Gears of War 2

[Synthesthesia]

And it's done it again This sucks big time. Is no one else getting this? I cant play multiplayer or singleplayer, and I can't join my friends games when he's inviting me.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I've been playing this a little bit at a time. Jesus christ its f'ing brilliant, it completly ****s on the first game in every department. CliffyB was right it is Bigger, Badder and More Badass that the first game. I don't want it to end!

[Synthesthesia]

It's reset my stats now. I had 1400 kills towards seriously 2.0 now i have 100. Nice testing there epic. Can't play AND you've reset my stats. Thanks.

[AaronBekir]

Just finished this now on hardcore. One word...... WOW. Too enthrilled to write anything else for now!

Aaron

[RuBiQ]

enjoyed completing Hoarde with Jebus, Jimtendo and co on saturday afternoon, wasnt as hard as i thought it was going to be.


Will make a start on the campaign this week.. 9/10 from me

[Dogg Thang]

Heh, turns out where I left my last checkpoint was just at the end of the game. Finished it on Normal. What? Don't judge me. So... ending discussion. MAJOR SPOILERS so don't read until you've finished.

->Open Spoiler<-

So the last act was mostly excellent. Loved the Brumaker journey. But where was my boss fight? Where was that last climax? In the first, Raam kicked my ass loads of times (even on Casual - yes, casual, don't judge me). But this had no boss fight.

Still, the events leading up to then ending were great and the visuals even more stunning than ever. One thing I'd really like to see them improve are the joins between sections. It happened all the way through the game that you'd get a little cut scene and then get chucked back into the game with no idea what you're looking at. I always had to look behind to see where I had just come from and this was more apparent at the end, falling in the buildings. It made some parts feel disjointed and it looked like it should have been easy to make them seamless. On many of the sections, all it would have taken would have been to start you off a few feet back. Very minor gripe though.

The narrative criticisms are all the more apparent at the very end when it hits you that nothing really paid off. Questions were asked. None were answered. Sure, there will be a sequel but I suspect that they really don't have answers. At least not yet. Making sense of it won't be easy.

What was the point of the lab? It looked like they might be leading up to the humans having created the Locust but went nowhere with it. Wouldn't remotely fit with the ancient architecture we see underground though. Did the Locust build those places? Why did Command send them into the lab then seemingly not care a damn about it? What's the deal with the Lambent? Why did we get a sequence showing their glowy blood crawling up a wall? How did they make the leap that the immulsion would cause an explosion, based on the Wretches, when the main Lambent soldiers didn't explode when killed? Why was the Queen seemingly human? Why did she seem to have such a hard time deciding who she was fighting? Wouldn't crazy 'must search for my wife at the expense of the human race then kill her' Dom have blown Maria's head clean off with that gun? Why no mention of every other person in those cages and no hint of a rescue attempt? What's the deal with Marcus' dad?

And so on.

Yeah, I reckon chances are there are no answers to most of those questions. Did it make the game rubbish? No. It didn't at all. But a lean, strong narrative could have made a great game even greater.

Overall, I loved the single player campaign on this. It wowed me on many occasions and, even though it was no harder in Normal (don't judge me) than the original, it felt more frantic. There was much more adrenalin. The Tickers certainly had a part to play in that but the overall dispersion of the enemy waves often took things up a notch just at the right times. Bigger and better.

I would love them to get the enemy waves feeling a little more natural but Gears actually works well with the system they have. I find myself listening out for that guitar to tell me I can breathe again.

I think I may play through the original again now.

[Plough Boy]

Played a couple of rounds of hoarde with Bletcher tonight before his connection went and then Vanpeebles and I hit the Co-op trail.

2 and a half hours flew by. I had forgotten quite how much I love Gears. Absolutely brilliant.

[huxley]

What a "Bombastic all guns blazing hell of a ride"! Despite my confusion with one part this gets my vote for game of the year.
Congrats to all involved in the production of this fine game.
On to hardcore!

[capcom_suicide]

Im still on my first playthrough, man im loving this, perhaps too much. Must admit I didnt always feel this fuzzy about it though, at first I was a bit underwhelmed by the fact its just Gears 1.5, but after accepting that im loving it, so much so I went hunting for a lancer no luck though...

I'm not feeling it either. I've just arrived

->Open Spoiler<-

underground

. Do things begin to pick up now?

I feel that the game is less tactical so far, and much easier than GOW1. (I'm on Hardcore) & I can't get into it.

Visuals are impressive in many technical ways, but the art direction isn't doing it for me.

Oh well! I'm sure it will pick up.

[Dogg Thang]

You have barely even started, CS. The next little bit from where you're at is pretty samey but then it does kick off considerably.

[merf]

I think I'm only about 2 save points from the end and I'm far preferring this to the first.

Difficulty does seem to ramp up a little in the final act but even an fps spaz like me can make my way thru after a couple of retries.

As somebody who has got fed up with action movies over the last few years this really does feel like it re-energises the format and you are taking part in a great big 80s ball out Arnie/Aliens style film. Doesn't mean I want to see a film of it, I love taking part though.

For me its the closest a game has got to really achieving a cinematic feel and I'm loving it.

[Kubrick]

I feel that the game is less tactical so far, and much easier than GOW1. (I'm on Hardcore) & I can't get into it.

Agreed. There were quite a few parts in the original that were troublesome, but I can only think of one bit in Gears 2 that was as tough. I think its mainly because the AI teammates are a bit too good in this game. They kill too many of the enemies for my liking!

There were many times where I thought I was going to be involved in an epic confrontation lasting several minutes, only for it be finished in seconds with me only shooting 1 or 2 enemies because the AI Gears had shot everyone else.

[Ouenben]

Anyone had problems with their save?

I can't seem to load my save game If I press A to launch the saved game in the load menu it doesn't do anything?

[PrayforMojo]

Anyone had problems with their save?

I can't seem to load my save game If I press A to launch the saved game in the load menu it doesn't do anything?

Yeah, fella. It happened to me. Had a mini heart attack over it. Clearing the cache seemed to sort it out for me.

Agreed. There were quite a few parts in the original that were troublesome, but I can only think of one bit in Gears 2 that was as tough. I think its mainly because the AI teammates are a bit too good in this game. They kill too many of the enemies for my liking!

There were many times where I thought I was going to be involved in an epic confrontation lasting several minutes, only for it be finished in seconds with me only shooting 1 or 2 enemies because the AI Gears had shot everyone else.

One of the most frustrating things for me in the first Gears was Dom constantly running ahead and doing his one man army thing, and then needing reviving again and again and again. It was just a minor annoyance for the most part. You could just leave him to it and clear most areas on your own, but it was a nightmare during the final boss encounter when I could have really done with his help.

That's where I think Gears 2, for the most part, gets things right in the single player. You don't need to constantly babysit your teammates. You can pretty much leave them to it and they can take care of themselves. Of course, the problem now is the AI of your squad is almost too good. It's almost like playing co-op with a real person at times. I even found myself shouting at the tele as if I was playing with a mate - hey, cockknocker, leave some for me, or whatever.

There was quite a clever moment during one part of the game. At least I thought it was. Massive plot spoiler

->Open Spoiler<-

Just after Dom had blew Maria's brains out, we got into a firefight, and understandably Dom went a little berserk and ran off for some payback...and died 10 seconds later. Of course, it might have been pure coincidence, and Dom was just messing up, but I'd like to give Epic the benefit of the doubt and credit them with a cool little character moment.

[rmoxon]

I agree about the friendly A.I. being too good in most places, except for when you actualy do need them, during the pesky gun turret bits, then they dont help at all!.