So a change I have meant to write about for a little while in Gears of War 2 is the effect that Smoke Grenades now have when they detonate. It used to be that when a smoke grenade detonated, if you were caught within the blast radius, you got knocked to the ground. This made it very easy for anyone to finish you off before you could get back up. Some loved it as it gave them more options for how to attack the enemy and could also be seen to even the odds against a better player. Some also hated it and felt it was very cheap and changed the gameplay way too much. Instead of straight out firefights, many players spent time turning the playing field into a series of traps using smoke grenades.

So a change has been made, now when you are too close to a smoke grenade when it goes off, your character cringes, and puts there hands up. You are stuck like this for maybe a second or so, but you do not fall down. This drastically changes the way people use the grenades, if you are planting grenades in order to disable opponents and make them easy targets, you better be VERY fast. Recovering from the stun is very quick and usually if you were not already rushing in when the grenade went off you will not get there in time and your opponent will be fully mobile again. While I am not completely comfortable with the new workings of the blast of the grenades (I will have to spend more time using them) I feel that the most important part of smoke grenades has still been overlooked. One change in Smoke Grenades between Gears 1 and 2 is that that actual duration that the smoke lasts has been shortened. So when you throw a smoke grenade you do not actually get much time or volume of smoke to really be able to take full advantage of it. This was one of the main reasons I liked the knockdown, if the smoke is not enough to screen the battlefield and hide what my team is doing, then at least I can use it to disable them with the knockdown. My main desire for smoke grenades especially now that they have been made less effective with their blast, is that the amount of smoke and duration that the smokes lasts be increased. That is the whole point of a smoke grenade to begin with isn’t it? Hide portions of the battlefield either to allow strategic maneuvering without being seen or to allow a rush on a cover position when outnumbered or outgunned.

So overall, do you think smoke grenades should actually put out enough smoke to be useful in their intended purpose? Do you like the smoke grenades how they are now? Not trying to start the whole cringe vs. knockdown debate back up, my focus is mainly assuming that the cringe is here to stay. And if so, what needs to be done for smoke grenades to be truly useful?

Feel free to leave your ideas/thoughts on the subject in the comments.