Retro spotlight: Gears of War 2

A shitload of fun. Well, more like 10 shitloads.

This column is “Retro spotlight,” which exists mostly so I can write about whatever game I feel like even if it doesn’t fit into one of the other topics you find in this newsletter. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

Gears of War was a great third-person shooter with convincing and well-deployed horror elements, which helped to move the entire shooter genre forward by iterating on the kind of cover-based gameplay that was front-and-center in Namco’s Kill.Switch. The sequel, Gears of War 2, is one of the greatest third-person shooters ever. It took everything the first game did well and dialed up the intensity, and while it did pare back on the horror a bit, that angle certainly wasn’t forgotten about: plenty of setpieces and scenes were still shot or lit like they were horror, and in conjunction with the increased action, made the game feel like the Aliens to Gears of War’s Alien in a number of ways.

Comparing Gears 2 and its predecessor to Resident Evil 2 and the initial outing in that series doesn’t quite work, as the first Gears isn’t comparable to the first RE, but there’s still very much that feel that the developers, Epic Games, understood everything that made the first Gears work, and knew exactly where to adjust the sliders for the second outing to create a game that would blow the first one away. To create a masterpiece. To make something, like with Resident Evil 2, that the franchise hasn’t really fully recaptured, either. Plenty of shooters from this era don’t age well for a number of reasons, but Gears of War 2 has stood the test of time in a way that keeps it comfortably above its now many sequels, and I say this as someone who’s very into the non-Judgement ones even if I have my criticisms of them. In its structure, in its storytelling, in its perfect and refined feel, Gears of War 2 just works, and is a testament to just how good Epic was at this sort of thing, in a way the successor developers haven’t quite nailed even as they make their own worthwhile Gears outings.

Let’s recap just what Gears of War is for a moment, before diving into what’s different and exceptional with this particular entry. On the story side, Gears 2 begins where the first one left off, in the sense that you’re seeing the aftermath of the decision to set off a very large bomb in the planet’s interior in order to defeat the Locust, the underground-dwelling humanoid monsters who seem very intent on replacing humans on the surface. Things were desperate last time around, which is how Marcus Fenix, the protagonist, ended up pardoned and put back on the front lines in the first place, but now they’re desperate for both the humans and the Locust, and it shows in the actions of the latter, who are putting everything they’ve got left on the battlefield as they attempt to, as you’ll discover, sink the remaining human cities by having a Dune-sized worm take out their foundations. And that’s just in the first few acts!

Image credit: Gears of War Wiki

Gears is a cover-based shooter, and not just a little bit. Everything is broken down into a point-to-point progression system: get behind cover, defeat enemies from behind it, advance, repeat. It could easily be boring in the wrong hands, but the tension and difficulty of Gears allows for constant exhilaration even while sitting behind cover for extended periods of time: you’re behind cover, yeah, but staying out of it for too long to fire more accurately, or not properly covering your flanks, or not accurately hitting your shots when you get the chance to take them, could all spell your doom even with the benefit of cover. And there are plenty of enemy types who can flush you out of cover, one way or another, meaning you always need to be on your toes, not simply camping and waiting for the perfect shot. (Now, if you’re playing co-op with a friend who knows what’s what, then the synchronization of one nut running around from cover point to cover point drawing as much aggro as possible while a friend with a Longshot — the game’s sniper rifle — picks off heads one at a time is its own kind of beautiful, violent ballet.)

You never feel safe even when behind cover, is the thing: the sense of foreboding that loomed over the entirety of the original outing not only remains, but has been enhanced, and that’s due in no small part due to the new enemy types. The Boomer was a large, rocket-firing Locust in the first Gears, but was also the only one of his type. Now, those massive mountains of Locust aren’t just wielding rocket launchers, but there are Grinders who carry miniguns so large that Marcus and Co. can’t run while carrying them on their own, and Butchers who carry an enormous cleaver which they will use to chop you into tiny bits if they get close. The Mauler is also new, and while they don’t carry a maul, they are a heavily armored Boomer-type who carries a massive, explosive flail, as well as a shield they can deploy to avoid taking damage in any of their vital bits. The shield is shorter than they are even hunched down, though, so with practice you can get pretty good at things like, say, firing an explosive Torque Bow arrow into their literal and figurative Achilles heel. And then there’s the Flame Boomer, which is terrifying up close since they carry a flamethrower, but from a distance… well, they also have a backpack on that feeds the flamethrower, and aiming for that just creates a Boomer Bomb that can take out the Flame Boomer and whichever other Locust happen to be in range of the eventual explosion.

And that’s not all! There are also Bloodmounts, which are basically Locust wargs (The Lord of the Rings-edition) wearing armor and with a Locust doing their best to fire at you from on top of them. The accuracy of said rider is questionable, at best, but those Bloodmounts will tear you apart from the top down if they get close, so don’t let them: you can stun them by shooting them directly in the face, which makes their mask uncomfortable and causes them to pause in their charge and devastation to knock it off. This makes them more vulnerable, but also wilder, since the rider has lost whatever ability they had to control the mount. Bolters specialize in using the Boltok pistol, Cyclops tend to swipe Lancers from downed humans and have no qualms about trying to chainsaw you with them, there are now Flame Grenadiers who move faster than their Flame Boomer cousins.

Image credit: Giant Bomb

Would you believe it, but there are actually more new enemies who require new strategies to defeat. Kantus are one of the most dangerous additions to the franchise, as they can let out a devastating battle cry that, if you’re within range, stuns you. They flip and roll like human players would, and they’re also capable of reviving any Locust who still have their heads attached. So, yeah, target those guys immediately when you see them. Just as horrible for you but for very different reasons are the Tickers, which ended up mostly replacing the first game’s Wretches in this title: Wretches are still here and still a problem, but Tickers are faster and are used as proximity mines against you. Mobile proximity mines. You’ll hear them before you see them, clicking and ticking, and they’ll let out an identifiable scream when they’re getting set to explode: you either need to roll out of the way to avoid taking the brunt of the blast, or you have to melee the Tickers to smack them out of the way so they’ll explode elsewhere. Don’t let them sneak up on you, because if they catch you off guard and blow up right on top of you, you’re probably going to die.

And last are the Sires, which are in the most horror-centric bit of Gears 2. They’re the fastest foes you’ll take on, and also look like they’re either melting or haven’t quite finished baking yet. For story reasons, I won’t go into them too much, but know that your interactions with them will either go smoothly because you’re prepared and excellent with a chainsaw, or horribly wrong because they move fast and in numbers.

As for new weapons, well, everything these new Locust bring into the fray can be yours if you kill them. Besides the Bloodmounts, but hey, we’ll get to the creatures you can ride in a bit. The Lancer remains the star of the show, given it’s an accurate assault rifle that also has a chainsaw bayonet, but there are so many killer other weapons to consider that the Hammer of Dawn, which played such a pivotal role in the first game, makes a single, brief appearance late into Gears 2. And even that’s pretty optional in terms of whether you want to utilize it or not. Pick up a Mauler’s shield, deploy it, and start taking down foes with your pistol. This is especially devastating if you managed to pick up the Kantus’ exclusive weapon, the Gorgon pistol, which has a Lancer-sized bullet capacity and burst-fires the rounds to justify the clip size. The flamethrower does exactly what it says on the box, and you don’t even have to carry the fuel pack that ends up being the downfall of whoever’s exploded hands you took it out of. And the Grinder… nothing like making yourself into a turret, especially one that can be deployed on any cover you can hide behind. You can’t fire forever like you actually can with the turrets, as you have a set number of rounds in a Grinder, but you’re going to have plowed plenty of the road ahead of you before you run out, anyway.

And last are the new vehicles and their segments. Vehicle segments were often the worst part of any number of shooters from this era, but Epic made an important decision ahead of slotting them in. What if you found a way to make vehicles feel fun instead of like a half-baked ploy to extend and diversify the gameplay? So instead of getting into a million different kinds of APCs or what have you (though there’s still one section in one here, where Damon Baird is continually trying to repair the damage you do to it as you go), you instead spend most of your vehicle time in Gears 2 either riding a vehicle that is also the stage — such as when you’re flying on the Beast Barge that’s got a turret to man, or running around on the Assault Derrick taking out Locust who are grappling on, or manning the turret to try to keep the building-sized Brumaks from rocketing you to death — or you’re riding some Locust nightmare. The Brumak “vehicle” stage, for instance, is a balance of “lol I’m riding a mid-boss around” joy mixed with “oh my God there are so many enemies here I can’t stop firing.” And escaping a Locust stronghold by stealing a couple of flying Reavers, which were armed with all kinds of weapons you didn’t think were any fun when they were trained on you, is its own fun, too.

The sheer variety and differences between these kinds of foes and the weapons you can use to take them down is a significant part of the reason why Gears of War 2 always feels fresh instead of stale, and continues to play so well all this time later, too. You might have the same very basic functions to complete throughout, but the how of it all changes again and again contextually, not just in terms of who you’re up against, but whether or not you’re playing in co-op or solo. The various difficulties, too, play a significant role in this: the game is pretty easy on the lower ones, as expected, but everything turns into an accurate bullet sponge on the tougher difficulties, and mistakes are basically not allowed unless you’re an escape artist whenever needed. One lovely thing about Gears 2’s design is that it perfectly balances a co-op situation with players on different difficulties, a feat so successfully managed that I discussed it with Trevor Strunk in this space in the past:

I think a lot about Gears of War 2 and its cooperative mode, which managed to seamlessly mesh multiple difficulty levels together. You and a partner would be climbing the same mountain, basically, at the same pace, with the more skilled and/or experienced player's abilities offsetting that their bullets essentially did less damage and that they died much more quickly than that of the player who was on casual, easy, whatever. This kind of mashup also kept the game from being solely the providence of the player who was better at/more experienced at Gears of War 2. Just by nature of how little damage they could take before they needed to be revived, and how many rounds they had to fire in order to take down even basic enemies, the partner playing on the lower difficulties was vital to the experience. They aren't going to use rounds up as quickly, even if they're not as deadly accurate with their weaponry: they're in a better position to save the day through revival, or a chainsaw-bayonet charge to smash through the Locust's lines, meaning they aren't just watching the other mow down the opposition. There are surely players out there who wouldn't have been able to complete Gears 2 on its toughest difficulty without the benefit of a friend playing on a lower difficulty, even. Managing something like that is obviously a challenge, but it was one that Epic's skillful developers were capable of both envisioning and creating.

It’s all so well done: my wife is an experienced Gears of War player and can more than handle herself, but she’s not looking to play on Insane, the game’s toughest difficulty. She plays on the standard difficulty or the one above it when we play co-op, and that allows me to have someone who can revive me while I crank things up to Insane, a difficulty designed to not give you enough time to say, “Bring it on!” before your head gets blown off. She’s absolutely vital to the experience, in all the ways described above, and we both get more enjoyment out of the game because Epic put in this masterfully tuned difficulty balancing.

Speaking of enjoyment, the voice work is once again top notch. I know people accuse Gears games of having bad writing, but I will once again argue that the writing is perfect for what Gears is trying to achieve, and it manages to achieve those goals thanks to the excellent voice performances. I’m sorry, but I will defend this exchange for the rest of my days, and it’s because John DiMaggio, the voice of Marcus Fenix as well as some excellent characters like Futurama’s Bender and Adventure Time’s Jake the Dog, delivers his line in an absolute perfect tone:

Another favorite, and again, it’s because of the delivery, is when Carmine asks Fenix about some weird objects they’re seeing underground, and Fenix responds by saying, “What do I look like, a fuckin' botanist? Some kind of plant, I don't know.” Fenix comes off in some conversations like this one as incurious, but it’s not that: it’s more that it doesn’t matter what these giant globes of fruit-looking things are. What matters is whether they can serve a purpose or not in this war they’re literally in the middle of (and they do eventually discover a use for them). Carmine has questions about the world he’s really stepping into for the first time and focuses on those; Fenix is focused on the task at hand, and much bigger picture concerns relating to the war. He’s quick on the uptake, a smart guy who only sometimes seems like less of one because he’s able to shut up about his brain unlike Baird, and exchanges like this one are a great reminder of how complete the character of Marcus Fenix is, not to praise incuriosity or anything like that. The game is well-written, the dialogue does what it should do and comes off as memorable, to boot. What’s not to love?

There’s less of Baird and Augustus Cole here in total, but they do manage to steal some spotlight when they are around, so Epic didn’t forget about how enjoyable those two can be when given the chance. The primary focus in Gears 2, though, is on Dom, and the search for his missing wife. You can argue that she, like so many characters in so many games, was fridged, but I’d at least defend the choice a little since it took until midway through the second game in the series to find out about it, and Maria’s absence was mentioned as early as the first game. Dom’s emotional journey takes him through all three games of this trilogy, and carries far more emotional weight than you might expect from the game that causes me to laugh 15 years later about how fucking funny “more like 10 shitloads” is.

There’s one more addition to Gears 2 worth mentioning: the multiplayer in general feels better because it’s more refined and the controls of the game all seem to be in peak condition for the series, too, but the star of the show is the Horde Mode. Back in 2008 when Gears of War 2 came out, Horde Modes were not a thing: it’s because of this game that they spread like they did, but no one did it better than Epic and Gears 2. In Gears of War 3, the degree of complexity rose, with base-building being part of it, and that was highly enjoyable. In Gears 2, though, the simplicity of Horde, in conjunction with the sheer scope of the thing, created a mode with no equals.

In Horde, you must defend against 50 waves of progressively more difficult enemies. There are more enemies and more enemy types, ammunition is limited, and you absolutely need to be able to master the shift from cover to open terrain more than you ever did in the game’s campaign. You can play Horde solo, but it’s incredible with a friend or two, because you can start doling out tasks and making yourself into a little well-oiled machine. Someone to pick off enemies with a long-distance weapon, be it the Torque Bow or the Longshot. Someone to stay in close and provide cover for that ranged fighter with a shotgun or expertly timed chainsaw bursts. Someone who can go out into the wilds of the map and create chaos to disturb what will become very well-crafted enemy strategies to flush you out from your hiding space. You must all work in sync, or you will die trying to revive each other again and again: the horde of Horde will simply become too much to handle if thinning its numbers is interrupted for too long.

Playing Horde for as many hours as I have, for as long as I have, has basically ensured that I have permanent Gears of War muscle memory. Active reloads, which are manual reloads you pull off at a specific time and receive boosts to weapon damage if you do, can be done entirely by feel for every weapon. Headshots and the lining up of them is a frighteningly automatic activity. And knowing exactly the best way to quickly and efficiently dispatch every single enemy type in the game, so as to conserve health and ammunition and avoid any chance of being overrun? Horde is to thank for that. And everything got to that point because it’s just so good, and so rewarding. Maybe Horde modes in general ended up a little overdone and overexposed in the end, as all things seem to become in games when they find some popularity and success, but Gears of War 2 propelled them to the forefront for a reason.

The Gears of War games that would follow would also generally be worth playing, though, the series has never again reached the heights and perfect balance of its first sequel. Gears of War 3 came closest, turning those “more?” sliders up, but there is also just a little too much more in some cases. The less said about Judgment, the better. Gears of War 4 was something of a reboot taking place decades after 3, and has its high points, but is less technically sound than Gears 2 in its controls and its feel, and lacks the more distinct characterizations and voice work performances of that game, as well. And Gears 5, well, it improves on 4 in a lot of ways, but also decides to make the point-to-point claustrophia simulator have open-world segments, so, I still miss Epic working on Gears, is all.

At least we still have Gears 2, which hasn’t been remastered like the first game, but is available on Game Pass on Xbox Series S|X, and is backwards compatible on the X model, too. If you haven’t played in awhile, give it a whirl: you might be shocked at how well it holds up, despite the waves and waves of shooters that have come after… many, many of which it’s obviously superior to.

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