Gears of War 2
Gears of War 2 is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Gears of War, and was announced by lead designer Cliff Bleszinski during the February 20, 2008 Game Developers Conference. The game uses a heavily upgraded version of the Unreal Engine 3. During E3 2008, a worldwide release date for the game was set for November 7, 2008. Since its release, Gears of War 2 has been received with critical acclaim, and in its opening weekend the game sold over two million units.
In Gears of War 2, the Locust have found a way to make giant emergence holes capable of sinking entire cities at once. Marcus Fenix and the rest of the COG Delta Squad are now drilling underground to “take the fight to the Locust.” In a teaser of the first scenes of gameplay of Gears of War 2, COG soldiers engage in battle with a large army of Locust as they travel to drill into the underground region. Comic book writer Joshua Ortega says, “The stakes are raised. This is humanity’s last stand. Everything is at risk. Nothing is safe.”
Gameplay
John DiMaggio, the voice actor of the game’s main character, Marcus Fenix, confirmed to IGN that players would be able to fight the large Brumaks in Gears of War 2. He also revealed there will be a deeper story with new characters, new weapons, and new enemies. The game also includes the ability to duel with an AI or human opponent when both use the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer rifle, as seen in the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference promotional video, later confirmed in informal interviews with developers and a Game Informer preview. Epic released a gameplay video which revealed the player may now use “downed” enemies as shields. Bleszinski confirmed also that players who have been injured can crawl as a final desperate attempt at life. Players may tap the ‘A’ Button to crawl faster. The level of blood and gore has been increased, for example, when the player is close to death, wherever he moves there are trails of blood behind him. This is the same for enemies, and the opponents who’ve been used as a meat shield. There are also more ways to kill an opponent, such as punching them while they are downed, using the sniper rifle as a sledgehammer, or using the torque bow as an axe.
The cover story in the May 2008 issue of Game Informer revealed several new gameplay features. Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual difficulty while the other teammate plays on Hardcore. A “communal combat system” will adapt to give a player at a lower difficulty an equivalently fair challenge as the player at higher difficulty. The player will be able to maintain multiple save files that work with the drop-in/drop-out co-op features. There is also a fourth difficulty level that is a level above Casual called Normal, a difficulty below Hardcore; senior producer Rod Fergusson admitted that — for the first game — “We overshot on [the Casual] difficulty and a game that was a little harder than we intended.” Some of the Xbox Live achievements can be completed through both play in single player and multiplayer mode, such as achieving 1,000 headshots. New enemy creatures are planned on being added, including one described by Cliff Bleszinski as one “that [makes] the Brumak look like a baby panda bear.” In a developer’s video, Cliff Bleszinski stated that Gears of War 2 would feature “drop in and out” co-op in the campaign. A feature carried over from the original is the optional mature content filter, which, when active, makes blood appear as sparks and removes harsh language from the dialogue.
The collection of COG tags has been expanded to include the collection of story-based items such as personal letters and medical records, and a “war journal” will track which collectibles have been found and where missing ones can be located. The cut-scenes will also use the better facial rendering technology of Epic’s Unreal engine, and will use more dramatic angles for the conversation, as well as using a video screen on Jack (the all-purpose robot used by Delta squad) to talk with their commanders “face-to-face.”
New weapons were added to the game in addition to firearms from the previous gamee. The accuracy, function, and power of several weapons have been altered, and all grenades can now be used as mines by placing them on walls or floors, and will detonate when approached by enemies. In addition, players can now be knocked over by the concussive force of a nearby detonating grenade. Cliff Bleszinski has also announced that there will be more vehicle missions in the campaign than before, such as the Centaur Tank which Cliff describes as a “tank with monster truck wheels.” Players can also ride a Brumak in the game; previously, the Brumak could only be fought by the player as an enemy, in the PC version of the game.
Multiplayer
Gears of War 2 features an upgraded multiplayer mode that allows up to ten users to simultaneously play. X360 magazine reported that Gears of War 2 contains at least three new online multiplayer modes, called “Guardian,” “Wingman,” and “Submission.” “Guardian” is a modified version of “Assassination” from the original Gears of War, but allows players to continue fighting after the leader has been killed, but losing the ability to respawn. “Wingman” splits all ten players into five teams of two, where both members of a team play as the same character. “Submission,” formerly known as “Meat Flag,” is a version of capture the flag in which players attempt to “down” an enemy controlled by the game’s AI and move its body to their team’s base to earn points. A Halo-like matchmaking system has been utilized for the online multiplayer. In a GameTrailers TV E3 special, it was confirmed that AI “bots” have also been introduced in this installment. Players can now engage in multiplayer scenarios with both human players and bots, or with bots alone, and may modify their intelligence level (from Casual to Insane difficulty) in the options menu prior to starting a game.
A new co-op game mode was confirmed during Microsoft’s E3 2008 press conference; called “Horde,” this mode allows up to five players to fight off waves of attacking Locust together. Horde Mode does not feature bot support as in competitive multiplayer, and can be played alone. The Locust attack in waves of multiple enemies which become more difficult as players progress.
Cameras in the multiplayer modes have also been improved significantly. Rather than static views from different points on a map, the new Battle Cam allows players to pan around a map as the camera focuses on areas of intense fighting, and the Ghost Cam allows a player to roam freely around a map. A photo mode is also featured, with each photo taken by a player rated on the amount of action in the shot and can be uploaded to the official Gears of War website.
Other Information
- Developer(s) Epic Games
- Publisher(s) Microsoft Game Studios
- Designer(s) Cliff Bleszinski
- Composer(s) Steve Jablonsky
- Engine Unreal Engine 3
- Release date(s) November 7, 2008
- Genre(s) Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter
- Mode(s) Single player, System Link, Multiplayer, Cooperative modes
