Playing Gears of War online the other day, I was a bit disheartened to realize that the singleplayer experience had done almost nothing to prepare me for the online multiplayer deathmatch mode. Sure, I had gotten used to the weapons, but I didn’t exactly need training to know that you use the shotgun up close, the machine gun at a medium range, and the sniper rifle at lone distances. Now, note that my skills aren’t the culmination of finishing the singleplayer game on the “Casual” setting - I’ve gone through that sucker on “Insane” and have beaten every inch of it sans the unfathomably difficult final boss battle.
The problem is two-fold: first, predictably, there is no substitute for going head-to-head against your fellow human beings. That I expected. It’s the second part of the problem that left me so deflated: the heralded “stop-n-pop” mechanism so carefully cultivated in the singleplayer game is, frankly, all but useless in multiplayer. I began the first of many rounds by playing just as I had in the stand alone game. As I died more and more often, I began to realize that those left still fighting (you are given a camera view of your surviving teammates) had totally abandoned the practice of locking into cover. I studied the game flow and saw that, over and over again, the players that lasted the longest were those who completely avoided the cover mechanism and simply ran around shooting. One major component of the failure of cover usefulness stems from improper weapon balance. From cover, I unloaded the majority an entire machine gun clip into an advancing enemy and was unable to drop him. The result? He got close, shot me once with the shotgun, and got an easy kill. Now, one response to this dilemma would be to say, “Hey, just use the shotgun.” But I don’t want to run around wielding the shotgun all the time (which, btw, is what the most successful players were doing). When my enemy is at midrange, I want to use a midrange weapon. Another part of the mechanic failure is that the trade off for the additional protection of locking in behind an object is just that: you're locked in. I've found that the bonus of cover doesn't outweigh the detriment of needing to “break free” of said cover by pressing ‘A’ or pulling back on the analog stick. It may sound like breaking free would be a quick and simple process, but in the heat of battle even a short delay can make you an easy target.
Maybe I’m making too much of this. I know multiplayer wasn’t Epic’s focus when constructing Gears of War. Still, it feels like the integrity of the core gameplay - gameplay I very much enjoy - was lost in the multiplayer. What was left was a very generic multiplayer entry that, while admittedly still visceral and fun, left me ultimately disappointed.
-Jason
