Cliff Bleszinski talks Gears of War 2, weapons, and the upcoming film

Two years the Gears of War franchise took the Xbox 360 by storm selling five million copies worldwide to date. Now with Gears of War 2 on stores shelves that success continues with two million copies sold in two weeks. Oh yeah, the game is pretty good too.

We caught up with creator and lead designer of the Gears of War franchise, Cliff Bleszinski to talk about Gears of War 2, its weaponry, and the upcoming movie.

Congratulations on 2 million sold!

Thanks. If only we could use that money to buy a sunny day, the weather here in North Carolina is massively depressing. Usually we have plum 80’s beautiful Carolina sunny day, but today is just a gray depressive rainy, depressa-thon.

That's too bad. Hopefully it'll get better. Anyway, how soon after the original Gears of War did you guys start working on Gears of War 2?

It was pretty quick, it was within a couple of weeks of when the first reviews came in and once the sales came in we were like, “Wow, clearly we have to do a sequel here.” Then we just got cranking on it, it was almost a no-brainer.

What was necessary for you guys to include this time around?

The process we used was called “new, better, more.” What could we put in the game that was new, what could we do better and what could we have more of. And we applied that across everything from the creatures to the weapons to the story to the multiplayer. The leads basically put their heads together and had a vote and figured out what the most important things were. That kind of drove the process and moving forward, there were a couple of little things that would have been nice that we wanted in Gears 1 but weren’t able to get it time-wise. Like getting knocked down and being able to crawl away from your enemy as well as a party system which these days is pretty much standard issues for your multiplayer experience. So these things were really great to get and would have loved to have them in the first game.

When working on Gears of War 2, what was your average day like?

My job was a combination of meetings, documentation and playing the game, as well as also playing other games to see what they do and how they do it. Then you basically recycle, lather, rinse, and repeat that. The meetings ranged from the leads linking up to brainstorming to everybody sitting in a room playing through a level and calling out criticisms and things that need to be improved as well as just sitting at my desk with a 360 just playing the game seeing what could be polished. So it’s always a combination of those things.

Joshua Ortega is known for his comic book work for the likes of Spider-Man, Batman and Star Wars. What was his role in the making of Gear of War 2?

He was the writer for the project. Not only did he work at a high level with Rod Ferguson and I on the story but he was also the script go-to guy in regards to working with Dave Nash, the lead level designers, and the other designers to make sure the writing packed a great punch. You know there are moments of horror, there moments of levity, and there’s the occasional sad moment sprinkled in there.

Some of the horror would have to be that worm level, right? That’s some nasty stuff.

Yeah, that has to be one of the grossest video game moments ever made, but in kind of a fun way. It reminds me of when you’re a kid and your mom goes and buys the Thanksgiving turkey and you’re sitting in the kitchen playing with the innards, ya know?

So what’s up the shotgun? People are complaining about the lack of firepower compared to Gears 1.

We have absolutely gone to great lengths to balance the shotgun a little bit better this time around. Because in Gears 1, it was all about not using cover and players just running up to each other and rolling and shotgunning each other which really circumvented the entire game we were trying to build. So that is absolutely a deliberate design decision.

How did the idea for the remixed version of the Hammerburst Rifle come about?

Well, we had the Hammerburst in the first game and it was okay but it wasn’t as satisfying as it could be. So we were like, we still like burst weapons so the idea of doing a burst pistol Robocop-style kind of came out. So we decided to shift that bursting-style functionality to the Gorgon which is the Locust’s heavy pistol and then take the Hammerburst turn into the carbine-type of weapon where it’s a slightly slower firing rate but packs a bit of a punch but you can also fire it as fast as you can pull the trigger plus give it a little bit a of a zoom which gives it some attractive qualities besides the Lancer with the chainsaw attached to it. It’s one of those weapons where people, when they use it initially, they’re like “Oh, this doesn’t have a chainsaw and it seems to fire slower, therefore, I don’t want to use it,” but those who take the time and give the weapon some attention will find that’s it’s very effective and very gratifying and satisfying.

There have also been some complaints about the matchmaking wait time. What the latest on that?

We and Microsoft are looking into some of the wait time issues. Right now Live is being hammered. But one thing that helps a bit is to hit B to cancel, then hit A to re-search to look for another party. But it’s very much a priority of ours to see what we can do to streamline that process as much as possible.

Anymore comic books planned?

Josh Ortega is absolutely working on that. The book is also doing very well too. So you’ll be seeing more on those fronts from graphic novel to novel.

Do you give direction and story for those kinds of things or do you let the writers just have at it?

Now that the universe is established, I just basically read over the stuff and give my notes. So I am involved but for authors to feel invested and feel like something is theirs, they kind of need to make it their own. So yeah, we give notes and the authors look at the story bible but at the same time they need the freedom to make the work their own so that’s what we allow them to do.

So is there any status on Gears 3 yet or any other projects you may be working on?

Nope, can’t really say what we’re working on yet. We’re just working on the movie and “other stuff.”

What about ideas for a different kind of game like a platformer or I don’t know… some kind of family game or something?

I always have a number of ideas and universes stirring around my head, some more family friendly than others and some not very family friendly in any sort of way. But a lot of it is what Epic feels is a good fit and what the market sees is a good fit because although I have all these ideas I want to do, we are very much a business and we have to figure what’s appropriate for us and the industry.

Speaking of the Gears of War movie how’s that coming along?

It’s coming along nice. We’re working on the script right now with Chris Morgan and Len Wiseman, a great visionary director, and we’re attempting to make a very great video game movie. That’s right, I said it!

Any word on casting wishes yet for Marcus or the rest of Delta Squad?

Well, somebody who’s not a wrestler or a UFC type guy. God bless those guys, I actually really love MMA, I think it’s a very good form of entertainment and very entertaining to watch. But we want an actor first and foremost, someone who is compelling to watch. That’s the ideal situation. I’ve said it before, like a Clive Owen-type, that kind of guy who has a face that looks like it’s been in a few pubs and a few pub fights, but is strangely magnetic and attractive, right? It’s a weird combination. But I have no idea on Dom but Cole Train? Who knows, maybe Lester Speight, the voice actor for Cole could probably play that role in the movie, you never know.

 Cliff Bleszinki Factoids

Games he designed prior to Gears:

Jazz Jackrabbit (1994)

Unreal (1998)

Unreal Tournament (1999)

Unreal Tournament 2004 (2004).

Five games that inspired him:

Super Mario Bros

Zelda

Doom

Deus Ex

Resident Evil 4