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Gears of War 2
The official game cover art unveiled at E3 2008
Developer(s)	Epic Games
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Designer(s)	Cliff Bleszinski
Composer(s)	Steve Jablonsky
Engine	Unreal Engine 3 with PhysX
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter Tactical shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, System Link, Multiplayer, Cooperative modes

Gears of War 2 is a tactical third-person shooter video game developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Gears of War, and was announced by lead designer Cliff Bleszinski during the February 20, 2008 Game Developers Conference. The game uses a heavily upgraded version of the Unreal Engine 3. During E3 2008, a worldwide release date for the game was set for November 7, 2008. Since its release, Gears of War 2 has been received with critical acclaim, and in its opening weekend the game sold over two million units.

In Gears of War 2, the Locust have found a way to make giant emergence holes capable of sinking entire cities at once. Marcus Fenix and the rest of the COG Delta Squad are now drilling underground to "take the fight to the Locust." In a teaser of the first scenes of gameplay of Gears of War 2, COG soldiers engage in battle with a large army of Locust as they travel to drill into the underground region. Comic book writer Joshua Ortega says, "The stakes are raised. This is humanity's last stand. Everything is at risk. Nothing is safe."

Gameplay

John DiMaggio, the voice actor of the game's main character, Marcus Fenix, confirmed to IGN that players would be able to fight the large Brumaks in Gears of War 2. He also revealed there will be a deeper story with new characters, new weapons, and new enemies. The game also includes the ability to duel with an AI or human opponent when both use the chainsaw attachment of the Lancer rifle, as seen in the 2008 Game Developer's Conference promotional video, later confirmed in informal interviews with developers and a Game Informer preview. Epic released a gameplay video which revealed the player may now use "downed" enemies as shields. Bleszinski confirmed also that players who have been injured can crawl as a final desperate attempt at life. Players may tap the 'A' Button to crawl faster. The level of blood and gore has been increased, for example, when the player is close to death, wherever he moves there are trails of blood behind him. This is the same for enemies, and the opponents who've been used as a meat shield. There are also more ways to kill an opponent, such as punching them while they are downed, using the sniper rifle as a sledgehammer, or using the torque bow as an axe.

The cover story in the May 2008 issue of Game Informer revealed several new gameplay features. Players can now play on individual co-op play settings. One player may, for instance, play on Casual difficulty while the other teammate plays on Hardcore. A "communal combat system" will adapt to give a player at a lower difficulty an equivalently fair challenge as the player at higher difficulty. The player will be able to maintain multiple save files that work with the drop-in/drop-out co-op features. There is also a fourth difficulty level that is a level above Casual called Normal, a difficulty below Hardcore; senior producer Rod Fergusson admitted that — for the first game — "We overshot on difficulty and a game that was a little harder than we intended." Some of the Xbox Live achievements can be completed through both play in single player and multiplayer mode, such as achieving 1,000 headshots. New enemy creatures are planned on being added, including one described by Cliff Bleszinski as one "that the Brumak look like a baby panda bear." In a developer's video, Cliff Bleszinski stated that Gears of War 2 would feature "drop in and out" co-op in the campaign. Another feature included in the game is an optional mature content filter, which when active makes blood appear as sparks and removes harsh language from the dialogue.

The collection of COG tags has been expanded to include the collection of story-based items such as personal letters and medical records, and a "war journal" will track which collectibles have been found and where missing ones can be located. The cut-scenes will also use the better facial rendering technology of Epic's Unreal engine, and will use more dramatic angles for the conversation, as well as using a video screen on Jack (the all-purpose robot used by Delta squad) to talk with their commanders "face-to-face."

New weapons have been announced as well as the return of weapons from the previous game. The accuracy, function, and power of several weapons have been altered, and all grenades can now be used as mines by placing them on walls or floors, and will detonate when approached by enemies. In addition, players can now be knocked over by the concussive force of a nearby detonating grenade. Cliff Bleszinski has also announced that there will be more vehicle missions in the campaign than before, such as the Centaur Tank which Cliff describes as a "tank with monster truck wheels." Players will also be able to ride a Brumak in the game; previously, the Brumak could only be fought by the player as an enemy, in the PC version of the game.

Multiplayer

Gears of War 2 features an upgraded multiplayer mode that will allow up to ten users to simultaneously play. X360 magazine reported that Gears of War 2 will contain at least three new online multiplayer modes, called "Guardian," "Wingman," and "Submission." "Guardian" is essentially a modified version of "Assassination" from the original Gears of War, but allows players to continue fighting after the leader has been killed, but losing the ability to respawn. "Wingman" splits all ten players into five teams of two, where both members of a team play as the same character. "Submission," formerly known as "Meat Flag," is a version of capture the flag in which players attempt to "down" an enemy controlled by the game's AI and move its body to their team's base to earn points. A Halo-like matchmaking system will be utilized for the online multiplayer. In a GameTrailers TV E3 special, it was confirmed that AI "bots" have also been introduced in this installment. Players can now engage in multiplayer scenarios with both human players and bots, or with bots alone, and may modify their intelligence level (from Casual to Insane) in the options menu prior to starting the game.

A new co-op game mode was confirmed during Microsoft's E3 2008 press conference; called "Horde," this mode allows up to five players to fight off waves of attacking Locust together. Horde Mode will not feature bot support as in competitive multiplayer, and can be played alone. The Locust attack in waves of multiple enemies which become more difficult as players progress.

Cameras in the multiplayer modes have also been improved significantly. Rather than static views from different points on a map, the new Battle Cam allows players to pan around a map as the camera focuses on areas of intense fighting, and the Ghost Cam allows a player to roam freely around a map. A photo mode is also be featured, with each photo taken by a player rated on the amount of action in the shot and can be uploaded to the official Gears of War website.

Story

Setting

Gears of War 2 takes place six months after the detonation of the Lightmass Bomb at the end of the first game. Though most of the Locust Horde was destroyed, the explosion also caused much of the liquid Imulsion underground to vaporize, causing a fatal disease called rustlung to spread among the diminished human population. After months of peace, the cities of Tollen and Montevado suddenly and mysteriously disappear underground, leading the COG to suspect the resurgence of the Locust. Soon after, the once impenetrable Jacinto, one of the last remaining safe havens for humans, begins to show signs that the same fate awaits it. In order to stop the fall of Jacinto, the COG responds with a large-scale counter-offensive against the Locust. Senior Producer Rod Fergusson says "In order to save Jacinto, have no choice but to take the war to the Locust." Comic book writer Joshua Ortega says "The stakes are raised. This is humanity's last stand. Everything is at risk. Nothing is safe."

Characters

Returning characters includes Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago and others from the first game, including Marcus and Dom's frequent companions, Augustus Cole and Damon Baird. Also returning in supporting roles are radio dispatcher Anya Stroud and senior officer Colonel Hoffman. Lead designer Cliff Bleszinski confirmed that the character Carmine would be returning, but did not reveal how or in what capacity as Carmine was killed in the original Gears of War. It was later revealed that the original Anthony Carmine would not be present in the Gears of War 2 campaign, but rather his brother, Benjamin, will make an appearance. also introduces several new characters. They include Chairman Prescott, the near dictatorial military leader of COG; Tai Kaliso, "a spiritual and meditative warrior from a tradition of honor bound fighters;" and Dizzy, a former Stranded who joined the COG in order to keep his family safe. Dominic's wife Maria also makes an appearance, and Dominic's search for her plays an important part in the story.

Plot

With the COG army continuing to lose large numbers to Locust raids, the COG plan a counter-attack against the Locust by sending troops in Grindlifts deep below the surface to attack the home of the Locust, the Hollow. Though they suffer losses due to the leader of the Kantus monks, Skorge, the human forces continue their plan. After their descent, Delta squad, consisting of Marcus Fenix, Dominic "Dom" Santiago and Benjamin Carmine, later joined by Augustus Cole, begin to search the Hollow and discover that the Locust are taking prisoners, as they managed to save Damon Baird from imprisonment. Delta squad finds another imprisoned squad member, Tai Kaliso, who has suffered wounds inflicted by the Locust while torturing him. Though Marcus tries to arm Tai for a fight, Tai instead commits suicide, the physical and emotional trauma too much for him to bear. Delta squad continues to search the Hollow and discovers that the Locust are using a giant Riftworm to eat away at the rock structures at the outskirts of Jacinto in hopes of sinking it. They try to evacuate, but are swallowed by the Riftworm. The squad manages to kill the worm from the inside, but Carmine is killed by parasites.

Delta squad manages to escape to the surface only to be given orders to investigate a nearby abandoned COG outpost. There they learn of a back door entrance to the Hollow in the nearby Kadar Mountains. The team fights its way to the caverns in a Centaur tank, and discovers that some Stranded have taken shelter near the mouth of the caverns. Marcus orders Cole and Baird to evacuate the Stranded while he and Dom search further. They find more prisoner cages, and Dom convinces Marcus to help him seek his wife. They manage to find her, but the Locust torture has left her too traumatized and unable to communicate, and Dom chooses to euthanize her. Marcus and Dom continue to make their assault on Nexus, the Locust capital, and are soon joined by more COG forces from the surface, including Cole and Baird. Delta squad is able to break through the Locust queen's defenses, though they discover that the Locust have messages from Adam Fenix, Marcus' father, that suggests the same tactic that the Locust are attempting: to sink Jacinto in order to let water flood the Hollow, killing the Locust. They also discover that there is a conflict within the Locust, as those that have become infected by Imulsion, or have become lambent, are attempting to overthrow the Locust queen, and she wants to sink Jacinto to wipe them out with the resulting flood caused by the ocean sinkhole. After briefly meeting the Locust queen, Marcus realizes that humans must sink Jacinto first, before the Locust mobilize and escape to the surface.

Delta squad escapes the Hollow on a pair of Reavers, defeating Skorge and his Hydra, and then return to Jacinto, where a mass evacuation is occurring. The COG have decided that they can sink Jacinto using a Lightmass bomb, and Delta squad is ordered to sink the roof of a certain spot in the Hollow, which would allow a helicopter to transport the bomb into the caverns. Marcus orders Cole and Baird to assist with the bomb, while he and Dom defeat a Brumak, then hijack it, and quickly arrive at the Hollow to cave the roof in. As the helicopters arrive, the Brumak, exposed to high levels of Imulsion, begins to mutate and takes down the helicopter with the bomb into the imulsion. The Lightmass bomb lost, Marcus makes a plan to kill the lambent Brumak. Marcus uses the Hammer of Dawn to kill the Brumak, which explodes, taking out the last supporting structures of Jacinto, sinking it, and flooding the Hollow. As the COG forces evacuate, the Locust queen talks about unintended legacies.

Development

Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski has done several interviews to highlight improvements to the game. Heavy netcode optimization has been done to negate the host advantage problem in the first title and hundreds of tweaks have gone into improving the cover system and movement. In order to provide a deeper story, the team brought aboard novelist Joshua Ortega as to incorporate more personal drama within the sci-fi setting. Steve Jablonsky will be providing the music for the game.

A teaser image posted to the official Gears of War 2 website on July 8, 2008 suggested that the game was to be released on November 9, 2008, but it was confirmed during the Microsoft E3 2008 press conference that the game would be released on November 7, 2008. On July 14, 2008, the teaser image was removed and the official website relaunched and updated for Gears of War 2.

Gears of War 2 was a focal point during Microsoft's E3 2008 presentation on July 15, 2008, which included a "hands on" demo. A second trailer titled "Rendezvous" was made available on July 14, 2008 as a part of E3. The trailer takes its title and dialogue from Alan Seeger's poem "Rendezvous." The game's release date was also set, with a worldwide release to occur on November 7, 2008. Microsoft and Epic Games announced on October 10, 2008 that Gears of War 2 had gone gold. It was confirmed by Cliff Bleszinski that, unlike Gears of War, the previous installment, Gears of War 2 will not feature a computer port.

Graphics

At the 2008 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, as a showcase for the functionality of the Unreal Engine 3, Gears of War creators Epic Games showed various improvements to the engine with specific reference to the sequel itself. The video showed several demonstrations of the improvements, the initial being improvements to the in-game lighting through ambient occlusion, in which dynamic shadows could be generated through the use of a pixel shading technique to render more realistically lit and shaded objects and actors, illustrated through comparison between character and environment models in the original game engine to that of Unreal Engine 3. Also showcased was the ability of the engine to render hordes of actors within the engine, as demonstrated with a large crowd of locust flocking through the "Gridlock" multiplayer map from the original game. Alongside this technology was improvements to "Matinee," an artistic tool used for the rendering and editing 3-dimensional scenes within the game.

Other physics-related features included improvements to the rendering of water in which specular light and physical interactions with were displayed more realistically, improvements to soft body entities demonstrated with a "Meat Cube" and a floating ball possessing properties similar to that of liquid helium. The largest of these physics engine related changes was the introduction of destructible environments due to the implementation of real-time structural analysis tools to generate the damage of the materials and subsequently their deformed shapes based upon resultant forces placed upon them. This was demonstrated with the use of explosive arrows fired from the "Torque Bow" of the original game causing damage to wooden planks, and also revealing rebar present after destroying areas of a stone structure.

Downloadable content

On February 20, 2008, coinciding with the game's official announcement at the Game Developers Conference, a free set of gamer pictures and a dashboard theme, as well as a teaser trailer titled "Duel," were made available via the Xbox Live Marketplace. The first footage of gameplay from the campaign, highlighting new features of the game, was released online and to the Marketplace on May 9, 2008. After the Microsoft E3 press conference, the "Rendezvous" trailer and the press conference demonstration was available for download as well as a new free set of gamer pictures and a dashboard theme. Upon release, every new copy of Gears of War 2 features a code to download the "Flashback Map Pack" which includes five enhanced maps from the original game including "Gridlock" and "Tyro Station". Customers who attended the GameStop Midnight Madness event received a code to unlock a gold-plated Hammerburst rifle for use in multiplayer and a code for an exclusive dashboard theme optimized for the New Xbox Experience.

Limited Edition

Template:Gears of War 2 Versions A Limited Edition of the game was confirmed on February 20, 2008. On July 14, 2008, more information about the Limited Edition's contents was revealed. The edition features alternate cover art, a SteelBook case with a bonus content DVD, a book entitled "Beneath the Surface: An Inside Look at Gears of War 2" which includes concept art and story-related information, a keepsake photo of Dom and Maria, and an exclusive Xbox Live code to unlock a gold-plated Lancer assault rifle for online play.

Reception

Reviews

Gears of War 2 has received positive reviews, and currently holds a 93.8% aggregate review score at Game Rankings, and a 93/100 aggregate review score at Metacritic.

While the game has been praised for the addition of a deeper plot than the original Gears of War and being highly polished, reviewers noted that some problems from the first game carried over to the sequel. IGN noted that while the first four acts of the game were satisfying, in the final act "the last boss is a complete joke and the ending feels just a tad too abrupt," and that there were some bugs and lag in the online multiplayer. Overall, IGN stated that " has its flaws when it comes to the technical side of multiplayer and the last act of the campaign and the voice acting might turn some off. Still, none of that comes close to holding back Gears of War 2 from its destiny: being one of the best games available on the Xbox 360."

Both IGN and Eurogamer, among others, positively mentioned the new "Horde Mode" feature, with Eurogamer saying that "Horde is a weighty slab of fun that can turn almost any of them into a time-sink, and the leaderboards are likely to be as compelling a reason to stick with Gears of War 2 as the leveling system has been for Call of Duty 4."

Awards

Gears of War 2 won several awards following its presentation at E3 2008. IGN gave it Overall Best Shooting Game and Overall Best Graphics Technology of E3 2008. Game Critics Awards gave the game Best Action Game of E3 2008.

Sales

Gears of War 2 has achieved significant success after its release. In its opening weekend, the game has sold over two million units, and set a new record for the number of simultaneous players on Xbox Live, with over 1.5 million people logging on to play the game's multiplayer mode.

Soundtrack

Gears of War 2 The Soundtrack is the upcoming soundtrack of video game music from the video game Gears of War 2. It was released on November 25, 2008, under the record label Sumthing Else Music Works. The music was composed by Steve Jablonsky.

Track listing

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External links

• Gears of War Official Website
• The Last Day: Promotional Site

• 2008 video games
• Xbox 360 games
• Xbox 360-only games
• Third-person shooters
• Tactical shooter video games
• Gears of War
• Epic Games games
• Video game sequels
• Microsoft games
• Cooperative video games
• Post-apocalyptic video games