christiangamer

Drum roll, please.  One of the most highly anticipated games for 360 users came out on November 7th.  Gears 2 picks up the story from about 6 months after the events of Gears 1.  How is it?  Should parents be concerned about it?

THE GAME:

Well, folks – the game is good.  If you liked the first one; you’ll more than like the second.  The story is stronger, the graphics are prettier, the gameplay is enhanced (co-op is awesome), and the multiplayer feels more strategic and well balanced – though many people on LIVE have disagreed about that one (many like the old [insert weapon here] better).

No spoilers here, but let me just say that it almost succeeds in every way to make you care about the characters and the plot.  When the story is working it compels you to continue plowing through the impossible odds.  The locust army makes for a very evil enemy that you love to hate.  The heroes have suffered so much, and humanity is on the brink of extinction.  I felt genuinely connected to the plot for most of it, but there were two points that I absolutely hated and felt that the developers were trying too hard to get me to cry (manly, manly tears).  So I guess I didn’t like some of the plot direction, but apparently it was powerful enough to make me sad and mad, so kudos to EPIC for sucking me in.

It was a blockbuster in every way and I can’t wait to get to certain parts of the game in co-op mode…

The graphics are absolutely beautiful.  The first game was amazing and set the bar incredibly high; Gears 2 is impressively better.  The attention to detail and the artistic direction in the architecture make the game-world of the planet Sera completely believable and very down-to-Earth (even though it’s not Earth).  The bulky/beefy character models are ridiculously so, and sometimes look awkward – but the facial details and armor/clothing are simply amazing.

The gameplay is where the hooks really sink in for me.  While the game, at first glance, looks like all brawn and no brain; it’s quite balanced between the two.  If you’re good at shooters you’ll do well; if you’re smart with positioning and weapon tactics you’ll do way better.  The cover mechanic that was revolutionary in the first game is honed to buttery-smooth in this one.  If you find yourself with the right angle and the right weapon at the right time, you’ll acheive a serious level of satisfaction when the firefight is over.  In single, co-op, or multiplayer – tactics and quick thinking will win you the game.

That’s why multiplayer is so amazingly fun for me.  You have so many ways to play: versus, capture the (living) flag, king-of-the-hill types, 5 teams of 2, and then there is Horde mode.  Horde mode, if it were released by itself as a stand alone product, would be worth the price of admission.  You and 4 friends face off against 50 waves of increasingly tough bad guys.  This mode forces you to talk, and makes you better friends with the people you’re playing with.  I got to wave 50 with four buddies last week (on normal difficulty).  It was difficult, and we thought about giving up multiple times but kept on going, adjusting our strategies and thinking of ways to use new parts of the map to gain advantage.  When we finally beat it there was this intense feeling of accomplishment (and if it hadn’t been early morning on a weekday, we would have plunged right back in).

PARENTS:

This game is not for kids.  It’s particularly bloody, gory, and scary.  When your Lancer (a gun with a chain-saw bayonet, yes really) saws into an opponent; very thick, gooey blood splatters everywhere and kind of blinds you for a moment.  Explosive decapitations are the result of headshots, body parts are often scattering everywhere, and I didn’t know it was possible to dismember a torso (?).  The game also has some serious swearing.  It’s not as bad as GTA (and you’re not playing a criminal, just a grumpy good-guy).  Also in the game’s story there are some very hard to watch scenes involving unsettling deaths and torture.  There are scenes of alien ickiness that I can’t even begin to describe properly, but will try to in the spoiler section.  I just can’t recommend it for anyone younger than ___, well that’s up to the parents.  I urge you to try it first, before you let your kids play it. The good news is you can turn some of the mature stuff off – more on that later…

If you are reading this and don’t want spoilers – skip this next paragraph completely.  If you are a concerned parent; don’t skip – these events in the story are very intense and may be too much for your kids. Select the text to read it.

*SPOILERS*

The game’s violence sometimes plays second fiddle to the game’s intensity.  In the story you will see and experience a level inside a giant monster; complete with more blood than I have ever seen and some seriously gross and squishy organs.  I’ve heard many Xbox LIVE friends say that it’s the grossest thing they’ve ever seen.  You’ll see main characters die – one in a particularly disturbing suicide.  And you will not witness visually, but still experience a powerful and disturbing mercy-killing.  I was actually in tears at first (yeah, it’s that intense), and then mad at the writers because I felt it was kind-of a cheap shot.

*END SPOILERS*

Chances are, your kids will want this game.  It is a contender for game-of-the-year and most gaming youths keep up with these blockbusters.  The good news is that EPIC games usually include filtering systems in their software.  Gears 1 had a “mature content” filter that turned the blood to sparks and the F-words to, well, silence.  I was thankful for that.  Gears 2 is a little better.  Separate options for blood and language mean that if you have the option to turn one or both off.  The blood toggle turns all the blood to sparks and bodies of victims stay in one piece.  The swearing toggle does not eliminate all words, but the words that are usually considered the worst are silenced, even in the subtitles.  The filter options will turn the game down to an intense PG-13 from an unrelenting R rating.  What cannot be turned off or down is the intensity and the subject matter.  And I don’t believe you can skip the gross level in the belly of the monster…  And when you chain-saw an opponent, it still looks like you chain-saw an opponent.

I am giving it 4 and 1/2 stars for being awesome and at the same time, cautioning parents to thoroughly preview the game before they decide.  Maybe you’ll be OK with it because of the content filters.  You will then have to decide if your kids will use them and if you can trust them to do so.

Gears of War 2