Gears of War 2
The next day of the Locust.
Gears of War is what people who don't play videogames probably think all videogames look like. Meaty, rubble-strewn and dribbling splatter, its soldiers-versus-lizards storyline suggests entertainment of the direct-to-DVD kind, where characters are little more than a means to an explosion and the only brains are smeared across a wall.
That's how Gears looks, certainly, but how it plays is a different matter. Rather than an eye-bleeding Unreal-alike or an all-night pass to the local offal house, Epic's game moves at its own distinctive pace. Each level is a carefully-constructed maze of cover that will confound anyone bent on mindless blasting, while the weapon-set balances every strength with an equal and opposite weakness elsewhere.
With a template this solid, you could almost forgive the developers for approaching a follow-up as nothing more than a chance to churn out a handful of new maps and the odd one-liner to keep things moving along. But having had a chance to play through the first act of November's sequel, it seems the Gears team are a long way from running out of new ideas.
Don't worry, though: if all you're after is fresh heads to stamp on, you'll be fine. In fact, Gears 2 now even provides you with three different flavours of fatality mapped to the face buttons, along with the option to use a downed enemy as portable cover. But for those who want more, the team has also made attempts to vary the action and, in multiplayer, even experiment.
Gears 2 takes place six months after the first game, and the narrative focuses on the fight to save the city of Jacinto from destruction at the hands of the Locust. On paper, the first act kicks off with a fire-fight through an inner-city hospital before speeding on, past a suitably neo-Nazi battle speech, to mountainous countryside, where you're on a mission to take the fight underground to the Locust's enclave.
In reality this simple agenda quickly becomes a whirlwind of clever variation, with the tempo and objectives switching from one minute to the next. It's clear that aside from the prettiness and increased on-screen body count it's the pacing that has gone through the biggest overhaul this time around, and the results so far are extremely promising.

Casual mode has been softened by dialling down enemy health bars rather than removing any gameplay elements.
The initial hospital battle is an exercise in controlled chaos, swinging from higher-ground sniping points to more intimate slaughter on the fly as I bumble through the corridors, playing co-op with a nice fellow who manages to hide his annoyance as I stop to scribble down notes in the middle of crucial battles. (Controversially, Gears 2 will retain the two-player co-op limit of the original.)
While there are scripted moments, such as conveniently placed explosive barrels or the brilliantly comic sight of two locusts popping up from behind a reception desk, the environments are just large enough to allow for experimentation in most encounters. Courtyard corridors are built for flanking and there are a range of cover options available at every turn, with each choice subtly altering the way the carnage plays out.
On top of this are the moments of sheer adrenaline, which show that Epic's approach to set-pieces has been significantly refined. Whether it's the downed Raven crashing through a skylight, or the electricity cutting out as Locusts start to converge from all sides and the ammo runs low, you are never entirely sure what's around the next corner - and the variety never descends into gimmickry.
Although the action remains fairly small scale - a bloodied mess of chainsawed torsos, close-combat gunfire, and kerb-stomping - there's a greater sense of the war going on around you this time, from the Reavers strafing ground troops glimpsed out of the dirty glass of the hospital windows, to a brief trip through rubble-choked streets, while distant - and not so distant - chaos erupts all around.

Better soft body physics have been implemented, "to give us better gibs" in lead designer Cliff Bleszinski's words. We look forward to seeing that on the back of the box.
And when the game moves into the wilderness, this sense of scale increases. While the shift from plodding through corridors to riding on the backs of huge mobile assault derricks seems like you might be in for little more than a clockwork crawl through an elaborate shooting gallery, the mechanics are well hidden for the most part and you rarely feel like you're being unfairly railroaded.
There are boarding Locusts to fight off in the confined space of the derrick itself alongside occasional pit-stops to dismount while an NPC patches a fault, regularly shunting events back to more traditional control-and-flank gameplay. Elsewhere, enemies - previously restricted to a mere handful on screen at any time - swarm out of the ground in dizzying numbers. To make up for the lack of Brumak action in the original game, Gears 2 is now practically tripping over them as they break through the trees and topple boulders.
The scripted moments themselves are undeniably thrilling as incoming mortars curl down out of the sky flinging wakes of black smoke behind them, noisily taking out your neighbours in chunky explosions, and crumbling the nearby mountains into rockslides. To top it off, a frantic battle against a Locust-controlled derrick provides the necessary spectacle for a mini-boss encounter with none of the annoying QTEs.
As you arrive in a deserted mountain town the game switches pace yet again with the addition of a new enemy. The Ticker is an overgrown cockroach with a mine charmingly grafted to its back: attacking en masse, success lies with detonating them from a distance, often triggering a chain reaction of delayed explosions, which is sometimes useful, and sometimes just highly amusing.
There are new weapons, too, such as the mortar, planted in the ground with the left trigger, and fired with the right. It's fiddly at first, with aiming controlled by holding down the right trigger. But as your skills improve, mortars come into their own and provide a way of raining death down on distant Boomer crews while your co-op partner tidies up closer enemies.
Act one saves its greatest thrills for the very end, however. The first is an audacious tunnel set-piece which literally turns out all the lights, sending the screen into total blackness before unleashing a skittering, twitching horde of Tickers who can only be located by the creepy clicking sound they produce and the sporadic light of gunfire.
In its simplicity, it's one of the more memorably frightening moments since Half-Life 2's Ravenholm, and is immediately followed by a second highlight: a fleeting glimpse of a new Locust, the Skorge, spotted merrily screwing around on a derrick, showboating with his dual-chainsaw-bladed bow-staff. The Skorge is apparently the Samurai of the Locust world, scalpel to the typical grunt's sledgehammer, and despite the fact he looks a bit like a Bionicle that's been left on top of a hot fireplace for too long, he promises to be a nasty piece of work. "He's a handful," suggests lead designer Cliff Bleszinksi, helpfully.

With the inclusion of a side-story that sees Dom searching for his wife, Bleszinski wants a much wider audience to play. Come for the story, stay for the improved gibs - good luck with that, Cliff.
With the campaign looking spiky in all the right places, multiplayer seems likely to provide a burst of leftfield innovation in the shape of the new Horde mode. Playable on any of the multiplayer maps, Horde is pure score rush, which sees five players facing of against waves of different variations of enemies, which means it's presumably like working the late night shift in a BP garage.
There are 50 waves in total, with the enemies improving in terms of accuracy and health every ten (the garage analogy breaks down at this point). Bleszinski, who it's safe to assume is probably rather good at this kind of thing, has only made it as far as wave 27. Be warned.
As Horde only pauses rather than resetting between waves, the emphasis is on the post-fight scramble for newly-spawned weapons then the rush to find a good spot before the next onslaught. Playing on a new map, Day One - a surprisingly colourful city intersection, complete with neon signs, a '50s diner and an amusement arcade filled with chirping and bleeping cabinets - offers a mixture of street-fighting and second-storey gantries for sniping and boomshot attacks, and as the waves pass, the game flows between high and low combat very naturally.

The Cog breastplate still makes Marcus look like an Autobot caught part-way through transforming into a portable stereo.
The enemy AI, as in the main campaign, seems significantly improved, with Locusts rolling out of trouble or making a break for distant cover when they come under fire. You also get the chance to check out some of the new weapons - such as the gatling gun, which is intensely powerful but slows you down and, as a low-slung weapon, can't be used when taking cover.
The new up-close favourite is the Scorcher, an extremely pleasing flame-thrower which is completely useless at a distance. There's even portable cover in the form of the boomshield, which looks like a hubcap designed by Jean-Paul Gautier, and can either be wielded with the left trigger or planted in the ground.
Although there's no real danger of Gears getting caught in the end-of-year crush, its proximity to unknown quantities like Mirror's Edge and LittleBigPlanet means Epic's good old-fashioned carnage has not generated quite the amount of excitement as it could have so far.
But deep down this is a far from old-fashioned game. As the single-player continues to bring a touch of Resident Evil's thoughtfulness to the futuristic pomp of Halo, and the multiplayer broadens its scope to take on tantalising aspects of Geometry Wars and co, it seems a pretty safe bet that this Christmas, the frosty air will ring out with the sound of a million Locust heads being stomped underfoot.
Gears of War 2 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on 7th November. Check out our Eurogamer TV interview with Cliff Bleszinski
for more on the game and how its developer feels it's improved.
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Comments (85) Latest comment 3 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Loved the first one on PC. Lot of folk want to knock it now but the visceral 'feel' of combat is terrific. Will probably buy a 360 when its released, at the new cheaptastic prices. Just waiting on the 1680*1050 support to see what that looks like.
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29-Sep-08 17:02:55 I give this preview 8/10 "
Article posted at 17:00, coment "reviewing" it 2m 55 sec later. Fast reading... lol!
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I'll be getting this for the multiplayer which rocks.
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Did they increase the destructability in the sequel?
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/makes fun of mister high and mighty trying to look intelligent there
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/taps fingers
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Something very similar to Horde was in UT2003 I think, and was a bit pants to be honest. I'm sure this will be better though.
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If they've managed to keep that up throughout the single player campaign, and not just limit the ''wow'' factor to the first hour or so, it could turn out fackin' awesome.
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You shouldn't. For every high-profile game you have the propotional amount of angry ppl bashing it (GTA; Halo; Gears 1). Fact.
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This look good like the sound of using the baddie as cover. Nice
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Er, I *do* play videogames and even I think 'all' games look like this.
Brown/green
+
Guns
=
Modern videogame.
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Whooo-yaaarr!
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Thats game realism for you. Unfortunatly, the real world doesnt look like Mario Galaxy.
However, in the event that the real world does look like Mario Galaxy, seek help.
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"And, ultimately, whether the world really needs another game about shooting monsters in the face"
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Mirrors Edge seems to be the visual saviour of FPS at the moment.
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dumb story and crappy graphics, just look at those textures.
Horde mode is so dumb no story, I can play wave after wave on a PS3 demo LMAO!!
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Zappa's a slapper
Zappa's a slapper
Zappa's a slapper
I repeat
Zappa's a slapper
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Bloody hell, how many people do I have to ignore on here?
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Anyway, I confess I'm quite egoist, so I feel happy to realize that at least, this handicaped girl is not showing up.
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Ah well, I've preordered it anyway, cos it's throwaway fun at the very worse and I could never get on with Halo 3 (Half Life 2 is still better on pc IMO)
I reckon 8 outta 10 though, cos I get the feeling they will be refining the game type rather than revolutionising it, and the changes won't be enough to push it above 8 outta 10 (At least it's not a Gamespot/IGN 8 outta 10 which comes with a price tag, lol)
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Swings and roundabouts, who cares so long as they are good games.
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Cliffy: Please stop it now. C'mon seriously, just shut the f'ck up now, you're not doing yourself any favours.
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He hasnt said specifically why cliffy B should shut up.
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Why can't we have a PC version again?
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Considering this is a preview gor gears 2, and cliffy B has rarely spoken (other than a few quited lines), it's not even a worthy enough complaint.
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so i might just get this,
i don't get all the cliffy hate, seems to me he's a decent guy
but we are being spoiled again.
fable2
banjo and kaz nuts and bolts
gears2
that sure are some nice xbox exclusives
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Not only do I not know a single person who has a modded xbox360, this is something that I've never even heard of since the PS1. I wouldn't ever get my xbox modded
""don't care what anyone says"
You shouldn't. For every high-profile game you have the propotional amount of angry ppl bashing it (GTA; Halo; Gears 1). Fact."
Well said sir
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Please release some games in the summer.
Thanks.
P.S. "Did i read you protect broken derricks to make a change from a journey where you are "railroaded"? I utterly despise game design like this."
Word, lazy as fook.
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When GTA4 was coming out, a week before launch I saw someone say "oohhp, GTA4 has just gone up" which meant it found its way through to some form of torrent site.
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All your story proves is that your friends are pirating scumbags. All my story proves is that mine aren't. ''
Pretty much what I was going to type.
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It's a sequel... of course it's going to be similar to the first you big idiots.
To be honest I'm not that excited about GoW2. I didn't enjoy the first as much as most but I do have the sequel on preorder!
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Rest sounds great, but still.... pre-ordered it months ago, so hopefully should get it on release.
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Personally I prefer to have a smaller selection of games that I've paid for -- too much choice and nothing gets played much.
I will probably buy GoW2 when I buy a 360 as I liked the PC version of GoW, I'll also get Fable 2 and a few other titles too -- darn it, already got too many to play for the time I have available for gaming.
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On a side-note...how come anyone who says anything negative about this or the first game is automatically targetted on here by practically everyone else? Think this could the first series that seems universally loved around here...strange...
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Although typing things like '' GOW 1 SUX LOL, CUZ ITS GAY'', is just asking for a bit of backlash from the game's fans.
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If they'd make a proper PC game, like we all know they can, then people would buy it.
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'Sup, bitches?
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Yeah like UT!!!
Oh wait...
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Just what the 360 needs that...
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Wow! What a cliched comment!
I bet that you just sit waiting for threads like this to open up, so you can comment.
In between scratching your arse and sniffing your fingers, no doubt...
Give it a rest, you spong.
I bet you're prohibited from owning a deep fat fryer in case you burn to death due to your innate fuckwittery.
Yours, not used to being annoyed at fucktards, Blantyre.
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Maybe you should stop playing so many shooting games and play something else for a change? That way you may be able to calm down a bit. Dunno where you're gonna find another genre on that machine though.. but i'm sure there are some available if you look for them (try viva pinata or something equally childish)
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Well then. No agression. Just the truth.
You troll for the sake of it. And that makes you the lowest common denominator.
Here's something. I hate stupidity/baiting people for the sake of it and you undertake that on a regular basis.
Haven't played a shooter for God knows how long. Actually playing KOTOR/KOTORII on 360.
Also just back from playing Rayman with the wife. Shooting? No. Even I participate in casual gaming.
And hang on a minute. Would you be referring to the console with more JRPG games and variety than PS3 as shooter only?
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How such a mediocre, dreary concept like this can have such iconic status in the gaming world is beyond me.
The marketing wheel is now in full swing, sadly. Ergo: we'll be seeing Cliffy B's veneers for some time yet.
Yawn.
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UT was very good back in 1999 and people bought it.
UT --INSERT CURRENT YEAR--- however isn't any good, and no-one bought it. Well...on the PC at least. I wonder why that is?
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All the others since then have been wannabe shit.
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That last line coming from the biggest pro-Wii poster on this site is irony-tastic.
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Don't you own a Wii? weren't you commenting in the "Family Trainer" article saying that it looks "loads of fun"? So why are you having a go at childish games? Think before you speak
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Absolutely, Xerx3s (or should I say weirdo stalker?)
You seem to think more difficult = more fun, but that's pigshit frankly.
Try doing the Mile High Club on COD4 on Veteran difficulty, you fucking lightweight.
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You act like MHC on veteran is difficult.