A Preview of Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 is the awaited sequel to the original GoW. It is a third-person shooter that is heavily based on co-op multiplayer. In this review we will go over some of the new technology added into this game, and the tweaks that have helped to make it better than the previous.

GoW2 is an exclusive game for the Xbox 360, being developed by Epic Games and published by, of course, Microsoft Game Studios. It will use an extremely updated version of the Unreal Engine 3, enhancing the graphics for this next-generation console.

In the first game, you are baddling baddies named "Locust" which, to me, look like George Bush would if he stayed out in the sun for an extended period of time. They create "emergence holes" that allow them to attack quickly and with stealth. In the sequel, the Locusts have found a way to make these emergence holes that will swallow entire cities. The main character and his team must find ways to combat the Locusts and disassemble plans to destroy the survivors of the human race. Their plan in this game is to drill into the heart of the Locusts and take the fight directly to the center of enemy territory.

Owning the first Gears of War, it's ability to play co-op with a friend has been one of the best experiences I've had in gaming history. The only thing that could make it better would be playing the game on a 50 inch projector. I suppose a 40 inch flatpanel TV does the trick just as well though.

The ability in the first game to duck and cover adds a whole new exciting experience to the war genre. Being able to fire blindly when enemies are racing toward you and a friend. The game even features, as points, a decision technology that allows you to go a few different paths with the click of a button. Most of these paths end up with the cooperative player going the other direction with an AI controlled ally and giving an option for you to help out your friends by being able to take out baddies from another location when they are pinned down.

Another system that is incorporated into it, is the healing feature. When a teammate is injured, they fall to the ground and await someone to come inject them with some kind of healing-agent-that-cures-bullet-wounds-and-makes-you-feel-21-years-old-again.

The second game in this franchise will allow players to experience a deeper story, with twisting plots, new characters, weapons, and enemies. If you've played the first, then there are probably a lot of things that you had wished you could do, some of those will be available in this edition.

In GoW1 there is a gun with a chainsaw incorporated on it. Used for running up and cutting an enemy in half, the sequel will feature around a 3-second "battle" between AI and/or players that will allow button mashing to see who wins the contest. At the end you get a sense of accomplishment in winning a duel against a Locust and sawing them down the middle.

Another feature is the ability to use downed enemies as flesh shields. By picking them up, you can stick it to enemies while their bullets shower into the injured ally. This allows you to progress forward without taking as much damage. Inturn, when a player is downed, they now have the ability to crawl away from an enemy, in the luckiest of events, helping them find cover without being stomped, sawed, of punched to death.

As seen in wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_war_2):

The players can now play in co-op on different levels. "Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual while the 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."

Some small enhancements have been made, such as tweaking the cutscenes. Facial expressions and rendering have been changed to better reflect the emotion in the players or enemies as the cutscenes take place. Sucking you into the gameplay for a bigger connection to the game, and a sort of "epic-movie" feel.

In addition to the tweaks, the grenades now have the ability to be used as mines and placed on walls and floors. Giving you the feeling of trickery/stealth on an opponent who is unknowing. You can also be knocked over by the excessive force that the impact of a grenade has, giving you a wobbly-confused feeling like a grenade has actually been thrown close by.

One of the coolest tweaked features of GoW2 is the multiplayer system. It will raise the bar to include up to 10 players, 5 vs. 5. The creators have also changed up the weapons, modes, and increased the balance-to-player ratio to make the game more fun and accessible to everyone. Three multiplayer modes are announced thus far, including "Guardian", "Wingman", and "Submission".

One of the more geniously planned modes is Submission, which is essentially a game of Capture The Flag using a downed human player instead of a flag. The adrenaline that this system can bring to players seems unbearable to wait for by a lot of gamers around the world.

Up to 5 players can survive in a teamed co-op mode called Horde, where they take on wave after wave of Locusts, while trying to stay alive in the battlefield. The enemies are enhanced through every wave to be more difficult for the players, creating a more team-based gameplay where run-and-gun will not be an option.

Another tweak that the developers have made is a player being slowed down once taking damage by bullets. A big complaint over GoW1 was the fact that people would simply run up and melee a player, killing them, when the opponent was shot upon several times. This balances gameplay a little more by slowing the enemy down after taking multiple shots, plus adding a tad-more realism to the gaming experience.

The games release is set for November of 2008. Only a few months left. In a personal opinion, go out and beat the first GoW before politians ban the gorey blood-and-guts that we've all come to enjoy in a game!