GEARS OF WAR 2 - PAGE 1
LEFT 4 DEAD - PAGE 3

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Gears of War 2
Xbox 360
November 7th - North America

Points of Interest

Campaign- I jumped into the game halfway through the campaign (co-op). I wasn't filled in on the plot points, however the gist was that we (Dom, Marcus and [now dead] Carmine's brother, Carmine) are trapped in a massive Locust cave system, similar to the first Gears game, and are working our way to the surface. Here, we are introduced to Fred. Fred is not Fred's real name, but during our playthrough, we determined that a fourty-foot long cave-berry eating portable-cover-providing rock-worm deserved a name of esteem. Hence, Fred. You shoot glowbes, large, red luminescent berries from the cave roof, and watch as Fred slinks across the floor to feast, leaving you ample opportunity to sit behind his scaly hide and dispose of a few space cock-a-roaches.

For those who want nothing spoiled, don't highlight below.

Mentioning Fred, I also have to mention Fred Senior.

...Fred senior is enormous.

...Fred senior eats fucking cities, or at least tunnels underneath them, caving them in on themselves. First encountering the collossal worm is a jaw dropping moment if ever there was one, watching it plow through tons of rock like funnel cake. God willing, and the creek don't rise, we get to fight this mofo of monstrous proportion, but not having played very far into the game, I can't say with any certainty.
^^^


This isn't an impression on the single player experience as a whole. You get the gist from playing Gears 1, as all in all, it's none too different. This is just a little window into the story present in the little section of the game I got to fiddle about with.

Graphics - Epic has seriously stepped up a notch with UE3. The game, at first glance looks very similar to the original Gears, but one only need look at a side-by-side comparison, or return to playing the original Gears of War to notice the leaps and bounds made in the last two years. Colors are brighter, wet objects look wetter, and meaty objects act like.... well... meat. The draw distance is stunning for a game of this graphical caliber, as evidenced by the stunningly grim vistas found in caverns, and caved-in cityscapes. If the game looks good in screenshots, it's twice as pretty in motion.

On the downside, there were some pretty noticeable framerate discrepancies in my short time with the game. I've only experienced the co-op campaign, but the framerate sure had it's hitches during my playthrough, occasionally chugging at 20 or lower, for seconds at a time, before being brought back up to speed once again. This is, sadly most-likely an issue that will be present in retail copies, and with any luck it's limited to the co-op experience, as it's a shame to see a game so beautifully crafted held back by framerate hiccups.

Multiplayer - The multiplayer in Gears of War 2 remains largely the same, with the addition of a handful of new weapons, and a few more noticeable alterations. The overall experience is much more polished, and better thought out, with a smattering of new weapons (a locust semi-auto primary, a bitchin' new pistol to note two), the much-talked-about meat-sheild feature for downed enemies, and multiple fatality animations. The game is far from a revolutionary leap in multiplayer experience. Epic made a game for their fans, and quite frankly, with a game like Gears of War, that's the way it aught to be. Menus all look pretty, and all serve their purposes effectively and efficiently. The primary gameplay for the bog standard gametypes is very similar to the original, but again, cleaned up and evened out.  All the new weapons have their advantages and disadvantages, making your decision in weaponry more oreinted to personal taste than an internal struggle over which gun actually has the upper hand.

On a less than pleasing note, Epic decided to implement a Halo-style matchmaking system. The details of such a system, I am relatively oblivious to, and while it may have simply been the circumstances in which I played the game, matches and players took minutes rather than seconds to find and join, which in my opinion, is simply inexcusable. Halo 2 (and to a lesser extent 3) was plagued with just such a problem, and while it may be acceptable to some, when I want to play a fast-paced multiplayer game, my overarching emotions aren't that of patience and indifference. Sure, Epic may have located the most ideal opponent for me on the planet, based on complex algorithms and endless pages of behind-the-scenes statistic monitoring, but I'll take being digitally mauled by a twelve-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma if it means getting into my match within the minute.

Horde - It's technically multiplayer, yes, but this chunk of GoW2 clearly deserves it's own section within a section. Take all those hours wasted away playing God of War's Challenge of the Titans mode, bring it about four thousand years up to speed, and give your protagonists fucking chainsaws, and you have some idea as to the sheer epicosity of this gametype. Your mission objective is straightforward: clear-cut survival. You and your friends are placed on a small map, with waves of Locust crashing down on you, slowly increasing in number and difficulty, and it's your job to kill 'em all. For a concept so simple, it's incredibly engaging just to sit there with a friend and blow extra-terrestrial bugs apart with reckless abandon, and thought to strategy or tactic. Like many other wave-based enemy minigames, the higher levels will frustrate you, but then, I suppose it's time to get a few more friends in on the action to lend a helping hand. At any rate, it's easily one of my favorite new additions to the Gears of War series.

I, sadly, was not able to play Submission/Meat Flag mode in my very short time with the game, I didn't see any multiplayer bots (so far as I know) nor was I able to spend lots of time analyzing framerate, hit detection etc. as I normally do with multiplayer impressions, but nonetheless, the overall firsthand experience was immensely satisfying. The game is fanservice, in all the right ways, and you will be hard pressed toflaw them for taking what made Gears good, and making it great.