Mikel Reparaz - PlayStation Editor, GamesRadar
The first Gears of War was already pretty grim and dark, so I'm not really sure how the sequel's going to be more so. Maybe if you're forced to watch all your friends die, one by one, in agonizing 10-minute cutscenes, and then suddenly find out near the game's end that you're a genetically engineered assassin bred to bash your own father's head in with a golf club (a chainsaw golf club, naturally), then that would qualify. Whatever the case, that teaser looks pretty sweet - although maybe there's something wrong with me, because my first thought while witnessing the reverse-chainsawing was that Marcus is just going to get his gun all gummy and nasty, shoving it barrel-first through a Locust's body cavity like that.
I liked the tech demo a lot more, in particular the destructible environments and the wobbly meat cube. Seriously, I really hope they find a way to work that into the game. Maybe there could be a context-free "Locust Factory" level, where those things roll down conveyor belts, and you have to chainsaw them to pieces (you know, to, um… release the, uh… bunnies? Who've been trapped inside?). I wanted to see what would happen if Marcus cut the meat cube or the other jiggly blob-thing, although I imagine stuff like that probably isn't procedural and has to be pre-animated.
Aside from being completely fixated on chainsaws, I'm also pretty impressed by the huge streaming horde of locusts. Previously, when I've seen demos like that, they've always been showing off the power of the PlayStation 3. To see that the 360 is capable of doing much the same thing makes me wonder if there's really any practical gap between these two systems at all, because up until now, insane numbers of enemies seamlessly flooding the screen was the only trick I'd seen the PS3 pull that the 360 hadn't. It'll be interesting to see what Sony can do to top it.
Brett Elston - Nintendo Editor, GamesRadar
The first thing I said when I saw people getting chainsawed in the first Gears was "Is there a minigame when two chainsaws strike each other?" Of course there wasn't, but it looks like now there is, based on that dueling trailer. I'd expect a B button mashing experience.
I'm not at all surprised the game is due this year. Microsoft needed something big for the fall, Gears has all of its assets ready to go, and Halo Wars is an RTS - not a major system seller, Halo or otherwise.
Four player co-op? Better be. Halo gave it to us with two blah-y characters we'd never heard of. With Gears, we know and (somewhat) care about these four guys. Let's have four-player, please.
We'd better get a glimpse of this Locust Queen. What are their real motives? Are they after resources or are they perhaps running from something deeper in the ground? She does say "why we will not stop" in the ending.
NO MORE UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES.
More verticality in the level design. Gears, despite looking amazing, felt too focused on one plane. Always forward, never up.
New multiplayer modes please. Annex is great but not original. Gears 2 needs a new mode that people from that point on say "like 'X' in Gears of War 2."
Michael Gapper - Staff Writer, Xbox World 360:
A minute long trailer with Marcus Fenix swinging his chopper about the place without so much as a hint at what we’ll see in-game is the announcement equivalent of showing a toddler a puppy and then shooting the puppy. Fortunately, that wasn’t all we saw of Marcus at Microsoft’s GDC event; the new Unreal Engine 3 tech demo showcased the potential of Gears 2 better than any announcement teaser. Most dramatically, we have destructible scenery – environments can be reduced to their steel support beams, floors can be torn apart and cover can be reduced to mortar. The new wibbly-wobbly flesh and liquid physics change things too – not dramatically altering gameplay, but meaning dead Locusts won’t ragdoll around the floor like a cuddly toy any more. Perhaps best of all is Unreal 3’s newfound ability to throw around dense crowds; if you thought taking on four Locusts was hard, try taking on ten at once. That’s your real Gears of War 2 announcement, and the real teaser is the promise of Gears of War turned up to eleven.
