Although Cliff Bleszinski gets most of the press when it comes to the Epic Studios team responsible for bringing Gears of War 2 to Xbox 360s everywhere, Senior Producer Rod Fergusson was the proverbial man behind the curtain. Fergusson cut his teeth at Microsoft, where he helped to produce the Xbox version of Counter-strike and a little game called Gears of War. After Gears shipped, Fergusson decided to move to North Carolina to take a production position at Epic, where he's since been heading up the development of the highly anticipated Gears of War 2. We had a chance to sit down with Fergusson at the game's review event a few weeks ago, asking him about everything from the game's story to the new characters to its achievement system. Be sure to check back tomorrow for our multiplayer interview!



GameSpy: What did you do differently with the story in Gears of War 2?
Rod Fergusson, Senior Producer: We tried to make it feel less like an incursion and more like a war. In Gears of War, it kind of felt like you were part of a four man squad behind enemy lines and on your own. In Gears of War 2, we used the crowd system and a lot of other techniques to make it feel like you're part of something bigger. There's a big initiative going on, and you're one piece of that.

The other part was adding some emotional resonance to the story, and to Dom's story in the game, and to provide some depth. In Gears 1, we only had so much time for so much story and you had to introduce these characters and establish them. Now that they're established, we can spend a little bit more time talking about their motivations and what they care about. Since the characters are familiar, they can interact a little more than they could before. You can see stuff like Marcus comforting Dom, and now it makes more sense, you get it. Now that you've spent some time with them, that feels right.
GameSpy: Let's talk a bit about Dom and his situation with Maria. Was that a plotline that was planned from the very beginning to bring some of that emotional resonance into the game? Marcus is a great hero, but we don't really know all that much about him or care about him, while Dom is missing his wife and it's quite clear how he feels. Was he set up to play against Marcus somewhat?


Rod Fergusson: Yeah, when we were writing those two characters, we saw Dom as "the voice of the player" while Marcus is the one who's totally in that world, in the story, so you can project yourself and immerse yourself there. However, if you see something that the character should know but the player doesn't, you need it. You'll go "What the hell is that?" the first time you see a Wretch, and instead of having your main character, your anchor, say that and cause you to lose credibility with them, you have the sidekick say it. Dom says, 'What the hell is that?" and you'll say, "Yeah, exactly" and you hear your knowledgeable self answer him. You get that information that you need without diminishing the character.

The same thing too with Maria. You're trying to make the player care about a character that they don't even know, and it's really hard. It would be hard to have that storyline come through Marcus, where he's trying to project it on to the player, who's in turn trying to project onto Marcus. By doing it as a witness, you're able to have that empathy with another character, and you can experience it that way without forcing it onto the player.
GameSpy: Cole and Baird return this time out, but we're also seeing some new characters. How did you go about designing these new characters, and how did you see them fitting into the universe?