Like a Fenix from the flames, Marcus raises the meatflag as we blow the lid off GOW2's multiplayer.
by Andrew Stanton, IGN UK
UK, June 25, 2008 - "This is where the magic happens." For some reason this truism rattled unshakably around my head like beans in a tin can over the entire day spent at Epic Games. We'd been flown to the US to be the first journalists in the world to get hands on with Gears of War 2 multiplayer. My strange mantra was often a reminding prompt there's absolutely nothing cool whatsoever about Epic's HQ.
Based in the beautiful, but nothingy backwoods of Cary, North Carolina (Wiki it: there's lashings of green, wide roads and naff all else), it's a bland, beige building nestling amongst similarly uninspiring science park real estate. But the mantra also came back as a whooping endorsement when we finally picked up a controller and the fragging began.
Some flavour: Epic truly is indistinguishable from just about every other developer we've visited. Two storey, science park monochrome blahchitecture. A reception bristling with heavy, crystal blob game of the year awards and life-size character figure detritus. The desks of the developer staff are strewn with comic book, anime and geek movie vinyl figures. There's a kitchen creaking at the seams with free sugar and caffeine-rich snacks the ADHD-inspiring engine room. A rank of arcade machines line up next to the most pristine gym I've ever seen in my life (make of that what you will) and positively cathedral-like, gargantuan loos, with magazine racks of game mag serving as "inspirational" reading. It's tidier than most, but that's no great endorsement. And they knew we were coming, so nagging had probably ensued.
Gears 2 promises to be "bigger, better and more badass", plus now it also includes flamethrowers.
But then, of course, bouffant-haired lead games designer Cliffy B bounds into the room, and the Gears of War hype machine roars into life like the mighty V12 of the brand new burgundy Lamborghini convertible he just parked outside. Which, for the record, not a single man in the room begrudges him.
"New. Better. More. That's not the sexiest way to sell Gears of War 2 to the press, so we came up with this: Bigger! Better! More badass!" goes Cliffy's opening gambit. And when he adds: "Gears 2 is just an absolute f**king blast!" we know today's going to be fun. We're of course here to play multiplayer, but first up is a quick briefing of the campaign, which was news then, but most of which you've probably heard by now. Mankind is past the brink. The Locust's boreholes are swallowing entire cities and only Jacinto remains. Not only did the Lightmass Bomb triggered in Gears not wipe out the Locust, its fallout has infected the remaining human population with a debilitating disease rust lung and the Locust have returned with a scarier new force. It's going to be, if you pardon the pun, epic. " We want this to be an entire war, not just a four man squad behind enemy lines," embellishes Cliffy.
The game's famous cover system's been improved, so when you tremble behind stone blocks, you're moved off the corner so are less open to flanking shots. "The system of cover was effective," explains Cliffy, "but we wanted to add the final ten per cent to turn it from really, really good, to phenomenal." Then he adds: "Hands down, this is the best cover system in the business." That's my boy. They've even got a handily bullet-pointed slide: "Campaign: improved visuals. Grander in scope. More intimate violence. New characters. New player vehicles. New monsters. New weapons." Sweet.
Meat Flag: Like capture the flag with a living, fighting flag!
Then the multiplayer chat begins. We'll be playing four game modes War Zone, Meat Flag, Wingman and Guardian across three of the eventual 12 maps Gridlock, River and Security. So to break it down. War Zone is classic team fragging. Now maps will host five-on-five match-ups, an extra player a team. Why? "People are used to teams of five. And they seemed to work better on the maps."
Meat Flag is particularly Epician take on traditional Capture The Flag game types, in that the 'flag' is a person. Who really doesn't want to be captured. These will consist of yet-to-be-decided characters from the campaign (we had Franklin, the service station attendant from Gears, but that could change) and having a live flag is a genius touch. Barreling towards the focus point of a map, there's usually an amusing scrap between teams attempting to control the flag, but add into the mix a tooled-up flag that's also trying it darndest to kill you, and it spices up proceedings no end. Manage to nab your man and he'll struggle, kick and trash talk you till you score, or you're forced to drop him, i.e, you're dead.
Wingman is another new take on multiplayer. Consisting of five teams of two, you have to balance the aggressiveness of going after the other teams, while protecting your partner. If you go down, he can revive you. If he dies, you're on your own and you've let your man down. It's a brilliantly inspired tactical bout. Five teams jostling on a medium-sized map keeps the battles interesting and continual, and the nature of the match-up forces you to work as a team and co-ordinate a measured combination of concerted attack, while trying to watch your partner's back. Simple aggression will certainly result in at least one teammate's casualty. Then you're stuffed.
Finally, Guardian is another five-on-five throwdown, only one player is the Guardian. As long as he's alive, you can respawn. Once he bites the dust, you're on your last life. And if your Guardian survives, you've still got to clean up the opposition, who may well take your man out. Then it gets frantic. The key here is for the Guardian to keep back in the more protected rear, but as the Guardian is the best player from the last round, just you try holding him back.
Cliffy B: "The violence is slapstick. It's fun, not nauseous."
All-new is the much vaunted chainsaw duel. Both COG and Locust characters pack chainsaw-equipped hardware, and melιe at the same time and the duel animation kicks in. The whole battle hitting the B button like mental lasts around three seconds, long enough to challenge and find a worthy victor, but short enough to not leave you vulnerable in an enemy's sights for too long. Then the death animation begins. We saw Locust cut cleanly in half, crossways and the classic meat drenching the camera, straight down the chest, messy incision.
Yup, we can confirm, the violence has remained intact. Something, in our sensitive Manhunt and prostitute-swording times, Cliffy's quick to defend: "The violence is slapstick. It's fun, not nauseous. These are ridiculously large space marines cutting lizards in half!" Locust now have individual finishing animations, and they are cool and varied. Rather than just stepping on heads, you get COGs kneeing enemies in the chest, flipping them over and curb stomping. Sometimes a downed enemy takes multiple fists to the face till it's just meat, and "meat fest" is the only way to describe grenade sticks which you can also now do in a retaliatory nature from beyond the grave. Nice touch. Get downed, and you can beg for mercy from your opposition. Hmm
what do you think?
In line with the improved cover system, maps now feature portable shields. These are Viking-like protecting screens which you either hide behind and advance, pistol spitting, or pick up and slam down into the ground for a respite from hot lead.
Chainsaw duels look awesome and don't disappoint when you're playing either.
Our first play is the new Gridlock map: by a country mile the most popular map from Gears. "Gridlock is the one de facto map to play Gears Of War on, the map by which all other maps will be judged," reckons Cliffy. "So here's Gridlock 2.0." And 2.0 actually comes to define our day. Epic may well have cunning extras up their sleeves, but the experience, without stating the bleedingly obvious, is Gears 2.0. That's not to say it's not impressive. Everything's flexed to vein-bulging tenseness and you can see the fruits of Epic's toil in a glance.
The graphics are a clear improvement on the last outing, which is no mean boast Gears was a supermodel amongst console games, with a rare and lasting beauty. This one is Agyness Deyn to Gears' Kate Moss: the next big thing. And that's because, contrary to established thinking, they've moved away from realistic lighting, to what Cliffy described as "movie lighting" a look which concentrates on making characters look better as opposed to realistic. Duh. Water now responds to footfalls in a beautifully realistic way and shoot a sandbag and it leaks sand till it empties. Still, clearly graphically, pictures speak louder than words, so drool over the comparison shots while remembering, this is multiplayer, not even campaign shots. And wonder.