Being and Xbox Live Gold Member and in the Raleigh/Durham NC area where Epic is located, I got to go to a Gears of War party. They converted a bar/club into the ultimate mecca of Gears. Lot's of character art and ambiance, bullet shells everywhere, but most importantly lots of stations to play Gears of War multiplayer. At least 10 developers of the game were there, including fan favorite Cliffy B, and they were all very happy to answer questions, sign anything, talk about the game, and give me some good tips on the levels. I have to say they were all very nice. They love their game, and are very happy to have it finished and playable.
I also saw Cliffy B play for a second, and he looked unstoppable. Be afraid.
Multiplayer Impressions
I got to the event early, stayed late and went to the controller often, so I got a lot of rounds in. I got to try 6 different levels; Gridlocked, Canals, Mansion and three I don't know the name of. One of which was a very large warehouse level. All the levels feel pretty unique in design and layout meaning different tactics are required. They are laid out with many different paths, so you really have to use team cover as there are no real hiding spots to camp out anywhere for very long.
I tried a good variety of weapons, and handed out some serious beatdowns with each. You always start with some great standbys; shotgun, back-up pistol, smoke grenades, and the assault rifle with the chainsaw. No matter how many times someone was chainsawed, there were always lots of cheers as the blood splattered on the camera. Some other weapons I got to try were the rocket launcher, sniper rifle (mostly on the receiving end watching my head explode), some satellite type weapon to call in a calculated explosion on a small area, a crossbow you can power up the longer you charge, and my favorite, a grenade launcher. You only get two shots with the grenade launcher, but it is a killing machine.
Everything seemed to be more balanced the better I got at the game. There only seemed to be two or so weapon pick ups on the map so there is definitely some strategy there. But, even with only the starting weapons, you never feel out-gunned.
We played Warzone, which is a 4 on 4 last team standing mode which I really enjoyed. If you got taken down, a teammate had some time to revive you before bleeding out. A nice little indicator pops up on your screen to find downed teammates, but even with that, I don't recommend getting too far away from your team. However, if you get chainsawed, or your head blown off, you don't have the option to be revived. You can get curb stomped by an enemy as well which finishes you off... it is brutal and awesome.
One thing I really liked was the active reloads. It is such a simple concept but adds a lot to the game. Hit the Right Bumper once to start reloading, and then a little bar pops up. If you time it right, you reload faster. Also time it exactly right and hit the smallest area of the bar and you get a damage bonus on that clip. If you miss the sweet spot, you reload slower. I was getting the timing down by the end of the night, and barely needed to look at the bar. It's a cool innovation in my book.
The secret to multiplayer is teamplay. If you stick with your team and cover each other, you can do really well. Close teamplay prevents the other team from getting at you with the chainsaw, enhances your ability to revive each other and enables you to concentrate fire from multiple angles. When you play as a team, Gears of War just makes sense and you can't help but fall in love with it.
So overall I loved the multiplayer. If you have any questions let me know and I will answer them in our Forum.
