Gears of War 2 Smoke Grenade
The smoke grenade knockdown has been converted to a cringe (stunned while remaining standing) now for about 3 weeks or more and I wanted to express how I feel about it. I know there are people on both sides of the fence and both have legitimate arguments. While some previously thought the smoke grenade was used in a way that was unfair others believe now the smoke grenade is worthless.
I believe the developers at Epic have changed the multiplayer game for the better. I am one of those that believes the knockdown effect was not well implemented and created unfairness in the game. When I say not well implemented I’m referring to the fact that the duration of the knockdown wasn’t always the same and created clipping and teleporting issues when objects or stairs were in the way. Initially the smoke grenade was not abused but it quickly became very annoying when players would plant them everywhere. The battlefield became littered with smoke grenades. One other solution would be to remove the planted grenades upon death. However, this wouldn’t fix the fact that each player would still spawn with a weapon that could effectively provide an instant kill if used correctly.
I believe Gears of War 2 multiplayer has changed for the better and I applaud the Epic developers for staying hands on even months after the games release. I don’t believe the smoke grenade has been rendered worthless but it does make it much harder to take on multiple enemies at once.
Epic has officially released a list of bug fixes for the upcoming update including these:
Issues related to the Smoke Grenade causing a player to cringe instead of knocking them down. If hit by a Smoke Grenade with cringing turned on, players will now:
- Drop the Boomshield, even if aiming while carrying it.
- Drop a heavy weapon, even if it is deployed.
- Cringe while roadie running.
- Cringe while in cover.
