Gears of War's series senior producer Rod Fergusson has recently admitted that Epic wasn't feeling as confident as it could have when writing the story for the original game, something he intends to change for Gears of War 2. Fergusson has stated that his team is now far more bold in working on a story-driven game, and promises a plot with some "risks" this time around.
"In [the first] Gears Of War, it's been a long time since Epic did a story-driven game, and so we weren't as confident as we should have been in telling the Gears 1 story, and there were certain choices that we didn't take, because we just weren't confident that we could pull it off, or that people would believe it, so we backed off of that," explained Fergusson. "And now, with Gears Of War 2, and the success we had with Gears 1, we feel a little bit more confident about that. One of the things that I think people are going to take away... [is that] people are going to walk away from the game, at the end of this experience, and go: 'They took some risks, story-wise, and I'm really surprised in that.'"
If there was one recurring criticism for the original Gears of War, it was that the story was very bland and uninteresting. Personally, I didn't mind it, but I'll be interested to see if Epic can pull off something more engaging. The company isn't exactly known for exposition more sophisticated than "I'm a massive phallus, here's my massive phallic gun, suck my massive phallic phallus," but the studio seems intent on telling a deep story with Gears of War 2.
Do you think GoW 2 will impress with tis writing, or will phallic gun-toting be the order of the day as per usual?
Contest:
7:41 AM on 08.29.2008
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The only criticism I had was on play throughs it had no staying power. And I don't think it's something they have in them. But I'm sure they can do better this time round none the less.
It only pisses people off when you talk up a feature nobody's looking for in your game, and it turns out to not be there. Epic would have done far better here to just say nothing about the story, and let me be pleasantly surprised if they actually manage to pull off a decent yarn.
Seriously though, why do we even need a story? It's not like skipping the cut scenes will truly lessen the experience. I'm here to pulp bug-men with a chainsaw, not have my heartstrings tugged.
Just keep the cutscenes to a minimum, please, use only if absolutely necessary. The golden rule of video game storytelling (alas, MGS4 = FAIL)
I do not believe this. Epic doesn't do compelling stories. Shame on them for trying to make us believe otherwise. This is vapor-hype.
Emphasis added. I hope that the writing is more impressive and better proofread than this article was. ZING!
I felt that there was definitely a message there - the way the four protagonists were coping with the situation and how they covered their fear.
Sure, it wasn't a magnum opus, but I put it to those that thought the story and characters were horrible that you probably missed the point.
Play it again with an open mind, or look for the Cliffy's Notes (see whut I did thar?!?) if it all escapes you.
Gears had a very basic, run of the mill story. I didnt care. What i cared about was me chopping a big alien dude in half with a chainsaw. Correction - a CHAINSAW FUCKING BAYONET. Attached to my fucking awesome machine gun.
They can try to put a decent story into this one if they want. But if while im shooting a ton of locusts in the face while i use one of their own as a shield i notice that the story is not that great, i really dont think ill care.
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