The guys over at TeamXbox have taken a bunch of different snippets, detailing all the information available on Gears of War 2, and placed them together in one nice article. Some of the details only have me more excited for this game so hit the jump and read all about Epic Game's upcoming action shooter.
"When and Where:
"It's six months after the events of Gears 1, and the Locusts have actually returned. We're right at the onset of winter; it's the last day of fall as we open the game. Basically the Locusts have returned with a force that's capable of sinking entire cities."
“When we were building this level [Act One, Chapter Three: Assault], we wanted to create a scenario where it was just one thing after another - to build the ultimate watercooler level. So many of the levels in Gears 2 are like that, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think people are responding really nicely.”
Bleszinski was also quick to point out that while Gears sort of got a name for itself through it's many underground levels, the sequel will only spend about 30 percent of the game underground.
Cover System
“I believe that hands-down, in Gears 2, we will have the best cover system ever seen in the videogame industry. I'd say about 90 percent of the time, it worked exactly how gamers wanted it to work. About 10 percent of the time, players were going into cover when they didn't want to. We put some of those tweaks in a patch for Gears 1, we iterated on them for Gears PC, and now we're bringing it full circle for Gears 2. I think players are really going to love the system this time around.”
Locust:
“You'll see where the Locust live, you'll see where humanity lives, you'll see a darker story with more intimate violence and more executions. And a whole lot more ass-kicking.”
“They're meaner, they're nastier. The Locust have been in the underground for a while, and there are a lot of indigenous creatures down there they've essentially mastered through various means. So you see Brumaks return and other nefarious creatures. I don't want to spoil too much, but I've been quoted as saying we have creatures that make the Brumaks look like baby panda bears. Very, very large.”
“I don't want to go into too much detail in regards to how we leverage that, but there are plenty of scenes in the game in which the player is dealing with hundreds of Locusts and there's also other scenes in which he's dealing with a number that's more than Gears 1 but not quite as much as that crowd. Honestly, it just depends on that scenario, it depends on what's called for, and it depends on pacing. If you were on the ground, by yourself, with hundreds of Locusts coming, they'd look stupid if they weren't all shooting at you, or they wouldn't be taking cover anD that wouldn't be Gears gameplay. There's so many factors we have to take in mind as creatives, so it's a delicate delicate balance of gameplay.”
Multiplayer:
“The whole ‘bigger, better and more badass’ thing continues in multiplayer as far as we actually have five on five now. We are shipping with more multiplayer maps out of the box, that are new, than what we shipped in Gears 1. And we are going to have many more multiplayer modes, as well as greatly expanded online functionality. Can’t go into much detail right now, but what is going to be, rest assured, it’ll be very competitive with others titles in this space”
“I think that if we were not to have a feature like that [party system], it would probably be a pretty big fuckup.” “As far as the multiplayer goes, we're shipping with at least ... well, I don't know what the embargo is ... but we're shipping with a lot more fucking multiplayer maps this time time around. A lot more multiplayer modes. So when you look at the matrix of maps to modes, it's literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. And there's also some fun stuff that we haven't announced yet in regards to co-op.”
Chainsaw Duels:
“You can chainsaw somebody from behind, from their taint to their throats; there’s so many more executions now; weapon-specific executions. There’s [also] people crawling when they are down, but not out, trying to get away and you can hit them and they start crawling faster. The curbstomp is of course back. Take somebody hostage and watch the bodies explode as your enemies are shooting at it and the arms are gone flying. And one thing after another really kind of adds up to this big bucket full of blood.”
“Players who engage in a chainsaw duel are locked into the duel to win or to loose. There is an occasional draw scenario, but keep in mind that while players are into that, there’re not in a god mode, so if you chainsaw somebody there’s a certain amount of risk involved, so you wanna try to make sure you kind of catch them at the right moment before you get away with it.”
“The chainsaw duel itself, moment for moment, takes about as long as the old chainsaw action does because what we do we actually make the actual act of chainsawing somebody at the end of the duel extremely quick.”
Whether the regular chainsaw digs through and takes that time, the majority of that time in the duel is spent in the duel and then the regular saw takes the same amount of time.
November and Beyond:
The developer said that the game will be running at over 30 frames per a second when it ships and that it will come with more new multiplayer maps than before. He added that they haven't decided how they will introduce new DLC maps to the game, but both the concept of early adopter tax and sponsored maps are being explored.
“We never announced a trilogy, I don't know why everybody's cramming those words into my mouth. They're like, 'You said Gears would be a trilogy.' I'm like, 'I didn't say sh**! That wasn't me! You're putting words in my mouth, journalists!' But I love this universe, and if Gears 2 has a wonderful ship-in, if gamers buy it, then we'll consider a sequel.” "
Gears of War 2 Spring Showcase 2008 Metadata - TeamXbox.com
