Gears of War 2 at the New York Comic Con

Of Marcus, 20 Psychologists, the Sacred Word and a Poor Writer Bitch
4/24/2008 2:08 PM | 1 Comments | Page 2 of 2

All of this research about what gamers want eventually yields what could be called the Story/No Story Paradigm. Want story? Ortega and Epic will give it to you. Want to shoot undaunted and chainsaw until your screen is a blood-spattered mess? You'll be able to shut off the story portion of Gears of War 2. The truth, said the prez, is that writing often comes as the last thing in the game, after the rest of the design matrix is in place.

Yet Epic wanted to make the second game in the franchise one that dances the plot and dialogue tango far better than it did in the inaugural effort. Capps said that while the steroid-ridden, square-jawed Marcus Fenix came complete with a very strong characterization, the rest of the story wasn't stellar. This time, the story was designed around more than just the environments that the designers created. There was indeed a place left to tell a tale, however small a place that may have been. Ortega said the company allowed him to explore and create a more complete backstory to make a richer world and, ultimately, a quick, taut user experience.

Other news? There will be a Gears of War comic book around the time the game is released in the fall. The story is supposed to be "bigger, better, more bad ass," according to Capps. There may well be feature-rich downloadable content as was the case with the first game, but news about multiplayer will have to wait a week or two until May. Also, when you take cover, that cover may be moving, so you'll have to move with the cover (which may be something like a giant worm) to stay safe.

Finally, the floor was opened to questions, some of which were too technical and some of which made more sense to plain old fans of the game. For instance, one guy apologetically said he didn't quite like the controls in the first game, and Capps said they've tweaked them carefully to be bigger, better and more bad-ass.

There'll be a ton of talk about Gears of War 2 right up until the fall right here at Crispy and elsewhere throughout the gaming world. But forget the journos and the pundits. We just guide you. You're the ones with the true power. So when you get your hands on GoW2, let us know if it's more bad-ass. And tell us whether you like that story by the "poor writer bitch."