Xbox 360: Gears of War 2 Review

Not long ago, I read a book about videogames called Smartbomb. It tells the history of videogames and follows a young designer named Cliff Blesinski that worked at Epic Games. It chronicles his rise in the video game industry and talks about a game he was planning for the Xbox 360 that was going to show off the power of the system and change gaming. That game was Gears of War and it did change gaming. As expected, the sequel is the most anticipated game for the 2008 holiday season and has a lot to live up to.

Gears of War 2 starts up not long after Gears of War 1. You control Marcus Fenix who is part of the human force that fights against the Locust Horde. There's a disease killing humans and apparently the Locust, who had a major setback at the end of Gears of War 1, have regrouped and are going after the humans again. Marcus, being the badass hero, leads his Delta squad to take the fight right to the Locust in order to give humanity a chance to survive. King of epic, ain't it?

The simplest way to describe the gameplay of the Gears of War series is the combination of a tactical shooter and a more graphic shooter like Unreal/Quake. The game makes use of cover and squad tactics to beat the game, but it has some of the most brutal deaths around. Gears of War 2 keeps that core gameplay and adding a few bits of gameplay to help improve the overall game. There's a new "active reload" that, with proper timing, allows you to reload faster and can make use of certain extra options that a weapon may have. Get close enough and you can make use of new melee attack, or grab the enemy to use them as a shield. Also, there's an overall improvement to the smoothness of getting behind cover making it seamless. New weapons have been added into the mix consisting mainly of bigger weapons that do some major damage. There are some new enemies to fight, and the AI of these enemies in general has been improved. Unfortunately, they didn't improve on how you meet these enemies. You walk to a certain spot then the enemies come, kill a certain amount, and move forward again to another spot and repeat. It's so repetitive in these parts but luckily Epic added some unique fights to liven it up.

One thing that impressed people in Gears of War 1 was the great environments filled with so much detail that you want to explore everything but the tons of enemies keep you from doing that. This time around, Epic kept the graphics great but added to the action. They went bigger and better putting you through major fights against some giant Locust monsters providing some larger than life sequences making the game feel even more "epic". The levels have a nice variety from a hospital to a small town with a European feel to the underground caverns changing up the pace of the game. Overall, they made slight improvements to the original engine but not messing with the proven formula. Gears of War 2 also keeps the same formula when it comes to sound. The voice actors are a proven bunch providing some emotion to the characters which is always a treat. The score continues with the combination of a grand symphony sound and some heavy metal riffs. Sound effects are excellent keeping you in the feel of an actual battlefield.

Overall, the game will take 10-15 hours to beat. To play the game again, there are different difficulties and collectibles that are scattered throughout the levels for those that just need to complete everything. Once again, Epic did not mess with a good formula and kept online play just like the original. It is squad-based keeping small teams in 5 vs. 5 scenarios. The game still has the team death match with different rules and adds the more traditional modes territories and capture the flag. The major edition is the Horde mode. In this mode, your team of 5 will fight off waves of Locust with each level growing in number of enemies and difficulty. This blend of online play with the singe play enemies proves to be the best addition to the game and by far the most addictive mode in the game.

Quite frankly, I'm still not a fan of the series. I played the original and was impressed but both single player and online didn't keep me interested. This time around, it's the same thing for me. Yet I can tell if a game is great, and this is one great game. Fans of the original and new fans will love this game and keep playing the game until the third game comes out.

Score - 9.2/10.0

- O.G.