Thursday, October 9, 2008

Bleszinski: Gears of War 2 will have casual appeal

Gears of War 2 lead designer Cliff Bleszinski is keen to welcome the casual games audience with his latest game, claiming that the casual games movement is definitely a good thing and that other developers shouldn't be intimidated by casual gamers.

"Thanks to the success of Guitar Hero and Wii, we've seen a lot of new people play games, and we've seen a lot of ex-gamers get back into gaming," Bleszinski noted in an interview with Develop, via EG.

"Some developers are nervous about that, but I think that's a dumb response. I think it's great to have more people playing games, and maybe they'll evolve from playing Guitar Hero to playing Gears or Halo or GTA."

With that as a tenet, Bleszinski saw that there was a casual mode made for Gears of War 2 in which it it was practically harder to die than it was to survive. Bleszinski claimed that the team went deliberately out of their way to create this mode, specifically so that it can pull casual gamers in and get them interested in the harder modes.

"We want casual gamers to get involved this time around," he explained. "Yes it's got blood, monsters and guns, but it is also a story about loss and redemption and a bit of heart."

What do you think about the casual appeal of the Gears of War games? Check out our hands-on Gears of War 2 preview and then let us know what you think in the forums.

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