There have been many rumours flying around left, right and centre about what will be and won't be in Epic's upcoming sequel, Gears of War 2. Well below you'll find a list confirmed by Epic themselves of features that you can expect to find in the game when released.
* Battlefields will be much larger than in the previous installment.
* There will, in fact, be chainsaw duelling in single player as well as multiplayer.
* There is a new poison grenade, which will kill anybody it hits and slowly drain the health of anybody around it.
* The “meat shield” is usable in both single player as well as multiplayer.
* The cover system is no longer as clunky, and has been edited to further prevent people “sticking” to walls and such.
* The story begins six months after the original ends. Introduces two new characters:
* A new pistol called the “Gorgon Pistol” is available, firing a six-round burst much like the hammerburst from the original.
* The hammerburst is now a semi-automatic gun.
* There is now a larger difference in active-reloading from gun to gun.
* Drop-in/drop-out co-op.
* Blood trails will allow you to track your prey much more effectively in case they decide it’s time to run away.
* A new war journal to keep track of your endeavours.
* A much more emotionally evocative story that will be much deeper and more interesting than in Gears of War 1.
* Difficulty settings modified. Casual is now much easier, while Insane is harder.
* Weapon-specific melees. New kinds of executions.
* At least two new species of Locust. At least one more chainsaw method. 5 vs. 5 online battles.
* New online mode called “Wingman,” where it’s essentially a 2v2v2v2v2 game.
* Gridlock is a multiplayer map.
* The ability to have each player use their own difficulty setting in co-op mode.
* Completely destructible environments.
* Enhanced physics.
* You can be damaged and killed whilst chainsawing.
* Longer campaign.
* More usage of vehicles in campaign.
* A new “dynamic-conversation camera” used during cutscenes to give them a cinematic feel.
* The addition of a flamethrower, dubbed “Scorcher.”
* Assassination game-type renamed to “Guardian.”
* Unlimited respawns until each team’s respective leader dies, at which points player cease respawning.
* Matchmaking! New game-type dubbed “Meat Flag.”
– Sort of like Capture-the-flag but the flag is a human player who stays in the centre of the map.
– Each team must down this player to be able to drag him back to their base.
* Getting damaged slows you down. You can now choose which weapon to spawn with in multiplayer:
– Lancer or Hammerburst.
– Portable cover. These are big metal things that you can carry around and shove into the ground to act as make-shift cover.
* You can only use your pistol while carrying one, and they can be destroyed by enemies that get too close.
* Grenades can be manually stuck to anything, meaning you have to “tag” the object like you would a person in the original Gears.
* Smoke grenades now stun enemies as well.
* While waiting to respawn, you may fly around the map and take screenshots of the action which you can then share with your friends.
* One confirmed new map: River. A symmetrical map, each team gets a sniping building and some flat land, which is divided by a river.
* One confirmed new map: Security. A long narrow map.
* Power weapons guarded by laser-turrets that cannot be destroyed and will kill you if you attempt to get to the weapons.
* These turrets can be turned off. New controls for downed enemies: X Button [Curb stomp] B Button [Melee] Y Button [Punch in a downed opponent’s face] A Button [Use enemy as meat-shield].
Just a few changes, no? This will surely be game of the year all over again unless something goes seriously wrong in the development process.