Slashdot Mirror
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...
...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.
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.
... 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.
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.
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.
You're assuming that mouse aiming or indeed the whole PC setup is a, "benefit." In over fifteen years of gaming on nearly every console and quite a few PCs (Windows and Linux) I've yet to actually hear even ONE person tell me that they went console because "it costs less." We go console because it WORKS. I have yet to turn on my 360, put in a game, and have it tell me I've only got two activations left before I need to call the developer and beg to have one more. I have yet to be told my graphics chip isn't new enough or that I'm missing 'insert-online-frontend-of-the-month' and need to install yet more crapware.
No, console people get a console, turn it on, and get back to doing what we wanted to in the first place: playing the game. If you like PC gaming that's great, I play WAR personally, but within reason hardly anyone gives a shit how much the console costs in comparison to a PC.
"Just a fox, a whisper."
I've had my 360 for over two years and never seen the RROD. Same can be said for the 5 other people I know who have them. People whose only exposure to the world is through slashdot have a very skewed perspective on things.
And, to further counter your point, there is an entire generation or two of NVIDIA cards in the wild that could fail at any point, all of which ALONE cost as much as an XBOX.
Similes are like metaphors
And when it inevitably dies (because, let's face it, you'll go through two+ every three years), you have to call the manufacturer and beg to have it fixed.
I've had my 360 Elite for 2-ish years now. No problems with it. Maybe it continues to work OK because, I dunno, I'm not retarded and don't keep it in a poorly-ventilated AV box or down on the carpet/floor to fill with dust bunnies?
Not saying that people haven't had problems with 360s in the past... Those were well-published. Most 360 owners (and PS3 I guess) are fine, though.
I got off the gaming PC treadmill 3-4 years ago and haven't looked back. My computers are for work, and the consoles are for play. Easy.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
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.
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.
Why do we never hear the other side of the arguement: That a keyboard and mouse completely suck for anything other than FPSs? Yeah if all you want to do is play shooters and RTSs then a PC is great. Have you ever tried playing a platformer on a PC? It's impossible. I'll take a controller, which is 90 percent as good as a keyboard/mouse for FPSs and infinitely better for the million other kinds of games that PC users know nothing about.
People in bamboo houses shouldn't throw pandas...Jesus said that! -Ninja
+5 informative?! You might want to look in a mirror and check out your sampling of six out of 22 million consoles for a skewed perspective. Here's a sample of 1040: a failure rate of 16.4% after six to ten months. This doesn't include returns directly to Microsoft or problems other than hardware failure. 60% of the failures were RRoDs and 18% were disc reading errors.
That doesn't apply to the newer 360s. They have a lower failure rate, but it's still a much bigger problem than it is with other consoles and PC parts. It seems to me that Microsoft could easily fix the two biggest problems by spending more than 50 cents on the 12x DVD reader, and investing in better cooling so the motherboard doesn't warp and break components off it. Let's face it: if Sony can do it right first time, any retard can do it.
As for the Nvidia cards: it was chips made with a specific process - less than half a generation - and the cards in question cost between a fifth and half the price of a 360.
Why do we never hear the other side of the arguement: That a keyboard and mouse completely suck for anything other than FPSs?
Because the other side of the argument is completely irrelevant.
The PC supports gamepads. It always has. There have been gamepad style controllers since MS-DOS such as the Gravis PC Gamepad, and the tradition has continued to this day; you can get console style controllers from all the biggest names in PC controllers ... Logitech, Microsoft, and Saitek (now owned by Mad Catz).
There is no reason to argue about having to use the keyboard and mouse for game-X on the PC, because, quite simply, you don't have to. I've played lots of PC games using gamepads... from Commander Keen to Mortal Kombat to Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. (although I ultimately preferred Lost Planet with keyboard and mouse) to independant 'shumps' [shoot-em-ups].