With the announcement today of Gears of War 2 excitement has swept through the gaming industry as the Xbox 360 once again gains an exclusive hit to keep its top notch gaming library ahead of the Playstation 3. Cliffy B’s announcement at the GDC today has left us with many questions. How much of the game is going to be different from the first one? Will we see more participants in online battles? We we see more gametypes or vehicular combat? Will we see a system where the host of the room does not have such a huge advantage over everyone else playing. Cliffy’s response to these questions will be answered in the upcomming months but he did say that Gears of War 2 will be “bigger, better and more baddas” than the original GOW and according to TeamXbox “the game will feature massive crowds of characters, dynamic fluid effects, structural degradation of solid objects, ambient occlusion to improve shadow highlights and many more features”. While we cannot answer any of these questions right now, we can only wish how we want GOW2 to be.
The first GOW was a true work of art in every sense, graphics, sound, gameplay, the game had all the elements of a great shooter that delivered in just about every way. Below we examine a few things that we think will propel GOW2 past the first game and create a true legacy for Cliffy B. We don’t want GOW 1.5, we want a new experience. Too many developers ship the second game in the series exactly like the first. Slapping new maps and a new gametype on the IP’s second title does not warrant a number 2 on the series title, and the ideas below will assure that GOW2 doesn’t fall into that mold.
2PS GOW2 Wishlist
#5 New Cover System-While the cover system for GOW was new and exciting for that time, how many of us got sick of playing the game because they got stuck on every single wall there was to get stuck on. There was nothing more annoying than that and there have been other games that have implemented the cover system successfully since then. All Epic has to to is look towards Naughty Dog, and their PS3 hit Uncharted, to get where GOW2 needs to be. In Uncharted you still pull the left trigger to aim but it is done so with greater fluency than GOW. The aiming/shooting/binding of Uncharted is top notch and a model by which other 3rd person shooters should be measured. Let’s not reinvent the wheel now, take what works from others and move on, it will only make your game better.
#4 More Online Players-Sure 4v4 worked great most of the time but this is the next generation of gaming, why not have some 6v6 or 7v7 online battles. Bigger games have held way more players on Xbox Live so why not open it up a little. Were not asking for 32 players online but having a few more on each side would make the game more enjoyable and would also let more friends play together. Most of us have more than 8 guys playing a particular game any night and it sucks to have to choose between friends but if we had more options then it would benefit everyone. Speaking of more options, look below.
#3 More Online Options-GOW2 needs to give us some new gametypes. Playing only three modes would be fine but they are all so similar, we need CTF and Deathmatch, we need new modes of play. Look at how customizable COD4 and Halo3 are, thats a main factor those two games are so popular. People like messing with stuff, people like customizing options, give us more.
#2 Map Variety-In GOW it seemed like all the maps were equal in size, the developers didn’t want people to get lost in battles so they scaled down the maps to fit how many members were playing on each team. How about Epic gives us some big maps to go with those 7v7 battles. There are games out there like GRAW and GRAW2 who gives the player a huge variety of maps to play on. Big maps and small maps, mix them up, give us some exploration during our fights. There is nothing wrong with traveling for 30-45 seconds and strategizing with your teammates before getting to the choke point of the map. This would make for a more tactical game, we already had the arcadey GOW for the teens out there, give the adult GOW fans what they want now, more strategy.
#1 Higher Powered Weapons-I have a beat on a guy, I am standing in a corridor as he rushes towards me showing his bloody teeth, as I continued to shoot my enemy the sound of his chainsaw echoes through my body. I am dead after emptying an entire clip into his body. This was the most annoying thing in GOW and a major reason than many older gamers stopped playing the game. If your going to make a game with a cover system then whats the sense in having to empty 3 clips into your enemy before he is killed? It really doesn’t make sense, why have a cover system at all then? I know it’s supposed to be a Sci-Fi shooter and not realistic but there is nothing wrong with adding a little realism to the game. Make us a Hardcore mode like in COD4, one or two shots and your dead, that is the way to play. If this was done then the cover system would actually matter.
Others Receiving Votes-Vehicular Combat, Host Advantage
Dear Epic,
The Original GOW was a great game and set the standard for the next generation of 3rd person shooters. Our plea to you is that you don’t settle for everything that worked in that first game. Make it better, add bigger maps, more players, and more options to the multiplayer aspect of the game. Move on with the series and only take the great parts of the original game to put into GOW2. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel, just remember that the game that will ship in November is GOW2 and not GOW 1.5. We will see you around Thanksgiving.
Your Truly, The Gamers Represented by Monster09
Filed under: Gaming Articles
