CliffyB: Gears 2 Played With Itself Too Much

[Dr. Danger]

Am I the only one who actually likes scripted sequences? I don't want to play a game non stop for hours on end and those little cutscenes were just the break (along with glimpse into the story) I needed. Gears of War 2, for instance, did not have the Devil May Cry syndrome. At least, I don't believe it did.

 

[solidstatemind]

Scripted sequences are like frosting: some is a very nice touch, but if you overdo it, it quickly becomes sickening.

While I would laud CliffyB for being capable of relatively brutal self-analysis, the truth is that I think he's a bit off the mark here. Gears2 was pretty cool, and I never felt that the scripted sequences broke the immersion (which is really what you should be concerned with); there are plenty of games out there today which are largely extended scripted sequences with some player interaction and quick-time events thrown in... Heavy Rain comes to mind.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I thought the game played fine, but I do like the Drive to do better from Cliffy B. I hope for the best with Gears 3 and I hope it will be the biggest game of the Trilogy.

 

[3LANCER]

Just hoping they would fix the character voices, I keep laughing my ass off whenever I try to play GoW. It's trying too much to sound macho and all it does is to be over the top and ridiculous, hence I never finished a Gears game.

 

[hansari]

Lol

He uses the word scripted...which implies a story...which Gears of War desperately fails at...

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Just hoping they would fix the character voices, I keep laughing my ass off whenever I try to play GoW. It's trying too much to sound macho and all it does is to be over the top and ridiculous, hence I never finished a Gears game.

I'm not entirely sure that it's supposed to be taken completely seriously. The Gears of War franchise rubs me very much in the way that Dragon Ball Z does. It's jam-packed with so much testosterone and sheer manly balls that it ends up being simultaneously stupid and awesome, only occasionally delivering a truly emotional moment (though when that happens, it delivers surprisingly well).

 

[Phokal]

I have no problem with scripted sequences. What I hate is watching them again. If you have something cool happen, place a checkpoint right after that (maybe 10 seconds before the "we may kill you" part). That way, when some air rider dude knocks my truck off the tracks, I don't have to watch the scripted sequence of "Incoming Mortars!" again, and again, and again.

 

[Arkvoodle]

The thing I want to see most in the third Gears of War game is some kind of balance between the controller-throwing frustrating difficulty of the Gears 1 final boss & the mind-numbingly simplistic "challenge" of the Gears 2 final boss.

 

[Rad Party God]

I don't think that the multiplayer was broken, it was a bit... buggy?, and a bit... sloppy?... yeah... it's broken...

OT: Yeah, I can see wich moments CliffyB was reffering to, like that final moment in Landown, where you have to wait for a couple of minutes for a chopper to come and pick you, most of the vehicles sequences (please, dear god, fix the tank sequence or skip it already...). But the BIG moments that I simply said with a huge and loud WTF were the Skorge fight and the final battle with the Lambent Brumak... c'mon, RAAM was way more epic and harder than this, just as CliffyB said "the game played by itself"...

 

[Stabby Joe]

Scripted sequences are like frosting: some is a very nice touch, but if you overdo it, it quickly becomes sickening.

While I would laud CliffyB for being capable of relatively brutal self-analysis, the truth is that I think he's a bit off the mark here. Gears2 was pretty cool, and I never felt that the scripted sequences broke the immersion (which is really what you should be concerned with); there are plenty of games out there today which are largely extended scripted sequences with some player interaction and quick-time events thrown in... Heavy Rain comes to mind.

I'd be more annoyed with games that have enough use input but heavily use QTEs as a substitute. Heavy Rain isn't really that sort of game considering QTEs were the whole game.

 

[Worgen]

I like the scripted sequences, it gives the game more of an epic feel instead of you having to do every fucken thing, if the choice is between "we have this huge army with lots of giant tanks but we are going to all stand here and drink while you have to kill every little thing" and "wahhhhhhh lets kill everything in awesome giant battles that make it seem like there is more then just your piddly little gun shooting it" then Im going with the second choice. Altho it would be cool if you could chose to either be part of the big army or go off on your own for some special ops shit

 

[WJeff]

What in god's name is wrong with scripting? I love scripted games. Sure, they're really predictable when you run through it a second time, but the first run through always feels so dynamic.

 

[duchaked]

I didn't think the scripting was that bad, since the 3 main ones that I think of (probably cuz these were the main levels I bothered replaying) were moments when you were facing literally overwhelming odds

when you're defending the rig as it's being repaired...thank goodness for the cavalry
when Cole shows up and clears out the locust who have the high ground...yes

okay that one moment in the first level after pushing outta the hospital where the King Ravens swoop in cut things real short, but it kinda moved things along since it was beginning to drag on anyway

(if I have anything to complain about, it'd be...well environmental hazards such as the ones that drop you into a basement full of respawning wretches or razor hail that my co-op buddy can't seem to avoid lolll)

so I was okay with it, but I can definitely imagine a game overdoing it
as long as Cole gets another epic rant in Gears 3 I think a lotta us will be happy =]

 

[Nouw]

Oh goody! Gears 3 will be better then!

 

[DoW Lowen]

Can't wait, I've never been a big plan of the multiplayer segment, but Gears had some of the best campaign moments and triumphs in any shooter. They recognize that the story comes first and mindless murdering of your friends online is secondary unlike some other games I won't name *cough BF2* who seem to tack the story on as an afterthought. For that I salute you Blezinksi, you sir are a visionary.

 

[Radelaide]

Who still cares about Gears of War?

I never cared to begin with. Played the game for 15 minutes, thought it was stupid and went back to playing proper shooter games that aren't over-dosing on stereotypical testosterone.

God I wish CliffyB would take a vow of silence already.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Who still cares about Gears of War?

A LOT of people, to sum it up.

OT: Found this statement hilarious, but I personally didn't mind the heavy amounts of scripted schtuff in game.

 

[Therumancer]

I haven't played Gears Of War since it's not my type of game, but reading this (after seeing it in "The Week In Review" all I can do is shake my head sadly in disbelief.

It's like this, I'd rather have friendly AI that is decent in any game, than useless friendly AI. Simply put it seems like "Gears Of War 2" basically addressed a complaint that people had for ages about allies blowing chips and being useless, now people are complaining that the friendly AI is actually useful?

I think that Cliffy B needs to pretty much leave things alone from the way it sounds to me.

 

[VanityGirl]

But I forgive them for the multiplayer and Horde.

I can't forgive that junky multiplayer. Gears1 functioned better than two. ><"


Hey Cliffy, fix the multiplayer! How bought making so players use more than just the lancer? I came back to Gears2 after not playing for a long time, I didn't use any weapon besides my lancer and was the top killer on my team. Something is wrong here.