Epic Games lead designer Cliff “Don’t Call Me CliffyB” Bleszinski has launched a broadside at Metal Gear Solid 4, calling it “passive entertainment” that’s on the way out.
“We’re going from the bowels of the Earth to the highest peaks of Sera, producing those beautiful environmental money shots,” Bleszinski said in a short Gears of War 2 interview with IGN. “We want to create places where you’d want to make your home, and sip coffee in the morning.”
“We wanted a blockbuster pace, and in doing so, we lost the story a bit. So that’s one of the lessons we learned,” he said, talking about taking the experiences of the original Gears of War into the sequel. “This time around there’s more repetition. Games aren’t movies and aren’t consumed in a single sitting. So secondary characters will remind you about stuff, which is pre-established in plot clues.”
“Metal Gear Solid is our example of the game we’re not doing,” he added. “Passive entertainment is on its way out – you need to hook up with this web 2.0 stuff.”
Released in June, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was well-received by critics and fans alike but raised some eyebrows over the length of its cutscenes; one reviewer described the length of time between starting a new game and engaging the first enemy as “23 cocking minutes.”
Gears of Wars 2 is currently in development for the Xbox 360 and is slated for release in November.
