Didn't it look BRILLIANT?! Magazines and gaming websites across the globe who were lucky enough to have a crack of the Gears of War 2 multiplayer pre-release were jizzing in their pants before, during, and after. Its broken Halo's record for most consecutive online players, with a staggering 1.5 million players. And Epic certainly have been kind to it, with map packs, map packs, and more map packs on the way. Oh yes, only since Halo has an online component been given such hype. But does it deserve it? Short answer: yes.



Long answer: It depends. I'm pretty sure Epic wanted to change the fact that a lot of the games in old GoW1 were solved by shotgun battles, and they wanted a subtle and tactical cover-based shooter instead. When GoW2 was announced, with changes such as a less powerful shotgun and being slowed down by oncoming bullets, to stop endless shotgun rushes, its seemed like Epic were heading down that road. But something slipped along the way.

You see, you won't get very far in GoW2 just finding a nice chest high piece of rock, slamming yourself against it, and shooting at enemies with your Hammerburst. No sir. Nearly every gametype now runs on 'Execution' rules, meaning that downing someone is all well and good, but you can only finish off your downed foe from point blank range. To me, this is a bit of a silly set of rules. What's the point of even trying to kill your opponent from afar, when he'll go down only to be revived by an incoming team-mate, before you can claim your kill? What's the point, when you'd be better off running in to score a one hit kill with the shotgun? And, since falling to your knees makes you invulnerable to anything but a curb stomp or otherwise, the price for being downed isn't very steep, and the chances are you'll have a helpful teammate to help you up.



All these things are definitely not encouraging players to bunker down and pick of their targets, but to run in, shotgun or chainsaw aloft, and turn as many enemies into pate as they can. And it usually pays off.

This isn't the only problem. The weapons you'll find on the battlefield, such as the Boomshot and the Longshot Rifle, can pretty much all score one hit kills. Its not so bad with the aforementioned two weapons - claiming a headshot with the Sniper does require a great deal of skill, and the Boomshot is quite hard to handle in close or far distances. But other weapons such as the mortar and Hammer of Dawn can kill in one hit whilst totally bypassing any cover you might be hiding behind.

Yessir, you're not getting anywhere in GoW2 without mastering at least one form of one shot kill. Whether it be shotgun gib, rifle headshot, or laser-from-space obliteration, you'd better be ready to throw your Lancer away. Unless, of course, you want to use the one-hit kill chainsaw attack. <_<



All of this one hit kill nonsense is very much changing the game of Gears. Both teams are ignoring the capture point in Annex to fight over the Boomshot. Wingman is practically decided by which weapon you spawn next to - if you spawn next to grenades, then you're honestly screwed. I think Epic's grand master plan went a bit awry here, the constant scrambling for the power weapons is akin to Halo of all things, and we all know how that sucks.

Am I saying to abandon the Gears ship forever? Of course not. Its still as gleefully fun as ever it was, if you don't mind a bit of lag here and there, and the (FUCKING STUPID) fact that it still runs via host and not server. I just get the niggling feeling that perhaps, had it been given a few months thought, it could've been unlike and multiplayer experience in gaming. Now its just like all the others, where ROCKET LAUNCHER = WIN, and any amount of tactics you were hoping to implement are lying on the floor in chunky giblets - kind of like what you'll be like if you don't grab that Boomshot fast.