Gears of War 2 Preview

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	Gears of War 2
	Developer:Epic Games Publisher: Microsoft Players: 1-? Release Date: November, 2008
	Preview

Prepare for Glory! And Guts! And Aliens! Also, Robots.
by Lincoln Stanley
Date: April 17, 2008

Gears of War is one of the most popular games released for the Xbox 360 since its inception. The original Gears of War enveloped players in a war-torn world full of monsters and heroes. Fighting from a third-person perspective and being one of the first games to feature a fully-developed cover system, Gears quickly earned its place in the gaming hall of fame for its brutal action and spectacular graphics. Now, almost two years since its November 2006 release, we have learned that we are about to receive a sequel, and one with several notable new features.

Announced at GDC 2008 by Cliffy B, the designer of the original game, gamers were originally treated to a short black and red video of series protagonist Marcus Fenix talking about looking death in the face as he and a Locust duel each other with the chainsaw attachment on their assault rifles. It ended with him cleaving the nefarious foe in two as the now familiar Gears of War cog popped up on screen. This video left us with many questions and juicy hints, but now we are here to help sort the best from the rest.

Presumably taking place right after the original game, this iteration should be set to answer several burning questions from the last game, most notably the identity of the well-known 'Queen' voice who narrates certain sections in the game and who, we assume, survived the destruction of the Locust tunnel system in the first title. Hopefully more of Fenix's background and the history of the Cog-Locust war will be fleshed out. It would be interesting to be presented with some flashbacks showing the planet Sera in its entire Roman-esque prime.

The cover system from Gears, while not without its flaws, was one of the most memorable and well implanted features from the original title. While not much information has been released about the gameplay mechanics of the sequel, it should be safe to say it will be making a return, hopefully with some much-needed fixes - like a dedicated sprint button, perhaps?

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The video released at the GDC showed, as mentioned above, Fenix dueling with a Locust with their chainsaws buzzing and snapping at each other until our hero got the upper-hand and chewed through the opposition. Apparently, this will be a new gameplay mechanic introduced for Gears of War 2, though it is unclear how it will work. One nemesis that you couldn't kill, at least in the 360 version, were Brumaks. These mountains of meat and machinery were only seen in a cut scene in the Xbox 360 release, but you were able to fight them in the PC version of the game. However, according to John DiMaggio, the voice actor who performs Marcus Fenix, they will be making an appearance in the second game and players will be able to attempt to bring them down.

The graphics in Gears were one of its strongest assets, featuring great motion-blur, lighting, and textures. The sequel is set to surpass the original in several areas. As a tech presentation at GDC, Epic Games showcased the new and improved Unreal Engine 3 which features better textures, lighting, water effects, destructible environments, and improvements to 'soft-body entities,' which means, we're guessing here, people. While the original Gears was pretty, this one should make it look like the ugly step-sister.

We are all excited about Gears of War 2 and with improved graphics, new gameplay mechanics, and, hopefully, some cover mechanic fixes, it will be a worthy successor to its predecessor. Look for it to hit around November this year.

By Lincoln Stanley
LWG Core Contributor

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