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Gears Of War 2 Review

Rick Casillas
The Commuter

Monday, November 24, 2008

(MCT)
(MCT)

Gears of War 2 does what any good sophomoric effort of an excellent series should: It takes the base upon which it is built and makes it grander. You won’t find any groundbreaking changes in the second installment of the testosterone driven thick-necked sequel, instead Epic has spent their time polishing their tried and true formula, pulling back the scope of the experience and showing us war on an epic scale not seen in enough games.

The story picks up after the anti-climactic conclusion of the first game. Marcus and Dom, having just sent the light bomb into the depths of the Locust stronghold, find that they’ve only stirred the nest, with the Locust redoubling their efforts in obliterating humanity through the sinking of their cities. You, of course, being the last hope of mankind, dig downward once again to cut off the head of the Locust horde, killing their queen in a last ditch attempt to prevent the destruction of your remaining city.

While the original Gears of War breached the zenith of an FPS experience on this generation’s consoles in many ways, it did have a single failing in it’s storyline. Convoluted and blurry, the motivations of our characters always felt shallow and confusing. I often found myself turning to my friend on our first pass through and asking him why the hell we were in a creepy old mansion cutting the power to the mineshaft in the first place. Fortunately, the break neck speed and inventive situations we had to tear and shoot our way through proved a suitable distraction, with short term goals tethering me firmly to the tug of an otherwise forgettable narrative.

This time Epic has made a noticeable effort in fleshing out its campaign, providing a slightly clearer objective and a more personal motivation to dredge on through the buckets of Locust blood with Dom’s plight to find his wife. I was worried when I first learned of the softening of my bloodthirsty sidekick, as one of my favorite things about the series has always been the one liner military banter exchanged between the characters. But the desperate search was buyable, and without giving anything away was brought to a heartfelt and genuine conclusion, that only further endeared me to his character’s motivations.

Other favorites made an appearance: Baird’s barely endurable complaining was still a welcome sound, and the Cole train was there in all his glory. In addition to the regular crew, a few new recruits made their way onstage; their presence only enhanced the original cast without detracting from the four man dynamic I had grown accustomed to. You have the wonderfully one dimensional Dizzy, a mechanically inclined southern conscript with a zest for life and the Derrick he pilots, who he affectionately refers to as “Betty.” There’s Tai, a Samoan looking giant of a man who’s serene spiritualist outlook provides a chilling contrast to a plot twist that takes place later on in the game. And finally Carmine, the obligatory rookie who’s wide eyed wonder of our veterans and half hearted battle cries give you a humanistic perspective of how a normal person might react if plopped into such a jarring environment. Epic did a wonderful job of giving each character a role just purposeful enough to step into and
make interesting, without stepping on the toes of our already established troupe.

The build of the environments you sludge through are varied and intricately designed. During your slow descent to the kingdom of the Locust you make your way through spacious caverns, razor hail battered buildings, and chaos inspired architecture. Several times I stopped just to stare at the water effects of rain that splashed and dribbled down dirty windows, or the rivulets of gore that spilled across polished marbled floors. Making full use of the Unreal 3 engine, the detail of the levels was downright awe inspiring, and sometimes disgusting, as a combination of delight and abhorrence crossed my face on more than one blood soaked occasion. The plot moved at a well paced amble set to the backdrop of a soundtrack that surged and lifted with an orchestrated precision alongside tense moments and close escapes, lending itself to the experience. The vastly improved AI of your opponents gave each encounter a unique feel. The Locust have evolved since the first installment, drones work in syncopation with one another, slowly advancing with cover fire and complex tactics unseen before. New ferocious enemies add dimensions to game play altering your approach with every firefight. Like the Kantus, a lither, robe adorned version of Locust, who hang in the back tossing ink grenades and reviving fallen comrades; or Tickers, tiny bloated monstrosities with explosives strapped to their backs that pursue you behind cover. Boomers come in all flavors now, toting everything from grenade launchers, to mini guns, to shields and maces; all varieties of course announcing their job in deep thunderous voices (a practice I would love to see carried out in real life) which you hear while rounding a corner before letting loose a hail of fire on you.

New additions to your arsenal also give you choices in that approach, my favorites being the flamethrower, mortars, and boom shield. The flamethrower, an often overlooked weapon in other games, gets the star treatment in Gears of War 2, nothing snaps your attention faster than seeing a plume of fire pillowing against your tightly packed caravan of players. The boom shield also provides mobile cover, deflecting bullets and guarding your advance while always giving the option of ramming it into the ground to serve as a more permanent fixture. Oh and mortars, the new love of my life. Simplified yet woefully complex in its utilization, this two handed artillery mammoth provides much needed air support, clearing out nests of opposition and raining death from the sky with a well practiced aim. Most of the new weapons avoid the trappings seen in other shooters, where multiple weapons serve the exact same purpose, and in fact features have been added to the old pantheon of killin’ sticks; such as grenades
being used as proximity mines and different unique curb stomping finishers being added depending on what weapon you wield. The difference in the array of armaments is seen most prominently online during multi-player matches, where the focus of your attacks shift and change based off of your inventory.

Seen by most as an afterthought in the first, online matches received a major overhaul eliminating most problems from the previous installment while providing a new spread of appealing options. Grouped up into categories, online matches begin with players voting choices of maps and game modes from a short list. While an option for single modes would have been nice, I do understand this groups the player base better, corralling us all into the same room so game queues are shortened. While all the
classics still have a presence, some new twists on old favorite deathmatch modes show themselves. Submission is at first glance a simple game of capture the flag, until you realize that the flag is an A.I controlled NPC capable of holding his own who must be subdued and dragged forcibly to your base before you can score. Guardian is the traditional slugfest, except one of your players is given leadership and acts as a spawn point as long as they’re kept alive, I witnessed several matches where innovative
teams holed up in corners of the map, defending their V.I.P while probes hunted for the enemies headquarters. But among all these new options, one proved more addicting and rewarding than the rest: Horde mode, which allows up to 5 players to cooperatively survive wave after wave of locust in a vain attempt to reach 50 rounds. The first 20 rounds or so you spend assessing the value of your cohorts, learning their habits and working out a defendable strategy to help you stay alive, and as the difficulty and intensity of the fights become ever more pressing, the value of teamwork and sound division of roles becomes a necessity. Its one fault is that although the enemies become tougher as rounds go on, the types of waves don’t change; every first, eleventh, twenty first and so on round is always complimented by a handful of wretches and a couple of drones. Some variety would have been welcomed, but even that complaint pales in comparison to the enjoyment derived from this fight for your life survival mode.

Despite the high praise I have for this game, it is not without its faults. The epic feel I spoke of earlier is due in large part to vehicle based levels, as a substantial amount of time of the game is spent on the backs of various organic vehicles from the Locust army such as the towering Brumaks, or the squid-like Reavers. Mercifully the levels that force you into the cockpit are as simplistic and easy to maneuver as they are confusing. While the thrill of gunning down legions of troops on the back of one of these beasts is undeniable, making your way through checkpoints relies heavily on just firing blindly and following child like instructions like shooting something in the mouth. The Panzer-Dragoon-esque Reaver chase I found particularly tedious, the landscape whizzing past and enemies quickly darting across the screen were so frustratingly difficult to keep a bead on that I just ended up shooting in wide angled swathes across the landscape, hoping that my co-op partner was faring better than I. Multiplayer also suffered from erratic lag and excessively long wait times where I would sit upward of 5-10 minutes in the lobby, while the game dutifully searched for comparably skilled partners.

Even with these minute blemishes, Gears of War 2 is a standout title, worthy of the accession of its predecessor. It’s rare to find a game that combines pick up and play values with a complex involved undercurrent that only reveals itself through careful observation and patient practice. All in all, the efforts of Epic have paid off, culminating in a satisfying experience that exceeded my expectations and planted itself as yet another shrine to return to in my gaming pilgrimage.

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