• Xbox 360 ››
• Action ››
• Gears of War 2

Brutal Legend: Surviving Gears of War 2

• By Sid Shuman
• October 10, 2008 16:51 PM PST
• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us

A shattered city. A mysterious plague. A fleeting hope. Bigger and better are only the beginning Gears of War 2's campaign mode is bloody brilliant. GamePro's Sid Shuman gives his final impressions on the biggest Xbox 360 game of 2008.

Released in 2006, Gears of War became the first bonafide smash hit for the fledgling Xbox 360. It instantly popularized an aggressive new breed of shooter, one in which finding cover and laying down suppressive fire are just as important as shooting straight. With its elaborate graphics, gushing gore, and pin-prick precise combat, Gears of War quickly inspired a wave of similar shooters, inferior though they were.

Now Gears of War 2 is planning a full-scale blitzkrieg on the Xbox 360 this fall, and I got an exclusive opportunity to play through the first of five acts. And I'm happy to report that what I played was astounding.

"Welcome to Delta"

The original Gears of War was like one of those breezy summer blockbuster movies, the kind where you throw all logic to the wind, kick your feet up, and enjoy the goofy ride. But storyline and atmosphere take a more central, serious role in Gears of War 2. "We did good with gameplay in the first game," design director Cliff Bleszinksi reminisced to me, "but we didn't go far into the narrative. We didn't even have an opening cinema!" With the extra development time since the release of the first game, Bleszinksi and his team refined and rethought their storytelling techniques with Gears of War 2, and the result is a darker, more urgent tale that keeps your blood pumping in between the hectic shootouts.

Even in the first moments of Gears of War 2, a cloud of uncertainty hangs in the air. The opening scenes highlight the increasing desperation of the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COGs), a ramshackle collection of human survivors faced with impossible odds. The threat lies below, in the form of subterranean terrors called the Locust Horde. The opening cinemas replay the final moments of the original game, with the Lightmass bomb detonating underground and exterminating untold millions of Locust in a key victory for the COG.

Now the Locust, licking their wounds in their subterranean strongholds, have decided to strike back. And this time, they're fighting dirty. The Locust have begun devouring entire human cities at once, sucking them into enormous sinkholes from below. Only the city of Jacinto, safely nestled on a pillar of solid granite, remains intact. But Jacinto's days, too, may be numbered. The COG's fleeting victory against the Locust has proven to be more of a curse than a blessing: the Lightmass explosion sent contaminants blasting into the air, triggering an outbreak of a mysterious plague called Rust Lung. And a harsh winter is on the way, pushing the already haggard survivors to the breaking point. At the beginning of the game, the dead and dying are already clogging the hospitals of Jacinto.

The Road to Landown

It's in front of one such hospital that you begin playing Gears of War 2. As returning COG veteran Marcus Fenix, you arrive on the scene and hear the grim news: the Locust are on the move, and advance word suggests that they've already conquered the nearby village of Landown. But before you tackle that problem, you've got to mop up a scattered band of Locust invaders that have taken refuge in Jacinto. The opening hospital scenario is suspenseful but brief, a welcome warm up to get you comfortable with moving and shooting in Gears of War 2. You'll only fight a few attackers at a time, and you'll always have plenty of help in the form of conveniently placed explosive fuel tanks, COG helicopters, and the other members of Delta Squad watching your back.

That safety net vanishes minutes later when you're riding on the back of a roaring derrick truck that's hurdling down a mountain range, unleashing a gatling gun at the teeming crowds of Locust foot soldiers that surge from their underground burrows. It's a truly mind-blowing sight -- easily five or six times larger than the biggest battle in the original game -- and it's barely fifteen minutes into the first act. The vibrant new scenery, with its lush valleys and snow-capped mountain ranges, also proves to be a welcome change from the gritty, claustrophobic art of the first game. Visual variety takes a front seat in Gears of War 2, with just 30 percent of the scenarios taking place in the underground caverns that frequented the original Gears. The massive shifts in scenery and scale alone make Gears of War 2 a considerable leap over its predecessor, quickly silencing concerns that the game will be only a modest improvement, a mere "Gears 1.5."

Back to the action. The battle has devolved into pure chaos: 50 foot-tall Brumaks now stalk amongst the hordes of Locust soldiers, while squid-like Reavers ominously circle the skies. Red-lining the minigun, we mow down 30 or 40 of the scrambling figures and narrowly deflect several boarding attempts. Overhead, COG helicopters pump out blistering cannon fire, occasionally pin wheeling out of control into a nearby hillside or crowd. After a few more close calls, the most memorable being an ill-timed pit stop and hasty de-boarding in the middle of some Locust emergence holes, the truck arrives safely at our destination: Landown.

Continue reading on the next page.

• Previous Page Prev
• Next Page Next
• 1
• 2

• Print
• Email this!
• Share
  • Digg
  • Yahoo Buzz!
  • FaceBook
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us