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Gears of War 2 |OT| ...Maria...MARIA!!!

sh4mike

Member
Beat it. Campaign Impressions:

1. Gameplay largely unchanged but still top-tier (e.g. "30 seconds of fun" repeated again and again)
2. Environments had a larger scale in GOW2, but I enjoyed the GOW1 locations more (GOW2 Act4 notable exception).
3. The added drama scenes were hit and miss.
4. GOW2 intra-gameplay dialogue was better and funnier.
5. Hated the driving piece in GOW1, same feeling in GOW2 for the 3 "driving" exercises (passable the first time due to story progression, but not looking forward to doing these again)
6. GOW1 battle music was better.

GOW1 SP Campaign score (no retrofit): 9.5
GOW2 SP Campaign score: 8.5
 

LowParry

Member
StoOgE said:
Ok, this game is seriously a C+ right now, which is really disapointing considing the first is my favorite game this generation.

There is too much shit that requires you to act really fast, which is the opposite of the first game which rewarded being methodical. It also seems like they've gotten too cute so far and aren't using enough of the core gameplay mechanic. Hopefully this gets a lot better and the game goes back to its roots.

The first game had a handful of parts that I didnt care for... the rambler (bleh) and the trike gun on the train at the end. They came up with clever ways to rely on the same core gameplay mechanic. Right now it feels like I'm playing some random game and not Gears 2.


Beat the game, then come back. :D
 

WrikaWrek

Banned
I wish people didn't feel the need to attribute scores in a message board opinion.

Seriously, who gives a shit? There's "official" reviews for that.
 

Chinner

Banned
WrikaWrek said:
I wish people didn't feel the need to attribute scores in a message board opinion.

Seriously, who gives a shit? There's "official" reviews for that.
i give this post 7.4 out of 10. i do agree though, perhaps they're wannabe game journalists and think that we all care?
 

sprocket

Banned
WrikaWrek said:
I wish people didn't feel the need to attribute scores in a message board opinion.

Seriously, who gives a shit? There's "official" reviews for that.

official? lol those guys are just as bad as us. Hell some are us! :lol
 

Klocker

Member
Zabka said:
I am shocked at how stupid the online system is. One of the big reasons why Call of Duty 4 has the most popular multiplayer is because there is no bullshit to get through to play the damn game, and once you're in the game you just keep playing as players are dropped and added. Gears 2 just feels like it's wasting my time. Why Halo 3 is considered the standard I will never understand.

I'm also disappointed with the alternate control scheme. If they had put just dodge on Y it would be perfect.

The campaign was great though, except for Act I and the tank part.

hell yea!

CoD 4 and now WaW and their Matchmaking system are the best ever. although I'm enduring the BS in GoW2 mp (because it's fun as hell) why the hell it takes so long to match you up and why it boots you after a match makes no sense. CoD series is the model of online perfection IMO, no dictatorship hosts, no searching, searching, searching... you start the game, go to multiplayer and 20 seconds later you're killing, even joining in progress..
 

Big-E

Member
Just beat the game now on Hardcore. Overall it was awesome but it had a few sections that pissed me off. Every single driving section aside from the
Brumak
section was complete garbage and were the low points in the game. Graphically, I thought the game looked awesome but I felt the
mountain section in the Centaur
was quite ugly looking. Story wise, I thought it did a much better job compared to the first one but I was upset that they didn't really explain why the
Lambent and the Locust are at odds with each other and there was no explanation as to what would happen if they were to kill the Locust but not all the Lambent.
. The last act I felt was not as good as the rest but still it was pretty awesome. Very well done Epic and I liked the little
MGS type ending after the credits.
 

Facism

Member
Chainsaw doesn't drop when you're hit anymore? Lead to some hilarity and sore assholes when i mangled 3 shotgunners 1 after the other with the bayonet even though they shot me up.
 

painey

Member
I cant believe they turned the Online into the Halo 3 clusterfuck.. I want to play certain modes, not have a vote. People are quitting left, right and center because they lose a vote of what game to play and dont want to play 20mins of a shitty gamemode.
 
Facism said:
Chainsaw doesn't drop when you're hit anymore?

It does sometimes. I've got shot with the Shotgun and have it stop. I think it depends on how good the shot that hits you is. For instance, if it's close, and hits you dead center, I think it does.
 

Big-E

Member
just tray said:
Don't get me wrong, I love the water in Bioshock, and Uncharted but Gears 2 has the best water in any game period.

Funny, I thought the water was the most ugly element of the entire game.
 

Shins

Banned
StoOgE said:
We'll see, but this derrick crap is making me wish I had just waited for Mirrors Edge :/
I've seen a lot of people not enjoying the derrick sequence. Why is that? I thought it was magnificent visually, and gameplay-wise, its on on-rails version of the standard gameplay. Is the narrow space available really that large of an issue? For me, the feeling of intensity brought on by the visuals made up for the limited space. It felt like a roller-coaster. Maybe I just got lucky with the instant-death moments; were those of you that didn't enjoy it dying a lot?

I thought the first Act was by far the least fun/impressive. Each progressive Act gets better, with a bit of a tie for Acts 4 and 5 as those excel in different ways.
 

sprocket

Banned
just tray said:
Don't get me wrong, I love the water in Bioshock, and Uncharted but Gears 2 has the best water in any game period.

no there is another game out now that has that title. though GOW2 does have impressive water in the later levels.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Shins said:
I've seen a lot of people not enjoying the derrick sequence. Why is that? I thought it was magnificent visually, and gameplay-wise, its on on-rails version of the standard gameplay. Is the narrow space available really that large of an issue? For me, the feeling of intensity brought on by the visuals made up for the limited space. It felt like a roller-coaster. Maybe I just got lucky with the instant-death moments; were those of you that didn't enjoy it dying a lot?

I thought the first Act was by far the least fun/impressive. Each progressive Act gets better, with a bit of a tie for Acts 4 and 5 as those excel in different ways.

It certainly looked pretty (I'm done with it now).. but there are a few problems with it for me.

1) The two platforms moving in relation to one another make it hard to know where you are going to have a strategic advantage on the badguy.

2) The two scenes where you can die without dieing. Failed objectives without dying are a big turn off for me in general with games. So the part where you have 3 seconds (so it seems) to kill the driver of the other vehicle and the "kill the nemesis before it hits you 3 times" really bugged me.

3) It also seems like for the most part you don't do that much. You just kind of fire your turret at will at the baddies and watch them fall. Some of the "cooler" moments like corpsers and those other big things jumping out of the ground at you look cool, but you just kind of fire at them until some staged event takes car of them (tank showing up, killing it, etc).

I'm having a much better time now that I am in landdown and I'm back to the core of the gameplay.
 

razorman

Member
Did anyone else find it strange that:

Epic made a big deal about the two new characters Tai and Dizzy, but Tai was killed off early in the game and Dizzy disappeared and was not seen again. Maybe some story segments of the game were cut? Also seems like they are hinting something between Anya and Marcus at the end. Gears of Romance?! :lol

Anyway game was superb and the graphics were spectacular. The beginning of Act 3 in the rain outside was so atmospheric. I'd love to see a RPG or survival horror with this kind of visual impact.
 

Big-E

Member
just tray said:
Tell that to the last chapter of act 3

That is where the water is the ugliest and really shows their ain't much to it.
When the boss in the level drags you down a bit a completely flat line of water appears above or around your head and is garbage. The water is garbage and detracts from the great boss fight.
 

bumpkin

Member
So I played a bunch of rounds of Horde online last night -- managed to get the "Dirty Dirty Horde" achievement -- but I noticed that I kept having to play on Avalanche. Does anyone else get the impression that's a lot of people's favorite level? I think it probably has to do with the mulcher or mortar being available on one of the rooftops, but it was still annoying to always be in the same stage.

One thing I did encounter on a particular round was something that has to be host/lag related; I basically had an infinite clip and couldn't deal any damage to enemies. I would unload dozens and dozens of bullets into a locust and it wouldn't even react. Meanwhile, there was one person on our team who could actually kill them. At the end the kid is like, "well that was a crappy game." It's like well yeah. Nobody but *you* could kill anything! :lol

I also have a question... Might be a dumb one but I have to ask. Is there a way to tell what difficulty the host set Horde on?
 

Shins

Banned
StoOgE said:
a list of good points.
I can see where you're coming from there. I think I liked it a lot since I was able to get through it all in one go, so nothing felt like a chore and the "pop" of all those moments going on in the background didn't become repetitive as I had to watch everything multiple times.

My taste would have soured quickly if it had lasted as long as the tank sequence. That was far, far too long and tedious.
 

Kaako

Felium Defensor
Dax01 said:
Fail.

GoW2 Campaign > GoW1.

Seriously...who in their right mind thinks that the SP campaign in the first game is better than the second one? The second one completely destroys it in every single aspect imo. It's much more enjoyable and the set pieces, environments, gameplay is a lot better than the first one.
 

Rikyfree

Member
razorman said:
Did anyone else find it strange that:

Epic made a big deal about the two new characters Tai and Dizzy, but Tai was killed off early in the game and Dizzy disappeared and was not seen again. Maybe some story segments of the game were cut? Also seems like they are hinting something between Anya and Marcus at the end. Gears of Romance?! :lol

Anyway game was superb and the graphics were spectacular. The beginning of Act 3 in the rain outside was so atmospheric. I'd love to see a RPG or survival horror with this kind of visual impact.

Well Maria did die, and I felt that is kinda a love/loss sub-plot. So maybe...

Also does anyone know how to submit a photo?
 
Ok. I'm pissed off. How do you possibly
Shoot the rockets!!!!! on the awful tunnel ride sequence. I'll be lucky if I catch one with the gun.
 

Big-E

Member
Warm Machine said:
Ok. I'm pissed off. How do you possibly
Shoot the rockets!!!!! on the awful tunnel ride sequence. I'll be lucky if I catch one with the gun.

Took me a while to figure it out but
you got to dodge them by moving with the Left Stick.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I hated the sections in GoW1 where you are forced to split in co-op, only due to instant reload upon death. Sometimes the checkpoints can be a bit too punishing forcing too many repeats of room clearing because a wretch blows up in someones face after all is said and done. Really destroyed the momentum and pacing high.

In fact, Gears 1 had a lot of frustrating 1-hit kill enemies that I thought brought the campaign down somewhat. (Theron guard crossbow stickies, wretches, boomers, etc...) In most cases they are easilly avoidable, but most of the reloads occurred NOT because of being overwhelmed in a typical firefight, but because something one-shotted me or my partner. Hated that.

If GoW2 fixes this up, then it automatically is a better campaign by default.
 

StoOgE

First tragedy, then farce.
Brandon F said:
I hated the sections in GoW1 where you are forced to split in co-op, only due to instant reload upon death. Sometimes the checkpoints can be a bit too punishing forcing too many repeats of room clearing because a wretch blows up in someones face after all is said and done. Really destroyed the momentum and pacing high.

In fact, Gears 1 had a lot of frustrating 1-hit kill enemies that I thought brought the campaign down somewhat. (Theron guard crossbow stickies, wretches, boomers, etc...) In most cases they are easilly avoidable, but most of the reloads occurred NOT because of being overwhelmed in a typical firefight, but because something one-shotted me or my partner. Hated that.

If GoW2 fixes this up, then it automatically is a better campaign by default.

I liked the Theron gaurd and Boomers in the first one. They both telegraphed their shots with audio cues. It made you wait until they took their shot then you could pop up and move closer to them, take your shots, etc.

Worked well I thought.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
See, I think the music was great but not as good as in Gears 1. Gears 1 had that really memorable string theme that played very frequently. This game has some really great music that highlights the action going on but I don't think it had a strong theme that I can really remember.
 

sprocket

Banned
Kaako said:
Seriously...who in their right mind thinks that the SP campaign in the first game is better than the second one? The second one completely destroys it in every single aspect imo. It's much more enjoyable and the set pieces, environments, gameplay is a lot better than the first one.

Me :D
 

dejan

Member
WrikaWrek said:
Yeah but you're sprocket. Aren't you more worried about the trolling in this certain other thread? :lol
It's sprocket. After the huge Resistance 2 backlash in the official thread he "suddenly" decided to share his opinions on Gears 2 with us. Ain't he precious?
 
Y2Kev said:
See, I think the music was great but not as good as in Gears 1. Gears 1 had that really memorable string theme that played very frequently. This game has some really great music that highlights the action going on but I don't think it had a strong theme that I can really remember.

I've got the soundtrack to Gears 1 and honestly don't like it that much. It works in the game but on its own it is a ramble of pieces. There are some wow tracks in Gears 2 but wonder if the same will be true on the soundtrack as a whole.
 

Kibbles

Member
Does anybody know how to set it so you can hear voice chat? I can't hear my friend, even though my guide menu says my voice output is set to speakers (my mic broke). WTF?
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
why


WHY does this game make me
walk right up to a heart and cut its arteries with a chainsaw?


fucking WHY


there is ONE part of the human anatomy that makes me want to vomit/pass out, and that's it.

what's more, they make me do it
THREE FUCKING TIMES


I honestly had to stop and take a breather at one point, drink some water, chill on Facebook for 20 minutes, get the mail. I really don't know if I can play through this game again because of that one part.


Please tell me I at least don't have to do that again later in the game! I just started Act 3, BTW.
 
Danthrax said:
why


WHY does this game make me
walk right up to a heart and cut its arteries with a chainsaw?


fucking WHY


there is ONE part of the human anatomy that makes me want to vomit/pass out, and that's it.

what's more, they make me do it
THREE FUCKING TIMES


I honestly had to stop and take a breather at one point, drink some water, chill on Facebook for 20 minutes, get the mail. I really don't know if I can play through this game again because of that one part.


Please tell me I at least don't have to do that again later in the game! I just started Act 3, BTW.
That part was so fucking awesome. I loved doing it.
 

LowParry

Member
So after a few MP matches, I can see why people hate that chainsaw. :lol Shoot all you want, but if they get close, you're dead. You're best defense against that is to chainsaw back and press B like a mutha fucka! On another related note of "things I don't like about MP" is that damn smoke grenade. Need I say more. Carry on.
 

Aladuf

Banned
Jazzy Network said:
Er wut? I get a ton of kills from idiots who charge in and I blindfire the shotty to 1 shot them.
Late response on my part but it's not that blindfiring the shotty in Gears 1 was ineffective by any means but 9 times out of 10 if you had two people with shotty and one was just blindfiring and the other was quick scoping then scoper would win just because by doing it you get that extra bit of accuracy.
 

Ramirez

Member
Chainsaw needs a nerf, fast. Why did they change it from the first game? You shouldn't be able to continue the animation if you're getting shot while revving it up.
 
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