Cliff Bleszinski
In this exclusive interview with GIANTmag.com, Gears of War 2 design director Cliff (f/k/a CliffyB) Bleszinski chops it up about the locust ninja, his favorite parts of creating this epic title and why he’d take a chainsaw to Paris Hilton!
GIANT: The scale of Gears of War 2 is epic… to say the least. How did you go about defining the size of the gameplay space?
Cliff Bleszinski: I think that honestly a lot of people would not be able to play through the game, so when you get it – or whoever picks it up – grab a friend and enjoy saving humanity as Marcus [Fenix] and Dom [Santiago]. Enjoy the twists and turns that happen in regards to the set pieces, in the storylines and the great moments that are in there because it’s truly like playing a movie. The game is almost the length of a trilogy in measure of time and length.
GIANT: What do you think the best element of Gears of War 2 is? What’s something you wanted to but didn’t get to include?
CB: The best element and most interesting was how we kept our universe in its own space and not really take it too far out of alignment with the beginning series. Anything that’s political in the Gears universe will be kind of a sub-text of the overall experience that our gamers will be enjoying. I think that we put as much as we can on this go-around and the end result is Gears of War 2 and I hope that the fans, both loyal and new, will enjoy this game.
GIANT: If you could play against or with one celebrity, who would it be and why?
CB: It’d probably be Paris Hilton! I wanna take the chain saw to her face! [Laughs] She’s actually starring in a show right now, so this us playing the game would be a great way for me to remove her organs for the organ trade that’s depicted in the play that she’s in.
GIANT: Who’s the most badass enemy in Gears of War 2?
CB: I really think that the craziest characters that we’ve had in a long time is Scorch. He’s the leader of the Locust Priests and he wields a staff with chainsaws on both ends. He’s kind of like a locust-ninja, badass definitely.
I just think for years shooters were about running towards your enemies as fast as you can, while you shoot at each other. It was more like a water gun fight and Gears kind of shifted the paradigm to be more of a paintball arena, whereas you get shot and it hurts and you very much wanna stay and keep your head down. There’s something about seeing your heavily armored big character on-screen slamming bad guys into the wall and then popping up to take shots at enemies. That’s just very gratifying and its somebody that you empathize with a little bit more. You see your character yelling to his comrades about enemies whereabouts. Things like that, which is a designed decision, is a difference than a first person shoot-’em-up. We deliberately chose to make it third-person.
GIANT: What was the most fun in creating this game?
CB: The most fun part of the game was polishing it. Once everything is in there, then we can make the weapons hit a little bit stronger, you can make this part a little weaker. You can take out that line of dialogue or insert something innovative and new. Once you have something solid, you know that it’s going to be great, then it’s just gravy polishing it. The most difficult thing is the long hours and honestly, making a game takes a while. Gears 2 took two years and we had months of hard work towards the end and it’s important for game developers to have a good work life balance.
GIANT: Can you elaborate on the “Guardian,” “Wingman,” and “Submission” online multi-player modes?
CB: It’s great to pick up a game and play it with people in co-op mode, but even still, nothing is better than kicking the butt of your best friends and with “wingman” mode – it’s great because it’s team based. Five teams with two players on each team that are basically going for a free-for-all. It’s one-part buddy match, one-part every man for himself. “Guardian” is like “kill the leader,” where players wind up holding up in houses, planting grenades on walls and planting shields to protect their leader and submission is also great because it’s like capture the flag, where the flag is actually a person. We always want to have a great multiplayer element in Gears, but we always want our own unique twist on things, which is kind of the epic way to go!
Gears of War 2 is available now exclusively for XBOX 360. To read GIANT’s review, click here.
