Wingman - Two Master Chiefs

posted by 3Suns

Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 11:32:27 PM EST

One of the design decisions for Gears of War, with which I totally agreed and was delighted to discover, was the deliberate inclusion of different playable characters for co-op (Marcus and Dom).  I remember Cliff gently criticizing Bungie for essentially having two people play as John 117 if they wanted to play through the campaign in co-op in Halo 1 (and Halo 2? - never played it through, can't remember).

Anyway, when it was revealed that the pairs in Wingman would be of the same skin, I was really surprised, and actually, a little disappointed.  Hearing more about Wingman in the Leipzig video reminded me of that design choice, and of my disappointment.  Personally, I think it would have been just great if we could have had the choice to make Wingman teams like Dom&Marcus, Lieutenant Kim&Carmine, Cole&Baird or even mix and match Raam&Dizzy or whatever.

I suppose I can think of possible reasons why they might have chosen to go with same skins:

  1.  easy recognition of partner/enemy when playing
  2.  avoid squabbles over skins - though same skins doesn't completely eliminate that possibility
  3.  not enough characters - with Dizzy and Tai and others coming into the mix, this really shouldn't be a problem.

hmmmm....

It is a small thing, but in my opinion, it is kinda too bad.  What do you think?  Also, if you have any other ideas as to why Epic might have "strayed" from their philosophy of different characters for each gamer playing, let us know.

Poll

Should Epic have offered different skins for the Wingman pairs?

17%6 votes
23%8 votes
17%6 votes
41%14 votes

| 34 votes | Vote | Results


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Comments Disabled | 12 comments

  •  I completely (none / 0)

    agree with their design choice. Without it, it would be near impossible to tell who your teammate is.

    by MacheteMan7 on Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 11:34:06 PM EST

    •  I don't see how it makes that big of (none / 0)

      a difference.  

      If your partner is Marcus in a group of other CoGs, how will it be any easier to recognize him from a distance, if all the other characters next to him are Two Bairds, Two Coles, Two Carmines, and Two Kims, than if they were one of each of those, but also 4 other Locusts as well.  In fact, if distinguishability is the purpose, wouldn't it be even easier to spot your CoG partner if there were a bunch of Locusts out there?  If it is one skin per pair, chances are there will be a lot of games with only CoG pairs chosen and that should make it even harder to distinguish between gamers.

      As for remembering what skin your partner is, well, not even I am worried about being able to remember that much info while playing... ha ha ha

      "Gears2 has legs, and they go all the way up!"

      by 3Suns on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 12:01:11 AM EST

      [ Parent ]

  •  It would bother me, (none / 0)

    but I can recall (when I played Gears regularly), everyone chose Carmine and the Locust sharpshooter (he isn't a sniper) during multi player matches.
    While I appreciate their philosophy, and am not disagreeable towards more content in my games, I can't see how this radically changes the end user interface.

    Much like the shotgun becoming the primary weapon (in GoW1 MP, as opposed the the iconic Lancer), I think this is a case of Epic altering their mechanics due to the the unexpected approach of the masses.

    "We can categorically state that we have not released any man eating badgers into the area." -Major Michael Shearer, UK military spokesman

    by Sparton 501 on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 01:18:29 AM EST

  •  either way (none / 0)

    its not bothering me. I like it the way it is.

    by RoBBins0096 on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 01:38:50 AM EST

  •  hey (none / 0)

    I'm glad they have the same models, i think we all purposely do it anyway (all carmines baby!).

    Not all who wander are lost

    by Zoso Fan on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 04:00:40 AM EST

  •  Yeah i agree (none / 0)

    because sometimes when i play fff and im trying to warn "Baird" of someone coming up behind them, i can never who the "baird" is,

    "No sheep just camels." 'What?' "Bitch I aint seen him." Blam! 'Roger'

    by CovanantElite on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 01:46:33 PM EST

  •  But esuns, you have to think (none / 0)

    about new people coming ot the game, not knowing that Marcus and Dom are bff's and who's partnered with who. So I guess in the name of simplicity, if they dont look like you, kill it. Which in my eyes, makes sense.

    by BoxinLeprechaun on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 04:10:40 PM EST

  •  I agree it kind of doesn't make sense (none / 0)

    but at the same time (GET READY FOR THIS)....

    The situation with Halo is different-Having 2 master chief's doesn't make sense in the story-setting that co-op campaign is. In multiplayer, who the actual characters are doesn't matter as much therefore, I don't see it as much of a problem. There, I just put down Halo. =P

    At the same time, I agree it would be really cool to at least have different armor or something for each player...

    by SweetTea023 on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 04:21:07 PM EST

    •  yea but I think if you're getting jumped by (none / 0)

      lets say 3 people of a different 3 different teams, the last thing you need to figure out is who is on who's side. You just need to know its not you so kill it. Im sure with enough practice you would recognize who's on your team and who's not but not everybody has that kind of time.

      by BoxinLeprechaun on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 04:25:00 PM EST

      [ Parent ]

  •  Here is the answer (none / 0)

    The cog team members are distinguishable; it would be possible to have teams with mix and matched models. However, they cannot be unbalanced with the locusts. MOST locusts are very similar and mix and match pairing for most of the models (not RAAM) it would be near impossible to distinguish each other. In this case, you could only have the cog mix and match and so more people would only want to play as cogs. Even though there isn't as much host advantage, you'd still have a bunch of people waiting in the middle to try and get on a cog team (if the lobby system is like gears 1 at all, I'm not sure).

    by Noobpancake on Tue Sep 02, 2008 at 04:31:24 PM EST

Comments Disabled | 12 comments