Game Reviews Index
After seeing a trailer for Gears of War 2 at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference that was so discreet it could have easily been a trailer for Gears of War 1, gamers have had only a few scant details to go on while waiting to see some real action. Last night Epic tossed the throngs of salivating fanboys a nice juicy bone with the first gameplay trailer of the sequel to 2006’s game of the year. We’ve already watched the trailer more than a few times and have compiled some impressions of what we saw.
First, in case you haven’t been scanning the internets day and night to find new details on GoW 2, the basic plot setup is this: the game takes place six months after the ending of the first Gears when the light mass bomb was detonated in the Locust caverns. The blast’s evaporation of all the imulsion fluid (the oil of the Gears universe if you will) caused a health crisis as the last remnants of the human race were engulfed in a disease from the gases known as “rust lung”. But inhaling some toxic fumes isn’t the only problem facing humanity, as the Locusts have built massive sinkholes to destroy the last human strongholds.
Fortunately, our heroes have a few counter measures up their sleeves which involve taking giant Derrick trucks and towing grind lifts to allow their soldiers to ride an express elevator into Locust territory to fight them on their own turf. The trailer takes place in a level called “Assault” on one of these Derrick trucks en route to save a nearby village in a rural forest, unlike the dank urban environments seen in the first game. Throngs of Locust attack the convoy, showing off those hoards of enemies alluded to in the GDC tech demo footage. Seeing so many Locusts on the ground below looks impressive, but Marcus is high enough up in his Derrick truck to make these crowds background eye candy rather than affecting actual gameplay. Hopefully large groups of enemies will play a more interactive role in the full game rather than being a part of the scenery.
A couple of new weapons were also noticeable amidst all the chaos as Marcus and his crew protected the Derrick trucks from Locust trying to dismantle them. A rifle similar in design to the Lancer was shown that fired in bursts rather than being fully automatic. We were hoping for a scope attachment like Halo’s battle rifle for more accuracy but the rate of fire seems to be the only discernable difference from the original Lancer for the time being. Marcus also pulled out an SMG that, when used up close, made short work of any Locusts trying to take over the transport.
From what we saw in the trailer the cover system looked basically the same, but one new function showed that Epic wasn’t kidding when they said you could take advantage of “living” cover. After maiming a Locust, instead of unleashing a skull cracking curb stomp Marcus grabbed the ugly enemy and used it as a human, er Locust shield. When the creature’s corpse was no longer of any use he snapped its neck and tossed the body to the ground. This dynamic may not be anything incredibly new to action games in general, but the possibility of using an opponent in multiplayer as personal cover sounds almost more humiliating than getting torn apart by a chainsaw bayonet.
Speaking of chainsaws, the dueling function that was shown in the teaser trailer made an appearance, with an icon appearing to repeatedly mash the “B” button to bat the enemy’s weapon out of the way and chew through the soft flesh. Another new chainsaw movecan be used on an enemy whose back is turned towards the player, allowing Marcus to flip his Lancer upside down and put the Locust in some desperate need of chiropractic help. We’re sure that these two moves aren’t the only new additions to chainsaw combat, and it’s a safe bet that Epic has some other brutal ways for the player to make use of one of the best melee weapons ever created.
The Brumak that PC gamers got to fight, and 360 players were promised they would one day engage, made an appearance with more than one of the large beasts ramming themselves into the Derrick trucks before being taken down by a nearby tank. Hopefully Epic has more of a role for these incredible monstrosities than one simple boss fight as seen in the PC version of the first Gears, and the developer has promised that even they will not be the most intimidating foe to be found in the final game.
If we had to do some nitpicking about any part of the trailer it would have to be the visuals. While stunning, they don’t really look all that much different from the original game. But then again, the original Gears already looked fantastic, so was there much room for improvement? There were some noticeable differences like brighter lighting and overall sharper character models, so maybe we can’t be too greedy and expect two great graphical leaps in one generation. Regardless of any critical comments one can make about the visuals, they can’t get in the way of the scale of the action which has definitely been increased for Gears of War 2, and we can’t wait to see what other Epic battles are in store this fall.
First, in case you haven’t been scanning the internets day and night to find new details on GoW 2, the basic plot setup is this: the game takes place six months after the ending of the first Gears when the light mass bomb was detonated in the Locust caverns. The blast’s evaporation of all the imulsion fluid (the oil of the Gears universe if you will) caused a health crisis as the last remnants of the human race were engulfed in a disease from the gases known as “rust lung”. But inhaling some toxic fumes isn’t the only problem facing humanity, as the Locusts have built massive sinkholes to destroy the last human strongholds.
Fortunately, our heroes have a few counter measures up their sleeves which involve taking giant Derrick trucks and towing grind lifts to allow their soldiers to ride an express elevator into Locust territory to fight them on their own turf. The trailer takes place in a level called “Assault” on one of these Derrick trucks en route to save a nearby village in a rural forest, unlike the dank urban environments seen in the first game. Throngs of Locust attack the convoy, showing off those hoards of enemies alluded to in the GDC tech demo footage. Seeing so many Locusts on the ground below looks impressive, but Marcus is high enough up in his Derrick truck to make these crowds background eye candy rather than affecting actual gameplay. Hopefully large groups of enemies will play a more interactive role in the full game rather than being a part of the scenery.
A couple of new weapons were also noticeable amidst all the chaos as Marcus and his crew protected the Derrick trucks from Locust trying to dismantle them. A rifle similar in design to the Lancer was shown that fired in bursts rather than being fully automatic. We were hoping for a scope attachment like Halo’s battle rifle for more accuracy but the rate of fire seems to be the only discernable difference from the original Lancer for the time being. Marcus also pulled out an SMG that, when used up close, made short work of any Locusts trying to take over the transport.
From what we saw in the trailer the cover system looked basically the same, but one new function showed that Epic wasn’t kidding when they said you could take advantage of “living” cover. After maiming a Locust, instead of unleashing a skull cracking curb stomp Marcus grabbed the ugly enemy and used it as a human, er Locust shield. When the creature’s corpse was no longer of any use he snapped its neck and tossed the body to the ground. This dynamic may not be anything incredibly new to action games in general, but the possibility of using an opponent in multiplayer as personal cover sounds almost more humiliating than getting torn apart by a chainsaw bayonet.
Speaking of chainsaws, the dueling function that was shown in the teaser trailer made an appearance, with an icon appearing to repeatedly mash the “B” button to bat the enemy’s weapon out of the way and chew through the soft flesh. Another new chainsaw movecan be used on an enemy whose back is turned towards the player, allowing Marcus to flip his Lancer upside down and put the Locust in some desperate need of chiropractic help. We’re sure that these two moves aren’t the only new additions to chainsaw combat, and it’s a safe bet that Epic has some other brutal ways for the player to make use of one of the best melee weapons ever created.
The Brumak that PC gamers got to fight, and 360 players were promised they would one day engage, made an appearance with more than one of the large beasts ramming themselves into the Derrick trucks before being taken down by a nearby tank. Hopefully Epic has more of a role for these incredible monstrosities than one simple boss fight as seen in the PC version of the first Gears, and the developer has promised that even they will not be the most intimidating foe to be found in the final game.
If we had to do some nitpicking about any part of the trailer it would have to be the visuals. While stunning, they don’t really look all that much different from the original game. But then again, the original Gears already looked fantastic, so was there much room for improvement? There were some noticeable differences like brighter lighting and overall sharper character models, so maybe we can’t be too greedy and expect two great graphical leaps in one generation. Regardless of any critical comments one can make about the visuals, they can’t get in the way of the scale of the action which has definitely been increased for Gears of War 2, and we can’t wait to see what other Epic battles are in store this fall.
Prev: 
Next: 
