Gears of War 2: Xbox 360's Latest and Greatest Shooter - a Review

The second iteration from Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios in the Gears of War universe, appropriately titled Gears of War 2, starts just before the invading armies of the Locust are about to destroy the last human stronghold on planet Sera. It takes you on a thrill ride chock full of bloody chainsaw massacres, meatshields (hostages used as a shield), and cave diving before you're done. The cast remains essentially the same, Marcus Fenix still leads Delta Squad and Dom is still a mildy-annoying sidekick/ comedic relief. Although the graphics remain relatively unchanged and combat mechanics are virtually identical, the concept was great the first time around and it's still great. Don't fix it if it ain't broken right?

Setting (8/10)- The world of Sera is harsh. You are probably one of the last groups of humans alive and are barely holding on to your last few cities and respites under attack from an invading force. Not from the outside, but from underground. This is both the premise of the game, and the feeling that you get while playing the game. At any moment, a sinkhole may appear and produce 5, 10, maybe 20 Locust soldiers at a time. Or a massive worm may dig a hole under a whole city and sink it in seconds, which does happen. Every piece of architecture in the game feels like it should, like a crumbling world on the brink of destruction. Much like Halo 3, this game sacrifices having top-of-the-line graphics for massive landscapes and detailed character modeling which make for a more personal experience. The characters are oversized, hulking beasts of men and make you feel very powerful, but they could have been a bit more realistic and achieved more of a feeling of desperation against the Locust Horde. A small fish of a complaint in an ocean of great things.

Gameplay (8.5/10) - First and foremost, Gears of War 2 is a cover-based shooter. It's played in the 3rd person with an over-the-shoulder style unique to this series. You have several types of weapons, including the all-new Flamethrower and Ink Grenades as well as the trusty old favorites like the Assault Rifle with the chainsaw bayonette and the Torque Bow. Avoiding enemies and staying alive is done by finding cover, plain and simple. The cover system is integrated extremely well into the environment and damn near everything that looks like cover can be used as cover. In fact, it's an absolute necessity if you want to play on any of the harder difficulties. As in the first, GoW2 allows for co-operative multiplayer in Campaign mode. In my opinion, this is the biggest strength of this game. Nothing is quite as fun as saving the planet with a friend. You can do this either online, two-players on one screen, or locally with linked consoles. Super fun, super fast paced single player and co-op action all the way through the game. Multiplayer mode is just as exciting, and even more fast-paced as Campaign mode. While you can't do split-screen multiplayer online, it does support the party system which will set you on the same teams if both players have a console and an Xbox Live subscription. I'm not a huge multiplayer player, so I got consistently and repeatedly owned for several hours in the online games. But after a while, I found myself realizing the special tactics needed to play against human opponents and the few kills I got were very satisfying. Nothing feels better than stomping an opponent out with your oversized boot or tagging him with a spiked grenade from behind and running away to savor the gib-filled explosion.

The addition of Horde was a great idea as well. Sometimes, you just want to kill the Locust. As many as possible. Sometimes you want to do this with a friend. Horde mode is perfect for that. Wave after wave of unsuspecting Locust try to kill you in any way possible. Your mission is quite simple, kill them and stay alive to kill more of them. beautiful in it's simplicity, I find myself playing Horde mode with my girlfriend more than any other mode in the game after beating the story.

Downloadable Content(9/10) - As of September 2009, there are several add-ons that can be purchased via Xbox Live. The Combustible Map Pack, released in December 2008 and the Snowblind Map Pack a few weeks later were a great addition and with a total of 7 new maps, they kept everyone busy for a few months. In July, the Dark Corners add-on added 7 more new maps as well as a bonus campaign chapter that was originally left out of the game. Then came the All Fronts Collection. Available as a retail package, it contained all the previously released add-ons, plus a poster and a strategy guide. There have also been action figures and a series of artwork released in this same vein. All of these should available at local electronics and video game retailers.

Overall (8.5/10) - This game is awesome, don't get me wrong. But it's shortcoming, as with GoW 1 are in it's variety. There is not much difference between one human city and another, or one Locust cave and another. The enemies and bosses remain largely unchanged and even though there are some new additions, I really just feel like I'm playing Gears of War 1.5. All in all, those are minor issues, and this is a great shooter with extremely scalable difficulty suited for newbies and veterans alike.