Anyone who owns an Xbox
360 has played “Gears of
War.”
Whether at a friend’s house
or on their own, no one has
missed out on the amount of
awesome fun that the game
provided. Fans only have to
wait a little longer because
“Gears of War 2” is on the
way.
Gears designer Cliff “Cliffy
B” Bleszinski announced
back in February that “Gears
2” was in development and
was going to be available in
November.
The game finds Delta Squad
from the first game deeply
involved in trying to finish
off the Locust invasion.
Much like the “Matrix
Reloaded” and
“Revolutions,” this is humanity’s
last stand for survival.
The game intended to outdo
what it did in the first
game.
Bleszinski said on
gamespot.com, “There will be
much more blood and gore
than in the first. For example,
if a player is near death, he
will be able to crawl to cover
and as he moves, a blood trail
will appear below him.”
This applies to enemies as
well. A new feature can be
used as “meat shields.” Also
included in this new game are
more methods of killing an
opponent.
“There are things like
punching them while they are
down, using the sniper rifle
as a sledgehammer, or using
the torque bow as an axe,”
said Bleszinski.
The game developers
intended to turn the violence
up a bit. However, there was
a concern the designers were
aware of the difficulty in
play, as well as appeasing
everyone’s expectations.
Senior Producer Rod
Fergusson said, “We overshot
on [the casual] difficulty and
a game that was a little harder
than we intended.”
The game was incredibly
difficult-even for seasoned
players. The first game was
so difficult that the few players
who completed the game
on “insane” mode by themselves
were considered to be
among gods.
To keep this from happening
again, the developers
introduced a level lower than
that of “casual.”
Another really cool feature
that’s being included is the
ability to play co-op on separate
modes.
For example, one person
who wanted to play on “casual”
wouldn’t have to force
someone who wanted a challenge
to play that mode.
Instead, the game will
change to give a player at a
lower difficulty as fair a challenge
as the player at higher
difficulty.
Important to players who
play a lot online are new
maps and new game modes
that have been either added
or modified from the original
“Gears of War.” New modes
like “guardian” are similar to
“assassination.” This is different
from the original “Gears”
and “Horde,” which pits a
team of up to five players to
fight off wave after wave of
Locust soldiers.
Also included is the ability
to play computer-controlled
“bots” in multiplayer.
It was also announced that
there will be two versions of
the game released. There will
be the regular edition which
is just the game. The limited
edition of the game will have
lots of extras including a
SteelBook case with a bonus
content DVD, a book entitled
“Beneath the Surface: An
Inside Look at Gears of War
2,” a keepsake photo the
characters and an exclusive
Xbox Live code to unlock a
gold-plated Lancer rifle for
online play.
It looks like this game is
something those Playstation 3
owners will have to beg their
friends to let them play. If
Epic Games has really
stepped up their game with
this new “Gears,” the company
might break its own sales
records and make people go
out and buy an Xbox 360 just
for the game.