Starting today I've got a series of interview bits I want to share from my chat with "Gears of War 2" chief creator Cliff Bleszinski. All of these posts will cover spoiler aspects of the game, so don't read them if you don't want surprises ruined.
First, here's me and Cliff talking about how a studio that's making a shooting game decides to make driving levels in their holiday blockbuster.
(As a bonus, this is the first time I've transcribed an interview in which I cursed. See what drove me to swear... pun intended)
This interview was conducted by telephone a few days before the release of "Gears of War 2." I finished playing the game's campaign over online co-op with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal a day earlier, a session I referred to throughout the interview. N'Gai had played as "Gears" hero Marcus Fenix. I played as sidekick Dom.
Multiplayer: How do you approach driving sequences? When you're making a game that people are purchasing for something other than driving sequences, how do you approach something like that and make sure it feels good and not like something that doesn't fit at all?
"It's a way to switch things up a little bit and let the player forget about the cool, core cover combat."
Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games: The game, yes, is a shooter, but it's a game that alternates between the player feeling scared and vulnerable but then also having that swing back and feeling empowerment. It's kind of like a turret. You approach an enemy that's on a turret and you feel scared. You manage to find a way to flank him and then you finally get the turret and it spawns 400 enemies and now you have this massive moment of empowerment.
With vehicles it's the same thing, where you want to have the player -- he's been dealing with cover this entire time, it takes almost a clip per locust on medium to hard difficulty level -- and then to get to a point where you're on a tank and one shot takes out eight or 10 of them using the crowd system. You're power-sliding through them and it's like "Screw you!"
And then we take away that empowerment by putting the player near a Brumak or putting them vulnerable in a dark cave with Corpsers. We keep alternating with that sense of pacing. And fundamentally it's a way to switch things up a little bit and let the player forget about the cool, core cover combat, so that when he comes back to it and he's like, "Oh I kind of missed this a little bit."…
Multiplayer: Let Dom drive in the co-op next time. Patch that in. N'Gai's a s---- driver.
Bleszinski: Some people have said, oh I found the icy lake part difficult. If you take your time you'll be fine.
Multiplayer: That's what I told him: "Dude, they're not going to blow up all the ice. I'm sure of it. I'm sure it's all pre-scripted."
Bleszinski: And we don't blow it up beneath you. If you just cruise along at a normal speed and don't get ADD on it all…It's kind of what we're trying to do a lot with "Gears." If you take your time and use cover and don't run into your enemies like an idiot, you'll do really well.
***
"Gears 2" players, what did you think of the game's vehicle sequences?
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