Xbox 360 Game News, Reviews, and Columns - XboxFocus

Gears of War 2 Multiplayer Thoughts

by Steve Wysowski May 26th 2008 1:57 AM CDT12 Comments

Gears of War 2 articles have been dominating my column lately, and I know some of you guys may be getting a bit sick of it, but what am I going to do? It's just how the cookie has been crumblin' lately, and with the recent leak of information regarding the game's multiplayer it only seems necessary to chime in with my opinions. What has been taken from the magazine isn't too detailed, but a lot of information has trickled in. I've jotted down ten or so points about what I've seen thus far, and I'm getting pretty damned excited for this game. Be warned though: love, hate, fears, and a crap load of congestion (my nostrils feel like they just got raped by this bug I've come down with) awaits all who enter.

Oh, and I've scattered some high-res scans of Gears 2 from the magazine all across the article for your viewing pleasure. Aren't I the best Xbox Guy of all time?

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The real glaring change that has been made is the addition of two more players to all of the game's modes. I have some mix reactions to this; I was at one point a Gears of War pro gamer, and to be perfectly honest, I loved the 4v4 play the original introduced us to. It emphasized strict, team-oriented play, and required far more srategic planning than most shooters ever would. Such tactics like double lancering, mixed shotgun, and power weapon positioning worked very well with most of Gears' less than ordinary features (like the fact that it takes around 4000 clips to bring down one bastard to his knees).

I'm fearing that adding two more players may drastically affect the gameplay that I have become so in love with, but it may wind up adding even more strategy. It will definitely work better when I'm playing a ranked match by myself; as there will be more people to kill (be afraid, be very, very afraid). Should be interesting to see how it works out in the end, and if I wind up not liking 5v5 action, I can always give the extra two players a good kickin'.


One of my biggest gripes with the last Gears of War multiplayer was how half-assed the match system was. Cliffy B openly admitted that the entire multiplayer interface was actually scrapped together last minute, and he even planned for it to be done away with entirely at one point. Originally, to play ranked matches with a friend (notice how I say friend, not friends) you'd have to actually go into a private chat, get your settings in accordance, search through a list of maps and player totals, and then pray to God that you joined the right match. Not the most effective of manners to go about it.


With the extra time at their disposal, Epic has given Gears of War 2 a full-fledged matchmaking system, which if pulled off correctly, will be frickin' amazing. It may be limited in terms of quantity due to the 5v5 action, but it has to be better than that hunk of crap we were force fed in the last game. Plus, I'm pretty sure Epic and Microsoft have picked up a few tricks after Halo 3.

To say Gears of War was limited in its amount of modes is like saying Nintendo is limited in their amount of quality third party games. Two of them were practically alike, and one of them (Assassination) downright sucked. Luckily for Gears, Execution and Warzone were so enjoyable that one could play them for a couple of months and not get bored at all (or maybe it was just the chainsaws, not sure).

Gears of War 2 is promising us a large amount of new modes (including ones with respawns for all those who just couldn't comprehend why there wasn't a standard Deathmatch in the last game), and the magazine revealed a few of them. One called "Guardian" is a revamp of Assassination, which is one of the new modes that will allow respawns. I was a huge Assassination hater, as it seemed kind of redundant that a mode focused so heavily on pawns protecting a more important player did not allow the pawns to respawn. Now, in Guardian you will be able to do so, and that may render Guardian as a game mode worth playing. Another mode entitled "Wingman" has been added to shuffle too, which allows you to partner up with a friend for some five team 2v2 action. Sounds interesting, but I have to see it work with the game's maps first; as I'd imagine they were imagine for 5v5 matches.


The last mode discussed was "Meat Shield", which involves some computer A.I. and some use of the meat shield mechanic we've all been drooling over the past few weeks. It's basically Capture the Flag with the demented Gears of War twist that you'd expect. Instead of a flag, you're going to have to drag a computer controlled pawn across the map to your base where you then quickly execute the bitch. I've always been very weary towards any computer A.I. being mixed in with two teams (A.I. isn't too reliable from a competitive stance), but we'll have too see how it turns out.

Some maps were also given some quick previews, but it would be unfair for me to comment on details about maps without getting my hands on the actual game. However, I did see one thing I liked. Apparently a remake of Gridlock has been made, except some vegetation and lighting effects have been added to make it look a whole lot prettier. Gears of War one was a gorgeous game, except it looked like one of those World War 2 battle clips from 40s. The fact that Epic has finally decided to add some color to Gears satisfies one of my biggest gripes with the last game, and it's good to see Epic follow up the colorful gameplay trailer with this bit of news.

Gears of War's curbstomp may have brought back dreadful memories (or awesome ones, if you're a rascist prick) from the movie American History X, but for those who've never seen that movie, it was one hillarious execution. While it was not the best thing to use in competitive play (if you curbstomped someone in the middle of gunfire, you really deserved to get chainsawed), it was still great to use as an occasional finisher to end a round, or to show some off in a secluded area. However, curbstomping soon got boring for me, quite faster than the chainsaw did.


That is why Epic has brung some new animations to complement the curbstomp; which will hopefully add some gut-busting variety to the game. How sweet is it going to be to finish people off with a nice punch to the skull, or being able to club someone's head off with the Longshot. And since this is Gears of War 2 we're talking about, you can pick up an opponent for meatshield use as well. Ka-ching!

Gears of War came loaded with a lot of great weapons (the Lancer deserves video game weapon Hall of Fame status immediately....yes I know one), and its great to see that Epic will be adding some fresh ones into the mix as the leaks have revealed to us. What has become a predictable trend in shooters of late is the addition of flamethrowers, and while some suck (*cough* Halo 3 *cough*), some are pretty damn fun to use. Hopefully, Gears 2 will fall into the category of the latter. Cliffy B is promising us the most realistic fire of all-time here, which definitely doesn't raise any expectations at all (sarcasm FTW). Also, a super shotgun called the "Medusa" has been added. Hmm, I thought they already had an overly powerful shotgun in Gears of War; I believe it was called "the host".

The hammerburst that got everyone creaming their pants last week was also detailed a bit. You have the option of either pressing the trigger individually as before, or holding down the trigger in an overwhelming burst of death. The latter comes with some inaccuracy though, and we'll have to see if it winds up being worth all the excitement it has received. Grenades have also been spiced up this time around. Regular grenades can now stick to everything, smoke grenades now can stun people, and a new poison grenade has been added which will kill all who walk into its purple cloud of death. Each can easily some depth to competitive play, and I look foward to making use of each one. The poisonous 'nade will undoubtedly give the "is it a spider?" achievement a whole new spin.

Did anyone else notice Dom and Carmine just chilling in the background of the gameplay reveal's chainsaw duel? They just stood there, watching the duel go on as if shooting the locust battling Marcus was battling would have no real effect on the outomce. Hey, I understand them though: who wouldn't mind watching a good chainsaw duel after a hard day of shooting up huge ass monsters?


While that's all fine and dandy for those two, the good news is that in the actual multiplayer, shooting you're enemies while in duels will give the advantage to your teammate. Also, chainsaw duels will be a lot quicker than the announcement trailer would have you imagine. They will actually be less than two seconds long, including the death animation. That is far quicker the overexaggerated chainsaw animation of past, which seemingly lasted forever.

Apparently, standard gun shields will be made available to players at all times. It's good to see you're going to have more shields at your disposal than just your fleshy enemies' flailing bodies. Only drawback is that you will only be able to use your pistol while shielded, which is perfectly fine for me as certified pistol-whore. I personally like this, as I think this will lead to more people learning how to use the pistol properly. Hopefully that will result in some more weapon variety than seen in Gears 1, as it did kind of suck when a game boiled down to being a shotgun fiesta.

Halo 3's theatre is one of the few reasons why I found the game's multiplayer semi-lasting. Uploading my best killstreaks, sharing them with friends, and viewing some insane ones created by others made my Halo 3 lifespan last much longer than it should. Epic is following the trend set by Bungie with their "Ghost Cam", which will allow players to take screenshots of the game as the game goes on. I don't really understand why Epic is stopping at screenshots, and I hope they announce recordable videos as well. I mean, what's the most you can show off in a single screenshot anyway? Showing your friends a picture of someone's head exploding or you getting a nice chainsaw isn't that rewarding for yourself in reality. Plus, you'll probably come off as a jackass to your friend since you would basically be wasting his time.


So that's pretty much it. Gears of War 2 is reportedly 65% complete and I'm at least 120% hyped up for this game (even though I really, really, don't want to be). I'm loving most of the changes that have been made known to us, but it's still hard for me to make a strong, valid opinion without actually getting my hands on the game. However, I can at least admit that as I read over each of the leaks, my heart rate was jacked (which definitely isn't good for my damned diabetes), and the six month wait 'til November might as well be a thousand because it feels so far away. To get a more physical idea of my excitement; here is my facial expression when the multiplayer info was revealed: