Epic games pulled off an amazing feat with the first Gears of War. They created a brand new intellectual property (or IP as we call it in the biz) that instantly rocketed to AAA, system-selling exclusive title status a brand new universe ready to be exploited with merchandise and of course a sequel.
But really, Gears of War found success to the tune of 4.7 million copies sold by matching the best looking graphics at the time with a new and inventive type of shooter gameplay. A type of gameplay copied so relentlessly that its almost impossible to describe a shooter that utilizes a cover system that shows the character in third person crouching behind a log or blind-firing around a corner without invoking the name of Epics game. So how do you make a sequel that actually builds upon a game that was such a revolutionary one to begin with?
Thank goodness Epic Games and Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski arent trying to re-invent the wheel this time around. Or at least they dont appear to be. But maybe when you add up all the small (and big) improvements that are being put into both the single and multi player, maybe the end result will turn out to be just that: reinvented wheel. Its hard to say at this point, considering the extent of our exposure to the game is a couple demos of one single player level and a few hours of actual hands-on time with the multi-player. Yes, you heard that right. We played it.
Recently, Microsoft showed the game off to a bunch of game journalists (including yours truly) in their Redmond office. Once there, Bleszinski gave us a quick rundown of some of the new weapons and features in the game, as well a little more about the story and some of the new characters and locations. Its stuff youve mostly heard before (saving the world jazz, no biggie) but it sounds like the single player will be as compelling as it was in the first game.
But we were here for some competitive multiplayer, and we got to play multiple rounds of three different multiplayer modes on three different levels: Gridlock 2.0, Security and River. Actually we played some other maps Im not allowed to talk about yet as well as some other modes Im not allowed to talk about until E3 time either. But trust me: wowza.
Before jumping in though, Bleszinski gave us the rundown of some of the new gameplay enhancements. Obviously the one most Gears fans probably care about are the chainsaw battles. Chainsawing an enemy is one of the great delights of Gears of War and one of the games signature elements. In the last game, when two gamers encounter each other with the chainsaw attachment on their Lancers, the outcome of who won that head to head battle was randomly chosen if both people hit the button at the same time. Now you actually get a little arm-wrestling type mini game, where you have to hammer on the B button really quickly to fight the enemy back and cut him in half.
Another weapon near and dear to the hearts of Gears of War fans (especially those who played a lot of multiplayer) is the grenade. Anyone who had an enemy come up and swing something at them and run away, only to then look down and see a grenade stuck to their chest knows how powerful that grenade melee attack. So powerful they had to fix it in a later patch. In Gears 2 you can stick grenades to almost anything, creating a simple proximity mine that goes off when an enemy walks by. As long as you have friendly fire turned off, it wont go off on anyone else.
This makes for some interesting gameplay possibilities, especially when you consider a couple of the new features of the grenade. You can stick grenades all over a choke point on a map, hoping someone will trigger it as they fight through. But if you use poison gas grenades you create a much bigger and longer lasting obstacle for your opponents to get through. Grenades also cause a concussive blast now too which can knock a player down or even over something.
Knocking people down on the ground and then stomping them out was, like the chainsaw, one of the more brutal and more fun ways to finish off an enemy. So of course, thats been buffed up too. Now you have a variety of different finishing moves, some weapon specific, all of them completely brutal. When knocked down you can actually try and crawl away now though, and if you can survive long enough you can even revive yourself. But if you come up on someone whos down, do one of the following: you can hit X for the good old fashioned curb stomp, B for the weapon specific finisher (i.e. if you have a shotgun, youll swing in like a golf club at an enemys head) or Y for a special beatdown animation thats different for different characters.
Or you could do one more thing: you could hit A and put your still living enemy into a headlock, holding him in front of you as an organic shield. Hell still take bullets, even after hes dead, but pieces with continue to degrade and get shot off as you go, eventually leaving you with a bloody lump of meat. This may be a fun thing to do in single player, but think of the ramifications in multiplayer. Thats my teammate youre making me shoot (unless I have amazing aim and only hit your face thats peeking out) and its making me feel kind of awkward shooting through him to get to you.
The other interesting addition to the gameplay is bullet stopping power. The designers at Epic always wanted people to play the game the way they designed it: taking cover, running low, flanking enemies, etc. But as many will tell you, it doesnt always work out that way in multiplayer. Gamers play the way they want t play, and will charge at you willy-nilly and it used to work. To counter that they have instituted stopping power into the bullets. Each round you shoot will slow an enemy a little, and a steady stream of lead can slow him down to a crawl. Should help against those people that love melee attacks too much.
After getting a quick rundown of these new features we jumped into some five on five matches, and actually joined using the party system, a desperately needed feature of Gears of War 2. Finding your friends to play online is crucial so the Party Mode could be the most important feature if Gears of War 2 wants to become a verified multiplayer hit.
The three gameplay modes we played were:
Guardian
Bleszinski described this as sort of like Assassination 2.0. Both teams have one leader who is armed just like a real player hes not some dude in an El Presidente uniform holding a crowbar. But even though the leader is just another player (and will cycle equally through your team) if he dies, its bad news for your team. As long as your leader is alive, his escorts will continue to respawn, keeping up the fight. So teams have to strike a balance tactically between guarding the leader and hunting down the enemy leader, making for some interesting team play concepts.
Playing four on four, a lot of the players in our session played one of a couple ways. Some people stashed the leader away in well covered position, with grenades planted on the walls and obstacles leading up to his hidden position. Other teams were more brash and just kept all of their players together and stayed mobile. This often worked for two reasons. Staying mobile meant they usually got to the better weapon pickups more quickly, and if they ran into anyone along the way, leader or not, they rolled in force.
This mode really showed off the advantages of the new tactical command (or Tac/Com) system that gives you information on the location of your teammates. In Guardian mode you always see the location of the enemy leader in an icon in the upper left corner of your HUD that has a rotating arrow on it that always points in his direction. But if you want to see where your leader is, as well as the rest of you squad, you just have to hit the left bumper button and icons with rotating arrows pop up for all of them. A very useful tool when your leader is under attack.
Submission (Meat Flag)
There is something really charming and funny about playing Submission Mode, colloquially called Meat Flag. The description is simple: single-flag CTF with two teams, the flag is a dude. But heres where it gets good: he has a weapon and he doesnt want you to capture him, regardless if youre C.O.G. or Locust. So you have to run up to him, knock him out, then grab him in a choke hold and slowly back your way to your teams capture zone.
One of the new levels that we played this mode on - entitled Security - had an added wrinkle. The capture zones that each team had to return the hostage to were behind laser barriers that would instantly kill you if you tried to walk through them. Watch your step. Theres a button to take the shields down for a certain period of time (not long, maybe 30 seconds) but when we were playing it up at Microsoft, the team I was playing with was having a hard time finding the button. We could see one inside the gate, but since there was no other way of entry behind the beams (trust me, I looked. A lot.) it was obvious there had to be one somewhere else. So I sent my mates out to find it while I stood by the gate. You see, I had the meat flag and I was waiting by the gate with just my pistol and some dude in a headlock. Believe it or not, I killed six incoming enemies over the next couple of minutes (my teammates were having a really hard time finding the button), without losing control of my prize. Even two at one time when I shot the propane tank at their feet. Eventually, I ran out of bullets and had to find more. I saw some on the ground but realized I couldnt pick them up while I had homeboy in the clinch. So I let him go, quickly grabbed the ammo, knocked him out with the but of my shotgun because he was already getting ornery, then grabbed him real quick again, backed into a corner and waited for more bad guys and screamed at my team to find that damn button. Nice.
Wingman
Everyone loves deathmatch or free for all modes and probably always will. Theres something about the lone wolf mentality in that. But Gears of War is a game where your character is meant to always be part of a group. You know, for the flanking and the reviving of buddies and stuff. So whats the least amount of teammates an anti-social gamer would have to put up with? Just one.
Hes your wingman, and he looks just like you. So youll have teams of two Doms vs. two Theron Guards vs. two Coles, etc. May not sound that revolutionary, but it was a ton of fun. It forces players to stick together and think together. Youve gotta help out your teammate if he falls, or put together a couple of cris-crossing firing lanes to eviscerate the competition. Somehow it still feels as urgent as traditional deathmatch, just with an armed shadow.
Some other new additions to Gears of War 2 that we can talk about at the moment include a greatly improved spectator mode that you can view after youve been killed. There are multiple cams to play with including the battle cam which lets you swing quickly around to fixed cameras that loop around the arena, quickly finding the action. There will also be a screenshot function built into this and an accompanying photo edit mode for making them look more awesome before you share them with your friends.
Considering how good the engine looks this time around, you might want to take a ton of them. Because were so accustomed to the great graphics and engine work that Epic does with their Unreal technology, you might be underwhelmed at first glance. Sure, it looks great, but I was expecting it to. Try holding it up to the original game though and youll notice how much more detailed the characters and the world around you are. A lot of work has been done on the lighting as well as the physics of how bodies react. That includes the way they fall apart when you cut them in half. Sweet.
Theres still a ton of stuff to talk about when it comes to Gears of War 2 multiplayer, but youre going to have to wait until E3 time. Hey its only next week, and its very much worth it. But based on what weve seen so far, its obvious that Epic Games is putting a lot more attention into the multiplayer capabilities. Thats something they didnt do in the first game, choosing to focus on other elements. But the effort is welcome though; we could always use another awesome multiplayer game.
http://previews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/2025/Gears-of-War-2/p1/
Video, steam here (HD) and/ DL link there as well;
http://xboxmovies.teamxbox.com/xbox-360-hires/7236/Gears-of-War-2-Multiplayer-Gameplay-HD/
Gametrailers Videos, credit to Kibbles:
http://www.gametrailers.com/index.php?
Actually it was older video, but now in HD I stand corrected. However there are new pics it seems and I will add in the IGN preview to the OP as well. Anyhow, I'll highlight/bold the post in a bit.
Credit to Cornballer: IGN preview as well.
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/886/886441p1.html
