Gears of War 2 Preview

Okay, so, we've established that the humans are taking the fight against the Locust underground. Thankfully, the level design will vary often enough. In spite of what some of you may think, the game won't be confined to a choice of similar underground surroundings (at least not according to the devs.). The makers of GoW 2 vouched to offer players a greater sense of "distance" this time around. Roughly around 30% of the game will be spent in underground areas. Moreover, an assortment of unique areas was announced, including snowy regions and such.

In case you were wondering, new weapons, new enemies and new vehicles were mentioned as well. At the same time, familiar weapons like the Lancer and Hammerburst were given a different shape, with the barrel of both rifles extended. There's an all-new Gorgon Pistol, presumably the primary weapon of the breed of Locust - the Kantos. For now, we also know of a new vehicle, which Bleszinski refers to as a "tank with Monster Truck Wheels."

At this stage, it doesn't exactly seem like Gears of War 2 could deliver much of a different experience than what we've seen in the first game. This is alright in our book, because Gears of War is still a first-class shooter. If something's not broken, why fix it, right? All the subtle changes promised so far look like they could bring a rewarding single-player game. They even said the whole game is "five times bigger this time," so I guess that counts for something. Also, single-player campaign may be played individually or via co-op, which is certainly a nice touch and a welcomed improvement.

We only hope that Gears of War 2 doesn't suffer the same fate as its predecessor, forcing us to swallow yet another mundane example of tedious story-telling and a bland and relatively repetitive art style. That would just suck Locust-balls.