Kotaku
"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!"
Comments
The Gears of War melted my face and runied my sofa...this time I am going to be ready with mop, bucket and bib on hand. This is my most anticipated game this year besides little big planet.
While I commend these guys for apparently trying really hard to expand the story and depth of Gears of War, I really can't help but be a skeptic here. The reason people played that game was not the barely-there story, and Epic knows that.
I just can't see this game producing the kind of narrative depth that the industry needs these days.
Ack.
"The first Gears of War..."
Huh.
I wasn't really drawn into Gears on the 360 at first. I gave it a second try on the PC and loved it. The story isn't very compelling, or that original for that matter. But it was fun, badass, and at times, challenging.
I'm looking to GoW2 now, this article got me interested. I hope it'd come out on the PC a lot faster then the first one did.
They should probably watch all this hyping. Sooner or later they're going to hype it up so much that it'll end up DOA or far under expectations.
Aaawwww Yeeeeaah.
It'll be Badasser 4 sure yo.
@Archaotic: I personally can do without all of the narration. Nothing kills a games immersion for me more than a five minute cutscene.
Is it going to be spread out on more than one DVD, because otherwise I seriously doubt it's going to be that much bigger and they're going to just end up disappointing people.
All I want to know is why was Marcus sent to prison, and why the locust can't fail to win the war?
I think this'll be solid. I loved the first one and played tons and tons of multiplayer.
I sincerely doubt people will buy GoW2 for the story, though, but Epic is free to try and make that a selling point.
You're buying this game to brutalize your opponents, duel with a chainsaw, kill, maim and destroy.
I'd rather see a massive horde of dozens of Locust footsoldiers storm the screen than gain some insight about Dom's backstory.
This is a shooter and not an RPG, like Capps told IGN.
As long as the game has 4 Player Co-op Campaign over Live, it'll be a great buy.
I don't see why the 1st one wasn't 4 player, considering you run the whole game as a squad of 4. Not enough time to get it done I gather.
I also got the 1st game for the Multiplayer but that didn't last me long, I got tired of these next-gen games not having matchmaking. It is impossible to keep players in the room when they get beat badly. Matchmaking = needed for all games. I would also like to see clan/squad options (past clan tags) but apparently that is asking too much.
I didn't really enjoy the first Gears of War game. I was playing it and thinking about all the better times I had playing things like:
Dues Ex,
System Shock II,
Bioshock,
And I realised that I am just done with playing games that do not have an excellent and gripping story.
It's sad that most of my favourite FPS games are as old as the hills, but it seems no-ones realised that games that are only about graphics and gore only appeal for so long.
Gears of War 1 had almost no story,
Gears of War 2, "badasser" as it is, is unlikely to have one either.
So I won't be buying it.
I hope they really take the time to flesh out the story. The first Gears of War had this rich atmosphere that was just begging to be explored, but sadly, it never was. We never got to see Marcus Fenix's court marshall or how things came to be as they are. I was looking forward to "emergence day," but it never came. We never got to see how the war started or what the locusts were fighting for. Moreover, all of the characters were charicatures -- stereotypes really, that never had a chance to evolve. Sure, I had a few laughs at some one-liners by the "Cole-train," but I wanted more. I wanted to see what was at stake, and I hope Gears 2 goes the distance to make up for what lacked in the first game
The first game was, for lack of a better word, badass.
If GoW 2 is more badass, I'm sold
I *heart* Epic
As much as I love a story, it doesn't matter to me as long as the game itself is fun. People still play tetris and thousands of other games, even mario.. which really don't have much of a great story.. but there still fun.
This better be badass.. I love GoW.
Dom's wife is the Locust queen. You heard it here first.
@Ejvid04:
I'm the same- I'm a certifiable story whore (I played AD&D for years). However, there was something about GoW that drew me in. Sure, I got killed all the time in MP but I still enjoyed it.
I feel like the first Gears laid the groundwork, and the second one will really take off with the story. They had a great world, setting, and characters, they just didn't really do much with it.
I'm looking forward to running with Delta Squad again.
@2SBs: Marcus was sent to prison because he disobeyed orders and left his unit to go save his father from the Locust.
And I don't really understand your second question.
@Edmon:
Agreed, 100%. You echoed my point perfectly.
@rotcepsurt:
Well, if you play games for immersion, then sure, that makes sense. But I don't, and I'm sick of games ignoring story in order to pimp out how badass they are with more gore, more stupid catchphrases, and more inspid one-note protagonists.
Then again, there's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned popcorn fest. I'll be checking out GoW2:Badasser.
I had no idea it was a war over limited resources. I thought it was just "monsters living beneath the surface rise up and kill all humans." I missed the part giving their motivation.
@Edmon: "t's sad that most of my favourite FPS games are as old as the hills, but it seems no-ones realised that games that are only about graphics and gore only appeal for so long."
Or maybe different people like different things.
What you enjoy from a game and what I (or any other person who isn't you) enjoy from a game is completely different.
I had an absolute blast blowing shit up and slicing locusts in half in Gears. I never expected an amazing story, I just wanted to cut suckers in half with my chainsaw.
I love games with engrossing stories that leave me with something when I finish, but at the same time I like games where I do nothing but blow shit the fuck up.
Gears of War fills up that second slot quite well
@peAr_nectAr: At the end of the game the locust queen goes on about how "we must win, we have to win, we cannot fail" seems like they have some sort of motive besides we're evil mole men with glowstick water.
@peAr_nectAr: For the second question he's referring to what the voiceover said during the end of the first Gears where the female voice said we can't fail to win this war or something like that. It's good question that I hope they answer in the second one.
@Tepoz: I think GoW2:Badassier would make a better title. I'd like to play Gears of War one of these days. But none of my friends own a 360 and my computer is a laptop so its video card ain't that great.
@peAr_nectAr: Thanks for answering my first question, the second question comes from the ending, its what the locust queen says at the end. its like DugDawg said, what are locust fighting for?
see when I read that it;s going to be 'Bad ass' I just sigh and think it's aimed at 12 year olds who think 'The Undertaker is scary eh?'
Why not make it good instead of badass eh? the first one was kinda shallow, good but shallow.
@Archaotic: If you want great stories then you can always read books.
Not all games are suited for epic tales. The survival horror genre is expecially good when things are left unexplaind and your main focus is survival. I really like the movie Cloverfield the for that exactly that reason. There were no scientists to explain it all, big military figures to be an ass , politicians etc. It was just about survival. I hope they don't lose their focus in GoW2 by adding all these twists.
I don't understand why people think the shooter genre is the place to expect great stories. It's the movie equivalent of Action movies, which are usually not very deep. Ocasionally it's good to have some more sophisticated action movie like the Matrix, but i do enjoy watching Transformers too.
"Cole Train's character's personality owes a lot to creative ad-libbing by Lester "Mighty Rasta" Speight"
Shazam!
Racism, you say? Why, it's straight from the horses mouth! For funsies.
I was always planning on getting Gears 2, but now I feel a fluttering of warm hope for something truly awesome. The stories quality, dare I say, may even surpass Halo. By American standards thats like saying we're killing Titans, but by Japanese standards it's like two ittle beetles having at it...
You know, if I get one moment in Gears 2 that's in line with the "Mad World" trailer, I'll be happy. Well, happy story wise.
Here's to good firefight inducing game mechanics, chainsaw bayonets, and well tuned multiplayer! Huzzah!
@Edmon: Stop stealing my ironic words.
Badasser is mine! MINE!
*sigh*..I'm bored.
/yawn @ Gears of War.
/yawn @ Benstein.
@TheHun:
The problem I see is that the vast majority of games that are coming out nowadays are shooters, meaning the genres we used to hold up as the main purveyors of story (RPGs, adventure games, and survival horror) are becoming less and less common. There are fewer opportunities for gamers to get good storylines, while generic action-movie tripe fills the shelves.
Thus, the only way to correct this situation, since bullheaded Western developers aren't going to stop making FPS games as long as Halo, Gears, and CoD are profitable, is to make developers start putting real story into their FPSes.
See where I'm coming from here?
I figured it out, Gears of war..okay stay with me, Gears Of War is the Mortal Kombat of FPS games.
ahhhhh I can sleep now.
More badass... The first Gears was already too ''badass'' for me. Was Cliffy B bullied in school and now he has to prove what kind of a man he is.
@Archaotic: well the vast majority of games are not shooters. It's just that it's a very popular genre.
Some shooters are deeper than others (bioshock) others are just plain superficial (UT3) story wise. Thats just the way it is. Some good, some bad; just like movies.
At least the crappy ones make you appriciate a good story that much more, eh?
If Epic discover the meaning of narrative then I'll probably buy it.
If not....
@Mara: No, it would be impossible for him and the Epic team to just love gore glory and guns; infeasible even. It's because they have small penises, can't get a woman, and are making up for 4 solid years of swirlies. I mean after all that you either join the NRA, buy a Hummer, or make a game adored by hunreds of thousands. Also, they aren't as smart as you.
Sorry epic, I done with the Gears of War universe. Too many other games yet to be played.
@TheHun:
They'd do that if there were more games WITH good stories. Folklore, Bioshock and Lost Odyssey are basically the only games I've played since 2006 with storylines worth their weight...it's starting to wear me down these days, seeing nothing but mass-market oriented shooters and sports games, while everything else just falls by the wayside.
Meh. I wasn't a fan of the first one, got bored of it after a few plays.
I think I'll reserve my judgment until I see some in-game footage.
@Archaotic: REALLY? I'm trying to figure out exactly when was this golden age where all videogames had wonderful narrative experiences and 100 hour RPG's weren't a niche market. Videogames have only recently begun to have strong narratives that are comparable to books/movies/ect and even so, thats too a very minor degree.
If you look at every other video game ever made over the past 30 years, they have all followed the basic plot of "there is evil afoot! Stab/shoot/punch/buttstomp it in the FACE!"
Please point me to this period of time where every game on the shelf at the local game store was an amazing engrossing narrative experience. Seriously I would love to catch up on what I have been missing.
@NPlace:
"Dom's wife is the Locust queen. You heard it here first."
Nah, someone on Kotaku mentioned that before when news first came out about Dom and his wife. People are basically expecting it now. Hopefully we're wrong, because that's just far too standard a plot twist.
@NPlace:
"I feel like the first Gears laid the groundwork, and the second one will really take off with the story. They had a great world, setting, and characters, they just didn't really do much with it."
That was my take too. The first felt like a practice session, a dress rehersal if you will, for the main event. I'm expecting to be impressed.
I can't wait!!!
"Capps says he told the designers, "I want D-Day," and less the spying and infiltration feel he felt the previous installment had."
And now im going to get the game.
"Gears received acclaim for its characters"
...you mean sterotypes, right?
I just want more action. That one level where you had to hold off the zerg rush at the front of that building... I just replayed that over and over. Man that was fun. The rest of the game was alright but meh. It was all shooting form behind cover at guys behind cover form long distances away (atleast on the hardest difficulty). Need more medium range combat!
Serious contender for game of the year along GTA
The first gears really seemed to take the popular "over the shoulder" third person view and successfully mix it with the tempo and pace of shooters like CS and Halo. For that alone I applaud it.
If it delivers more of that tempo and style, then any extra narrative driven motive to play it is just icing on the cake for a shooter fan like me.
I played single player through once in 10 or less hours. It was fun. The story was okay.
I played the multiplayer and co-op for 140 hours. It was awesome. The