I loved Gears of War. It was amazing. There was nothing quite like it at the time, and no game since is nearly as good as doing what Gears does.
That said, I think Gears 2 is worse in every possible way, save Horde mode. If possible, the mutiplayer was more broken (and still is, to a certain extent) than the first, the single player campaign, while good, had a story that was, imo, worse than the first, and Horde, despite being good, is like the straw man before the hurricane when compared to Nazi Zombies and Firefight.
There was a Firefight!!!!
I will now elaborate on why Gears of War is better than Gears 2.
Gears 1 puts you in Marcus' shoes right off the bat. You know about as much as he does, which ain't much. And immediately, you're thrown into combat with the Locust. And humanity is losing. Now, this is a common theme. But I would argue that the only other sci-fi series with this general plot that gives you the idea you are losing better than Gears is Halo.
Gears is all about destroyed beauty. It shows you memories of what was, and it's a stark comparison to what is. You see how much they've lost, but you ever quite understand it. I'll address that later on. This is one thing I thought was incredibly well done in Revenge of the Sith. Say what you will about the prequels, but if Episode 3 does one thing well, it hammers home how badly the Jedi lose. It is not a happy movie, and neither is Gears a happy game. You are losing. Losing so badly that they are conscripting convicts, and every fertile woman is being used to have children to supplement the war effort.
So this ramshackle squad is thrown together and expected to save the day. They're given a suicide mission, for all intents and purposes. And they succeed. Gears 1's story is very immediate, in the moment, with the player learning as he or she goes along.And because of that, it works. It's not a grand how to in video game storytelling or anything (That would be Bioshock or Half-Life 2), but it gets the job done.
Gears 2 throws this out the window. It expects us to care that Dom has lost his wife, but it does it in the wrong way. We don't know this woman. We do know that Dom is being a whiny **** however, and is generally unhelpful. And Marcus, as usual, is a brick. The problem with these characters is that they are all bricks. Marcus is the chain-smoking tough guy brick, Baird is the sarcastic brick, etc. Don't even get me started on Cole. What happened to Cole in Gears 2 is an abomination. And that's all I'll say.
But Dom, Dom we're supposed to care about. And we can, if anyone playing has ever lost someone. But we don't feel for Dom in the way we're supposed to. We don't care because we understand that Maria was such a good person and her loss is a gripping emotional moment. We care because Dom cares, and so we kind of have to. I will say, however, that the scene in which he shoots his wife is incredibly well done, and is a glimpse of what Gears could be. But overall, the deeper story falls flat. Oh, look, a third enemy. I've never seen this before. And hmm... they seem to be mutants of the first enemy. Hmm... In Gears 3, I predict we will see a giant Venus fly trap that is the Lambent consciousness, and uses lots of Biblical references.
And oh dear God, the dialogue. Gears 2 is an example of how to NEVER write dialogue. EVER. More like 10 ****loads, Marcus? Is that a quantifiable unit of measurement on Serra? Come on.
Unfortunately, Gears 2 throws too many cliches into the mix. The story could be great. It has the potential to be tragic and moving. The last human survivors fighting against all odds, and all hope, when they have lost everything? That's a good setup. But you need good characters. It's not optional. We have to care that these characters are being emotionally drained, if they are at all (Dom). We have to appreciate what has been lost. I talked earlier about what they lost, and Gears being a good example of showing you are losing. But Gears never makes clear what was lost. Sure there's lots of pretty architecture, but we don't understand what was lost beyond that. We don't understand how their society worked. In Episode 3, we see what we've lost, and it's pretty tragic. In Gears, we see that we've lost. but we never understand.
So, where am I going with this long-winded rant?
Gears 3's trailer.
I initially thought it was junk. However, it's grown on me, mostly because the music choice is exceptional. It is haunting. And the trailer shows destruction, and hopelessness. Dom is about to give up. Both the Humans and the Locust are being overrun. And it seems pretty obvious that we are going to see some character death here. But, like Halo 3's exceptional trailer, I doubt this the game will live up to it. Past experience tells me it won't. But, Karen Traviss is writing Gears 3 (she wrote the novels). Maybe there is hope. But it's likely too little, too late.
EDIT: For Spirit, and all those who haven't seen the Cowbay Hat Easter Egg. Oh, and a Corpser wears one too.
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