Gears of War 2: A Struggling Narrative
November 13th, 2008“I’m not asking that the writing be incredible, just that it not assault the rational mind. Writing is cheap, guys. It’s cheap. When everything else in your product is manufactured to such an incredible degree, why do you tolerate work of this caliber?” – Tycho. Penny Arcade.
I echo these same sentiments. (*Note, above all I love Gears 2’s gameplay) Arguably, the Gears of War story is a tired narrative that helps thread the story to the excellent gameplay of Gears. Critics and gamers will admit that in the end if a game can spend more time creating gameplay mechanics that will provide a better gaming experience, then they forgive the game if the story happens to fall to the waste side. However, when it becomes apparent that the game’s narrative and dialogue lack any thoughtful creation, then the game loses out on providing a more experienced immersion. Gears of War presented us with a world full of questions that I would assume that players would expect to be answered in the second installment, unfortunately we are left with very few answers and even more puzzling inquires.
Maria and the women of Gears of War
The lack of women in the game is possibly an untold narrative thread that hasn’t had a chance to be exposed in the game. However, I assume, to do the graphic nature of the player’s death, developers decided not include playable female characters of the C.O.G. army. (Maybe because women are need to make babies to help save the human race?) We are presented with two female characters in Gears 2; Maria Santiago and Anya Stroud. Maria Santiago’s story is a sad one, but incredibly unbelievable. How she was able to travel miles and miles away from a location that you recently missed her at is beyond me. Why she wouldn’t wait around or ask for her husband is mystifying. How did Dom lose her? Where did they live? Why is she missing? These are never answered.
Anya Stroud is apparently the only woman on the planet disciplined enough to be in the C.O.G. army. The lack of women in this world is not a genuine concern for me, but rather a missed opportunity. There characters are stereotypically handled and offer no real insight on the culture or history of the world.
The Others and the Grandpa
One of the instances that I found awkward in the first Gears of War, is when you came across a street camp of survivors, called Stranded. It was a tad incomprehensible to me that these individuals had survived so long during the war, considering their homes where sandwiched in between two levels of campaign, where you instantly came across the Locust. How do these people survive? There was a civil war, we do know that, but how are these normal people able to survive? What do they eat? What do they do for money? I don’t expect the game to answer all of these questions, but after engaging with “Grandpa”, I started becoming extremely frustrated about the reality of this world.
Grandpa, is the name I have given to a character that appears after finishing the Mount Kandar ascension. (He is known as Chap in the first Gears game) As our 4 heroes begin their descent into the Locust stronghold they encounter a group of normal humans who, for whatever reason, believe that seeking refuge near an underground city of murderous beings, which sole purpose is to scorch the planet of your existence, is a great idea. One of the travelers (Grandpa) spills the beans on the Locust Highway and their human slave practices. Why this information hasn’t been reported to you by now is a little insulting. Granted, players don’t need to know every detail about the world and the enemy, but are we to believe that this old coot knows more about the Locust army than the C.O.G.? And how the hell did they get down there? I had to drive a tank that barely survived an assault brought on by heavily armed strongholds and drove through miles of darkened trenches to get to where they are now! Huh?
Prisoners
Thanks to Grandpa we discover that the Locust are using humans as slaves. You witness a few mining dirt during one part of the game. Why are they being put to work? Why do they become mute and “droned”? Why are they tortured? As a player I don’t understand any of this and maybe that’s the point. But these circumstances that have befallen the human race are barely conceived and does little to progress the over all narrative. It seems that the design of creatures and levels have been pushed to create a narrative, rather than the designs having an inspiration on the game’s story. This is clear with the “slave” ships, where it is apparent that they were designed before a cohesive narrative was constructed. When one character emerges after being tortured on one of these ships, his suicidal escape is meaningless due to lack of character development. One character similarly states “they broke him” but only a few hours of gameplay have passed since you last saw this individual. I understand they were trying to instill horror into the player by providing the death of a character “who can’t be killed”, but the set up of this character’s end is soured by the quick progression of gameplay. It’s unfortunate too, because this individual was the second most likable character, next too Marcus Fenix.
The Queen
We knew from the ending of the first Gears of War that there was feminine leader pulling the puppet strings of the Locust army. The build up to her lair in the second campaign is great, but all that momentum and effort are quickly lost when you casually walk into her throne room. There you are greeted by the beautiful human vessel that controls these horrible creatures. Unfortunately, after the meeting you are presented with more questions and less answers. Who is she? Why does she look human? (I knew she wasn’t going to be ugly, everyone saw that from a mile away) How does she know about Marcus Fenix’s father? Why are you having a fire side chat with the commanding figure of humanity’s destruction? Why haven’t you put a bullet in her head? Seriously, we are just going to let her walk right out of this room!? Why wasn’t this place crawling with body guards? Even Darth Vader had a Crimson Guard! Come on.
