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| omg huge text *Gears 2 Spoilers* | |
| Posted By: BlueNinja <kennethdemuyt@msn.com> | Date: 12/2/08 12:07 p.m. |
In Response To: The same is the case with Halo CE (mirel) : If you're not geek enough to read the books, you might wonder about certain : things too. Even if you play the whole trilogy. : Halo CE throws you into the fire right away, with maybe more explanation : through Cortana dialogue and cutscenes, but it's still not a gréat story : if you ask me. : Don't know the case with GoW, never played it. In the first GoW, you have no idea what's going on. You see Wretches hanging from the ceiling, drooling at you, and the next moment, Dom comes and busts you out of your jail cell. You're pretty much left to figure everything out by yourself. Gears 2 is a lot better in this regard... The moment the campaign opens you get an entire summary of the Human-Locust War up to that point, narrated by none other than the Locust Queen, and accompanied by a lot of sweet little hints of backstory (for instance, the Lancer used in the Pendulum Wars sequence doesn't have a chainsaw on it, but a regular bayonet). It's all explained rather quickly, but even if you never played the first one, you know what is going on. After basic training, you're informed of the COG's next step through Chairman Prescott's excellent speech, which immediately sets the tone for the rest of the game. When you compare the first Halo to the first Gears, the main difference is that in Gears, you're basically the only one who doesn't know what's going on. You could try explaining this by saying 'Hey, but Fenix was in a jail cell for the last 10 years!', but then someone could've at least explained what the Locust had been up to while he had been locked away. In Halo, not just you, but just about everyone is oblivious to what's going on, but whatever this ringworld is, you don't want the Covenant to have it. Then the Flood gets released, and you know how it goes from there. Halo 1's story managed to create a certain feeling of suspense and not-knowing, while the first Gears felt kind of limited on that part. Halo 2 and 3 both have great storylines, though I feel we should, when comparing, compare Gears 2 to Halo 2, and not 3. Both expand the story considerably, and both take us to places we couldn't have even dreamed of visiting in the first game. Overall though, I feel the introduction of the Locust Queen was kind of underwhelming, with basically no answers being given as to her nature. We can only assume she was once human, but got screwed up somewhere along the way. The collectibles in Gears 2 drop a lot of hints to the origins of the Locust and their Queen, but no real concrete details are being given. Now, I didn't want her to pull a chart out of hammerspace and explain where she came from, but at least a few more answers would have been nice. Instead, she confirms something we already knew from Adam Fenix' message in the Locust Terminals ('We have to sink Jacinto.'), gave a vague remark about Marcus' father, and then let Skorge off the leash, disappearing faster than that inefficient dress should've allowed her to. But, no matter how underwhelming her physical introduction was, her presence during the two games felt a lot heavier. During the first game, her presence could be felt during a few cutscenes, particulary Minh's death ('Cut off the head of the snake...'), and the ending ('We are not dead yet.'). We did not yet know who this 'Myrrah' was, but her high, almost royal way of talking, and the Locust randomly referring to their 'Queen' left us with little doubt. During the second game, this presence became heavier, with her commenting at the state of things in the Hollow and at Delta Squad's progress through Nexus, ultimately leading up to the aforementioned underwhelming reveal. When Gears 2 ends, we once again hear the Queen's voice, this time a lot darker in tone, and we know she's still alive. We're going to face her in the third Gears, no doubt about that, I just hope Epic won't pull a 343 Guilty Spark on us and have her breathe fire or something. If she dies, it should be after decimating her Royal Guard, and putting a Boltok Pistol to her temple. Fighting her just wouldn't work out. The Gravemind in Halo is, in some ways, similar to the Locust Queen. It was referenced in the first game, never explicitly, but the attentive player could've guessed the Flood were trying to create some sort of 'hub', or 'leader'. Gravemind's introduction in Halo 2, however, could've been a lot more impactful if we actually could've felt his presence béfore he magically pulled us down to his tentacly lair. We could've, for instance, been forced to fight the Flood (as the Chief), but they would be tougher, smarter, and just plain meaner than the Flood we faced in 'Oracle', because they were being guided by our favorite overgrown plant. The inclusion of 'Forerunner Tank' could've also been a serious help. His introduction was, although rather sudden, pretty convincing, though, as we were given a lot of new information about the nature of the Flood, and we also figured out what to do next. The introduction of the Locust Queen failed in that respect, for we learned basically nothing about the Locust we hadn't already learned from our trip to the New Hope Research Facility, and we already knew what we were going to do next. It only served as a pretty decent set-up to a rather cool, even though rather easy boss battle against Skorge. Overall, I like Halo 2's story better, save for the ending. In Gears 2, the ending really felt 'good'. After riding a Brumak, we decimated Jacinto's base, nuked the hell out of said (now Lambent) Brumak, and even though that boss battle was a little anticlimatic, you at least knew the game was coming to a close. After we capped Tartarus in Halo 2, we got all pumped when the Chief said he would 'finish the fight'... Only to see the credits cut across the screen afterwards. Both endings also leave enough questions unanswered to guarantee a sequel... And even raise a few more. Overall, I think comparing Gears 2's story to Halo 3's is just plain wrong. They're both awesome, yet the stories both served very different purposes: Gears 2 needed to expand upon what had been done in the first, and set things up for an even more epic, bad-ass final chapter, whereas Halo 3 needed to wrap up an entire epic trilogy. Comparing Gears 2 to Halo 2, though, shows some interesting similarities... And leaves me wondering how Gears 3 will be. I've got my theories.
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