GoW: Judgment - How Survival Mode Reinvents Multiplayer

People Can Fly is changing the Gears multiplayer. This is how and why it matters.

Good series never seem to die. Halo, Sonic the Hedgehog, and soon Mass Effect: many iconic franchises will undoubtedly churn out game after game for years to come, for better and unfortunately, in some cases, for worse.

And now, with Gears Of War: Judgment, we can shove Damon Baird and the gang into that category. Actually, you probably shouldn’t risk shoving Damon Baird anywhere, unless you want the sharp end of a Lancer Rifle through the middle of your face.

Gears of War: Judgment bookends the Gears trilogy, with one campaign set 14 years before the original, and another, unlockable campaign set just after the events of the third game.

Which – if you’re a dedicated fan with unanswered questions, craving more of the trademark cover hopping and polished shooting – is very exciting indeed. But for many, the main draw of the Gears series has consistently been the multiplayer.

Whether you’re slicing through armies of locusts split screen with a friend or tearing some online opponent a new one in a simple Team Deatmatch, there’s something about the fast paced gameplay and the slightly obnoxious camera that means that your time with Gears’ multiplayer always ends with white knuckles, finger imprints in your beloved controller, and adrenaline pumping through your veins.

Why Survival Changes Multiplayer
There’s a plethora of new multiplayer game modes to experience here: Free-For-All, OverRun, which pits two teams of five COGs and locusts against each other, an objective based Domination mode and, finally, Survival mode.

The last of these will provide both a nod to central pillars of the series so far, and a bold step in a new direction – or so the developers claim.

In Survival, like in previous games, you’ll still be facing waves of Locusts, increasing in difficulty as you progress. So far, so classic Horde. However, there are two game changers.

The first is that, unlike Horde mode, you’ll be protecting a small, destructible objective, maintaining defences to keep your foes from destroying it. The second is that there’s a new, class based system in play.

You battle it out with the locusts in small, claustrophobic areas, with a single objective normally sitting at the back of the map, as far away from the Locust spawns as possible.

It is the be all and end all: if the objective starts to take damage its state of repair will dwindle rapidly and cannot be recovered, meaning even a rogue Ticker can put a huge dent in your hopes of success.

Stopping the locusts from reaching it is your five man squad and a host of automatically erected defences such as barricades and sentry guns, which are designed to ensnare and distract the onrushing beasts allowing you to take them out safely.

Maps are divided into numerous smaller sections, each acting as an individual stage, and once the objective is destroyed in a certain area, your team falls back until all objectives are destroyed and you stare at a game over screen in embarrassment or anguish, depending on which wave you managed to reach.

The action is far more bottlenecked than ever before: enemies converge on one point from all directions, leaving battles hectic from the first sound of gunfire until the last.

Things start off simple, as you would expect, with predictable spawns and manageable lines of attack, but as you move through the waves, enemies will start to hit you hard in co-ordinated assaults, trying to overwhelm you with sheer numbers and targeting your defences in an attempt to reach the objective.

Pick Your Class
At the start of a match, players can choose between four characters: Damon Baird as the Engineer, Augustus Cole as the Soldier, and newcomers Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk as the Medic and Scout respectively.

Not the most imaginative class list I’m sure you’ll all agree, but let’s face it: if you’re buying this game that probably won’t bother you. If there’s not enough players to fill the roles, the AI will handily do it for you, never leaving you a body short.

Each class has a specific set of weapons as well as class specific ability, which can be used on a cool-down basis. With the abilities, as with the classes themselves, there’s not much originality on show.

Medics, equipped with lancer and sawn off shotgun, can throw Stim grenades, creating an area of affect in which fallen comrades can be revived and those under fire healed, and Soldiers lay down ammo crates for their squad mates to collect.

Scouts, semi-automatic rifles in hand, can climb up to hard to reach locations and toss beacon grenades, marking enemies within a certain radius, making them extra vulnerable to your bullets, and Engineers can use their blowtorch to repair defences – vital for extended survival – as well as deploy a sentry gun to cover them while they sure up.

The results of this change are twofold. Firstly, gameplay is more varied. Racking up executions and pumping bullets into locust flesh endlessly never fails to be fun, but it’s nice to have the option to do something else.

Fed up as an engineer in one spot? Why not go on the offensive, shotgun in hand, to the front line, blasting locusts in the face and plonking down a sentry gun for extra firepower?

Tired of the same piece of cover as a medic? Back up, survey the scene, and throw a healing grenade to the front lines, allowing your teammates to push forward into the haze.

Secondly, to get to the later waves you’re going to need a hell of a lot of teamwork, which is what you want in a co-op based multiplayer. It means that if you want to be useful, it won’t cut it to simply have the fastest trigger finger on Xbox Live.

Working As A Team
Points are awarded separately for combat and support, meaning that unselfish team play can catapult you to the top of the leaderboard. Communication becomes extremely important – more so than in previous Gears titles.

If you’re a Scout up on your perch and want ammo, you’re going to want your Soldier to know so that he can lob some unceremoniously your way, and the same for an Engineer taking heavy heat, begging for the medic’s assistance.

Fortunately you’re not going to have to rely on voice chat – although that’s still the best method – to make use of the system; icons pop up above friendly heads if they’re in need of an ammo boost or health fix-up, accompanied by some in game chatter from their character. This notification system works well, although it does reveal just how shallow the system is.

The whole thing is clearly designed with shooter newbies in mind: the way the classes complement each other is too perfect, and a one-button system dumbs down the feeling of co-opearation in a big way.

It turns Gears into a game of ‘look for icon above enemies head; press button to help’. If this class-based system stood alone it would fall: it’s shallow and formulaic, but you have to think of it in context.

Combine it with an objective based game mode and you’ll get one of the most frantic multiplayer experiences around, with enemies and allies alike focused on a single point, ammo boxes, grenades, and sentry guns flying everywhere. This is Gears of War: already one of the best co-op recipes around, and all this does is add a little extra spice.

More a sprinkle of thyme than a mouthful of garam masala, but sometimes, that’s all you need.

If you’re looking to blow your head off then you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re a Gears veteran looking for something that adds to an already great experience, then this will be just the ticket.

[NowGamer!]

I got MVP in a game of Overrun last night, because I was focused on repairing barriers.

I think that it's great that you can come top of the board for doing your job properly instead of running off like Rambo.

Yeah that is a nice little added touch, so if you don't play your part you don't get as much!

I just hope it hasn't changed too much....

Did Mutlien read this thread? Just saying because the main thing that stands out is 'team work' and well.... less rambo's lol

wow beat me to it by a minute!

Creepy lol

Hoping to be involved in some of your epic late night videos of mental Gears record attempts with the new weapons!!

It's gonna happen Very Happy

Ninja wrote:: It's gonna happen

This excites me most of all!!

Ninja wrote:: Did Mutlien read this thread? Just saying because the main thing that stands out is 'team work' and well.... less rambo's lol

QFT

You've got a bit of a rep going Mate.

Laughing

LMFAO

That's why I changed my name - shhhhhhhhhhhh!

theDevilziNME wrote:: That's why I changed my name - shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Yeah about that tag of yours...

It is a little Homo-Erotic.

You suggest the devil is male? Not in my mind - she's a naughty little minx if ever there was one!!

Well what exactly is she sticking in you???

Nah, he is a bloke. He just sits there waiting for someone to rile me up then he takes over my headset lol

Ahhh blaming your rage on demon possession....nice. Dunno if that stands up in court though. LOL

No mere demon. Beelzebub himself. The Devil. Lucifer, the morning star. Keeper of the gates to hell and lord over the nine circles of hell.

Who couldn't take that s**t seriously? lol

You talking about Jeremy Kyle?

BINGO!!

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