I was considering not doing a review for Gears 2, but, who am I to not do whatever a lovely lass asks of me? (^_^) So, I've decided to do a written review for Gears of War 2, as opposed to a video review, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I've got enough vids planned that I still have not done. Secondly, I still don't have a way of capturing video for doing these reviews and I can not believe that people want to sit and watch me blather on about a game without seeing even a second of gameplay footage, so, I'll just do a written review and hope people are okay with reading it, haha. This is very long, and I've probably forgotten to mention something despite reading over it a couple times to double check. And away we go.
---Story
It's been six months since the Lightmass Bomb was set off underground and the Locust Horde have returned with a vengeance. Somehow they've found a way to sink entire cities and the last bastion for human civilization, Jacinto, is under threat. In the hopes of saving their city, the COG is striking back at the heart by sending soldiers directly underground to fight back against the Horde.
The writing still takes a back seat to the gameplay, much like with the first Gears of War, but it's clearly stronger this time around. Which I feel is attributable to the inclusion of Joshua Ortega in the writing process. While still weak in certain aspects, particularly with some lines of dialogue, it has one of the most emotional, heart-breaking scenes I've seen in a vidgame thus far. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but the people who've played the game know what I'm talking about.
But let's be honest with ourselves, the majority of people who play a Gears game don't come to it for the story and I don't think it's really envisioned by the people working on it as a story-driven game, so we'll move on.
---Controls & Gameplay
If you've played Gears 1, you've got the controls for Gears 2 down already. For the sake of the review, though, I'll run through the controls.
Right trigger fires your weapon
Left trigger allows you to aim your weapon.
Right button reloads.
Left button shows your Tac/Com to check position and status of your team and your current
objectives.
Left stick controls your movement.
Right stick controls the camera.
D-pad chooses your weapons.
Pressing A puts you into cover or makes you dive in the direction indicated by the left stick. Holding A makes you roadie run. Pressing A near a downed enemy will pick them up as a meatshield.
B melees, revs the chainsaw if held while the Lancer is equipped, or sticks grenades to walls or people if grenades are equipped. Pressing B near a downed enemy while a special execution weapon is equipped with perform a specific execution.
X is your general interaction button: grabbing ammo and guns, kicking open doors, pressing buttons, etc. Pressing X near a downed enemy with curb stomp them.
Y shows you points of interest, which are generally prompted on the bottom of the screen anyway. Pressing Y near a downed enemy will perform a three-punch beatdown, unless a special execution weapon is equipped.
Start brings up the options menu.
Back skips cutscenes and shows the Leaderboard during multiplayer matches.
First of all, let's get the minor changes out of the way first. The roadie run is a bit slower, the clip sizes are different, smoke grenades now stun nearby enemies when they detonate, and the cover mechanic is improved slightly. I still have the occasional issue where it won't let me into cover when someone else is already attached to it or it'll drag me across to cover I'm not even near when what I wanted to do was dodge aside, but these things don't happen as often. Other than that, it works much the same, which is to say, great.
But, there have been several new weapons added, including the Scorcher flamethrower and mortars, as well as an Ink grenade that expels a cloud of poison. Speaking of grenades, there's also a new way to deploy grenades as proximity mines. Simply meleeing a wall while you have the grenade equipped will accomplish this phenomenally useful feat.
And let's not forget the new executions. No longer is it the same old curb stomp with X if you want to really take out an enemy. Now there are 11 different executions with a variety of weapons. For instance, pressing Y while you have the Torque Bow equipped will have your character place the opponents neck against the Torque Bow blade then kick the back of his head while simultaneously pulling back on the Bow, effectively decapitating your enemy. It is delightfully violent.
Yet another new thing added to the gameplay are several new enemies, such as the Grinder, which is a huge Locust walking around with a Mulcher, and the Mauler, which is another huge Locust, but with a large shield that will deflect the majority of your shots and a morningstar with quite the reach. It's not all large Locust, though, there has been a much smaller, though no less deadly, enemy added to the roster. That's the Ticker, which is a living land mine that will race at you then explode.
And finally, there are several vehicles portions of the game where you get to drive a Centaur (which is a COG tank), a Reaver, and even a Brumak.
---Graphics
The graphics are improved, though to my unprofessional eye it doesn't appear to be by much. But, it is there... seriously, I'm not the guy to ever ask about graphics. >_> I know whether it looks good or does not look good, and that's as much as I know. There is an issue, though, where sometimes the textures take a few extra seconds to load, and you see a very smooth, glass-like world, but that's mostly amusing. XD
One thing of note as far as the graphics is the completely altered character model of Anya. Her hair color, facial shape, body shape, it's all different, which took some getting used to for me, even though you only see her once in the first Gears. And I wish someone could explain to me why they decided to make the change.
---Music & Sound
The sound work is really, really good. Every bone-snapping, blood-splattering, body-mutilating noise is done to perfection. One complaint, though. When you're walking through the remains of a mutilated enemy, it's unnecessarily noisy. Like, I may kick aside a chunk of meat and it'll sound like I jumped directly on top of a pile of raw meat, it's ridiculous and annoys the hell out of me to the point where I will actively try to avoid walking over it.
The voice-acting is superb, despite some dodgy writing for the dialogue in a few places. And with the story being what it is, it's nice to hear a better range of emotions from the characters, not just "GRRR, KILL 'EM ALL! I'M ANGRY! I SHOOT TESTOSTERONE DIRECTLY INTO MY TESTICLES THREE TIMES A DAY; BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER, BITCHES!"
I'm also pleased to hear the score play a better range, as well. The score was nice in Gears 1, don't get me wrong. It enhanced the experience, or at the very least did not detract from it. But in Gears 2 I feel it's more memorable, more powerful, and plays a larger part in conveying the emotions played in the voices of the actors. As an aside, if you purchase the Limited Edition, there are parts of the score you can listen to included on the Bonus DVD, it's quite a nice feature.
---Multiplayer & Replayability
Ohhh, the multiplayer for a Gears game. Some people may recall that I dislike the competitive multiplayer for Gears of War, so if you love it and you're gonna get upset 'cause I'm gonna bash it, skip on down, brother or sister. The weapons are ridiculous, I fucking hate the shotgun and often enough refer to it as "Gears of Shotgun" while I'm playing the competitive multiplayer. Also, the way in which the lobby was set up annoyed the piss out of me. I couldn't just invite a friend to play a match with me, we had to try to find each other. "Look for this game type on this map", and gods help you if your rankings were too different, you'd never find each other. Then there was the issue with people coming in and insisting on being on the hosts team because they believe there's some host advantage, which there isn't, so you'd generally not even be able to join your friend's team.
Thankfully, half of that has been changed. The shotgun is still ever-present and I hate it, not to mention the Hammer of Dawn, seriously? But, the lobby has been drastically altered, thankfully. You enter the multiplayer lobby, choose your playlist (which I'll get to in a minute), and then start searching for a team or invite a friend or four then start searching for a team. Either way, you'll find any random players you need to fill your team of five, then start searching for another team to play against. Squee! No waiting and hoping for enough people to join the room so the host can start it!
However, you can not search within a specific gametype to play. Instead, you choose a playlist, which has at least three gametypes to choose from. Two are chosen at random, and then the 10 people present vote on what gametype they'd like to play. If there's a tie vote, one of the remaining gametypes in the list is chosen instead. The only exception to this is Wingman, which as its own playlist. And the same goes for the maps, two are randomly chosen and then voted on, if there's a tie, one of the remaining maps is chosen at random.
To finish up with the competitive multiplayer, there are two new gametypes: Wingman and Submission, a.k.a., Meatflag.
Wingman is basically a clusterfuck. There are five teams of two all gunning for each other, and with the limited spawnpoints on the maps, there is always someone not far from you as soon as you spawn. And hiding will do you know good, you pansies! You don't win merely by surviving, it's the first team to 15 points, and it's one point per kill with a bonus point if your team survives the round. So, you can theoretically survive every round and still lose the match. Personally, I don't like this gametype at all, but it is exactly as it was described and intended to be, so well done, Epic Games.
Submission, on the other hand, I do enjoy. It's your basic capture the flag with a twist: the flag fights back with a shotgun. And talks shit constantly. XD The meatflag's always terribly amusing to listen to. And that's it. Down the meatflag, pick the meatflag up, get him to the capture point and remain in the ring with him a few seconds to capture him.
Moving on to the cooperative multiplayer, which I enjoy far more. The campaign can, of course, be played entirely in co-op and is much, much better when played with a friend, either locally or over Xbox Live.
The new addition to the cooperative multiplayer, however, is the Horde mode. It's you and up to four of your friends against 50 waves of the Locust. Waves 1-10 feature increasingly difficult Locust, and after every tenth level one of three stat multipliers for the Locust, Accuracy, Health, and damage, is increased and the waves restart with the weakest Locust again. It's an extremely addictive mode to play, and a lot of fun to play with your friends.
Whew, this is a hella long review. Okay, so, replayability. I'd say it's extremely high. Horde is just wicked fun, so I imagine people will be playing that again and again. And if Achievements are important to you, you're gonna need 100,000 kills over all the different modes of gameplay, including the campaign, to get Seriously 2.0. So, you'll have to play the game a lot to get that, haha, I got the game the morning it came out and I haven't even reached 5,000 yet.
---Negatives
There's not much negative about this game for me, and certainly nothing I haven't already mentioned, but, I'll reiterate. Though I like it better, the competitive multiplayer is still very frustrating and annoying and there are a few dodgy lines of dialogue, as far as the writing is concerned. It's still a very short game, but it is longer than the first game. Also, it's not really a negative, but certainly not a positive, but where in the hell did the Berserkers go? They're only passingly mentioned with one of the Collectibles and that is all. Strange. Oh, only other thing that's kind of a letdown is the end. It lacks the punch and sense of accomplishment that the fight with General Raam had in the first Gears. It kind o' just... ends.
---Positives
Everything else! I love that there's more of a real story present and the game's just fun as hell to play. And there's a whole slew of additions to the game that make it even better than the first, from weapons to gametypes to enemies. Plus, I'll never get tired of hearing Dom say "Runnin' away won't help! I'll just shoot you in your asses!"
---Final summation
Purchase this game. Unless you don't like games with a lot of blood and violence. If that's the case, you should definitely pass on this one. >_> Or buy it and turn off all the gore and foul language in the options!
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1 comment:
Great review Sir.
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