Keller
11-10-2008, 11:04 AM
So this is how I spent most of my weekend.
I took Friday off of work and my best friend crashed at my apartment from Thursday at midnight until last night around 8pm. We stopped for the occasional meal, a few hours of sleep, and not much else.
We beat the campaign and I've got to say that it is materially improved from the first iteration. The weapons/mobs are more dynamic. The story/scenery is more evolved. And believe it or not -- I think the graphics/art is prettier.
We also played the hell out of multi-player. When we had friends on -- we played public (ranked) matches. The new party system is SOOO much better than the old Gears. My only complaint about the party system is that if you've got 4 players (out of a 5 player party) it takes a few minutes to find someone solo-queueing.
When we didn't have friends on, we played 2v2 (5 teams of 2v2 in the same instance). That provides a pretty fun game-break from 5v5 and is much more quick as the name of the game is to get kills and not just win the round by being the last team alive.
We didn't play horde (5vMobs, 50 levels with increasing difficulty) very much -- but that also seems promising.
As far as the actual multi-player gameplay, here is my scoop. The shotgun got nerfed and the chainsaw got buffed. There is no more frag-tag kills, but you can tag walls/floor for proximity grenades. There are now multiple finishing moves, including the ability to pick up a downed enemy and use him as a meatshield (although you're limited to your pistol). The most annoying part of the game (with the shotgun-nerf/chainsaw-buff as a close second) is that the weapons are not static. They alternate. So take the old Gridlock for example. Round 1, there would be a sniper in the sniper tower and a boomshot at the boomshot arch. Round 2, there is now a torquebow at sniper and a flamethrower at the boomshot arch. Some people might like this -- I find it fucking annoying as all hell.
There are tons of new weapons -- mostly pretty lame imo. The new locust pistol is a POS -- it's like a hammer-burst without the power of a hammer-burst. The flame-thrower is unpredictable. Sometimes you kill people in 1-second, other times it'll take 5 seconds to down them. The mortar is probably the most fun of the new weapons. It rains down boomshots on an area up to 150 meters away from where you shoot it. 50-150m is the range. There is also a shield and a gatlin-gun. Both slow your movement and both are only marginally useful. I personally find the gatlin-gun only works well at close range.
Anyways -- there is my quick recap. I'd say GoW2 is sort of like Pinkerton. At first I really missed the Blue album, but after a few spins I realize that GoW2 is just as genious, if in a slightly modified and quirky way.
I took Friday off of work and my best friend crashed at my apartment from Thursday at midnight until last night around 8pm. We stopped for the occasional meal, a few hours of sleep, and not much else.
We beat the campaign and I've got to say that it is materially improved from the first iteration. The weapons/mobs are more dynamic. The story/scenery is more evolved. And believe it or not -- I think the graphics/art is prettier.
We also played the hell out of multi-player. When we had friends on -- we played public (ranked) matches. The new party system is SOOO much better than the old Gears. My only complaint about the party system is that if you've got 4 players (out of a 5 player party) it takes a few minutes to find someone solo-queueing.
When we didn't have friends on, we played 2v2 (5 teams of 2v2 in the same instance). That provides a pretty fun game-break from 5v5 and is much more quick as the name of the game is to get kills and not just win the round by being the last team alive.
We didn't play horde (5vMobs, 50 levels with increasing difficulty) very much -- but that also seems promising.
As far as the actual multi-player gameplay, here is my scoop. The shotgun got nerfed and the chainsaw got buffed. There is no more frag-tag kills, but you can tag walls/floor for proximity grenades. There are now multiple finishing moves, including the ability to pick up a downed enemy and use him as a meatshield (although you're limited to your pistol). The most annoying part of the game (with the shotgun-nerf/chainsaw-buff as a close second) is that the weapons are not static. They alternate. So take the old Gridlock for example. Round 1, there would be a sniper in the sniper tower and a boomshot at the boomshot arch. Round 2, there is now a torquebow at sniper and a flamethrower at the boomshot arch. Some people might like this -- I find it fucking annoying as all hell.
There are tons of new weapons -- mostly pretty lame imo. The new locust pistol is a POS -- it's like a hammer-burst without the power of a hammer-burst. The flame-thrower is unpredictable. Sometimes you kill people in 1-second, other times it'll take 5 seconds to down them. The mortar is probably the most fun of the new weapons. It rains down boomshots on an area up to 150 meters away from where you shoot it. 50-150m is the range. There is also a shield and a gatlin-gun. Both slow your movement and both are only marginally useful. I personally find the gatlin-gun only works well at close range.
Anyways -- there is my quick recap. I'd say GoW2 is sort of like Pinkerton. At first I really missed the Blue album, but after a few spins I realize that GoW2 is just as genious, if in a slightly modified and quirky way.