Gears of War 2: Why the hate?

About 2 years ago everywhere I turned I would see someone raving about Gears of War. Even while I was finishing my last year of Grad school my 3D Professor made it a point to ask who had played it, and how he loved it. So why so much hate towards Gears of War 2?

I played and completed it in Coop mode; I completed its new Horde mode and loved it. For me a girl who hated shooters to begin with that’s a huge achievement. So why the hate?! Why do I hear so many complaints about such an awesome game? Why all the bitterness my friends? Where did all the love go?

Gears of War 2 is a game that is easy to pick up an play. The ability to use objects as cover without manually having the do it is a key part to its accessibility. Another thing that’s makes it great is its storyline which I was able to jump right into even though I never touched its predecessor. The campaign was fun especially in coop mode and equally challenging.

The worst part of Gears of War 2 is some of the multiplayer modes such as warzone or execution mode. They just aren’t on the level of enjoyment and satisfaction of other multiplayer modes in big name shooters, and more or less leave you feeling frustration rather than enjoyment. Horde is the best multiplayer mode in Gears, it offers challenge and variety to what is an already saturated genre.

When complaining about Gears have some concrete issues. Don’t just say it’s boring, that’s vague and it can’t be any more boring than other shooters, where you are doing the same thing….shooting. Don’t say there is nothing original about it, I turned on God of War: Chains of Olympus today and was struggling to determine who copied off each other first, Devil May Cry or them. No one is completely original anymore; I thought the saying was if its not broken don’t try to fix it, or no need to reinvent the wheel.

A few original things about Gears is the massively dark and detailed environments, the fact that you can chainsaw enemies with your lancer and enjoy doing it, and its reload system which gives you an advantage on the battlefield if used right. A lot of what makes Gears good is the overall satisfaction you as a player recieve just playing the game and that’s what great games are suppose to be about.

So please stop hating just to be a hater and give the developers some credit where its deserved. It’s truly an Epic game.