Emperor Pan I
Respected Member
Gears of war 2 is your typical game for testosterone fueled macho manly men who high five each other after killing something and have a horrible disdain for subtlety. GoW 2 as I will refer to it from this point on is exactly what you expect, with neither more or less. It must have been really easy to make as they simply took Gears of War and gave it a bit of a face lift. To be honest everyone keeps telling me how much they improved the graphics and this bewilders me as there is not enough difference to justifiably say that I could visibly tell one game from the other without putting two screens side by side. Saying a 360 game looks good is like saying crackers are crunchy (I type this with a box of triskets on my desk), and anything that doesn't look good isn't on the 360. So drop it, I'm tired of people reminding me that I got a system because it had good games, and I can just assume it is going to look nice.
Gameplay remains largely unchanged with the exception of a few tweaks. Multiplayer has been refined to avoid re-releasing Gears of Shotgun, with extra shotguns added. Anyone who remembers playing online likely remembers running up to the enemy, shotgunning to the face, and running out. If you don't, you were likely the one with shrapnel in your ass. GOW2 has changed this to removed the shotgun and hit/but tactics, slowing players down when they are fire upon. This won't stop the overpowered close ranged/meele weapons but it is a start.
Online is almost as pointless as it was in the first game, but i'm going to try and stick with it. The game modes are all fairly interesting ideas, but can't really comment on how they work in practice. It is nice to know at least Epic tried to break the tradition of dropping players into a match and then the different game modes is a matter of how the teams are set up. We all know though that the only game mode people are going to play is the deathmatch. as the writing of this it is kinda hard to play the game online when the whole online system is a bit broken. Not being able to play at this juncture over the internet has allowed me some free time to explore other aspects of the game.
The real gem of this game is co-op campaign, and this game really popularized it (and Halo can fuck right off). Someone somewhere seemed to think GoW was pretty hard, because they did a good job of convincing someone else to scale it back in this game. I like to consider myself an above average gamer, so taking difficulty level criticisms from me with a grain of salt, but GoW2 isn't very hard. Way back in GoW I jumped into co-op half way through the game, and when we got to the end we powered through on hardcore a second way though, and it was really hard. Playing on insane was an exercise in controller snapping frustration, but it was all in good fun. GoW 2 made things a lot easier, and there seems to be less emphasis on the linear approach towards connecting a bunch of random gun fights with convenient cover, instead going for a mix up where the gun fights are shorter but the game is still extremely linear.
A lot of the stuff that was hard about the first game is largely removed. Lambent wretches are removed, only making a cameo in setting up for a later extension of the plot. Berserkers don't make an appearance, nor does the hammer of dawn until 10 seconds before the game ends. No Seeders or berserkers to kill seems like a large chunk of the first game left out. Reavers return, and this time actually pose a threat, but they aren't very hard to kill. Boomers reappear for a bit, but lose some of their edge, and the big guys are accompanied by Grinders, who are essential the same unit except with a minigun. There also seems to be an overuse of the regular wretches, as they are insultingly easy to kill. Mashing the meele button is a lot easier than shooting at them, and that is a statement I make even if I'm holding a shotgun. That is why the Lambent wretches from the first game were such a piss-off, since using meele was equivalent to setting off a ton of TNT in your face. Boss fights are almost non-existent, and bosses form the first game appear so piss weak in this it is amazing how long it took for us to kill them in the first game. Only one boss fight was any good, and as soon as we learned how to kill it, became insultingly easy, a sharp contrast to say the Brumak from GoW, which seems like an impossibility to take on in one go.
With that I'm going to make a couple comments on the co-op campaign, because if you played it by yourself you are a loser. Make sure you have a good friend, and I mean you have to be really tight with them less you want to wake up the morning after with blood on your hands. There is no easier way to fall out with someone than to not be very good in this game. GoW2 is slightly better than the first in that the computer can now revive you, so every time you die your team mate doesn't curse having to run across the map to save your ass. That being said, somehow someone thought it would be a good idea to let the computers bleed out and die also, forcing you to revive them. This doesn't sound so bad, until you discover that the computer on your team is terminally stupid. Often times we would be tearing ass, only to have the computer run into the middle of 7 locust, die, crawl further away from us and then reset the level when he finally dies.
I would also like to take a couple seconds to emphasize something, and any game developers browsing this forum take note. There is a section where me and my ally had to carry a large bomb across a hall to a door. All in all the section lasts for maybe two or three minutes (not counting reloading after dieing), and then we never do anyhting like it again. Trying to control this is like trying to coerce a drunk elephant to walk a tightrope. Coordinating two players to move together, while at the same time making the controls unintuitive and movements slow is an exercise in bad game design, and there is no reason for this. It wouldn't have been so bad, except the area is a dark cramped warehouse and wretches are running around clawing at your nuts. This is extremely pointless, and mastering how to control the four legged behemoth is equally pointless cause we never do anything like this again.
While I'm at it, the whole team aspect is emphasized in badly implemented vehicle sections. Driving the Brumak was as thick and slow as you could expect, and that wasn't even the worst of it. Being asked to drive a tank, then independently forcing just me to drive made me feel like the game was testing my manliness, and to my partners frustration I just rammed everything. Why am I the driver again? Driving a tank and not being able to fire is stupid, and vice versa. GoW did this to a lesser extent, but in this game they are asking you to actually fight enemies and not just wave a flashlight at birds with a sever case of photophobia. The game forces us to split up for some really contrived reasons and this is only to emphasize the fact that you are playing a co-op game. But really, doing it for the sake of doing it seems like you are stretching an idea to far, and this is evident when we went through the whole picking a path to split up, only to get together again not a minute later bewildering me why it was important to split up in the first place.
The story was excellent to a certain extent. The series has a bad habit of throwing you in, telling you nothing and just running with it. Making references to wars and events no one has told me about is bad story telling. If they are going to have characters talk about something I needed to pick up the comic for, the writers have already failed. That being said I know the background, so I wasn't totally lost. My partner wasn't, and trust me admitting you know about the story will only get confused people to turn to you constantly asking questions.
So I picked up the comics that I could, and unless someone on wikipedia is fucking with me, I'll give a little back ground on the story. Set on the planet Sera (Not earth), human governments have waged war for decades against others over Immulsion, some kind of fuel or something (IF you don't see the analogy to real world politics, you probably have trouble dressing yourself in the morning). Petty differences are put aside 14 years and 6 months before the start of GoW2 when Emergence day occurs and the Locust pop out of the ground and start ruining mankind's shit. Not one to be out done, the Government of the Cog form a facist regime to protect the citizens who gather in their major city, and shit all over everyone else. Those who didn't flee to Jacinto, mankind's last safe haven, get a face full of explostions when the Humans use their Hammer of Dawn (super satelite), to blow up all the cities taken by the Locust, leaving any humans left behind to eat shit. In game is a very simple shooter, and grudging through all the back story sheds a bit of light on a lot of in game references. One example is Marcus's father, who was mentioned in the first game, and heavily implied to be behind some dastardly stuff in this game. It strikes me as a franchise that can't get its story to be told properly, and leaves people still thinking this is happening on earth or something. Also the super-hippie "government is evil/war is bad" subtext to the story revolving human governments is constantly thrown in our face, and I'm a little sick of it. Otherwise as an excuse to shoot shit, it does a good job of connecting the fights together.
Last but not least, the weapons. We were promised new weapons, and that didn't really happen. Sure the Locust gun was altered to remove all of the suck, and you can pick up a shield but that didn't really change anything. I might be de-emphasizing the new shit, like the flamethrower and mini gun, but these are all standard weapons from standard FPS. GoW had a chainsaw on a rifle. I was expecting something to match the awesomeness of that like a gun that shot lightning and acid with an attached mace you could swing around. Meele is still over powered, as it is in a lot of games, but throwing in chainsaw duels has two purposes. First off the chainsaw was stupidly cheap both ways as their was no defense against someone running up and cutting you in half (this was also the way with the shotgun as mentioned). Getting your chainsaw up in time now means you have an actual defense other than rolling the fuck away.
Ultimately the test is if it is fun. There is enough variations on enemies and gameplay to consider it a genuine sequel, but the gameplay is still exactly the same as the first. Good or bad if you liked the first one, GoW2 hasn't done much to change that. I liked Gears 1, as I also liked Kill.Switch, the game the cover system was blatantly ripped off from. The cover and fire mechanics are some of the best, and the entire game removes a lot of the bullshit from every FPS out there. Ultimately since Gears came out, no game has improved on (and many doing a really bad job of immitating) the cover system, so you can expect GoW2 to carry over the excellent gameplay. other little things that persist is having to switch to graenades to throw them, something bewilderingly stupid.
The new features are nice, but with the exception of the co-op campaign, I would have just stuck to just playing the first one for online. Features for Horde add a 20 minute game that will likely never, ever be used extensively, and System link is confined to two players per console, a decision I'm going to have to hunt someone down for and kill them. Racing games do the same shit when they limit the number of players to half the number of controllers, leaving the two friends with the slower reaction time to yell "shotty" sitting watching the two quicker players. If they don't start expanding multiplayer (or even co-op) to four players, we are going to have a serious problem.
Gameplay remains largely unchanged with the exception of a few tweaks. Multiplayer has been refined to avoid re-releasing Gears of Shotgun, with extra shotguns added. Anyone who remembers playing online likely remembers running up to the enemy, shotgunning to the face, and running out. If you don't, you were likely the one with shrapnel in your ass. GOW2 has changed this to removed the shotgun and hit/but tactics, slowing players down when they are fire upon. This won't stop the overpowered close ranged/meele weapons but it is a start.
Online is almost as pointless as it was in the first game, but i'm going to try and stick with it. The game modes are all fairly interesting ideas, but can't really comment on how they work in practice. It is nice to know at least Epic tried to break the tradition of dropping players into a match and then the different game modes is a matter of how the teams are set up. We all know though that the only game mode people are going to play is the deathmatch. as the writing of this it is kinda hard to play the game online when the whole online system is a bit broken. Not being able to play at this juncture over the internet has allowed me some free time to explore other aspects of the game.
The real gem of this game is co-op campaign, and this game really popularized it (and Halo can fuck right off). Someone somewhere seemed to think GoW was pretty hard, because they did a good job of convincing someone else to scale it back in this game. I like to consider myself an above average gamer, so taking difficulty level criticisms from me with a grain of salt, but GoW2 isn't very hard. Way back in GoW I jumped into co-op half way through the game, and when we got to the end we powered through on hardcore a second way though, and it was really hard. Playing on insane was an exercise in controller snapping frustration, but it was all in good fun. GoW 2 made things a lot easier, and there seems to be less emphasis on the linear approach towards connecting a bunch of random gun fights with convenient cover, instead going for a mix up where the gun fights are shorter but the game is still extremely linear.
A lot of the stuff that was hard about the first game is largely removed. Lambent wretches are removed, only making a cameo in setting up for a later extension of the plot. Berserkers don't make an appearance, nor does the hammer of dawn until 10 seconds before the game ends. No Seeders or berserkers to kill seems like a large chunk of the first game left out. Reavers return, and this time actually pose a threat, but they aren't very hard to kill. Boomers reappear for a bit, but lose some of their edge, and the big guys are accompanied by Grinders, who are essential the same unit except with a minigun. There also seems to be an overuse of the regular wretches, as they are insultingly easy to kill. Mashing the meele button is a lot easier than shooting at them, and that is a statement I make even if I'm holding a shotgun. That is why the Lambent wretches from the first game were such a piss-off, since using meele was equivalent to setting off a ton of TNT in your face. Boss fights are almost non-existent, and bosses form the first game appear so piss weak in this it is amazing how long it took for us to kill them in the first game. Only one boss fight was any good, and as soon as we learned how to kill it, became insultingly easy, a sharp contrast to say the Brumak from GoW, which seems like an impossibility to take on in one go.
With that I'm going to make a couple comments on the co-op campaign, because if you played it by yourself you are a loser. Make sure you have a good friend, and I mean you have to be really tight with them less you want to wake up the morning after with blood on your hands. There is no easier way to fall out with someone than to not be very good in this game. GoW2 is slightly better than the first in that the computer can now revive you, so every time you die your team mate doesn't curse having to run across the map to save your ass. That being said, somehow someone thought it would be a good idea to let the computers bleed out and die also, forcing you to revive them. This doesn't sound so bad, until you discover that the computer on your team is terminally stupid. Often times we would be tearing ass, only to have the computer run into the middle of 7 locust, die, crawl further away from us and then reset the level when he finally dies.
I would also like to take a couple seconds to emphasize something, and any game developers browsing this forum take note. There is a section where me and my ally had to carry a large bomb across a hall to a door. All in all the section lasts for maybe two or three minutes (not counting reloading after dieing), and then we never do anyhting like it again. Trying to control this is like trying to coerce a drunk elephant to walk a tightrope. Coordinating two players to move together, while at the same time making the controls unintuitive and movements slow is an exercise in bad game design, and there is no reason for this. It wouldn't have been so bad, except the area is a dark cramped warehouse and wretches are running around clawing at your nuts. This is extremely pointless, and mastering how to control the four legged behemoth is equally pointless cause we never do anything like this again.
While I'm at it, the whole team aspect is emphasized in badly implemented vehicle sections. Driving the Brumak was as thick and slow as you could expect, and that wasn't even the worst of it. Being asked to drive a tank, then independently forcing just me to drive made me feel like the game was testing my manliness, and to my partners frustration I just rammed everything. Why am I the driver again? Driving a tank and not being able to fire is stupid, and vice versa. GoW did this to a lesser extent, but in this game they are asking you to actually fight enemies and not just wave a flashlight at birds with a sever case of photophobia. The game forces us to split up for some really contrived reasons and this is only to emphasize the fact that you are playing a co-op game. But really, doing it for the sake of doing it seems like you are stretching an idea to far, and this is evident when we went through the whole picking a path to split up, only to get together again not a minute later bewildering me why it was important to split up in the first place.
The story was excellent to a certain extent. The series has a bad habit of throwing you in, telling you nothing and just running with it. Making references to wars and events no one has told me about is bad story telling. If they are going to have characters talk about something I needed to pick up the comic for, the writers have already failed. That being said I know the background, so I wasn't totally lost. My partner wasn't, and trust me admitting you know about the story will only get confused people to turn to you constantly asking questions.
So I picked up the comics that I could, and unless someone on wikipedia is fucking with me, I'll give a little back ground on the story. Set on the planet Sera (Not earth), human governments have waged war for decades against others over Immulsion, some kind of fuel or something (IF you don't see the analogy to real world politics, you probably have trouble dressing yourself in the morning). Petty differences are put aside 14 years and 6 months before the start of GoW2 when Emergence day occurs and the Locust pop out of the ground and start ruining mankind's shit. Not one to be out done, the Government of the Cog form a facist regime to protect the citizens who gather in their major city, and shit all over everyone else. Those who didn't flee to Jacinto, mankind's last safe haven, get a face full of explostions when the Humans use their Hammer of Dawn (super satelite), to blow up all the cities taken by the Locust, leaving any humans left behind to eat shit. In game is a very simple shooter, and grudging through all the back story sheds a bit of light on a lot of in game references. One example is Marcus's father, who was mentioned in the first game, and heavily implied to be behind some dastardly stuff in this game. It strikes me as a franchise that can't get its story to be told properly, and leaves people still thinking this is happening on earth or something. Also the super-hippie "government is evil/war is bad" subtext to the story revolving human governments is constantly thrown in our face, and I'm a little sick of it. Otherwise as an excuse to shoot shit, it does a good job of connecting the fights together.
Last but not least, the weapons. We were promised new weapons, and that didn't really happen. Sure the Locust gun was altered to remove all of the suck, and you can pick up a shield but that didn't really change anything. I might be de-emphasizing the new shit, like the flamethrower and mini gun, but these are all standard weapons from standard FPS. GoW had a chainsaw on a rifle. I was expecting something to match the awesomeness of that like a gun that shot lightning and acid with an attached mace you could swing around. Meele is still over powered, as it is in a lot of games, but throwing in chainsaw duels has two purposes. First off the chainsaw was stupidly cheap both ways as their was no defense against someone running up and cutting you in half (this was also the way with the shotgun as mentioned). Getting your chainsaw up in time now means you have an actual defense other than rolling the fuck away.
Ultimately the test is if it is fun. There is enough variations on enemies and gameplay to consider it a genuine sequel, but the gameplay is still exactly the same as the first. Good or bad if you liked the first one, GoW2 hasn't done much to change that. I liked Gears 1, as I also liked Kill.Switch, the game the cover system was blatantly ripped off from. The cover and fire mechanics are some of the best, and the entire game removes a lot of the bullshit from every FPS out there. Ultimately since Gears came out, no game has improved on (and many doing a really bad job of immitating) the cover system, so you can expect GoW2 to carry over the excellent gameplay. other little things that persist is having to switch to graenades to throw them, something bewilderingly stupid.
The new features are nice, but with the exception of the co-op campaign, I would have just stuck to just playing the first one for online. Features for Horde add a 20 minute game that will likely never, ever be used extensively, and System link is confined to two players per console, a decision I'm going to have to hunt someone down for and kill them. Racing games do the same shit when they limit the number of players to half the number of controllers, leaving the two friends with the slower reaction time to yell "shotty" sitting watching the two quicker players. If they don't start expanding multiplayer (or even co-op) to four players, we are going to have a serious problem.
Add some pics to refer what you're talking about to, and to splice up the many words.
