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[soldat7]

I just finished the campaign on Hardcore, and I didn't like it. I don't have memories of doing anything really special in this game. Yes, it had moments, but overall, it was boring. In the end I was just dragging myself to finish it. I remember loving GeOW1 SP, but not this one. Also, what happened after the credits was so lame. I think I really hated some parts with passion. I will definitely not play the SP ever again. Now, I can finally play Horde and Versus MP at peace. Don't get me wrong, I like the game in overall, but I just disliked the SP campaign.

I just

Spoiler

beat the Leviathan

and

Spoiler

found Maria

. I have no idea how you can feel that way about Gears 2 but it is by far the best co-op experience I've had this year. The campaign has been an incredible ride so far and as soon as I'm done it's on to Insane (Hardcore is too easy).

Amazing graphics, music, and gameplay btw.

 

[sinnergy]

just finished campaign.

The first few chapters did nothing for me, i found the graphics to be unattractive and dull and the gameplay to rely too much on mini-games with gimmicky mechanics.
But damn, does everyhing pick up as you progress. It's amazing the way the game keeps throwing new stuff at you until the end, and some of the graphics in the latter chapters are unbelievable.

negatives are
Found it easier than gow1, maybe a bit too easy.
And

Spoiler

final boss was...uh...i would have liked to actually have to fight that thing. Oh, and thanks for showing us the penultimate chapter at GDC, guys ! and for telling us what happens in the last ! what were the guys at epic thinking ?

oh well, it's not like the game isn't full of surprises anyway.
Some of the vehicle sections are rather clunky

Depends on which difficulty you play Hardcore on my own could be pretty hard on some spots.. not more easy than Gow1 SP imho.

 

[Flunkie]

That hasn't happened once to me yet. I guess it helps that I toss my smoke early to keep people off of me.

Hmm, guess that was a different Baird then.

 

[Aladuf]

Hmm, guess that was a different Baird then.

Sure was, I wasn't taking snipe hardly at all on Blood Drive tonight. I pretty much exclusively used the Scorcher.

 

[Domino Theory]

Holy. shit.

I had a Submission match today that lasted 45 fucking minutes. First round was 40 minutes (our teams were REALLY evenly matched; it was insane), second round was 5 minutes because the other team let us score since we finally won the first round. It was crazy, funny, and stupid at the same time. Ended up with 44 kills and 50 downs. :lol

But it also reminded me how stupid the chainsaw is now. It's too powerful. There either needs to be some heavy stopping power for anyone walking towards somebody with a chainsaw revved or the chainsaw needs to be disrupted when being shot.

Edit: Oh and smoke grenades should not be allowed in Objective gametypes; along with the abysmal spawns on Objective gametypes. These need fixing.

 

[mernst23]

I'm always down for some hoard. If you guys ever need someone who knows what he's doing feel free to friend me.

 

[Ramirez]

I love Annex so much, but yea, the chainsaw is out of control, it was fine in Gears 1, if they really did change it just to add in the lame chainsaw duels then that is disappointing.

 

[Kuroyume]

For the curious...

Gears of War sells 2 Million Units (and we unlocked over 19 million Achievements)

In addition to the 2 million copies of Gears of War 2 that flew off the shelves over the weekend, LIVE was pretty active as well. More than 1.5 million people signed into "Gears of War 2" during the weekend, racking up a total 15 million gameplay hours and helping set a new record for concurrent LIVE players. These players also collectively unlocked more than 19 million GoW2 Achievements.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2008...we-unlocked-over-19-million-achievements.aspx

 

[minx]

I dunno if this has been mentioned yet but the cover system has a major flaw in it. For example if your on canals and by the boom and are taking cover next the the wall where you enter the bridge. It is WAY too hard to hop over the wall, all your guy wants to do it roll to the side. Same can be said for tyro station trying to get out of the way on the train when on the tracks. The game just doesn't want you to hop up there.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

For the curious...



http://majornelson.com/archive/2008...we-unlocked-over-19-million-achievements.aspx

Game absolutely deserves it. One of the few games that delivers on the big pre-hype.

Multiplayer is all sorts of awesome. The more I play it the more I love it. Much better than the first, and I already was a big fan of the first, playing it straight for almost 2 years. Yes there are some issues and flaws - especially in the pre-game lobby and matchmaking - but overall, I would say the positive aspects and new features easily outweigh anything negative about it.

 

[ThirdEngine]

Valvoga what the fuck at you being ranked 719th in the entire world at Horde on Jacinto?! Also, great games tonight. Winning that last Wingman match helped me to not be so pissed that I've been doing homework for one class for the past two hours.

 

[Papercuts]

That and whenever you play a game on Blood Drive, people all just seem to launch their smokes into the middle area. I can't lie, I kinda love it. :lol

I once got knocked down by 5 smoke nades in a row on Security and ended up barely hitting the laser grid and dying, normally that stuff would make me mad but I was laughing so hard I could barely play afterwards. :lol

 

[Papercuts]

I imagine it's already been mentioned a time or two but the randomly getting stuck during parts of the

Spoiler

boat boss worm battle

is getting a tad annoying. It's happened a time or two now and wound up getting me killed. Marcus just gets stuck/clips through part if it and I'm basically frozen in place. Whee!

This is late, but I posted about the same issue earlier. I think it was caused by rolling on the ship, it seemed like when I rolled into the tentacle to chainsaw I got stuck up in the air and couldn't move.

Oops, I meant to edit this above, fuck me.

 

[just tray]

Finished campaign. No game this gen compares to Gears 2. Act 5 alone is worth the purchase of this game. With a level of intensity that won't let up and the best graphics ever on a console, if you haven't played this game shame on you.The entire time I was like how the fuck can a game look and play this good? Hands down the best game not only this year but so far this gen. The level of detail in the levels is incredible. Gears 2 actually looks and sounds like the game is taking place in an actual war zone.

I just wish the ending was a little better. This game will spawn even more unreal engine 3 games.And since UE3 is always advancing, I have high hopes for Gears 3.

Great job Epic and Microsoft!

9.8987790008/10

 

[rjcc]

This is late, but I posted about the same issue earlier. I think it was caused by rolling on the ship, it seemed like when I rolled into the tentacle to chainsaw I got stuck up in the air and couldn't move.

Oops, I meant to edit this above, fuck me.

I also had that happen a couple times as we had to keep retrying that section, but usually I did eventually get unstuck. still annoying tho.

 

[Prine]

I just finished the campaign on Hardcore, and I didn't like it. I don't have memories of doing anything really special in this game. Yes, it had moments, but overall, it was boring. In the end I was just dragging myself to finish it. I remember loving GeOW1 SP, but not this one. Also, what happened after the credits was so lame. I think I really hated some parts with passion. I will definitely not play the SP ever again. Now, I can finally play Horde and Versus MP at peace. Don't get me wrong, I like the game in overall, but I just disliked the SP campaign.

This is how i felt about Gears 1. I didnt like it that much, 6/10 game imo.

But Gears 2? WOW WOW WOW

Im blown away by the campaign here. The graphics, art and creativity reminds me of a game built by Kojima or Capcoms finest. Theres SOOO much creativity with the gunplay and environments and im in absolute awe. The ART, THE FUCKING ART!!! The environments are incredible! Gears 1 was standard shooting against a generic war backdrop.

Gears 2 however is so epic, you feel you are fighting for something. And shit keeps getting worse as you go on making your struggle even more important. Cliffy has delivered a masterpiece that, for me has taken the crown from RE4.

RE5 is going to struggle to top this. Every corner you turn in Gears 2 is like a painting. They delievered at every fucking level.

 

[kaizoku]

after playing the online MP quite a lot, my thoughts on balance:

- smoke grenades knocking you to the floor everytime is a bit lame imo. I don't like that people now use them to stun rather than to conceal. On gears 1 I used them occassionally to attempt to hide myself or divert the enemy's attention, now I can't cos it would just knock me down. people keep spamming the weapon spawn points with smoke grenades and I just find that really one dimensional. It gets to the stage where you have to retaliate with a grenade or you get swamped or they get the weapon and I just find that balance to be wrong.

i.e. on gridlock when you all have to race to the sniper, it used to be a really nicely balanced battle. 1 guy could hold off 2 guys until his team mates flank with the boomshot, but now, those 2 guys will throw staggered grenades and knock the other guy down twice - grabbing the sniper and swarming him. even if he throws one grenade, he will lose. If he has a team mate with him who doesnt throw his grenade, lose. get the throw wrong, lose. I find that really bad.

- chainsaw versus shotgun: chainsaw duels. really annoying to be honest. shotgun duels were kind of buggy and a little random, but they were more entertaining than lancer/chainsaw battles at close range. also with the shotgun if you ever decided to switch it up and retreat from a duel, the range was short enough for you to get away. Turning your back on the lancer is near suicide.

its got to the stage where if two guys simply stood close to each other, aimed and unloaded with a lancer and a shotgun, I have the feeling the lancer would win.

in a close quarters encounter, if a guy starts his chainsaw I have like a second to start up my own chainsaw or run. If I don't have a lancer, I can only run or hope to make him drop it in the split second before he gets me? I don't like that.

so since the lancer gets chosen over shotgun, when it comes to a bigger enemy on horde who you can't chainsaw, or a bloodhound is all over you, what you want is the shotgun to bail you out, but it doesn't. You either dropped it in favour of lancer or the damage is too small.

In the old game the shotgun was powerful yes, but it was also quite hard to aim, short range and inaccurate, that was meant to be its downsides to the lancer's fast fire rate and high accuracy.

Not saying the shotgun is now useless necessarily, but the balance is wrong imo.

 

[The Librarian]

I'm having problems calling the boomshot it's proper name. A couple nights ago I called it the "boomshit" and last night I called it the "brute shot."

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Yes! I can post again.

This game is awesome, Horde mode is the best addition to the franchise.

 

[Gowans]

tried where I was stuck last night on my lunch break.

Icey lakes can suck my Rod!

 

[Gowans]

ARGG!!!!!!!!!

 

[PhatSaqs]

I feel like I slept with a dirty slut. Sure it was fun, but definitely not something to be proud of.

:lol

 

[Always-honest]

tried where I was stuck last night on my lunch break.

Icey lakes can suck my Rod!

what's so hard about those lakes?... isn't it just a pad you can take.. i made it in one time. (on normal though.. maybe hardcore is much more difficult..).

didn't think it was fun though... that was a very repetative part. lol they even had Marcus say the same line in different ways. they probably knew it was a bit too much.

 

[h3ro]

You like those torque bows?

I heard the sound of the bow getting stuck on me and all I could think was "...fuuuuuck." :lol

WTB Horde!

Gamertag: Whitta

I tried adding you, your list is full...

 

[Gowans]

what's so hard about those lakes?... isn't it just a pad you can take.. i made it in one time. (on normal though.. maybe hardcore is much more difficult..).

didn't think it was fun though... that was a very repetative part. lol they even had Marcus say the same line in different ways. they probably knew it was a bit too much.

Done! I just had to slow down, I was going balls out and holes were showing up as I was going over them, but all you have to do is just sit back and wait for the gaps.

 

[Always-honest]

Done! I just had to slow down, I was going balls out and holes were showing up as I was going over them, but all you have to do is just sit back and wait for the gaps.

yeah, i was going slow to.

 

[Darkman M]

For the curious...



http://majornelson.com/archive/2008...we-unlocked-over-19-million-achievements.aspx

2 million just over the weekend? Wow this game might hit 4 million over the holiday season then maybe?

 

[Shoogoo]

I was going balls out

:lol :lol I don't understand that expression, why balls? I guess the meaning but :lol

 

[Chinner]

Definitely, the shotty was a broken ass weapon in Gears 1. It feels so much better now actually (for me), the shots require some precision and a little bit of planning if you want the kill, no more mindless firing just hoping to get someone.

Pretty much. Apparantly the folk on the Epic forums are saying that there is a glitch with the shotgun that when you shoot from the hip it hits the ground instead of going forward. I want to try it before confirming but this may be causing some of the grief with the hardcore hip fires.

Another weird thing I've noticed with the shotgun is this: If you shoot a wall with any other gun, you will see the bullet hit the wall instantly. Now with the shotgun theres like half a second delay. Now, either they've disgused how long it takes for the bullet to register and they forgot to do it for the shotgun or they're deliberately made it slower for the shotgun so its harder to use. This is pretty unfair and would cause quite alot of grief as well.

I know we've all expressed our opinions on the shotgun but I might as well thrown mine in. The shotgun in Gears 1 was pretty awesome, I'm not denying it. The problem was that it outgrew its purpose and was abused too much. You would see people hip firing from a decent distance and managing to down someone. The shotgun is meant to be used in close quater combat. Ya know, its meant to be personal and precious

However they really need to fix the chainsaw thing. If they can fix that, I bet you will see 70% of these shotgun complaints disappear over night. Mainly because shotgunners will actually have a chance again.

 

[bumpkin]

Oh man, good times! I finally decided to pop my execution and warzone cherries last night... Met a few players on Horde on a Public XBL match and after our games were over, one of them invited me to join him and his other friends in some regular multiplayer. Had a lot of fun! We probably played about 10 or 15 matches against all sorts of random teams. We even accidentally found a really weird glitch; one that was very unfortunate for the opposing team. Through some sort of connection/matchmaking hiccup, our team had six players on it. Meanwhile, our opponents only had four. We all felt kinda bad, but it was actually kind of funny at the same time. I'll bet they all gave us bad reviews and probably claimed we were intentionally cheating. :lol

Either way, I think it's safe to say I'm hooked now and will be playing more multiplayer in the future. I don't know why I didn't bother with it on the original Gears. I think it was because of the fear of getting my ass handed to me by homophobic 8 year olds with sailor mouths. I've actually been pretty lucky thus far in my online Gears 2 experiences. I'm sure the law of averages says I'll encounter at least one douchebag, but so far I haven't so I'm thankful.

Well, I suppose it's possible the foreigners we played in one of our last matches last night may have been talking trash... It was hard to tell. All I heard was gibberish... Maybe something about telemundo. :lol

 

[Gowans]

:lol :lol I don't understand that expression, why balls? I guess the meaning but :lol

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/balls+out

1. the state of fearlessness associated with confident testicular exposure in precarious circumstances. With reckless abandon and extreme courage;

 

[TANKFARM]

They need to add an option to change the Y button to weapon toggle on multiplayer. It would be great if you could have Y toggle between your two primary weapons. The d-pads on the 360 are too unreliable to make a quick switch between the hammer burst and shotgun or vice versa.

 

[painey]

I just beat it on hardcore, and im very mixed. There are some great bits and some very tedious bits, especially the crappy scripted sequences and driving section. I loved the end though, I played the last part of the game with a random co-op'er and it was great fun.. I find when I play with a friend I dont enjoy it as much as im constantly talking on the headset but when I played with this guy without mics we just got down to the game and stormed through. I'll play through Insane mode soon but first I have 5 games screaming to be played.

 

[Aladuf]

Valvoga what the fuck at you being ranked 719th in the entire world at Horde on Jacinto?! Also, great games tonight. Winning that last Wingman match helped me to not be so pissed that I've been doing homework for one class for the past two hours.

He's ranked 179th, not 719. I think you got those numbers mixed up but I definitely remember seeing it in the 100's when me and you were checking everybody's scores last night.

 

[dark10x]

The ART, THE FUCKING ART!!! The environments are incredible! Gears 1 was standard shooting against a generic war backdrop.

You've got to be kidding me. The scenery in the original game was anything BUT generic.

 

[Kill Your Masters]

I feel like I slept with a dirty slut. Sure it was fun, but definitely not something to be proud of.

Well on Insane, you are the dirty slut in a big giant interracial gangbang.

 

[kaizoku]

Well on Insane, you are the dirty slut in a big giant interracial gangbang.

with tentacles

 

[Hammer24]

Well on Insane, you are the dirty slut in a big giant interracial gangbang.

..confident testicular exposure in precarious circumstances. With reckless abandon and extreme courage...

 

[dskillzhtown]

tried where I was stuck last night on my lunch break.

Icey lakes can suck my Rod!

What you do is take your time. There is no time limit or anything so you can stop to fight, wait for ice to break, then move on. You do not need to rush at all. I think that is what alot of people are doing, trying to rush through the level.

 

[Eighthours]

Welcome to last week, UK-based PSO: http://pressstartblog.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/gearsofwar2/ :lol

The obligatory GOW2 review.

Cliff Bleszinski (née: ‘B’) may have spent much of the year talking about how Gears of War 2 has problems with its bottom, but the only piles on display here are the ‘of setpieces’ variety. Immensely loud and dumb the series remains, but when playing it is so much fun, who needs Proust?

It comes as no surprise that big unit sales for Gears 1 ensured that the Lightmass bomb unleashed against the Locust at the end of the first game didn’t succeed in wiping them out, proving once again that capitalism is the real adversary in videogame plotland. Marcus Fenix (sic) and his lovelorn sidekick Dom are therefore tasked with blowing shit up to save humanity. It’s our last stand… again, and you have to go deep into the enemy’s lair to set off a big bomb… again. Yes, the sophisticated tunnel mapping you went to so much trouble gathering in Gears 1 managed to completely miss the existence of a massive underground Locust city. Should have called Ordnance Survey.

New to the experience is an attempt at proper story pathos, which works intermittently, although the themes of love and loss fight against the casual uberviolence present in the game. This isn’t helped by the script being fairly rubbish (although sometimes you’re convinced that it knows it) despite the presence of a well-known comic book writer on scribe duties, and the voice acting is solid but occasionally overwrought (Dom’s big ‘moment’ is visually superb, but partially ruined by the actor’s OTT line delivery and few real story consequences). Turn off the subtitles and your brain on entry, and everything seems better. Don’t think. Just shoot.

The trademark use of cover, pop and shoot in the game’s firefights is all present and correct, but what’s surprising this time around is the amount of variety to break up the classic Gears gameplay. For every familiar courtyard encounter with a group of enemies, there’s an on-rails vehicle section with crazy amounts of explosions going on all around you, a new environmental hazard that forces you to adopt a newer, riskier strategy to keep going forwards, a thrilling boat trip, a sinking city, a massive boss battle, using the enemy’s own forces against them in a bravura fireworks display – there’s rarely a dull moment.

New weapons fit into the series well - the flamethrower being a particular visual highlight – and, thankfully, any that seem overpowered at first glance come with a crippling movement speed modifier or an aiming disadvantage that doesn’t throw off the delicate balancing on display. Portable cover proves to be an inspired new feature too, with the use of metal shields from certain downed enemies (at the cost of using better guns while you’re walking around with them) providing another option to get close to a group of entrenched nasties, without making everything too easy. The Locust sport well-integrated new forces, including the Warg-like Bloodmounts; the massive, shield-carrying Maulers; and the intensely irritating, exploding Tickers. There’s more to the game than before, then, but the additions work without adversely affecting gameplay. It’s all rather splendid.

Graphically, the ‘destroyed beauty’ angle of the first game has been dialled down somewhat in favour of elaborate underground areas, enemy temples, and spectacular outdoor vistas. It’s a different aesthetic: one moment more colourful than the original game, the next even gloomier. The design work remains impressive, and there are several sequences that showcase the major advances made to the Unreal Engine 3 in the intervening period. True, the infamous ‘Meat Cubes’, Hordes and environmental destruction don’t show up as much as we perhaps expected after their unveiling at GDC, but everything’s a clear level up from Gears 1.

The same applies to the music too, the volume of which badly needs to be turned up from its default setting. Whether the atmospheric pieces present in the lead-up to the next encounter, or the pulse-pounding score during frenetic battles, it genuinely adds to the experience, along with the general sound mix for the meaty effects.

Longer than the original game’s campaign, Gears 2 certainly gives you your money’s worth in single player alone, and the different difficulty settings, as well as extremely solid online co-op support, encourage replayability. The online setup rivals Halo 3’s integration, with your friends list always available on the controller’s left bumper in the menus, meaning that you don’t have to go through the slow Xbox Guide functions to invite people into a game.

Online multiplayer is potentially fantastic but currently a mixed bag due to matchmaking issues. The new objective gametypes (Gears-tailored variants on the standard King of the Hill, Domination and Capture the Flag) are excellent, the play is virtually lag-free through decent connections, and the maps are generally well designed, with many of the complaints from Gears 1 (e.g. shotgun spamming) eliminated. The problem with online at the moment is that it can take upwards of five minutes to find a game, which is a serious drawback, particularly when you consider that you’re thrown back to the menus at the end of a match. Private matches are unaffected by this, of course, and the ability to form a party of five (no Neve Campbell included, unfortunately) to move around ranked games will come into its own as soon as a patch for the matchmaking issues is forthcoming.

Now for the really good stuff. The co-operative Horde mode, where up to five human players face off against waves of Locust, is one of the most exciting and addictive game modes I’ve ever played. It’s incredibly tense, with the limited ammo and race for decent cover points against the aggressive enemy AI bringing to mind Michael Caine battling against all odds in a bastardised alien version of Zulu. Starting off easily enough, with low-powered enemies and slow Butchers proving to be easy cannon fodder in the early waves, you’ll soon be screaming in panic as multiple Bloodmounts leap over your security cordon and groups of Maulers assault your position en masse, while your carefully prepared defence plans disintegrate into chaos. The difficulty escalates to a peak in every tenth wave, with the overall strength of every enemy in the Horde then increasing, ready for the next ten to begin. When you consider that there are fifty waves, with the same difficulty levels available as in the campaign mode, and all the multiplayer maps to choose from, Horde is almost endlessly replayable, and the undisputed highlight of the game.

Regardless of its minor issues, Gears 2 is a triumph. With the door for a further sequel left not so much open as clean blown off its hinges at the game’s climax, it’s difficult to see how the series can possibly top this instalment in the current console generation. Other devs would be well advised to consult CliffsNotes before bothering with a further preponderance of third-person, second best imitators, however, as Gears 2 has emerged in the rude health of a vintage Bruckheimer blockbuster, and is by some distance the standout entry of its genre.

 

[kinggroin]

Almost done with Contra 5 (that's a HUGE compliment btw).



My lord, this makes Gears 1 look so amateur.

 

[kuYuri]

I wasn't suggesting them to be the same size as the guys.

I was asking about this earlier, but I could have sworn there was a female Gears medic in Act 2.

 

[sixteen-bit]

My lord, this makes Gears 1 look so amateur.

At this point I'm convinced Gears of War was just a tech demo made into a game.

Gears2 rocks.

 

[RSTEIN]

My lord, this makes Gears 1 look so amateur.

Yeah, it makes it look so puny and really insecure about itself. There's just so much more confidence behind the game's direction this time around.

 

[tedtropy]

This is late, but I posted about the same issue earlier. I think it was caused by rolling on the ship, it seemed like when I rolled into the tentacle to chainsaw I got stuck up in the air and couldn't move.

Oops, I meant to edit this above, fuck me.

Yeah, it definitely has something to do with the nifty boat physics wizardry going on during that part of the level. I never managed to get stuck mid-air (although it would've been fun to see), but it always seemed to happen when I was closer to the far-end before the creature attached to the boat. It would rock like crazy, and then it's like Marcus would sometimes clip through part of the boat or a nearby box and then he just wasn't going anywhere. Couldn't roll my way out of it, shooting did nothing, I was just stuck in that position generally until I got gibbed by the boss.

I'm all for a challenge, but when the game itself glitching kills you...eh, not so fun. I've noticed in general that Gears 2 tends to be a little quirkier than the first. I've played 1 probably over half a dozen times in assorted single-player and co-op runs and don't remember anything quite like this, but certainly all games have their buggy moments.

Still having tons of fun with it.

 

[sinnergy]

What you do is take your time. There is no time limit or anything so you can stop to fight, wait for ice to break, then move on. You do not need to rush at all. I think that is what alot of people are doing, trying to rush through the level.

Yeah.. I had zero problems with this part... I fell in onces and learned my lesson.

 

[pr0cs]

I still have no idea how they are going to come up with a sequel that is going to come close to this game, esp if they want to have it out in a few years, before the end of this gen.
Hopefully it will be the last Pièce de résistance or the 360s final swansong, either way Epic has it's work cut out for it regarding a sequel .

 

[Doodis]

Finished the campaign the other night and I just realized something. In the first level, the very first piece you can take cover behind is a table that you can pull over. I thought that was a pretty cool, though minor, addition. But I just realized that I never pulled down another piece of cover anywhere else in the entire game. Did I just miss the opportunities or was that a one-off occurrence?

 

[dark10x]

At this point I'm convinced Gears of War was just a tech demo made into a game.

Gears2 rocks.

I just can't understand this. The mechanics are virtually the same between the two games. Hell, just to confirm, I spent some time yesterday playing Gears 1 and, as I suspected, it really felt very much the same as the sequel. I still prefer the environments of Gears 1.

Furthermore, the sequel has too many long range battles, which just don't feel all that satisfying with most weapons. Gears 1 tends to keep the enemies in closer proximity to the player which I found more enjoyable. Gears 2 also focuses too heavily on all of its setpiece events (which ARE enjoyable) rather than providing more scenarios for the core gameplay. I do believe that Gears 2 will be less enjoyable to replay as a result. Its levels seem more impressive on the first run, but you spend far too much time "waiting" for things to occur. Gears 1 was once described as a platformer of sorts (moving from cover to cover) and I feel that Gears 2 doesn't quite put this to use as much as I would have liked.

Also, the music in the sequel is incredibly good as hoped, but I feel the original game made better use of its soundtrack. I realized, while playing Gears 1 yesterday, that the music was stronger in relation to the action. There has yet to be anything quite intense (musically) as the train battle in Gears 1, for instance.

I'm only really bringing this up again as I feel people are giving Gears 1 a lot of undeserved shit. Both are excellent AAA shooters and deserve praise (I'm also happy that Gears 2 seems lengthier than the original). Suggesting that Gears 1 was like a tech demo in comparison to the sequel just strikes me insulting to the original.

 

[Prine]

I thought Gears 1 music was terrible. I even hate the main menu music of Gears 2 because they remixed Gears 1. Hate it!

I think i hated almost everything but the graphics in Gears 1. Which is why im so surprised with G2!