Cliff Bleszinski

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Gears of War 2 was in town earlier this month, which could only mean that series frontman Cliff Bleszinski wasn't far behind.

After chainsawing our way through the opening section of the sequel, we got to sit down with the designer once again to discuss the new ideas, multiplayer modes and how he's going to get girls interested in the sequel.

How many of your design changes in Gears of War 2 are the result of fan feedback?

Bleszinski: A chunk of them have been made because of feedback but we're very careful with what we do in regards to listening to that.

I think just like any other tool it can be used for good and it can be used for evil. Sometimes there is very valid feedback. We listen to the fans and we find out what their concerns are, but occasionally it's all one rabid guy with multiple message board accounts who has an opinion and feels the need to post all the time.

We treat it all like a science. We look for consistency, look for average concerns and comments and then adjust to it. For example, getting rid of the active reload sniper downs which were universally frustrating people, where as 20 percent of people thought it was cool. So we were like 'ok, lose it'. That's kind of how we work.

The pacing of the second game seems quite different from the first. You've mentioned "blockbuster pacing" before. Can explain how that works?

Bleszinski: I think if you look at the first few levels, the hospital is basic combat, traverse through the location while a lot of cool scripted things occur around you, then the assault and rousing cut-scene after that.

Then going into the derrick level there's something a bit more tense, having to deal with the Tickers and the tunnel.

We're continuing to do this interesting pacing of alternating the kinds of levels that we have. Maybe it's because our attention spans are short, but we just found that after spending 30 to 40 minutes on one sequence you want a slightly different style of gameplay.

What's the story behind the new Gears member, Tai?

Bleszinski: Tai is kind of a spiritual, mysterious warrior character. He and Marcus did have a history as far as fighting alongside each other. He proves to be a strong ally through sections of the campaign. He's turned out to be a favourite amongst some of the testers because he makes some very strange and interesting comments.

This time we actually break the fourth wall in terms of comments, like Carmine asking 'how comes we don't have flashlights? Why aren't you guys wearing helmets?' and things like that. Just little things in the fiction that I think help out.

What's been the biggest challenge in developing the sequel?

Bleszinski: I think the campaign has been the biggest thing. If you look at the pacing of what you guys have been playing, which is like 75 percent of Act One, imagine keeping that up for five acts of the game... and then making it playable with two players, and then balancing it for multiple difficulty levels.

That in itself has proven to be a tremendous challenge. I'm pretty sure we've rose to that challenge and shipped something really cool.

Would you say you've fulfilled your original vision for the sequel?

Bleszinski: I think ultimately we have fulfilled the vision of what the game can be. I think having a more robust multiplayer, extending the co-op experience in a way that makes sense and doesn't completely destroy the campaign narrative, as well as doing a campaign that has rollercoaster moments - and with a little bit of heart too with Dom and his story... it's all come together.

You mentioned that you've added "more depth" to the sequel's storyline. Why did you feel that was necessary?

Bleszinski: The first game had some criticisms that the story was bare bones and very simple, which I think is a valid criticism. It was Armageddon, it was throw the bomb in the hole and blow up the Locust.

Quite frankly that was probably all we were capable of pulling off at the time in terms of how long it took to make Gears 1 and the size of the team we had.

Now that we've scaled up a bit, have a larger team, a new writer and are more confident in our abilities we're willing to take more narrative risks and go for those emotional beats, make something that resonates more with gamers.

I think the opening cut-scene is something that's fairly rousing and shows how we've grown and evolved as developers and storytellers.

How challenging has it been to add a humanitarian side to the Gears story? Has it been hard to do without making it feel like a cheesy action film?

Bleszinski: When people look at the Gears franchise they initially see the big armour, the guns and they go 'oh ok, guys doing a lot of dick-wagging'.

But I think if people look beyond that they might see Marcus who's a guy who's very tired and doesn't want to be fighting this war. They see Dom who's increasingly frustrated with losing the love of his life when he'd already lost his kids, and Baird who feels like he should be in charge.

As well as that there are themes of Humanity's true desperation, being on their last stand against an enemy that's incredibly evil and willing to do whatever it takes. Revealing more about what the Locust are truly all about in Gears 2 and some of the events that occur.

I hope that gamers will pick it up, enjoy all the blood and chainsaws but really will start seeing some of the cool secondary themes and the narratives.

Were there any influences from films of other games?

Bleszinski: I think if you look at Gears 2, the chainsaws, the monsters and some of the action, you have your Aliens, your Predators and your Starship Troopers, right?

There's a little bit of Band of Brothers, there's a little bit of Saving Private Ryan there and there's a little bit of sadness in there like Eternal Sunshine, The Vanishing and movies like that in regards to Dom's story.

The tutorial seems to be a bit simpler this time around and you've previously said that you think the next Xbox controller should have fewer buttons. Are you part of Microsoft's movement to attract more 'casual' players?

Bleszinski: That's all valid. We're in an interesting state with the business right now where you see this success of Guitar Hero and the Wii with people who might not have played games.

A lot of gamers get very sensitive and very defensive about that and hardcore developers are too. We're all in favour of it and I think anyone who's playing a videogame who might not have is a good thing.

We would have intentionally made the tutorial more forgiving, we would have made the casual difficulty more forgiving regardless of Microsoft's platform strategy, regardless of the state of the market. It's in our best interest to make sure that the game is as accessible as it can be.

And we put those extra narrative elements in there not only because we think they're compelling but it's the kind of thing that your average non-gamer would find compelling. It makes sense as a great game, it makes sense as a business.

Because of how successful Gears has been for Xbox, is Epic in a position where it can discuss with Microsoft the things it'd like to see in the next console?

Bleszinski: Epic was somewhat influential in the development of the 360, in regards to the infamous Mark Rein story where he pushed for them to have more memory which cost Microsoft a gob of money. We talk to Microsoft about a lot of things.

When I say the next controller could have less buttons I mean it, because we could've done Gears with one or two less buttons. We could've done a context sensitive thing where the Y button could've been X when there was nothing else around.

All of that's possible. You can add little bits of voice control, cameras, a little bit of motion control... they supplement the experience.

Continuing with all of that, I just think that game designers need to be smarter about context sensitivity, complexity controls as well as being very forgiving with tutorials.

A lot of fans were hoping for four-player co-op in the campaign. Is that something you tried to make work?

Bleszinski: We knew from the get-go we'd go with two players. It was never something that was in a state of flux, it was always two players because again being story-based it's not a clone of Marcus Fenix, it's Dom.

Once you start getting three or four players the game is no longer about the narrative, it's about shooting shit. Therefore we said 'let's do that with Horde'.

These are all very fuzzy things that we as game designers think about. You could have an entire GDC series of lectures on what makes sense with narrative versus gameplay.

I just find it awkward when there's something going on and you have these guys hanging out. We're just committed to making Marcus and Dom's experience strong and making sure Horde is where the larger scale of shooting, together with your buddies, happens.

Which of the new guns is your favourite?

Bleszinski: My personal favourite is one called the Mulcher which is a heavy Gatling gun. You pick it up and kind of lug it around like it's a big suitcase.

You can take cover but you can also mount it on cover and cool it off using the right bumper. Basically if you get somebody caught in that spray of bullets they just turn into mush.

I always go for it. It's so funny because we talk about Gears multiplayer and how certain players do all the shotgun rolling crap, but if I get that Mulcher and I know the enemy's coming from a general direction, nobody's getting anywhere near me.

Like they're going to have to go around me or try and sneak around me. And once you get hold of that thing in Horde... it's on.

Censorship is becoming a much bigger issue as gaming wants to expand its userbase, with Fallout 3 recently being cut worldwide. How do you feel about censorship as a game designer?

Bleszinski: Gears' violence is stylised, over the top, Evil Dead, slapstick style of violence. Very stylised characters with very stylised armour cutting up lizard men with fancy chainsaw guns.

It's not like a guy with an Adidas hat taking a pipe wrench to some guy in khakis. It's not that kind of game.

Violence in a videogame I believe is a very cathartic thing for a person playing it. It's kind of a relief at the end of a stressful day.

I believe that crazy people have been around for years and people have been killing each other long before videogames came about.

On top of it all as a creator I believe yes, certain countries have to do their own thing as regards to what they believe is right for the culture and society, but at the same time we put a lot of work, a lot of effort and a lot of love into the products that we create and we want every gamer out their to be able to enjoy them without constraints.

We're ultimately making the kind of games that we want to play. Ultimately we believe that what we're doing is art.

What's going to get someone who's never played Gears to buy Gears 2?

Bleszinski: I think if you look at the visual idea here - the box and whatnot - we're hoping people will obviously see the armour and the cool war elements.

But we're hoping they'll see the secondary themes of loss with Marcus reflecting with the COG tags of all the fallen soldiers and see that this just isn't just a guy running towards the camera with the rock music like, 'f*** you!'

There's a little bit of that heart that's there.

When you start adding things like the photograph of Dom and Maria [in the Collector's Edition pack]. Deep down I'm hoping it's going to be a situation where the guy buys Gears 2, gets the Collector's Edition, throws it down whilst playing and his girlfriend comes home like, 'what's this?' 'Oh some guy's wife's missing.' 'Aww, is he gonna find her'? I'm hoping this little hook might work.

Sometimes it's little things like that that help. I believe in my heart of hearts that Gears actually has a pretty good female following compared to most shooters.

I don't know whether it's because the guys are ruggedly handsome or the universe is sad but beautiful, but there's a whole bunch of girls that play Gears for some reason.

We've already seen some pretty clever co-op mechanics - using a mortar to reveal a new route for Dom, for example. What other co-op stuff have you got lined up for the final game?

Bleszinski: If you saw the E3 demo with the big crane - we cut this out of the E3 demo - Dom gets on the crane and Marcus actually moves him across on the crane.

There's a part in the game where the two of them have to carry a crate and it's like one guys right, the other guy goes left... the crate goes nowhere. So both players have to cooperatively steer the thing.

Personally I think 'can I give you a leg up?' is the laziest co-op thing ever. I just think it's cheesy. I've seen it in a ton of game so I'm really not calling on anyone.

For some reasons in a ton of games it's like 'this is the big co-op move' and I'm like, 'really? This is all you could come up with?'

A little bit off topic: Epic is a big PC developer. What's your opinion on the DRM controversy cropping up in games like Spore? Is there a solution?

Bleszinski: There's not a lot to say right now about the PC market. It's a very interesting situation right now with everyone having all these different video cards, piracy and things like that.

At this current point it just makes sense for us to focus on 360 in regards to Gears and in regards to our develop efforts.

Regardless of everything that's going on, Spore and all that, I've come to believe that the kind of person who's savvy enough to have a high-end PC and work out how to upgrade it probably knows what Bittorrent is. That's all I'm saying.

Some critics are suggesting 'Gears 1.5' rather than Gears 2. What do you say to that?

Bleszinski: I'd say if you fired up Gears 2 and a Berserker burst through the wall and chased you around, or a it got dark and you had to do puzzles with Kryll, that'd be a valid criticism.

But none of those things are in Gears 2, we instead have opted for far more interesting and compelling things like the truck sequence, the rock worm, taking people hostage, shipping with many, many more multiplayer modes, gobs of news weapons... I think it adds up to truly be Gears of War 2.

Andy Robinson