you intended. It can be bothersome at times, but I don't know how they could avoid it"
Mimic the GRAW 2 cover system. It's the best game on the 360 for that reason.
Wizard of Wor for the C64 was the greatest game for one summer vacation ... me and my brothers and Mom loved it to pieces.
This sequel sounds terrible :-)
-Kevin
When I got the original game for the PC, I took a screenshot and decreased the colour depth to 8-bit. With dithering, you can't tell the difference between 8 and 32-bit. :D
i know what i'm spending part of my paycheck on tomorrow.
WTF is the point of bitching about a genre you don't like? Don't like it? Fine. Stick at RTS's etc. But just because it isn't your cup of tea doesn't diminish how much enjoyment that many(obviously millions) get out of the game. Gears of War is the pinnacle of "run and gun" style gameplay. There are other better FPSers out there but for the style of play you really can't do better.
Oh and Left 4 Dead of fucking fun as hell. Especially in co-cp.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I played it, and it feels version 1.1 not 2.
Not saying it's bad. It's a bit better than 1 not the graphics but the general game play feels better.
But who am I complaining to? I played a torrent copy on my modded xbox 360.
How about a few nice movie nights with Netflix over Xbox?
I was pleased to read a really well written article in the new yorker where they interview the lead designer Cliff Bleszinski (CliffyB). Being a PC gamer I had never tried gears of war (yes I am now aware that there is a PC version) but found the article brought me up to speed on the franchise and also gave a good behind the scene look at Epic games and their garage to riches history.
Well worth checking out. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/03/081103fa_fact_bissell
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
WRONG! Depending on the amount/type of damage, you CAN revive a teammate. In fact, this is USUALLY the case (the exceptions seem to be when your teammate gets headshot/blown up, etc.)
Furthermore, when you down an enemy, you can just fire a few more shots at them to permanently finish them off (or run over and perform one of the finishing moves).
fyi : I actually did beat GOW2 in co-op, so I'm not pulling this out of my ass
For some reason, tearing is seen as acceptable (and even desireable, by some nutters) on PCs (and by extension, XBoxes, since many of the XBox programmers are probably just directx programmers who've been encouraged to develop for XBox too).
Even back in Amiga days, it was well known that double-buffering and synchronisation with the screen refresh lead to nice, smooth, constant play which was vastly superior to jerky or ugly animation. In fact, I learnt it with some of my very first beginner programmers game tutorials back then.
There's absolutely no benefit that I can see to not doing this on a PC, as there's always going to be a maximum frame rate that your display can handle, and rendering more screens than that will (at best) only mean drawing things that can't be seen.
I would hazard a guess that most people who didn't enjoy the campaign mode in Gears 1/2 played alone. I played through the first multiple times and am just about to finish the second, exclusively co-op with real world friends over Live. I have never played alone and don't care to.
I don't think many would argue that the gameplay isn't fairly simple. But it's just done so well. The level design, overall production, everything comes together to just make an incredible experience.
Your penis is still very small.
I do have to say, the sections in which you are actually driving vehicles are obscenely un-fun. Running around atop a vehicle whilst defending it is a riot, but piloting? Jesus no. A true chore.
The big deal for me on the PC gaming is the custom maps and mods. I'm still playing UT2004 because of all the cool custom maps and vehicles people have modded. Would love that option for GoW. -Immerial (currently moderating, posting Anon for obvious reasons)
Epic actually tried to be different with Unreal. Since then they've either copied what Id has done or just perpetuated the same old border line gay porn men strutting around in space with no story line, tired gameplay and whatever other tired cliche's little CliffyB needs to make up for the fact he's short and looks younger than he is.
The guy's made an announcement that he doesn't want to be called CliffyB and no goes by Dude Huge...I mena come on, what more proof is there that all there games are all about CliffyB's little man syndrome?
I played the (rather broken and buggy) version on the PC... it was enjoyable for the most part, thanks to the pretty awesome co-op mode. But thanks to Epic's "no PC" policy, I will not be buying this or any other game from them. Remember who got you where you are today, fools.
"Oh MY GoD DUde; 1t liKe fUcK1nG! R0Cks!!!!! it's like dan nah nah and BaNg bANg kaaaBooom arrrrgGGGhhhh!!!!" And so on for four pages. P.
Didn't Netcraft confirm that PC gaming is dying anyway?
No, only that gaming on the formerly healthy BSD platform has declined alarmingly in the past 15 years. Down from 2.4 new games per decade to 1.6, in fact.
I put this down to the newer games' unreasonable hardware requirements alienating BSD users, such as the latest Nethack clone requiring a card that supports 80-column text *and* a colour display.
You mean you have to use your hands?? Thats like a baby's toy!
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
A PC port won't happen. Rampant piracy has done so much damage to PC gaming that developers don't consider it worth the expense. Console gaming is exploding, while PC gaming is hanging on a thread.
Only thing missing is a brothel. Those guys kick a lot of ass and should get a little poon tang between missions.
The campaign storyline is truly moving. It's the end of humanity, extinction is no near you can taste its rust-tainted flavor and people... are still being people in the meantime. One particular moment had me crying. Won't say which one, but if you've played through the game, you KNOW which one I'm talking about.
The PC supports gamepads. It always has.
It's great that I can connect a bunch of gamepads to a PC through a USB hub, but they're useless without software. A lot of PC games from major publishers that support a gamepad won't support more than one. And too many games in gamepad-friendly genres are released on multiple consoles (e.g. PS2 and Wii, or PS3 and Xbox 360) but not PC.