"Badass" is apparently the order of the day when it comes to Gears of War 2. I wasn't keeping an exact count, but the word was said at least ten times during the Gears of War 2 presentation at New York Comic Con yesterday, where Epic president Mike Capps, Gears 2 writer Joshua Ortega, and Randy Falk of NECA, who makes the Gears figures, talked about the upcoming game.

NECA's Falk hopes that, like the recently-announced comic book series, the Gears figure series will play a role in helping fans feel more connected to the story and characters of the upcoming game. The picture shown here is a frankly amazing "Exploding Head Locust" figurine that was on display at Comic Con. My crummy photograph, with the glare from the display case, unfortunately couldn't capture the whole fabulously grotesque splatter effect.

The Epic crew were tight-lipped about specific details on the upcoming title, but we did glean plenty of interesting info from Capps and Ortega about what to expect. More chainsaws? More drama? More Locust explosions? Hit the jump for much more on Gears 2 from Comic Con, including an in-depth interview with Ortega.

"We said, 'let's look at all of the game systems and see how we can make them bigger, better, and more badass,'" Explained Capps of the team's goal for Gears 2. And that's every game mechanic, from the cover system to Cliff Blezinski's beloved chainsaw bayonets — an element of the game Capps confessed he was actually against at first, but is now glad of, to say the least. When an audience member asked the panel whether Gears 2 would enable players to do more with the close-range chainsaw combat, Capps declined to specify directly — but reiterated the promise that everything that makes Gears what it is is getting the "bigger, badder, more badass" treatment.

Capps admitted that while the original Gears received acclaim for its characters, the story was "disappointing," in that the game was built largely around its environment, not its plot. Ortega, who's writing script and story for the sequel, pointed out how challenging it can be in development cycles to accommodate everything one might hope for, story-wise, in a single game.

"A place builds over time into a fun encounter space, but that makes it tough for a writer," Capps said. "The story must adapt to the game design."

So while Ortega might have his work cut out for him in Gears 2, this time around, the Epic team says it plans to address some fan questions on the Gears backstory — and the stuff that doesn't make it into the game will be fleshed out in the comic books. Expect Gears 2 to present a much more in-your-face portrayal of war, too. Capps says he told the designers, "I want D-Day," and less the spying and infiltration feel he felt the previous installment had.

For Ortega, this presents an interesting opportunity to look at the smaller dramas that often go on during the larger conflict of humans at war. Dom's wife Maria will apparently play a significant role; while Capps joked that this was because the Gears franchise didn't have enough hot chicks, Ortega pointed out the added significance that human emotional relationships can take on in wartime.

Even the Locust horde may see a somewhat more complex treatment this time, possibly even a sympathetic one. The original Gears of War ended with a surprisingly erudite female voice — the Locust Queen, promising her forces would fight on. Why, an audience member asked, give her that elegant British accent? "Because British accents mean you're smart," Capps teased. But more sincerely, the team confirmed that adding a shade of complexity, some facets of humanity to the series' villains, as Halo 3 did with the Covenant, was part of their strategy to give Gears 2's story more depth. "A bad guy can't just be 'roooar, destroy world, evil,'" said Capps.

In response to a question about possible future downloadable content for Gears 2, Capps was unwilling to make any promises, but stated, "Epic has been doing DLC since 1996." And largely for free, too, he reminded, stating flatly, "We're not Rock Band. ...Mind you, I bought a lot of the Rock Band songs... but this is how Epic has always done it. You expect that bonus."

More vehicles? "We'll see." An audience member pointed out a particular vehicle sequence in the original Gears that he didn't care for; Capps admitted that wasn't "the best level ever," but says that sequences like that are necessary to mix up the shooting action and aid the pacing of the game. He calls sequences like these "sorbet," in that they refresh the palate for the next round of intense gameplay, and told the audience to "expect more sorbet" in Gears 2.

What's in store for fan favorite Cole Train? An audience member wanted to make sure that Cole would be back for the second game. Capps promised that he would. "You can't get rid of Cole Train!" He explained, and then added — jokingly? "At least not until halfway through." Capps did like to joke a lot during the presentation, but perhaps ominously, Ortega added, "No one's safe in Gears."

As for what kinds of multiplayer Gears 2 might contain, Epic's not saying at this stage, but said there'd likely be further info on that in May.

While Joshua Ortega's voice was nearly gone thanks to days on end of promotional activities for Gears 2 and his other work, he was kind enough to sit down after the presentation and discuss the Gears 2 story and the experience of writing it. Originally a music journalist, Ortega has spent his career largely writing for comic books like Star Trek, Spiderman and The Necromancer, and also published a critically-acclaimed science fiction novel, titled Frequencies, before being tapped by Epic to work on this title.

We asked Ortega where he's been getting his inspiration for the work on Gears 2. "First and foremost, as a game I think it's just brilliantly rendered and executed. They all did a great job; it's really fun, easily one of the best games I've played as far as gameplay goes," he told us enthusiastically. "Also, it's an 'ugly' environment because it's a dead world, but then they've really rendered it beautifully." The war-torn environment can still be beautiful, Ortega explained, piquing the imagination and providing a complex, interesting world for a writer to work with.

"You have humanity on the brink of extinction," continued Ortega. "You have a culture that's warred over emulsion, the energy source for the planet. It's a brilliant concept." Ortega isn't patting his own back here; the original Gears concept was done by a different writing staff. So what's it like to take the ball and run with it from here?

"There's some neat advantages to coming on at this stage," Ortega told us. "A lot of the groundwork's laid, and now it's exploring all the pathways. And we had more time to put this one together. The first game had a real tight development schedule — just had to get out what you could — and it came out great, but people wanted more. They could only get to so much in the first game, so we do have that nice advantage in expanding on it."

One thing we learned from hearing Ortega speak at various Comic Con panels today is that writing for games is not necessarily the way one might think — it's usually not that a creative writer swoops in to have a team of game designers bring his dramatic vision to life as a game. Instead, game design and mechanics are the largest priority, especially in a shooter like Gears of War, and the writer is tasked with working around that. We asked Ortega if he found that challenging.

"Definitely," he stated. "It can be, but to Epic's credit... [the reason] they brought me on was because they wanted more of a story this time. So at the same time, you want to make sure you don't mess up gameplay, but I'm there to do story. Cliff, Rob, Mike, all the guys involved in it... want me to do story. So they're all like, 'let's find a way to make it work.' I actually had a fair amount of creative freedom; it's not so limiting. It's kind of a nice balance... a nice process. Certainly there are times it'd be like, 'ooh, could you throw this character in?' 'Nope, not time.' So you do work around that, but there are always challenges in writing for games."

While the team is aiming to expand on the Gears mythos in the second installment, one thing they're pleased about in its predecessor is the main characters, especially Marcus Fenix. We asked Ortega about getting to know Marcus, how he determines the journey of an established character, and who he feels Marcus is. "He's a great anti-hero," Ortega said. "I think at his core that's why people dig Marcus a lot... because he's fighting for the COG, and he's a gear and he's part of the government and he's a soldier and that's what he does... but at the same time, you know, he's cynical and definitely worldly. He understands his government doesn't always have the best interests of the people... he's not just a by-the-book, y'know, 'oh, yeah, whatever you say, Sir.' He'll carry it out if it means saving humanity, but he's also, at the very least, going to throw a wise-ass comment about it, or even the reason why he's in prison at the start of the first game is because he rebelled on orders."

Added Ortega, "He's a rebel; I think people like the rebels." And he's going to continue to be a rebel? "Yep."

So what might lie ahead for Marcus in Gears 2? "We've got a nice arc for Marcus. Dom has a great arc in this one, too. It's going to really be fun to see people's reaction to Dom and this expansion on his story. I think that he and Marcus will be on a very equal plain by the end, where you know a lot about both of them. And we've got a lot of really fun twists in store — and there's gonna be some pretty heavy, emotional stuff."

Ortega also noted how much fun it's been to work with the Gears' voice cast, and the role that they play in developing the characters. Earlier, on the panel, Capps had talked about how Cole Train's character's personality owes a lot to creative ad-libbing by Lester "Mighty Rasta" Speight. Ortega says that having such an enthusiastic crew of voice actors is inspiring as a writer: "In Gears 1, any deficiencies in story were totally made up for by the talent of the voice crew. Everyone is so perfectly cast, and they love their roles. They're into it, and they can ad-lib all day; it's pretty amazing. It really does make it where you can jump in... you have an advantage. For me, I can come in and hear the actors' voices, and I write from that."

What themes and conflicts can we expect? "Certainly the big thing is going with the last stand of humanity, and looking at [this] example of a totally collapsed society... a war over limited energy sources, and now [humanity is] at the brink of extinction, fighting their greatest enemy ever. The whole beginning of the game is like the D-Day invasion; it's their last chance."

Continued Ortega, "We wanted it to be really emotionally resonant, and part of the reason for bringing Maria, Dom's wife, into the story is that I think it's really powerful in an epic when you also have a micro-level, personal connection. So you get the big story, but then you have this emotional center to connect back to so it's not just all big stuff, nameless people. When you have someone who's actually been affected, they have a name, they're a character... I think that's big. So I'd say we're really going for strong storytelling, and definitely with surprises. We'll never be able to talk about them until after the game's out, but I think people are really going to be pleasantly — or frighteningly — surprised!"

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