Gears of War 3: What to Do Next Time

While Gears of War 2 was a critical and financial success, for most fans of the first iteration in the series, things were a lot different. Upon the release of the heavily anticipated sequel in the Gears franchise, throngs of Gearsheads stormed the official forums, demanding an explanation for the rampant bugs and sluggish matchmaking. Epic remained mum on the subject for quite some time, and while several title updates have been released to remedy a number of the issues, the game still feels unfinished. Resting comfortably at the #4 spot on the Xbox LIVE games charts, Gears of War 2 is far from being dead, but the point remains that somewhere along the line, something went wrong that gave hardcore Gears fans a sour taste in their mouths, myself included. While as a game, Gears 2 might be more sophisticated and the bigger, better, and more badass mantra might hold true for the singleplayer campaign, a lot of the problems stem from what is arguably the game’s most important mode, the competitive online multiplayer.

Let’s think about the future though for a minute here. While Epic is toiling away on fixing the remaining problems that currently plague Gears 2, now is the time to brainstorm for Gears of War 3 while both the fans and Epic are aware of what didn’t work this time around. Before discussing what needs to be changed, let’s reiterate what needs to stay.

 

What Worked

The Campaign

Gears of War 2 is by no means an incredibly deep game, but bringing Josh Ortega onboard to write the story was a brilliant move to further enhance and define the Gears universe. What’s more, the campaign mode was even more epic than its predecessor, moving away from skirmishes and into large scale wars between Locust and COGs. Of all the set-pieces in Gears 2, some of the most memorable come from the full-scale invasions of the Locust’s home turf, where dozens of soldiers are fighting against equal amounts of bad guys. Keeping this pacing for Gears of War 3’s story would be favorable, but maybe sprinkling in some more intimate combat along the way would make the story feel a bit more personal.

 

 Dom! Quick, take cover behind that…uh…worm?

 

Unreal Engine 3 Tweaks

The lighting was better, the frame rate was much more stable, the cover system was more fluid, and the physics were much improved. The engine tweaks that Epic employed on Gears 2 were a carefully selected and balanced group of improvements that served the Gears franchise very well. One of the best improvements was the near-destruction of the “sticky” glitch, where players would become stuck to walls when moving rapidly in and out of cover (which as a frequent occurrence for hardcore players). Overall, the ambient occlusion lighting techniques that Epic & Co. implemented in what many are calling Unreal Engine 3.5 matched Gears 2 thematically. In order to create a planet that was worth saving, Epic made stunning vistas much more prominent and reoccurring so players were empowered with a sense of purpose and drive.

 

Marketing and Hype

The marketing campaign for Gears of War 2 far outpaced that of Gears of War 1, with the exception of the Last Day trailer not quite reaching the Mad World trailer’s popularity or impact. The developer diaries leading up to the game’s release were hugely popular among fans and were perfectly spaced out to give eager gamers their weekly dose of Gears 2 news that they so desperately craved. The advertising and midnight launches were all made incredibly public, and the game sold insanely well as a result, and in a much faster time period than the original Gears did. For Gears of War 3, there is no better template to follow for a marketing campaign.

 

Marcus ponders the meaning of life.

 

With all that established, it’s time to reflect on the things that tarnish the Gears of War 2 experience.

 

What Didn’t Work

The Matchmaking

The matchmaking in Gears of War 2 is probably one of the most widely discussed flaws with the game. Everyone from players to IGN have commented on just how shitty this system worked at its debut. While recent title and server updates have sped up the process much, much more, several problems still remain. Players are still being matched up with incomplete teams, mismatched ranks, and terrible hosts. Often times, players end up playing opponents from entirely different countries (for whatever reason) which results in a whole lot of…

 

Lag

Without a doubt in my mind, Gears of War 2 is the laggiest game I have ever played in my time with online gaming. Whether it’s the host of the game or just the way that the netcode is written, something is very, very wrong with the online setup used in Gears 2. If this is a result of poor matchmaking host-selection or some other, unknown variable, it needs to be addressed in Gears 3. According to a poll I conducted on the official Gears forums, lag was by far the most desired thing to be addressed in Gears of War 3.

 

Glitches

Some of the most frustrating moments of my time with Gears of War 2 stemmed from incidents resulting from some really shitty glitches. Things like standby, shotgun rounds smashing the floor when hipfired, and other game-killing bugs made Gears of War 2 a nightmare at launch. If it hadn’t been for the inherent desire of certain gamers to exploit the game as much as possible, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but unfortunately, shield-glitchers and other exploiters near ruined the online experience for some who took the game seriously. The chainsaw being damn near unstoppable is something that still hasn’t been seriously looked at, which is a bit troubling.

 

Overall Speed

This is perhaps the one element of Gears of War 2 that is truly flawed from a gameplay perspective rather than a technical one. In order to reduce the “shotgun fests” that were rather prominent in Gears 1, Epic decided to scale back the overall speed of the game. This includes everything from movement speed to weapons’ firing rate. Most notably, the shotgun was nerfed considerably. This change took away that distinctive Gears feel: a frenetic, fast-paced, on-your-toes-at-all-times game of violent chess. In addition to the movement speed being impaired, the updated grenades and portable cover turned the game into more about standoffs with Lancers than any kind of close confrontation. Now, this isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, it’s just that there is no other way to play the game successfully than implementing the “hang back and wait for each other to make a move” strategy.

 

“Oh shit, that’s right I have a shotgun! Oh well, this is much cooler.”

 

Now that that’s aside, it’s time to look to the future. How can Epic remedy these problems for Gears of War 3? It’s all pretty simple (from a design standpoint anyways).

 

What To Do Next Time

Implement Client-Side Hit Detection/Dedicated Servers

I can honestly say that this one fix would bring Gears of War up to the level of hit multiplayer games such as Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, simply in terms of playability. If this takes some serious programming overhauling, I will gladly wait an extra year or so to get the promise of a purely lag-free experience the next go around. We were promised a “buttery-smooth” online experience pre-launch, and as everyone is well aware at this point, this promise has gone largely (if not completely) unfulfilled. That being said, if the Unreal Engine is incapable of using CSHD, it only makes sense to go the dedicated server route, a la Left 4 Dead. The fact that Valve put the money into making a consistently lag-free experience into a much smaller (in terms of commercial appeal) game, while Epic decided to save some cash by excluding such a feature is beyond me. The general misconception with dedicated servers on consoles is that it can only be done through players’ Xbox 360s. This is NOT TRUE. Dedicated servers are PC-based machines that host all server information, and allow a multitude of games to be hosted on a single machine. This removes host-advantage, as well as giving gamers the buttery-smooth online experience they have been promised time and time again.

 

“Borrow” Bungie’s Matchmaking System

C’mon now Epic, we’re all human. We all make mistakes once in awhile. It’s also okay to accept that sometimes other developers have almost nailed perfection in certain aspects of game design. One of the key selling points of Halo 3 is its strong matchmaking system, which gives gamers both fair and lag-free matches consistently. Let’s put two and two together. Halo is owned by Microsoft. Gears of War is owned by Microsoft as well. Why shouldn’t Epic just do a little reskin of the Halo 3 matchmaking system and throw it in Gears 3? Players know what the matchmaking is actually doing instead of just staring at the screen wondering what the hell is going on behind the scenes.  This creates an experience that even casual gamers can get into, which ultimately generates more revenue as the Gears install base expands. Everyone’s happy.

 

“Give it up, Bungie! We need a sweet matchmaking system too!”

 

Create a Public Gears 3 Beta

Although it is respectable that Cliff Bleszinski wanted gamers to experience Gears of War 2 in its entirety on their first go-through, this only served to exacerbate the many problems that were present in the retail copy at launch. Many of the issues present in the initial copy could have easily been ironed out through a mass Xbox LIVE public beta, and it’s time to embrace the fact that every major multiplayer game that gives a damn about its online reputation is releasing a beta prior to launch (see: Killzone 2, Halo 3, COD4/5). To make sure that Gears 3 is not a repeat of the glitch-fest that was Gears of War 2 at launch, a beta run will make sure that the exploit-hungry gamers that made Gears 2 a nightmare to play for awhile will have their chance to break the game as they see fit, which gives Epic precious time to clean up any bad code before the game hits store shelves. Again, a win-win situation.

 

Revert to “Classic” Gears Gameplay

What’s that you say? Gears of War 2 is a different game, and I need to adapt? Let’s recap for a moment. The gamers that want Gears of War 1’s frantic gameplay back are the same rather large group of players that kept Gears 1 on top of the Xbox LIVE charts for a little more than a full year, whereas Gears of War 2 is holding onto the number 4 spot for dear life as I type this. Bring back the speed of Gears of War 1 in Gears 3, and if the above suggestions are implemented, you will notice that the shotgun-rushing and other exploits will no longer be present, especially without the Lancer suffering from inordinate amounts of lag along with stopping power behaving as a serious part of the game. The “classic” gameplay I speak of also includes the shotgun being reverted to its original status of “ultimate close-quarters destruction weapon”. The chainsaw should NOT beat the shotgun in CQB by any means. As Cliff himself has gone on record as saying, it is the “humiliation” or “last resort” weapon in the game. There are so many things that were done correctly with Gears 2 gameplay-wise, and it’s a shame that most of them are undone by the speed decrease and technical issues.

 

While there are a number of other things that could make Gears of War 3 an amazing game, the aforementioned points are the most critical aspects that need to be implemented in order to bring back the hardcore Gears 1 fans while preserving the current Gears 2 players. Not only that, but by leaning more towards accessibility and technical setups that are becoming standard in popular multiplayer shooters, the install base of the Gears franchise can only expand and benefit from refinement and optimization. Gears of War has been playing catch-up for the majority of its lifespan as a franchise, and with Gears of War 3, it’s time to raise the bar in ways that don’t involve just graphics.

 

Make it happen, Epic. Your hardcore fans are still here, we’re just waiting.