Let’s Talk Gears of War 2 Romance

Gears of War was all testosterone. Gears of War 2 is mostly testosterone with bonus estrogen. The sequel brings an element of romance between character Dom and his wife Maria, who’s gone missing during the Locust horde onslaught. According to the game’s designer Cliff Bleszinski:

I wanted to put it in the first one, honestly. It was one of the things we didn’t have the confidence in our abilities as storytellers at that time. And we didn’t have the time to get it in there. All that wound up in there was a shot of a tattoo on Dom’s arm and a reference that he might know someone stranded because he was looking for his wife. To put that at the forefront of the [new] game, you see it right in the opening cutscene. He’s looking right at the picture [of him and his wife]…

…It’s really hard to do. I think we did an admirable job of it. Is it a Nicholas Sparks romance? No, it’s not. But there’s a little bit of heart in there. For some reason, Gears seems to have more of a female following than other shooters.

Most action movies have a dab of romance or tinge of heart. There’s no reason games cannot either. Well, unless they’re some stone cold, hard-nosed jaded bad arse shit. Then they’d don’t need that smoochy pansy junk. Otherwise, sure, we love fuzzy kittens!

Gears Romance — SPOILERS [Multiplayer]