Gears of War 2 Review
Whack a Mole is Back
Gears of War 2 is the 2008 sequel to the blockbuster game Gears of War. Gears of War 2 is a third person shooter, developed by Epic Games, of Unreal fame, and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game was released in November of 2008 for the Xbox 360. The game, as well as its predecessor, is renowned for its high fidelity visuals, powered by the third iteration of the Unreal Engine.
Gears of War 2 puts you back in the boots of members of an elite brand of soldiers known as Delta Squad. The game takes place six months after the events of the first game. The situation on Sera has grown even more dire for humanity, for two reasons. There is a new disease that is running rampant on the planet. Named Rust Lung, the disease is a consequence of the fact that much of the liquid impulsion located underground had vaporized following the events of the previous game. The second factor contributing to humanities dire straits is the fact that the Locust are now attacking the last remaining human cities on Sera via a gigantic worm like creature which is sinking the cities by literally eating the ground beneath them. With the last remaining city, Jacinto, threatened, it is up to Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago to resume the fight against the Locust, both above and below ground.
The gameplay in Gears of War 2 is virtually identical to that of the first game. It's still an "over-the-shoulder" third-person shooter with a heavy emphasis on the the use of cover. The game still features a number of weapon types, including standard weapons such as shotguns, pistols and grenades. Just as it is in the first game, the most used, and unique weapon in the game is the Lancer, which you'll fondly recall was a standard issue assault rifle with a mounted chainsaw bayonet that can be used to inflict a gruesome and gory death on the enemy once they are within melee range of the player. Although the novelty of such a weapon may have worn off somewhat, the chainsaw kills have been expanded upon for the sequel, adding some freshness to an otherwise familiar weapon.
New weapons, among others, include the aptly named Scorcher flamethrower, and the Gorgon Pistol (which is a rather cool looking machine pistol). In addition, to the new firearms, a new grenade type has been added. New to the game are Ink Grenades, which fill an area with poisonous gas upon detonation. The grenade system itself has seen some changes. The grenade blast radius has been increased. Also, upon detonation of a smoke grenade, any nearby players or enemies who are not killed are knocked to the ground, and are effectively incapacitated for a few seconds, giving the player, or, in multiplayer, the opposition, a few seconds to kill the downed character.
Another, and quite interesting, change is the fact that all grenade types, double as proximity mines, which means that they can be stuck into surfaces, like walls, and will then explode upon an enemy entering a specific proximity radius. Anyone not immediately killed is incapacitated. This technique is very useful in multiplayer for things like setting up a defensive perimeter; however, it also feels overpowered, as any and all grenades have this ability, which means that it's a common occurrence to round a corner and get knocked down by a hidden grenade, leaving you wide open for the opposition to get a free kill, either by shooting you from afar, or by utilizing the few available kill moves that can be down on a downed opponent, including a curb stomp and a chainsaw kill.
Huge changes were made to the revival system. In Gears of War 1, when you were downed in multiplayer, your allies could revive you, but in single player, you were never downed. That state was replaced by instant death. In this game, your AI teammates can heal you if you're injured. Not only that, but, in all modes, you can now crawl towards your allies when you're injured, so, for example, if they are pinned down and cannot get to you, well, you can get to them. This leads to some really tense moments where you will find yourself crawling desperately to your allies in an effort to avoid a fatal curb-stomp or chainsaw attack. Of course, if you enemy who downed you, or an ally of theirs is fairly close to you, you're have no chance of getting away. This is particularly humiliating, and humorous, in a multiplayer setting, as the enemy can delay the inevitable by watching you feebly try to crawl away, hoping you get to your partner before you either bleed out or the enemy grows tired of watching you struggle and crushes your head with their boot.
The campaign in Gears of War 2 stretches out over five acts, each themselves broken up into various chapters, totalling 29 Chapters in all. All in all, it's a decent length, although it is significantly shorter than the first game's campaign, clocking in at about 8 hours, as opposed to the 10-12 hours that the first game filled. Of course, as always, length is dependent upon skill, difficulty, and familiarity, but it's safe to say that this game is definitely shorter than the first. This can be chalked up the fact that Epic Games clearly put more of the focus into the multiplayer aspect of the experience this time around. While it is certainly true that whether this is detrimental or advantageous in terms of the experience is up to the individual gamer, it does seem that it's a step backwards to have the campaign length be a couple of hours shorter than that of the first. Length aside, the campaign maintains the quality of the first, with some fixed and improvements, as well as some changes, and a few missteps.
Similarly to its predecessor, Gears of War 2's campaign mode can be played both as a solo effort, and in co-operative mode with one other player. The basic template for the game has not changed. You still engage in one firefight after another, many of which are part of a larger and usually fairly impressive set piece battle. The firefights, as they were in Gears 1, are based around the idea of taking cover. This mechanic works fairly well, and has actually been improved for the sequel. However, the same issue that reared its head in the first game does so here, despite the shorter length; namely, repetition.
It can start to feel a bit stale by the end of the game, and, as was the case with the predecessor, the firefights can grow predictable both in the sense that you know how they will play out, but also, when, as you'll be walking, and suddenly you'll see a clearing punctuated with, most frequently, slabs of chest high concrete, but also burned-out cars, piles of scrap metal, huge stone columns, fountains, and, stairways, among other things, and you'll know that a firefight is about to occur.
In the first game, there were some moments that took a sort of survival horror light approach to things, and these elements return in the sequel. There will be some sections off the game that have you wandering around, jumping at shadows as you wonder when something is finally going to appear around thee next corner.....
The other lulls in the gameplay are not quite so successful or useful, but in fact, are due to the frequent cutscenes and in game dialogue, both of which seem to occur a bit too often early on in the campaign, which really slows things down. The dialogue sections especially, feel quite poorly implemented, as, similarly to the first game, you are forced to walk slowly while your character engages in conversation over the mic. The dialogue is not skippable, and since you are forced to walk slowly during these conversations, and can do nothing else, it really bogs down the pace, especially when they occur too often. In the early going, it, at least at times, feels as though there's one of these after every firefight. Cutscenes, too serve to break up the action, although, and this is exclusive to the early parts as well, they seem to occur too frequently.
Speaking of cutscenes, this time around, Epic, likely due to criticism faced after the release of the first game, tried to humanize the main characters by injecting more emotional range. This, however, falls flat and comes across as completely contrived, due to a few factors. For one, not nearly enough time is spent developing the characters, which, due to the nature of the game, is mostly understandable, but here it seems as though they tried to have it both ways. Another reason is that the voice acting doesn't quite pull off what they wanted to. And, lastly, the writing was not up to snuff. It's hard to convince us that one of these big, brutish ''man's man'' type characters is experiencing true anguish after a particularly unfortunate event, and his brother in arms is sufficiently broken up about it, when not two minutes after the big event, someone is broaching the subject of going to kick some more ass, and agreements are made all around.
Epic tried to increase the emotional range of their tale this time around, and, while they could perhaps be commended for it, this time around, at least, they came up woefully short of their goals. They ended up with a game that seems as though it has a tiny bit of an identity crisis, and when it's hard to buy into the emotions conveyed onscreen, it's hard to take the characters seriously, something which, despite their complete and utter one dimensionality, was not an issue with the first game.
As was the case with Gears 1, certain sections of the campaign features divergent paths that attempt to add a bit of non linearity to what is a strictly linear game. In the single player campaign, these sections offer little in the way of any real impact. These moments are more interesting in co-op play, however, as you and your partner are separated, and can no longer rely on eachother, save for a few of these moments where the game will have one player covering another from a specific vantage point. These moments, of which there are significantly more as compared to the first game, serve to offer a fresh change of pace in an otherwise great but stagnant co-operative experience.
Also adding to the small change of pace offered by these moments is the fact that, as a consequence of being separated, there is no chance to revive your partner. This result sin both players needing to play more cautiously, more strategically, and more intelligently to get through a few tough spots present in the game. If they do not, they will be stuck having to repeat the section over and over until they formulate a workable strategy.
There were a few other interesting tweaks made to the co-op formula this time around. Drop in/drop out co-op was added, which means that if someone is playing single player, a co-op partner can join them in real time, and upon leaving, the original player can just continue to play, completely unaffected. No having to return to the menu to add or drop a second player. Another change is that if two players of varied skill levels are playing together, no longer is either player forced to play at a difficulty level that they are not comfortable with or thrilled about. Each player can play at their won preferred difficulty level.
In terms of difficulties, the campaign can be played at the same three difficulty settings that were available in Gears of War. From easiest to hardest, these are "Casual", "Hardcore" and "Insane". The "Insane" difficulty is unlocked only when the game is beaten on one of the other two difficulties. The difficulties are aptly named, and Insane, while doable alone, is much better suite for co-op play, as it is quite difficult, and exposing oneself for more than a few seconds at a time puts one in grave mortal danger. This really leads to heavy use of the cover mechanic and the amplification of the repetition experienced on the lower difficulties. Co-op offsets some of this, as, and pardon the cliche, two heads (or two guns might be more apt) are better than one.
The routine combat sections are also broken up by a few boss fights, as well as several vehicle sections, which have you both piloting and riding on (in the form of on rail sections) traditional as well as non traditional vehicles (which include things that you wouldn't ordinarily view as vehicles). These sections are mostly well done. There is one particularly memorable section of the game which has you fighting an enemy from the inside. You'll have to play it to find out more, but suffice it to say, it's pretty damn cool, and more than just a little bit disgusting, for reasons you shall see.
Most of these novel gameplay sections are quite good, but a few of them do represent unfortunate missteps. The controls in the on rail sections tend to be a bit finicky, as the onboard weapons don't quite control as well as the rest of the game, including your standard aiming controls, do, and this leads to some unneeded frustration in certain sections, and, in one unfortunate instance or two, entire chapters, or quite close to it.
The enemies in Gears of War were not terribly varied, as the majority were humanoid with slight visual differences. This small issue was mostly remedied by the fact that the weapons they utilized and, consequently, the tactics they employed, served to make them feel somewhat more distinct from one another. Several new enemy types are present in the sequel, taking a decent enemy variety and really ratcheting it up into what becomes a quite impressive one. A few new enemies include a tall, skinny and wily Locust type called the Kantus monk, the Bloodmount, a large, hideous looking, four legged and horned creature ridden by a humanoid Locust who shoots at you from atop its hideous perch, and four new Boomer variations, each able to inflict terrifying damage if caught out in the open, or in a tight place, with one. The sound of the explosive type's voice as it growls out the word ''Boom!'' is enough to strike fear into the hearts of many a Gears of War veteran.
However, despite the enemy variety and their usage of varied tactics and weapons, the method of dispatching them is still almost always always the same: wait behind cover, while they crouch behind theirs, waiting specifically for them to pop their heads out and then engage. Thankfully, there are a few more enemy types this time around who forgo cover entirely, at least offering a reprieve in that sense. Although, when it comes to a couple of them, especially, but certainly not limited to the Bloodmounts, reprieve is probably a poor choice of words. Pressure would be more apt. So, overall, while the ''duck and shoot'' repetition still exists, it has been mitigated somewhat by an impressive variety of enemy types and tactics.
One new tactic available to the player, in order to better equip you to deal with these Locusts, is the ability to grab an enemy and use them as a live shield. This of course limits you to using just your pistol, the tradeoff of course being the fact that your live shield absorbs all of the bullets for you. This may not represent a fundamental shift in gameplay, but it's certainly useful in many situations, and is a small, but significant, and certainly welcome addition to the formula.
As for campaign extras, there are, just as there were in Gears of War 1, present throughout the campaign, the cog tags (which are Gears of War's version of dog tags) of fallen comrades, which the player is tasked with collecting. This, as it was in the first game, is an optional endeavour. It's at the player's discretion whether or not they do so. The ones who take this small but not insignificant extra challenge will find themselves rewarded with the pleasure of the hunt, for those to whom collecting items is attractive, and also a set of achievements, which ups the ante in terms of motivation to partake in the search. Joining the cog tags, however, are a large number of additional collectibles new to Gears of War 2, taking the previously small extra and rendering it quite large, although still optional.
Unfortunately, there is again a missed opportunity here, as Epic games could have used the cog tags and other collectibles as a lunching pad to extra character development. It would have been neat had they given the player a small flashback cutscene, or some text, to provide some information on the specific soldier who's tag or other personal effect was being recovered, but, alas, this was not the case. Perhaps for the inevitable Gears of War 3.
Gears of War 2 features a fully featured versus multiplayer, which is similar to that of the first game, but much more fleshed out, and features some different dynamics due to the changes to weapon balance and the additions to the grenade system. The ability to take live bodies as shields is implemented in the multiplayer in quite an inventive and humorous way, as Epic has taken the classic gametype Capture the Flag, and turned it into Meatflag. In meatflag, the flag is a live AI controlled character, who must be taken live and brought back to a base.
In a neat twist, the live ''flag'' shoots the people who try to approach it, even as it is being held captive by a human player. This means that when you are playing capture the flag, the flag shoots back at you. Then, when it's in the possession of your opposition, and you need to get to the flag carrier before he returns the flag to this teams' base and scores a point, you not only have to deal with the opposing team, but, if you manage to draw near, you have to deal with the flag itself, which will shoot at you even as it is being whisked away.
Returning versus modes from Gears 1 are Warzone, Execution, Assassination (renamed Guardian), and Annex. New game types include Wingman, which consists of the players being split up not into five teams of two, Submission, which is capture the flag-style gameplay with a Stranded as the flag (the goal of which being to escort the stranded meatflag to your capture point by taking him hostage), and lastly, King of the Hill, a variant of Annex with fixed capture positions.
The multiplayer is largely improved from the first game, with the exception of the overpowered smoke grenade issue. That is something that can be rather irritating. One change that Epic felt was for the better but has players divided is the toning down, or ''nerfing,'' of the shotgun's power. The Hammerburst was improved as well. It now shoots a single, powerful round at a time, and can zoom in slightly. The absolute biggest addition to Gears 2, however, is the Horde mode.
Horde mode is fun.
Horde mode is a co-operative survival mode (that can also be played solo) which takes place over 10 different maps. It consists of the player(s) taking on wave after wave of enemies (which increase in difficulty after each wave) and receiving performance analysis in the form of a numerical score, which are tied in to a set of achievements. This mode is an absolute blast, and really boils the multiplayer aspect of Gears down to its bare elements. Getting a group together, forming strategies, setting up a perimeter, manning turrets and heavy weapons, planting grenades while your sniper covers you all from afar, digging in, and then spending the next few hours blasting away at wave after wave of Locusts, which grow tougher and tougher each wave is immeasurably fun. It's easily the best part of the multiplayer package, and could quite easily be considered to be the best part of the package, period.
Graphically, this game is simply astounding, at least on a technical level. There may be contention based upon the art style, which can best be described and drab and gritty (seriously, the colour palette seems to include brown, black and grey, and nothing else) but on a technical level, this game is easily one of the best looking on the console. If the graphics, on a technical level, had to be summed up in one word, that word would be detail. The character models are big, thick, fully detailed, and larger than life. The polygon count looks to be though the roof. Ditto for the environments, which, along with everything else, also feature high resolution textures and no visible jaggies or other flaws. The art style, as drab as some people may accuse it of being, serves to lend the game a really gritty, realistic look, which lends the game a very impressive overall aesthetic, displeasing to some though it may be.
Also rounding out the impressive presentation is the excellent sound design and musical score. The score changes, depending on the action taking lace onscreen, punctuating the action with punchy, military themed music, and guiding along the slower, more tense moments with sounds that propel you forward, drawing you in deeper, but carrying with it a sense that anything could be lurking around the next corner. The Locusts' voices are sufficiently menacing and alien, really adding to the atmosphere and the feeling that you truly are fighting an alien force. The weapons sound great, and have a decent amount of kick to them. The sounds of heads exploding and chainsaws revving are very intense. All in all, from a presentation perspective, the game is spot on in terms of visuals and sound, but lacking when it comes to story.
So, Gears of War 2 is a great looking and sounding, fun, brutal, and visceral experience The game has challenge for those who seek it, and everything works beautifully on a technical level. The co-op is now drop in/drop out, there are some innovative gameplay modes on tap, as well as the incredibly high fidelity visuals. There are some very cool set piece moments present in the campaign, the enemy design is quite cool and sufficiently menacing, and the weapons available for use, including a few memorable additions, are well rounded and diverse. The multiplayer was mostly improved, and the Horde mode is an addition so great Epic Games could have just sold that alone for the sixty dollars.
That all being said, there remain some problems. There were the aforementioned control related issues related to the on rails sections, as well as the smoke grenade issue and the spotty campaign pacing. The campaign is also shorter than the one found in Gears of War, although it still clocks in a a respectable 8 or so hours. Similarly to the first game, as previously mentioned, the core gameplay mechanic, namely, the cover system, can become tedious and repetitive after a time, and as mentioned earlier, the battles get predictable both in terms of when they happen and how they play out. This may not be quite as true in the sequel as it was in the original, with the increase in enemy tactics and the vehicle and on rail sections, but it's still an issue. The combat never ceases to be fun, mind you, and the vehicle sections and few boss fights do help to alleviate some of the tedium, but it's still undeniably there. Sure to be experienced differently by different gamers, there does exists some element of repetition and predictability in Gears of War 2.
There also, however, exists a very large amount of fun, astounding visuals and sound, a fully fleshed out multiplayer, an improved co-operative system, and the excellent Horde mode. The overall package is bursting with quality content, essentially, despite the few issues. Basically, the game is pretty well polished, and improves on an already high quality base.