And then came Gears of War 2! (1 Viewer)

[RAF]

If you've been following my "great week" thread mentioning Fable II, Fallout 3 and Little Big Planet you know that I've been engrossed in gaming. My Blu-ray pile of unviewed material grows exponentially as I write this!



When Gears of War 2 came out about a week ago I ordered it based on the reviews and during a break in the action in Fable II (my current favorite of the three previously mentioned games) I decided to give Gears 2 a spin to see what all the buzz was about.

WOW! (and not the MMOG)

I couldn't put it down until I almost finished Act 3! While I purchased the original Gears of War back in the day I never really got that involved with it and it fell off my radar. I don't recall whether it had to do with what else was going on at the time, possibly the game play during the first scene, poorer control or camera angles or something else. But I never took the original too far. But this second time around - this title absolutely blows me away! Giant Worms (making Dune look like a walk in the park ), an amazing number of stellar graphics and characters - great variety, intuitive controls -and I'm only halfway through the main story line.

It's easy to see why this title surpasses the original - and I have to go back when I'm done with Volume 2 and give Volume 1 a chance. I possibly screwed up royally by not giving Gears of War its props! At least the new game comes with 5 maps from the Original game (amended to fit in with the new control system I'm told.) Speaking of which, a quick question to veteran Gearheads: Is the game play in Gears of War 2 substantially improved over Gears of War? If so, what's the biggest improvement?

All I can say - to paraphrase Lebowski,

The Old Dude Abides!

Big time.



Wishing for a 27 hour day.....

 

[DaveF]

I've heard so much about GoW2 that I put GoW (original) on my Xmas list

Maybe next year I can get #2.

 

[Matt^Brown]

I really don't think that the control setup is any different in GoW2 compared to part 1. The controls were really tight and spot on and think this contributed to it getting such high praise. The second version appears to be no different but maybe I am missing something.

I really enjoyed the first one and so far I really like part 2. I began my campaign on Hard and it has been kicking my ass but in a good way. I enjoy the difficulty and how cohesive the AI is in regards to attacking me. Now I could never beat the final boss on the original so I have no idea how far I will make it this time.

The one thing that I don't enjoy is the online setup. I am so used to playing COD4 that I am spoiled with the way they have that lobby set up. COD4--Log in-match up opponents-play for hours. Gears--Log in-wait for opponents to be matched up-play ONE game-start complete process over. Why in the hell is there not a way to either stay in the game lobby and keep playing with whoever comes along or at least have a way to party up. I really enjoyed playing Horde but single games of anything else frustrated me because of the amount of time it takes me to load up. Hopefully I am doing something wrong and someone can explain how to make this faster.

 

[JoeyR]

GOW 2 has plenty, plenty bugs unfortunately though as compared to the original GOW when released, the majority affecting multiplayer

 

[RAF]

Thanks for all the info. I don't generally delve into multiplayer modes (time factor) so I haven't been affected by Multiplayer bugs in GOW2. I do find it interesting, however, that the GOW2 multiplayer "room" sign-ins seem to be a step backward from what was done for COD4.

 

[Matt^Brown]

I have been doing some reading about this on a couple of different sites and it seems many people are having problems. I hope they can send out some patches because what little I did play on LIVE was a blast.

 

[JoeyR]

One of the questions me and the guys have kicked around is if the bugs are gametype related moreso also. Playing public wingman seems the worse of them all when it comes to issues. People are already oneshotting and two piecing again and I cant tell you how frustrating it is to hit someone with a smoke grenade, zoom in when they are on the ground, get 2 shotty blasts into them and they turn and you hit them a third time and they one shot you. I actually had a guy the other night I hit 6 times with my shotgun and he turned around and one shotted me. Lag has also been pretty bad, multiplayer room setup sucks, the D-pad weapon switch bug has GOT to be fixed(cant tell you how many times I've weakened someone with a Lancer, run up go to pull the shotgun and pull my pistol or smoke grenade instead), the shooting around cover bug(pain in the butt when you have the boomshot), and the dam all powerful chainsaw(stopping power doesnt work against it).

 

[Jari K]

Yes, I would recommend playing that one before pt.2. I know, that in the game community many people only play the "newest" games, which is kinda silly in a way.

I'm on the last chapter of the game (GoW2). Great game and all that, but it obviously doesn´t invent the "wheel" again (when it comes to shooters/action-games). Perhaps a bit short.. But yes, once you start playing it, it´s hard to let go.

 

[Eric Samonte]

I suppose I can echo the comment of Jari. Its a great game and all but its not exactly groundbreaking or anything. I guess its a nice follow-up to a superb game.

 

[Jari K]

Just finished this. Definitely satisfying game and with "normal", not that hard. After the super-hard (IMO! ) final boss of GoW1... (SPOILER!!) ...it was bit of a surprise, that pt.2 didn´t really have a proper "final boss". There were also some rather easy bosses this time around..
.

For me the "hardest" part of the game probably was in "Act 5: Aftermath" and "Chapter 3: Free Parking", where you have tough wave of enemies coming on you in the "second" courtyard
. It literally took me around 15 times to go through that battle.. And I usually died during the "last wave" - damn those "bloodmounts"
..

I also finished "Resistance 2" for PS3, which is an excellent FPS. IMO, if you like "Halo 3", you´ll also like "R2". Straightforward shooter. Since R2 and GoW2 have very similar "themes" and stuff like that, people have started to compare the two (even when they haven´t played both of them, I might add!). I would say, that it´s not entirely fair to blindly compare these two games, since GoW2 is not FPS (it´s "third-person shooter", which actually makes a big difference to gameplay).

What can I say, GoW2 and R2 back-to-back. It´s sweet to own all three of them (game consoles).

Can you be "PS3&Xbox 360&Wii fanboy"?

 

[Brent T]

I guess I am the only one that was rather disappointed in GoW2. When you come out with a game like GoW1 that makes a huge step into FPS games, I excepted a bit more in the sequel. IMO there was very little difference between the two games and that was a major problem for me.

Half Life vs Half Life 2 -- big difference
Doom vs Doom2 vs Doom3 -- big differences
Call of Duty 3 vs Call of Duty 4
etc etc etc.

GoW2 seemed to just follow in the Halo line of FPS where very little is added to the game play experience.

 

[mike caronia]

Jari, I'm a fan of all 3 consoles too! ha

And like RAF, I never finished the first Gears...got stuck somewhere and gave up.
I finished Gears 2 this past weekend and loved every second of it. The underground levels were breathtaking. I'm going to go for a second go round on harcore and see how far I can go without getting frustrated.
Those bloodmounts were killing me too Jari!!! But I did it in only 4 attempts!!

 

[Jari K]

Dammit, you´re better than me!