Is this the year of the video game, asks Paul Eksteen? Halo, Grand Theft Auto... among the year's biggest blockbuster, with spiralling profits outstripping the Hollywood money machine. Gears of War 2 belongs in that illustrious company. Just ten weeks after the 2006 release of the original, the game had sold over 3-million copies. Much hype and anticipation has preceded this sequel and it's not hard to see why. Gears of War is a simple take of redemption told compellingly. It promises to be one of the biggest entertainment events this year, and you are cordially invited...
The Invitation
Welcome to Sera, a distant planet colonised by humans, or what's left of it. Your presence is greatly appreciated at the Jacinto Plateau, the charmed rock face upon which Sera will make its final stand. Man's greed for power has aroused the worst in him, and the sadism of alien prospectors. Fourteen years ago, Sera was racked by civil war, as nations squabbled over Imulsion, a very valuable source of energy. The Pendulum Wars they were called, and the pendulum swung from bad to worse. Because then came the event dubbed Emergence Day, when a pirating alien force, the Locust Horde, swooped on the warring factions and literally caught them with their pants down. Faced with an even greater threat to its survival, Sera united under the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG), but it was already too late. Using underground tunnels, the Locust Horde overran Sera's major cities, and soon had the planet in a gory vice. The COG ordered all survivors to Jacinto Plateau, its only crumb of hope, made invulnerable by a category of rock the aliens seem allergic to. But even that is changing. With its military ranks thinning in the bloody conflict, the COG have decided on a brazen, and decidedly desperate, course of action. This time, they're taking the fight to the invaders. Delta Squad, its premier fighting force, is COG's Sunday punch.
The VIPs
Marcus Fenix: The story of Gears of War's principal character begins behind bars. A former COG soldier, Fenix gets the COG's goat by disobeying orders, and had served four years in maximum security prison when the Horde was unleashed. With all hands needed at the pump for Sera's survival, Fenix was sprung from prison and reinstated to the army. Sera's fate rests with him. Not the warmest company. A solid block of grizzled muscle with a dry sense of humour, and a devil-may-care attitude.
Dominic Santiago: Think the guy who wasn't Don Johnson in Miami Vice, in a mean mood. But have a heart. Dom is sick of this war, and wants to go home to his family. All his plans to reunite with them thus far have been scuppered. He's starting to crack and takes out his frustration on the Horde. It's the ultimate sidekick in a world gone crazy: a sensitive bad-ass.
Carmine, the rookie: A nervous conscript forced to learn on the job. All his siblings have seen action, and one won't make it back home. Carmine's a bit of a shell-shocked wreck in the beginning, but his staying power makes an impression on the seen-it-all, got- the-blood-stain demeanour of Fenix. No mean feat.
TAI KALISO: Maori tattooed heavy (pictured left) with the calm of Buddha about him. A bit of a character. Says very little in a lavish accent, and is indestructible. In one scene, he emerges unscathed from a burning armoured vehicle savagely serrated in half by an alien war machine. Zen and violence remains the coolest of combinations.
The Dress Code
Formal, but with room for experimentation. With life cheap and day-to-day survival intense, there is little room for military decorum. Nevertheless, fighting uniforms are encouraged, if only for functionality. You do end up looking like a bedraggled TeleTubby in your drab bubble suit and oversized boots, but the air crackles with violent intent, so playing it safe is a no-brainer. Even so, the gung-ho stalwarts of Delta squadron wear their macho on their sleeves, eschewing helmets for bandanas, earnings, and funky buzz cuts. You can wrap yourself in enemy dead for added protection, if you like. It pays to accessories, and the bling that goes bang is la mode. You've got to have guns in Gears of War 2, and the range is small, but impressive. Machine guns are the go-to item, with mortar launchers and sling-shot grenades rounding out the look. Last year's must-have, the chainsaw, dominated Gears of War fawning and makes a comeback in the sequel. The blood already flows freely, but if you really want to paint the town red, a chainsaw duel is the way to go.
The Valet
Parking might be a problem. The vehicles are gigantic. Designed entirely to take the fight from one place to the next, these industrial contraptions churn up the earth, jarring your bearings. The scale, and the flights of fancy among the enemy engineers teases out the drama, with squid-like battering rams, bio-mechanised reptiles, and gunships that scuttle like spiders running amok.
Admit 1 to 4
Developers Epic Games have invested heavily in the co-op segment of Gears of War2, with up to four players taking the fight to their friends in various shootouts. Human players add another dimension to the action, but you won't feel short-changed by the solo story mode, with its dazzling cinematics and hardcore action.
Sorry, no under-18s.
The Vibe
Tense. The Locust Horde are aggressive gate-crashers, spawning from Sera's volcanic ether. They certainly know how to make an explosive entrance, darting in and out of Sera's charred ruins to unleash ungodly salvos of lead and laser. Crumbling cover walls and defences chip and rattle under the scourge of the Horde's incessant arsenal and, up close, a gruelling dance with death unfolds. Tarantino-esque waves of blood break on screen, and the landscape suffocates under the gruesome gristle of the soldier's misfortune.
Among the gory bits are scatterings of supernatural beauty. There's a crisp twist in the mountainous air, a glisten in the snow, a comforting ebb in your wallpaper sunset. There's an art to the violence too, with its blend of realism and stylised heroics. Players are encouraged to ally brute force to strategy.
It's not quite the chirp-and-charge Braveheart brand of bloody-mindedness, but it works a treat, nonetheless. Gears of War enacts a mild G-Force on your senses. It pitches you to and from exotic locales in a relentless, action-packed, sci-fi thriller.
WIN WIN WIN
Tonight and Microsoft SA are offering a prize to one lucky reader. Answer the question below, and you could win a Limited Collectors GOW2 console, a Limited Collectors Edition GOW2 game, and a Limited Collectors Edition artbook.
What are the aliens in Gears of War called?
E-mail your answer, as well as your name and contact details, to [email protected]. The competition closes on Sunday.
- Please limit yourself to one entry. All entries are selected via a draw, so you have as much chance of winning with one entry, as you do with 100.