A Cog in the Machine

Besides adding a number to the end of its name, what's new about Gears of War 2? A lot.
7/7/2008 1:00 AM | 1 Comments | Page 3 of 4

Bleszinski: Yeah, the other weapons are too heavy to use with one hand.

Crispy Gamer: One of the other big things about the original was the co-op mode, where someone got to play as Dominic. I assume you'll have two-player co-op again, but will you also have three-player co-op, four-player co-op, 10-player co-op...

Bleszinski: We haven't really announced what we're doing yet, but we do have a surprise in the future when it comes to that.

Crispy Gamer: One thing you have said is that in co-op people will be able to play at different skill levels. How does that work?

Bleszinski: It's actually a pretty easy nudge. Depending on what skill level you play, we scale the damage you take as well as the amount of damage you dole out. It's pretty easy. We might do some other things, like maybe the person playing on Easy will get more ammo out of the ammo boxes than someone playing on a higher skill level. All that will come out of the tuning process we're doing this summer.

Crispy Gamer: Why did you feel this was necessary?

Bleszinski: Well, Casual in the first Gears wasn't really Casual, and there are a lot of people out there who are just getting into this stuff, so we wanted to add a tourist mode.

Crispy Gamer: Competitive multiplayer was also big in the first game. First, will all the modes in the original game be back?

Bleszinski: Yes. But we're going to five-on-five, and we've taken Assassination and modified it to a mode called Guardian where your leader is your spawner. If your leader dies, you get no more respawns.

Crispy Gamer: Will you be adding any new ones?

Bleszinski: We have one that I think we're going to call Submission which is like Capture the Flag, but instead the flag is a character whom you have to knock down and take to a designated location on the map. And he's yelling the whole time. We've also added one called Wingman which is two vs. two vs. two vs. two vs. two. It's kind of a mix of last-man-standing free-for-all with co-op. And we have others that we're not talking about just yet, but there will be over a half-dozen.

Crispy Gamer: Have you determined how many maps you'll include at launch?

Bleszinski: More than the first game.

Crispy Gamer: You've also added environmental hazards in multiplayer. What kinds of things will people have to watch out for? Bear traps?

Bleszinski: We have laser fences in some maps and there's one map that has an environmental hazard that would cause you to want to seek shelter periodically.

Crispy Gamer: Some players have been hoping there'd be a female character for online. Will there be?

Bleszinski: Nope. There are no female soldiers in the game.

Crispy Gamer: Given how manly and macho the game was...

Bleszinski: Grrrr!

Crispy Gamer: ...were you surprised at how many women played the game?

Bleszinski: Dude, there are women with Gears tattoos. But then, there's a guy who branded himself with a gear. But yeah, a lot of women play Gears. There's a clan called Girls of War. I think part of it is the pacing of the game. It's not a "run around like an idiot and teabag people" kind of game.