Who says you can't be productive at an E3 party where the drinks flow freely and the noise level punctures your eardrums? After aggressively angling for a bit of sit-down time with the multiplayer mode in Gears of War 2 at the after hours E3 party, there's plenty to report.
Feel the burn!
Sweet, Fancy Game Types
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, the star of the night was undoubtedly the new game modes.
* Wingman: As a longtime multiplayer fan of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell®, I'm a huge proponent of two-man teams, and Wingman provides just that as you buddy up with a single partner to take on up to four other teams.
* Submission: Though similar in spirit to classic Capture the Flag modes, Submission takes a turn for the wild side as the "flag" takes on the role of crazed, violent Stranded that goes toe to toe with anyone from any team that approaches them. Of course, as the name suggests, you must subdue the Stranded (read: shoot them … a lot) and haul them back to your base to win.
* Guardian: Similar to VIP in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas 2, each team is granted a single Guardian. Provided the Guardian on your team is alive, you can die and respawn as much as you want. Once they're eliminated, there's no more reincarnation for you.
* Horde: This newfangled five-man cooperative game type drops you into any of the game's multiplayer matches while tasking you and your buddies with surviving wave after wave of progressively more intense enemies. You're given a short break between each wave, complete with a leaderboard highlighting which players are carrying the bulk of the work.
Five is the Magic Number
After careful consideration, and one can only assume a great deal of fan feedback, Epic has increased the squad limit from four to five for every multiplayer game type save Wingman, and even then ten players are still involved.
It just keeps getting better.
Color and Light
There's no getting around the less than explosive palette of the original Gears of War, and while you won't spot rainbows and pastel scenery anytime soon in Gears of War 2, the sequel certainly brings a much larger range of colors to bear.
This may be directly attributable to the new approach to lighting in GoW 2, which presents the chaos of battle and destroyed beauty of the world more cinematically than realistically. Whatever the case, GoW 2 takes a visual leap that focuses just as much on atmosphere and artistry as it does "bigger, better, and more badass," technology.
Meatshield
We've known from previous trailers and reports that GoW 2 features mobile meatshields in battle, where you grab a collapsed enemy with the A button and march forth with one hand on your "meatshield" and the other on your pistol.
Melee is not the answer.
It's striking just how much this mechanic changes the flow of online multiplayer battles. There's a noticeably faster pace as the classic stop and pop Gears gameplay receives an injection of mobility.
A Word on Chainsaws
The new chainsaw dueling system turns what was once confusing ("We both had our chainsaws revved, why did he win!?") into a strength in Gears of War 2, as suddenly locked blades give way to a frantic, button-mashing race to the kill.
Equally worthy of note for longtime veterans is your lack of immunity during a chainsaw kill. Gone is the frustration of unloading an entire clip of precious Active Reload bullets into an enemy, only to see them survive unharmed as they execute a chainsaw kill.
Executions
The curb-stomp in Gears of War enjoys nearly the same iconic status as death by chainsaw, but Gears of War 2 takes things a gruesome step further with Executions. Rather than press X when near a downed enemy, now you press Y to execute a lengthier, messier death blow.
In true Gears fashion, the only gameplay benefit garnered from these longer, riskier Executions is bragging rights. Dammit though, pouncing on a downed opponent and beating them senseless with a flurry of knuckle sandwiches is all the reward I require.
BattleCamera
At long last your time between spawns can now be spent not only observing the action from the perspective of another player—a major improvement over the original Gears static camera—but you can also utilize the ghost cam to fly through the level to observe the action from any angle you want. You can even take and upload screenshots of the carnage.
If Gears of War delivered a multiplayer shooter the likes of which had never been seen, Gears of War 2 is pulling no punches in aggressively expanding on an already winning formula. From innovative new game types to subtle refinements and bucketloads more gore, it's going to be a long wait until November.
Article by Ryan Treit
Posted By: Devon Marshall
Thursday, November 6th 2008 at 12:35PM
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