Are the Gears 2 complainers on to something?

Sarcasticgamer.com asks, "Are any of the complaints about Gears 2 valid?"

From the article: "The shotgun's damage dealing capacity has been noticeably reduced, but I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing. The shotgun dominated Gears 1 and could easily win against any close range weapon, rendering a lot of the pickups useless. It also completely got rid of the game's tactical element, since there was no need to take cover, when a few blasts from your shotty could dispatch any foe. The new shotgun remedies this, and pretty much forces weapon pickups and tactical play. Well, at least it would if…"

[Bangladesh]

Their just pissed that they can't shotgun whore like they did in Gears 1.

[littletad]

Now this time some real tactics can be displayed. Think the mortar is too powerful? Then go straight towards the sight and stun the enemy going for it, with your smoke grenade. And the shotgun is not entirely useless, a simple melee followed by a shot still kills just about anyone as good as the first. And the chainsaw is as powerful as it should be. And yes the chainsaw is still countered by the shotgun blast, as long as your aiming.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

the main issue that I had with the shotgun is that it didn't allow for any other tactics to exist, battles would begin and end the same way for X number of times.............till you get literally board.

[Bnet343]

People are complaining about the shotty being nerfed because thats all the can use.

[Lord Vader]

Gears 2 campaign is awesome... Horde mode is awesome...

The MP has been virtually RUINED. Everyone on my friends list that are HUGE GEARS FANS agrees... Shotty doesnt work, ALL WEAPONS FEEL SLUGISH... everyone runs around, throws smoke grenades & then chainsaws ppl, walking right through weapons firing... it's AWFUL & so depressing... It takes 15 minutes to get in a map, it's over in 4 minutes, & you have to start all over...

Gears 1 is my favorite MP shooter of ALL TIME...

Gears 2 MP = EPIC FAIL

How can you screw up a game that was so awesome in MP ?!? And I don't "shotgun hoar", I like the Lancer, which is now almost the only usable weapon, but all the weapons just don't feel the same to me as GeOW1... Don't believe me, check EPIC's forums or play it for yourself...

I don't know, but EPIC totally dropped the ball...

=(

[The Matrix]

It's always hard for sequels to be as good as the first one. But I think Gears 2 is a solid game that doesn't disappoint the series.

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

because someone can chainsaw run through a shotgun being shot at them... dont give the chainsaw any more damage just give it a bit of stopping power like the lancer

[SpecialSauce]

i loved gears 1 and apparently still do since to day i took gears2 out of my xbox and returned gears 1 to it's home. gears 1 had the best balance in weapons. shot gun was perfect in gears one and if you dont think so its because your a gears noob. thats how gears is played with a shot gun. for all those people saying it was way to powerful it's because your mad because u suked at gears the past two years. every kid i showed the game to loved that about gears one. and now the winner of a shotgun battle is even more random then it was in the last game.

and dont tell me the chainsaw aint to strong. it's BS how some one can be MVP in a game mode just by sneaking behind a wall and then holding B until you turn the corner. My buddy did that and got MVP 5 games in a row.

thats not the only thing FRUSTRATING about gears 2. it also has the shytyest match making system i ever used. it takes unbelievably looong to start a frigin game. in fact if the matchmaking was a little faster i would be able to ignore the weak @ss shotgun. i literally spent more time waiting on the match making system to work then i did playing the game. my friends got frustrated and just wanted to return to horde which is just about the only thing people are doing in gears because the online play has been fuked with so much.

if so many people are complaing than maybe you ignorant bastards that keep geting pissed every time some one says they don't like something about gears 2 should listen. i mean obviously if sooooo many people dont like it than there is something wrong with it.

Only people that say nothing is wrong with the game are people that suked balls at gears 1 and people that suk MS balls every day.

they better fix this shyt.

[Sam Fisher]

the matchmaking...come on halo 2's matchmaking is better than it, let alone H3.. the fact when u play king of the hill, submission, and/or annex on hail and/or avalanche there aren't any hail or avalanches occurring..that's stupid. and the chainsaw is a bit too much.

[badkolo]

matchmaking issues ok, chainsaw being abused ok, but the shotty being toned down is not a real complaint.

its a good thing and teaches the shotgun whores to use other weapons, only problem is now everyone uses the chainsaw and its unstoppable.almost unstoppable.

[badz149]

people complaints about almost everything! oh yeah...did anybody remember GS complained R&C for having 'too many varieties'? come on, it's human nature and it's bound to happen for every game but I didn't see anything like this in here before with any other game! what makes Gears2 any different?? why when people complained about Gears2 and a defensive article like this appeared?

[DiabloRising]

Big difference between game issues and fixing game balance IMHO.

[DARK WITNESS]

i agree, i don't have any problem with the shotgun... my problem is with everything else.

i wont waste my time with my long list of complaints... bottom line.. i don't like what they have done with it.

the great thing is that there are so many great games out now, i am not that bothered about it.

[GUNS N SWORDS]

"Bangladesh- No

Their just pissed that they can't shotgun whore like they did in Gears 1."

you hit the nail on the head, that's all they would do, thank god they did away with that.

IMO it makes it much more realer.

[Reibooi]

It's great that people can no longer Shot gun whore however "IF" Epic never fixes the chainsaw then that's gonna be the new shot gun however I would expect that they will fix it at some point. It would be really stupid not to. Not to mention there are plenty of other issues that need fixing so they might as well just add that to the the list.

[Fatmanp]

People complaining about the shotgun are covering up more major problems such as spawning with no weapons, the invincible chainsaw, the meatflag floating or glitching off maps completely.

[m23]

I think it is a lot better. Shotguns were the reason I barely every played Gears 1 online. It was horrible, I always got killed by those damn shotguns.
I haven't played a lot of competitive multiplayer yet in gears 2. I just keep playing horde with people, its just really fun. I've only made it up to 19 though. Usually we start from 1 so that's probably why.

[rbluetank]

my second online match game of territory and i stun grenades a person onto his back. i ran over to chainsaw him and we started a chainsaw duel from his back facing upwards... i lost. i was shocked and dismayed at what i was seeing. his legs were inside of the wall and he was not even standing up... it did not even look like a chainsaw duel. you could hear the noise and see the push the b button symbol.. there are a lot of things broke with this game and more to come... the engine is broke which is what is bring down the game... the online match making is broke. Epic sell over 5 to 7 million copies of gears 1. everybody complained about the host advantage and that we needed a dedicated sever. the all around cheap astray epic did not even supply us with a dedicated server when you sell 5 to 7 million on your first gears game. Come the guck on!!! WTF!!! R1 sold 3 million and they get a bigger,better and badastary of a R2 game with a dedicated server and a full website SUPPORT... if anybody paid money for this game;they can talk as much shuit as they want as long as it is based on facts... the fact is the unreal engine sucks bad and epic does not support its fans the way we support them...

[SF49er420]

is the glow when your bullets hit a wall. other then that the game is amazing. i cant believe how far video games have come. the cave levels look friggin amazing, so much geometry. gears is funny though, every second your under attack.

[Viatrophy]

I played the first gears, a lot. I pretty much slept, drank and ate Gears of War for almost a year and a half straight. And its safe to say that I MUCH prefer the shotgun now, it takes so much more skill to master it, its perfect. The only thing I don't like is the chainsaw because they just keep comin' no matter what.
If they patch it, and change it so there is a higher chance the player revving the chainsaw will stagger, the multiplayer will be fine.

[Arcturus]

agreed, shotgun does take more skill to use now and i find im getting the hang of it. But chainsawers are still a bit of a problem with the shotty's out

[InMyOpinion]

The shotgun is still powerful, you only need to be closer to your target for it to deal the most damage.

[XxCYONIDExX]

So finally they have to use some skill. You can still knock them down or kill them in one shot if you learn how to fire the damn thing. As for the chainsawers, if you see them then roll away and shoot them. All of you who whine about this game I don't even consider gamers. Also why the hell is everybody complaining about the MP when the campaign is glitchy as hell, especially on co-op. Me and my buddy have restarted a checkpoint and not been able to move, float 10 feet in the air and not be able to move, and many other problems. If you MP players want to use the guns correctly then complete the story because obviously you haven't.

[PS360PCROCKS]

The chainsaw can be EASILY countered, CHAINSAW BACK!! duh it's why they added the duals. Secondly, I noticed the lethargic way the shotgun works and I love it. Plus the no more insta-down with the sniper. People are complaining because they used to host and shotgun everyone like their is no tomorrow. Now they game makes you take cover and use other weapons, would you run through the campaign shotgunning everyone? No, you would die.

[midnightninjas]

Well first of all GEARS 1 ROCKS, GEARS 2 story mode sweet horde mode great the first time you beat it then after that kinda boring. MP needs a crap load of work. Yes the shotty sucks but still works if you aim. The chainsaw always a classic but the battles need to have a winner no matter what i have been in a draw and we both stood thier like wtf then we both get blasted or one of us. The smoke doesnt need to stun. I was in the military for 6 yrs and never has their been a smoke grenaded that stunned some one just a crap load of smoke. Getting into a player match sucks a big one. if you dont have 4 friends in your lobby you will not be able to get into a game or if you do get into a game you cant leave until the round is over. They need to do some work on and update but gears 1 had some bugs to work out also so all you gamers wait a while and things will happen.

[The Official]

They can't run around a Use a shotgun all day to get kills.
The Chainsaw is the Flagship weapon so it needed to have a use.
The games premise is all about taking covernot roadie runing up to people and blasting them because you can't gauge the bullet lag
to get a good shot.

I for one don't mind the shotgun being toned down because it can still kill in one shot or down with actives. Only big differnce is the Blast radius is not as wide as it use to be.The game is ery good but i think Cliffy B should've had more tatical maps in the sense of convienent place cover.

If there one thing i would put back in gears is the speed of the shotgun's handling that all. No damage tweaks at all.