ZarkSeven

Introduction

I played the original Gears of War shortly after I started this website.  I had meant to do a Game Impressions on it back then, but never got around to it.  Gears of War 2 came along and now I’ve played it as well.  So what did I think?  How did it compare to the original?  Read on, grubs! Story

The story of Gears of War 2 picks up where the original left off.  Six months have passed since the detonation of the Lightmass bomb.  The cities of Tollen and Montevado have been sunk into the ground, proof that the Locust were not entirely defeated by the Lightmass bomb.  There are signs that humanity’s last outpost, Jacinto, may be the next target. The COG launch an offensive to go underground and take the fight to the Locust, before it’s too late.

All of the usual suspects are present in Gears of War 2.  Whereas Marcus Fenix took center stage in the original, the story of Dominic Santiago and his lost wife Maria dominate in this one.  Cole Train and Baird provide the usual humor, and even Carmine makes an appearance.  Not the original (and deceased) Anthony Carmine, but this time his brother Benjamin, who follows in his brother’s footsteps in more ways than one.  Several new characters join the story, and one of them, Tai Kalisto, is involved in one of the game’s more memorable scenes.

The story leads you through a nice variety of settings.  City street, abandoned building and underground cave fighting predominates when on foot, and with some of the more varied landscapes like a wintery mountainsides, forest convoy runs and reaver rides relegated to vehicle and scripted events.  I did get the feeling, though, that while playing the “inside the worm” chapter could be come known as the place where Gears of War 2 jumped the shark.  Yes, I said “inside the worm.”

Gameplay

If you played the original, then you know exactly how this game plays, because it’s virtually the same.  The cover system is still the main feature.  I still have a tendency to stick myself unexpectedly to a wall then trying to run from one place to the another.  Might have been nice to have been able to change that as an option. I played completely through the game in both normal difficulty co-op mode as Dom with my good buddy Justin, and hardcore difficulty solo mode as Marcus (obviously).   Playing co-op in games is usually more fun, and this game is no exception.  Dom does a decent job a majority of the time, but there are sections where you would just love to be able to give him specific direction.

The graphics were what you’d expect from a current gen Xbox 360 game.  There were are fair number of graphic glitches, though.  A few really stand out.  In co-op I got stuck in a wall when my partner went through a checkpoint, and had to restart.  In solo, the whole game just froze up on me.  I played it on a newer Elite, and I haven’t had that trouble in other games, so I pretty sure it was Gears-related and not faulty hardware.

Frequent readers know I’m not much into multiplayer, but I did got through the tutorial and play a couple of matches.  It definately seemed well implemented, and I can see where fans of multiplayer would love it.  I didn’t play the popular Horde mode either, in which you play as a co-op team fighting of increasingly difficult waves of Locust.

Extras

Extras are a mixed bag.  Epic Games does a nice job this time around of keeping all your collectibles and achievements summed up in one area.  There is your standard mix of campaign and multiplayer achievements.  For collectibles, instead of gathering COG tags, this time you gather up notes and letters and a variety of things that you can read to expand the story.  I found all 41.  I also managed to unlock every unlockable for a change too, although I am unlikely to use them.  They boil down to unlocking the insane difficulty campaign mode (umm… no), and unlocking 8 characters to use in multiplayer – 5 for finishing the Acts in Gears of War 2, and 3 for having gotten specific achievements in the original Gears of War.

There are a ton of multiplayer modes: Execution, Warzone, King of the Hill, Annex, Guardian, Wingman,  Submission… No I didn’t play any of them, but I’m sure the dewds on IGN or someplace can tell you every detail.  There are numerous maps and downloadable map packs as well.

Spoilers
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There were much more interesting story elements in Gears of War 2.  Tai Kalisto’s unexpected suicide was one.  You sort of knew that the search for Maria was not going to end happily, but it was still rather sad to see it play out, what the Locust did to her and Dom having to end her suffering. Going from trying to save Jacinto from being sunk by the Locust to sinking it yourself was an interesting twist.  Since it was the “last hope,” it makes you wonder where they’ll base a followup game at.  And the “regular Locust” vs “lambent Locust” was sort of interesting too.  I can’t wait too see how that develops.

There was no real explanation that I can recall as to why the Locust were taking people as prisoners.  They showed some humans being forced in work crews, basically digging, which makes little sense given that the Locust can emerge out of holes they make in the ground.  You rescue Baird from capture, but nothing really happened to him.  There was no real indication that this might be cleared up in a future game, unlike some other lingering plot points.

Speaking of… how about that voiceover after the credits from Adam Fenix, Marcus’ dad.  He supposedly died before the first game.  Marcus was thrown in prison for 4 years because he abandoned his duty to try to save his dad.  He was supposedly unsuccessful, and a bunch of people died as a result, and he was thrown in prison.  The reveal that the Locust Queen knew him and was possibly working with him, and then that he may not even be dead, is definitely an interesting setup to a future game.

There was a lot of griping online that the fifth Act was too quick and simple and that the final boss was a joke.  I thought it was fun to ride the Brumack and just mow down things in your path.  And when you are fighting a boss as big in size as the lambent Brumack, it’d be ridiculous to hit it with your Lancer.  They held off on giving you the Hammer of Dawn weapon until the very end, because it’s so powerful, and then rather contriving a way to make it not work for the finale, they let you use it where it makes complete sense.

Comparisons with the original Gears of War

The story of Gears of War 2 is much more well defined.  This is partly due to the fact that the characters are already known, and so their backgrounds, wants and needs can be more easily expanded upon.  The first game was a redemption story for Marcus, while the second is a closure story for Dom.  It’s a little more personal than the standard “fallen hero proves is worth” type that defined the first game.

(As a side note, I also read Gears of War: Aspho Fields, a novel set between the first and second games. Most of the novel, however, told the story of an event that happened way before Emergence Day, during the Pendulum Wars mentioned casually in the games.  It did a decent job at providing some back story for Marcus and Dom, giving a bit of context to the in-game characters, but I wouldn’t call it a “must-read” before playing Gears of War 2.  But if you are interested in the world and the characters, it’s a nice, light read.)

In terms of gameplay, it was definitely refined for the better in Gears of War 2.  The controls are the same, the weapons are mostly the same.  The enemy AI reacts much more realistically, though.  In the original, they were kind of spastic.  They would bounce around in and out of cover for no real reason, and they were much more likely to advance on your position quicker.  In the sequel, they will take cover and fire from behind it.  There are Locust types that will charge at you, and types more likely to stay behind cover.  In a strange way, I thought that made the sequel both a little easier and a little better at the same time.  The friendly AI is better too.  Dom didn’t run out from cover and immediately get himself killed nearly as often as in the first game.  (My co-op partner playing Marcus, well…. *just kidding*)

The graphics are better, as you can see in comparison shots between the two games.  There is still a lot of that boring gray-brown tint to everything, though (more brown, less gray).  This is understandable when you are underground, but the cities… the people of this world must have been pretty drab, boring folk.  No wonder the Locust think they are superior!

With a beefier campaign mode, Gears of War 2 doesn’t feel so much like a multiplayer game with solo play tacked on, like the first one did.  I’m guessing on hardcore mode it took me 14 hours to complete.  By comparison, the original on hardcore took me maybe half that.  More story and more cut scenes contribute to the length, but most of the additional length is action.

A few small side notes:  Gears of War 2 has fewer emergence holes, but more varied action.  There are a couple of new additions like the Boomshield, mortar gun, ink bombs… nice for variety but not make-or-break.

Conclusion

When I finished the original Gears of War campaign mode, I though “Meh.  That’s it??”  I mean, I liked the gameplay, but the solo campaign was short and the graphics were ok if you like gray-brown.  Given that I don’t like multiplayer much, I didn’t feel like the game deserved the glowing praise it was getting.  Praise for sure, but glowing praise?  My less than enthusiastic response was probably why I put off writing up my Game Impressions… I just couldn’t get enthused enough to start.

In prep for Gears of War 2,  tried to immerse myself a little more in the “Gears of War universe.”  As I said, I read the novel that was released a week or two before the game launched.  I picked up the new comic series.  That plus the increased story of the sequel made the game much more enjoyable for me.  I really enjoyed it, enough that I played it once in co-op and once in harder campaign mode.  I still didn’t get my fix.  That meant for Gears of War 2 that I could play it in insane mode, or start multiplayer gaming.  I opted for neither, and instead went back and played the original Gears of War in hardcore campaign mode.  I’d only ever played it in casual co-op.  It helped me gain some perspective on the differences between the two games, and subtle nuances of the story.

Rarely do I play through a game more than once.  In recent memory, I can only think of Tomb Raider Legend as one I played through with multiple difficulty settings.  Granted, solo is a different experience than co-op, but the game’s the same.  So that might be my ultimate compliment to Gears of War 2.  It’s too bad that I seem to really like and finish games like Gears of War 2 which don’t have any additional solo DLC, whereas games I don’t finish like Fable 2 and Fallout 3 (yeah yeah, maybe someday) have extra levels with hours of additional solo play.

In my opinion, Gears of War 2 is among the best FPS games in the console generation, and if you like the genre, you will enjoy it.

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