Ah, the joys of nitpicking. Most of the time I try to keep them to myself. But, well — I’ve just written about Gears of War, and playing it’s sequel directly afterward doesn’t leave me with a whole hell of a lot to think on. So I’m combing through Marcus Fenix’s hideous man-fur for one little thing that maybe only I can see. It’s not fair, but c’est la vie!
Oddly enough, I was pretty underwhelmed by the first Gears game until about the midway point. For whatever reason, it wasn’t clicking for me. I’d played the first real firefight about a dozen times when finally I began to seriously lose my patience. Partly it was the awful checkpointing that had me witness a bevy of doves take flight over and over and over and over (and over) again. Though, each time the gunplay got started, I could forget that upon noticing some equally unforgivable sound design.
The checkpoint-related issues were at least mitigated in Gears of War 2, but, sadly, the sound was never strengthened. I’ll get straight to my point: the Locust Horde’s dialog and telegraphing is shockingly weak. Quality isn’t a problem; the actual recording sounds fine. What’s recorded, however, is another story. For starters, the Boomers say “BOO-muuur” and “Boom!” Grinders say “GrIND-uuur” and “Grind!” Seriously…double-u tee eff is THAT about?
I can’t quite fathom how little imagination these wholly uninspired sound bites took to come up with. Even if they’re supposed to be lighthearted and fun, they create a major disconnect with the game’s otherwise tense atmosphere. What’s more, some of the other Locust, the elite Theron Guard, are just as bad. Rather than announcing their own names, they simply hiss “GrouwwwndWALKer.” I understand the need for telegraphing, but that’s terribly lame. Epic could have at least given them a few more lines. Perhaps, “We will bAIRy you here, GrouwwwndwALKer!” Or maybe “Die, GrouwwwndwALKer!” Probably would have been enough.
Just sayin’.
Tags: Cliff Bleszinski, Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Microsoft Game Studios
