I had an hour long blast of Gears of War 2 horde mode yesterday morning, with one of my brothers, before cracking into some OU work, and it got me thinking about how developers can often get over excited about popular/good ideas and take them too far. I'm not saying that horde mode 2.0, in Gears 3, is worse than horde mode in Gears 2, but what I mean to say is there is a purity in the original horde mode, as bought out in Gears 2.
My brother and I spent our hour long stint moving from room to room, defensive position to next defensive position, naturally working our way around the map to defeat the waves of on coming enemies in the best way possible. At no point did we have to worry about leaving our established defences or have to repair damaged wire; we just moved away from our enemies and found the best bottle-necks we could, when we needed them.
In Gears 2 you don't have any currency, the ammo crates re-spawn after a set amount of time, so you just have to make do with what you have and take opportunities as they arise. We often had to change weapons as our old weapons ran out of ammo, with no immediate ammo refills, and according to our position sometimes flamers worked best, sometimes a sniper rifle was the gun of the moment. I really enjoyed the freedom to explore and move around.
The horde mode in Gears 3 is better though. There is more depth, more to think about, more different enemies and the boss battles bring a whole lot of pain and require good team work to defeat. But it is generally more static, just because of the fact that it makes sense to focus your investment in making one place as strongly defended as possible.
I really enjoy the Gears of War mythology and appearance. They've managed to make a graphically stunning game using various shades of grey! It's so grim and all the small details in every map, like falling leaves or rubbish, make it so immersive.
It's brilliant.
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