14 DAY TRIAL // Gears of War 2 was probably one of the most expected shooters this holiday season and one of the hottest Xbox 360 exclusives that Microsoft promoted. The sequel to a very popular shooter, this game promised to bring back the same non-stop action and excellent gameplay that gained the first title so many fans.
A lot of tweaks were made to this new game, including a revamped cover system, a new story that focused more on romance, instead of the mindless violence, and some new weapons and multiplayer modes. But sadly, not many of the changes were very good, as quite a bunch of users have complained that things were changed from the first game for no reason whatsoever, and that now, a lot of problems have made them resell their copy or throw it on a shelf to gather dust.
Although the news that Epic Games, the company behind the franchise, would fix a lot of these issues appeared some time ago, as we reported, the story received a lot of comments with suggestions from users for the development team of Gears of War 2. We decided to summarize their complaints and give a few helpful tips as to what the Epic team must work on for the future patch.
One of the most important and frequent remarks was that the weapons became gravely unbalanced, their power having been dramatically modified, as opposed to the first game. Particularly, the shotgun was much weaker, which was motivated by the lead designer of the game, Cliff Bleszinski, as an attempt to decrease the multiplayer matches where players would run up to their rivals and simply shoot their helpless victims. While a few users did understand this move, their general belief is that the shotgun has now become almost unusable and very slow, especially against other types of weapons, like the Lancer.
Speaking of the Lancer, a lot of players have complained that the rifle of choice for the characters in the game is now too powerful, as its bullets have a very big and unusual stopping power, rendering its wielder almost invincible. The famous accessory of the Lancer, the chainsaw bayonet, is also a bit too powerful, as there is nothing the players can do once it begins to rev and they can just see their character being sliced up in tiny pieces.
Another quite frequent user complaint that we have seen is the fact that the online matchmaking system is really faulty, as it sends users from North America for example, to games that are hosted by European users. This results in big lags, which render the game almost unplayable by the North American gamers. Players also want to have the option of selecting which type of multiplayer games can be viewed and joined, so as not to go through the process of entering a game mode they do not want and wait until everybody votes to change the type of gameplay.
Although a lot of complaints have been submitted to us, the ball is in Epic's court, as the development team needs to take note of these issues and try to repair them in the future. This is really a great game, in singleplayer, as a lot of users appreciated that mode, but at its core, Gears of War 2 is a multiplayer-focused game, which was supposed to bring the same rock solid online experience that the first title became famous for.
Let's just hope that these complaints reach the ears of Epic Games, and that the company takes action in resolving them in a future patch. Any other things you might want the developers to change, except the ones above? Then write them in a comment to this story.