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When the first Gears of War 2 gameplay footage was revealed, it did nothing for me, at all. The only thing that instantly jumped out to me was using Locust as meat shields, but nearly everything else felt very familiar.
I shrugged off my disappointment, because I knew it was the multiplayer information that would get me hyped up, and god I love being right. New gameplay modes have been revealed, new maps, a new weapon and even a new handy feature for when you’re waiting to respawn. Curb stomp the jump for full details.
Let’s start off with the obligatory player count increase which every sequel seems to be doing nowadays, as GoW2 will be adding two more slots so the total players in a server will now be a colossal ten. I like ten, it’s a good number to have since crowded servers tend to be loud and confusing, and keeping the numbers limited has always been my personal preference so I’m glad Epic didn’t decide to throw in sixty player online multiplayer like Resistance 2 is planning to do.
One of the weapons you didn’t see in the trailer is the Medusa, which fires six shells at once. The Medusa has been referred to as a “power weapon”, so I’m guessing you’re not going to run around with it as standard issue all day. Players can also look forward to new poison grenades, along with the ability to stick grenades on any surface now. I don’t know why but these poison grenades have left me craving for laughing gas in multiplayer, considering how pissed off everyone in Gears of War is, it might actually do them some good.
Oh and I can’t leave out ‘bullet shields’, because these sound awesome. Bullet shields can be picked up to use as cover, while you can apparently stick them into the ground as improvised cover points too. This may not seem like a big deal to some at first glance, but I think these shields have the potential to add a whole different layer of depth to the tactical side of the game, especially for competitive teams.
Assassination will be renamed Guardian and is similar to the team leader game type from Rainbow Six Vegas 2. This time around, your team will continue respawning until your team leader is eliminated, in which case you can no longer spawn upon dying. The concept sounds great, but this game type was really annoying on Vegas 2, with team leaders opting to play it safe and simply camp their respective spawn points. Perhaps Epic will come up with some measures to counter such spinelessness though. There’s also mention of Wingman, a brand new game type that splits players into teams of two, totalling five separate teams in a ten-player server. There’s no information on any objectives for Wingman, but it might not have any to begin with aside from the obvious ‘kill everyone else’.
We’ve all seen CTF a hundred times, but Epic’s new take on it seems pretty amusing. Both teams must get to a player who is in the centre of the map and drag them back to the base using the meat shield ability. It’s not mentioned if this will be an actual player or A.I. controlled, but considering the fact it would be unfair teams to one side in such a case (5 vs 4), it’s likely to be an A.I.
Two new maps are discussed also: River and Security. River sounds very similar to an old Gears of War map I used to play frequently, but the name eludes me right now. It’s described as a “symmetrical map, with two houses with sniping towers connected by a thin path and a river.” Security on the other hand is apparently long and thin with two “power weapons” on it, by which I’m guessing they mean Boom Shots and what not. These weapons are guarded by laser turrets that will shake your hand and make you coffee if you get too close, or maybe cut you into little pieces. You can deactivate these by pressing a big button at the centre of the map, because that’s how you bypass top-notch security in real life.
Last but not least is the feature every game should have nowadays; the ability to capture images so you can prove to your friends you do indeed own at the game, and it wasn’t just a myth. Players will be able to free roam with a camera when they’re waiting to respawn, while photos they take will be uploaded onto a community site where you can show your friends.
Phew, that’s a lot to take in all at once for me, I think I’ll sit down for a bit.
