Gears of War 2 to Feature Linked Achievements, Providing Bonuses to Veterans

At a special Xbox 360 panel at this week's Comic-Con, Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski (aka 'Cliffy B') made several interesting announcements about his company's upcoming game Gears of War 2.

According to kotaku.com, Bleszinski announced that the orchestral score to Gears of War 2 will be written by famed Hollywood composer Steve Jablonsky. Jablonsky, previously responsible for the soundtracks to such films as Transformers, The Island, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is currently working on the final mix at George Lucas' Skywalker Studios.

Bleszinski also announced that Gears of War 2 will feature what he calls "linked achievements." These "linked achievements" provide unlockable content in Gears of War 2 for those who have accomplished specific tasks in the original Gears of War.

Bleszinski provided three examples of linked achievements (possible spoilers for those who haven't completed Gears of War):

Gamers who complete Act One in Gears of War can unlock a playable Anthony Carmine in Gears of War 2.

Gamers who find 10 COG tags in Gears of War will unlock Minh Young Kim in
Gears of War 2.

Those who kill Raam in Gears of War unlock a playable Raam in Gears of War 2.

Bleszinski didn't go into much more detail about the linked achievements, so it's unclear whether the unlockables will be usable in singleplayer, multiplayer, or both. It seems impractical to have so many characters playable in singleplayer though, so if I had to guess I'd say they're going to be multiplayer only.

These linked achievements are a fantastic idea and I hope that other developers take notice and perhaps add something similar to their games.

It's a win-win situation for gamers and for the developers. Gamers get rewarded for their loyalty to a series and persistence in completing certain aspects while developers get increased gamer loyalty and a system that encourages those who may not have completed the first game to go back and do so. It may also encourage those who have yet to do so to purchase Gears of War in order to unlock bonuses before they begin Gears of War 2.

It's also nice to see achievements that actually provide some form of in-game bonus for completion. Achievements are addictive now, certainly, but imagine knowing that completing them will not only increase your gamerscore, but also provide you with a unique weapon or character to use in the sequel. It's certainly motivation enough to persevere and earn even the more difficult achievements. I never found all of the COG tags in Gears of War, but if doing so will garner me some impressive new weapon for Gears of War 2, I'm certainly willing to play back through the original game in order to unlock it.

Call me a completionist, but I know I'm not alone in my excitement for the future of these linked achievements.

Gears of War 2 is set to release this November.