Greetings all, without further ado, my Gears of War 2 review.

I’ve played the campaign to completion and played a decent amount of Horde offline and online. I have not touched the other multi player modes unfortunately.

More after the break!

Story
Well, they made a bit more effort to make these muscle bound men look like humans and less like vehicles of pure testosterone. Marcus’ father is implicated in the story yet again. This time it has a bigger significance to the whole storyline. On Dom’s side, there’s a story development with his wife. There’s a new Carmine in the delta squad. Cole and Baird are pretty much still tagging along and helping out like before. They’ve added other characters that make brief but notable appearances. Each one of these, you can unlock for multi player use afterwards. I thought the story was interesting. I’m not saying this is the deepest thing ever. I do however think that for a futuristic sci-fi shooting game, it has it’s merits. Again, this game ends in a rather opened manner leaving room for a third installment.

Graphics
Slight improvement over what we had before. You can see that the UT3 engine has had it’s refinement over the years and that Epic have a solid platform to do their work on. They still have the same look and feel, but they’ve varied the environments a lot. I’d have to say that my favorite two levels would have to be the secret base and inside the worm. The latter because of certain visual effects I enjoyed. I’ve grown used to seeing the UT3 texture pop ins by now. I’ve either grown blind to it, or I just don’t look at it anymore but I’d have to say that I didn’t see it as much anymore.

Sound
Same as before, it’s very Epic. Get it? The music goes well with the game and works to highlight certain dramatic scenes and such. Keeps the same feel as the first. You’ll grow to love hearing the lancer active reload sound. Additional damage!

Gameplay
The initial Gears of War pretty much set the template for third person view shooters as far as console co-ops over the last year or so. So how does this version compare to it? It’s a solid co-op just as expected. If you’re looking for some sort of ground breaking innovation, you won’t find it here. However, why should this game seek innovation as a means to market its sequel? They’ve added a few neat things, tagging grenades to walls, chainsaw clashing, movable covers and such. I absolutely love using the shield. With the addition of Horde, I find myself wanting to play this with my friends and perfect strangers online. The principle of this game type is that you must fend off waves of enemies. Naturally, the difficulty ramps up as you progress through the waves. The notable wave are naturally each 10th wave. It will have more enemies, bigger baddies and once you complete it for the first time, an achievement. The controls haven’t changed much since its predecessor, I would say that it “feels” a little bit more responsive and less glitchy.

Difficulty
It’s not as difficult as the previous version. There seems to be fewer branching paths than before and shorter ones too. The bosses are pretty easy to understand. This is mostly where you’d have certain hiccups before. I may just find it easier due to my previous experience however.

Multiplayer
Solid co-op just like before. Added game modes for multiplayer. You can check stats online on the gears website and even post pictures! I haven’t had the chance to actually take pictures to play around with this but I’ve seen the option there. There’s even an achievement related to it! Horde is pretty fun if you’re up for a PVE, Human vs Computer type game. You may be a bit more comfortable in this competitive mode. Just stick with your team and try and survive.

Pros
-Storyline continued.
-Solid Co-op.
-The shield!

Cons
-What you would consider an end boss happens one to two hours before you complete the game.
-Seriously 2.0 will make you play this game for a fairly long time if you’re an achievement junkie.
-If you’re looking for something different, you won’t find it here.

Bottom line
It’s the game of the season. Forget CoD:WaW. You’ll be enjoying this one for a while. The previous iteration had a lot of popularity on XBL until Halo 3 and CoD4 showed up and managed to remain in the top 10 for very long. Sit down on your couch, get a second controller and have fun with a buddy!

Pictures
Pictures taken from Gears of War’s website.

Usual day in the war

Clashing of the saws!

Victor Games, Review