Saturday, March 23, 2024

Reasons Why Gears of War 2 Isn’t Great, Merely Good

Some might probe this to be a complete fanboy article, finding error with a game some regard the epitome of perfection. The original Gears of War defined a generation of shooters to come by perfecting the mechanic conceptualized and coded by Namco’s “Kill.switch”, a generation ago plus the visual aura the game spread lunged everyone into a justifiable hyperbole as Killzone 2 does today. Creating sequels is a rather vicious cycle, for there are so many changes that need to be put into place whilst keeping the core basic gameplay intact.

Gears of War Lancer

Epic has done a rather exceptional job in crafting out a sequel but managed to stray away from numerous instances that managed to make the original such a deeply satisfying and riveting. Its perhaps follows the nature of a trilogy wherein the second one tries hard to progress with everything but since there is just too much to deal, it leaves players often unsatisfied and unfulfilled at the end.

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This however does not conclude by saying that Gears Of War 2 is a bad or an average game. It definitely requires space on your Xbox 360 shelf for it is a really good game, but its insanity rests too much on hype that Microsoft excels in dishing out when it comes to their prized exclusives.

The game’s pace has some how been altered with the notion of creating a really big battlefield. Fenix and company thus send a lot of time traversing from one place to another, with a reduced intensity of battles. Often during the game the player is required to be strut from one beacon point to another, with a sporadic firefight interrupting the entire experience.

The tactical advantage of the cover mechanic seems to have been exploited too much for the number of enemies far fewer in comparison to the cover layout in a map. A player can comfortably win a firefight even if he is miles away from the enemy with the assistance of a sniper rifle or the new zoom mode introduced with the Hammerburst.

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The only situation when Gears Of War 2 actually feels like a bloody, gruesome, grim war for survival is during the last act of the game, when the enemy onslaught is at its maximum best. This is perhaps the only contour where both the terms “Destroyed Beauty” and “running for cover” acquire consistency. This area of battle should have been exploited further to create a sense of helplessness and chaos throughout the entire game.

The original Gears managed to convey this sense of scale a lot, since the entire game was crafted within a smaller framework it was possible to have close and rigorous firefights. The intensity of war may have been increased with the entire locust sink blowing snort right into the players face but the effectiveness of a battle has been significantly reduced.

The improved scale also renders quite a number of weapons useless, the Torque Bow, the Boltok pistol and Gnasher find themselves a little redundant

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Missing enemies is another factor of minor concern from the game, although it is believed the Berserker and the Kryll population was obliterated when the first lightmass struck the Locust. Their omission is felt through the game. The Berserker is perhaps the first instance in the original Gears Of War which showcase the might and power of the Locust fleet. Players had great joy in luring the blind b@#$ out in the open and frying her to pieces with the Hammer of Dawn.

Even the kryll infested areas sans the vehicular segment were pretty entertaining. These omissions have been replaced with a barrage of Boomer enhanced locust. The most obnoxious of which is the Mauler, these are slow and obtrusively ridiculous creatures that can be defeated by merely lobbying a grenade at their feet. Their “Boomshield” is another ineffective weapon in the campaign, it rarely helps player in combat, since almost everything in the game can be used for cover, its utilization is at its minimum best.

The flame equipped Boomers are even more of a klutz with their flame equipped tanks, the flamethrower as is not the best of weapons in a large war Gears 2 is trying to portray and “The Flamer” make it more desperate whilst trying to flame their miles afar.

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The occurrence of the Boom shot wielding boomers has thus been significantly reduced who were harder to take down in the original Gears.

The level design has also changed given the nature of the story, a good 75% of the game is spent indoors cooped up against a color palette that gets monotonous after a point in time. The sections meeting the queen should have been significantly reduced in favor of an open ended environment found in the first and last bits of the game.

Fenix’s squad seem to be the only one not fighting the war but investigating into the horde’s activities, and hence their quest remains underground completely oblivious to the actual war that thrives fought by the COG’s. The Riftworm is perhaps the worst levels witnessed this year so far not only is the entire act boring and obsolete, it is ridiculous to move around in circles inside its body and saw its heart out.

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This is the level which destroys the maturity of the shooter and places it in line with any other regular cCartoon show on the planet, where the protagonist of the show gets shrunk and is swallowed by a giant.

The epic portions of the game also somehow feel incomplete, the battle with Skorge, the Brumak taking on the Corpser, the Centaur tank blasting three Corpsers, killing Brumaks using Mortars, the hydra chase and the underwater beast, none of the portions feel as emulsified as they should have, they merely tease the player with a lot and end up delivering a little.

Milking COG’s has proved pretty fruitful for the locust holed up in the corners of the Epic studio and the sales figures pretty much prove that, but it is hard to overlook such inconsistencies for a sequel and ponder whether Gears could have been the game it is had it not been for Microsoft.

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