Oh CliffyB Cliff Bleszinski, it seems you're always almost confirming features in Gears of War 2. First there was the "four co-op players" vs "for co-op players" mix-up, and now this. In a recent interview with Gamerscore Blog, Cliff more or less stated that players would not be strictly confined to playing as Marcus in Gears of War 2. "You're basically being Marcus and you're being other squad members throughout the campaign," said Bleszinski. The statement came in response to a question regarding squad commands (at about 2:00 in the video), which were utilized rarely in Gears of War and have been removed entirely from Gears of War 2. While it certainly seems more clear-cut than the four player co-op mix-up, there is still the possibility that Bleszinski was referring to co-op squad members, similar to how Dom was controlled by the second player during co-op sessions in the original game.

Still, switching between characters would be in keeping with assertions that Gears of War 2 will have a deeper storyline. We can already imagine situations where playing as another character would add significant depth to the story (such as Dom's search for his wife). The only question now is whether or not the second level will have gamers playing as a Locust.

[Via OXM UK]