TCRSV2 VS. GoW

In this corner weighing in at 10,926,653,440 the latest addition* to the Rainbow Six series… Vegas 2!!!

And in the other corner weighing 10,705,584,128 bytes the Bloodiest and Goriest Shooter** to hit the PC and Xbox 360… Gears of War!!!

Alright now enough with the commentary. Before I compare these two wonders of the modern age I will review them separately.

TCRSV2 continues the story of Sam Fisher the hard-ass Special Forces officer who just can’t be beat. This time the story is that a bunch of bombs have been transported into Las Vegas and you have a limited amount of time to find them and destroy them. As usual the story begins with a prologue which does nothing to help explain the events that take place later.

So aside from the usual shooter elements TCRSV2 brings for the first time Experience Points to a FPS single player game. But as if this wasn’t enough there are three different types of Experience CBQ, Assault and Marksman. As you progress through the game you gain ranks and unlock new armor types, weapons, medals and clothes. Now Vegas 2 offers a tactical combat type similar to Gears of War wherein you need to duck behind objects and lean out to shoot or you can choose to use blind fire minimizing risk to your health.

As the story progresses you will get to Slide down Fast-ropes. Grapple down grappling lines, climb ladders and kill a seemingly endless amount of terrorists. What I specifically like about this game is that you can at any time stop a mission and change your gear entirely, if you’re tired of one weapon simply go back to character modification and choose a whole new layout.

Another thing the game has to offer is Terrorist Hunt. This mode is meant for people who have completed the Story Mode and rather then play it again want to get experience by killing even more endless hordes of Terrorists.

I have yet to try out the Multi-player aspect of the game but I’m sure it is like many other FPS multiplayer games wherein you must either play through the story line together or kill each other repeatedly in a Death-match.

Overall I rate TCRSV2 a 6/10. And as a footnote I would just like to say that my guy looks pimpin’ in a Safari Hat and sunglasses.

 

Now it’s time for Gears of War. Gears of War puts you in the shoes of Marcus Fenix an ex-soldier who has been serving a life sentence for traitorous acts. In the beginning of the game you are immediately offered two options A. Take a Training Course or B. Skip straight to the action. This gives people who have already played the ability to skip the training. As the game progresses the story line is revealed to you. An Alien race called the Locust who have managed to burrow inside the Earth inner crust and can pop anywhere at any time.

Now the weapons are limited but this is in fact a welcome change. Your main weapon is a breed between a Machine-gun and a Chainsaw which, when you rev up can be used to literally cut an enemy in half. There are other standard weapons such as a Sniper Rifle, a Shotgun and the three different pistols but one of the coolest weapons is the Torque Bow. The Torque Bow fires an arrow with an explosive charge on the air which when exploded has enabled me and my friends to invent a new game: Who can make the body parts fly highest?

As you continue through the game you will fight a wider variety of Locust such as Berserkers, Seeders and Seekers just to name a few. You begin to understand that the Locust War was partially your father’s mistake but he, or rather his laboratory also holds the key to end it. In the end you will fight General RAMM on a moving train, but I won’t spoil the epilogue for you.

One of the things about Gears of War is that it uses an identical Tactical Combat system to that of Vegas 2. Wherein you must duck behind objects and fire blindly or lean out to attack enemies. Another cool thing about the game is that enemies come out of holes called Emergence Holes but you have a defence against the holes, grenades. If a grenade is lobbed into a EH before all its spawned units are killed it will be collapsed prematurely.

I give Gears of War a 9/10 and applaud Epic Games for their ingenuity. A very good Game.

 

Now for the Comparison. As I said before both these games share a Combat System wherein you must defend yourself constantly for fear of being annihilated. The only slight difference is that Vegas 2 does not enable you to jump from cover to cover and roll.

Overall both these games are very good but in the end Gears of War get’s a K.O on Vegas 2.

Stay Tuned for more Game Reviews.

* Not Verified

** A matter of opinion

Hellgate: London

Before I review Hellgate: London I’d like to give you a little back story about it. After the creation of Diablo II Blizzard decided to close down Blizzard North (The division that created the Diablo series) and hire some of the ex employees to join Blizzard. The ones that weren’t offered jobs decided to create their own company called Flagship Studios. Since Blizzard had the Diablo Trademark Flagship had to name Diablo III something different, and also change the game until it could not be counted as part of the Diablo series. So they decided “Hey let’s make Diablo III a first person shooter that takes place in London in the future!” and they did.

 

Hellgate: London takes you into a hell-ravaged future where demons are everywhere and humans stay underground in subway stations like hobos fighting off occasional attacks and building up forces to fight back the demons. Now the rest of the game is exactly like Diablo with a few twists.

As soon as you install the game you must go through a long loading process until you get to Character Creation. Once you choose your class from the options of: Engineer, Cabalist (Sorceress), Blademaster (Barbarian), Marksman (Amazon), and Templar (Paladin). You get to briefly and slightly customize your character’s looks and then it’s off into the game.

Once inside you are greeted by Murmur; Hellgate’s version of Wariv. He explains to you in a painfully long process how to move your mouse around and shoot. Then you must head out to your first Subway or Hobo Station as I like to call them. Once inside you are greeted by a few of the resident hobos and can talk to the vendors and get quests. If you don’t feel like doing all the side quests just follow the main story line (Blue Exclamation Mark) and you will be sent off to find a Portal (Circular Door) which will take you either to an abandoned subway station or outside. Now much of the game is like this going from Subway to Subway shooting cheap rip-offs of Diablo II’s monsters. The Imps are still called Imps and they still get revived by Imp Shamans, though they aren’t called Shamans.

The only exciting parts of this game are the special missions where you will either command other units from a topographical view, or go into Techsmith 314’s brain. There is also a cool new socketing system that is basically exactly the same as the old one, just this time you can remove the socketed items. The only truly new thing the game offers is the crafting system which lets you create items from items you broke down.

Overall I think that Hellgate: London is a big disappointment and speaking as a Beta-Tester I think that Flagship Studios could have done a much better job.

Next Time: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 vs. Gears of War!