I’m playing Gears of War 2 right now. It’s a video game where I run around as a hulking badass action film caricature in a war town mid-apocalyptic future-esque landscape fighting off humanoid monsters that come from below. Yea, it’s pretty much exactly what you would want if you enjoy ridiculous displays of gratuitous machismo wrapped up in a science fiction package. The game, I’ve found after beating Gears of War and playing through the bit of Gears of War 2 that I have, is my favorite display of war in a video game. I’m a big fan. It really gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing.
So the little bastards from underneath have somehow managed to sink human cities under the ground. It seems an efficient way of crippling the opposition, so you can’t really blame them. The wonderful part is the scene that comes immediately after you witness HOW that’s done first hand, as the pale fuckers drop a city in front of you, and you have the amazing task of running into the once-a-city and rescuing anyone you can find.
The enemy is out in full force. Your three person team moves from position to position fighting off wave after wave of the enemy. Massive buildings fall from hundreds of feet in the air and destruction surrounds you. It’s one of the most intense ten to fifteen minutes of game play I’ve had the joy of experiencing. The shit doesn’t let up. You kill ten monsters, gain a few yards, and kill ten more. They come at you from the air, they come at you from underneath the ground, everywhere you look, you can expect to see the enemy waiting to murder you.
Finally, you find yourself trapped in a burnt out husk of a building in the middle of what might have been the first floor. The enemy is on the second floor. You’re surrounded. They have the elevation, they have the numbers, and no matter where you go you’re receiving fire. Your character screams may day, demands assistance. Right when it looks like you won’t receive any quarter and will be indeed making your final stand, at the last, breathtaking moment, you’re saved, in a gratuitous action scene by this guy:
