 Great game and let no one else tell you different 8 of 8 people found this review helpful.
Gears of War 2 is different. I mean some will tell you the game is essentially Gears 1.5, but that honestly does not do it justice.
The Gears 2 story/campaign mode is epic. Every battle is on a much larger scale, and you just don't feel like a small elite squad involved in an isolated conflict anymore. Enough of the story though, because I would imagine most would want to hear about the gameplay.
As one of the reviews just stated above the gameplay seems a bit more streamlined, since one of my friends who had never played before could pick it up and do better than he could have done in Gears 1. The entire system, such as finding cover and running, all feels much more polished than the original. The weaponry has been expanded and new functions have been added to various weapons. These additions included the grenade, of which now there are 3 types, be setup as a mine that only goes off when enemies come near it. The shotgun has not been changed as the review above stated, and what has changed is the lancer and the new hammerburst. These two guns have had their effectiveness and power increased, and along with the new "stopping power" mechanic, make the game much less of a run and gun affair. The new highlight is the overall tactical and intelligent gameplay, rather than the run and gun affair that the host with the shotgun does.
One game type that I have to say is an amazing edition is HORDE. Get four of your friends together, get on the new map Pavilion, and see how long you last. Horde involves waves and waves of locusts coming at you, and becoming progressively more difficult. It's an affair that involves a lot of shooting, screaming, cursing, and reminsicing.
Anyway, Gears 2 is amazing. In an age of $60 video games, Gears deserves your money and a decent amount of your halo 3 matchmaking time.
Review ID: 10000000009341190  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.  Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) Review created: 12/27/08(updated 12/29/08) 6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
GAMEPLAY: A+
This game still plays like the first Gears, except with a wider array of weapons and features (ie, chainsaw battles, different modes of executing a downed enemy). This is a third person shooter, for those who have not played the first one. And also, expect a lot of blood and violence, so if you are parents considering this game for your children, this serves as fair warning.
The campaign takes longer to beat this time around (10-20h I think). The graphics are very beautiful and realistic, and a lot more 'vibrant'. The first Gears was in general a very dark and gloomy game. You see a lot more color in this one. Co-op campaign gameplay continues to be addictive and I think a strength in this game. It is still as immersive an experience for all players involved as the first Gears was.
Further, the creators definitely outdid themselves in design of the levels. You should expect to be pleasantly surprised with every single level that comes up. While you can clearly expect to see yourself running around in the streets battling waves after waves of Locust, you will also see another order of magnitude of fighting, with sometimes even as many as 80-100 Locust rushing through your field of view. To emphasize the creativity of the creators, there was also, at various points later in the game (spoiler warning), a section where you had to traverse a pitch-black tunnel to safely escort a vehicle across, and even a level where your squad somehow ends up inside one of the Locust beasts and had to fight your way out...
Overall, this game has been quite an experience. It deserves an A+ and Game of the Year awards.
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STORY: B+
Given that this game promised to have more leads on the storyline of the series than the first one, it does a better job. A lot of the early story is centered around Dom and him trying to find his wife, amidst all the fighting. The voice acting is compelling for the most part, and you can tell a lot more easily that it's a dark time for humanity on this fictional planet. In the first Gears, playing through the story was mostly humorous because of the way all the guys were joking around in between fight scenes and the light talk that went on. In this Gears, there's a lot more of a sense of urgency. And cutscenes are well made.
Finally, instead of COG tags for collection, we have bits and pieces of 'collectibles' like newspaper clippings, ads, so on and so forth that in some cases contribute to the backstory a little bit, kind of like the way those terminals worked in Halo 3. All of these, when found, are put in some scrapbook that's accessible from the Main Menu, and arranged in a more or less logical order.
The reason the story only gets a B+: if you think about games like BioShock and Mass Effect and the Halo series with their very immersive storylines, GoW 2 is still not quite there. But it is closer to that state now than it was previously.
I won't reveal any more in this part, but definitely expect a lot more of a plot that serves as a backdrop to all the fighting that's going on. Epic Games did a good job of piquing your interest and making you want to learn more.
Overall a very good game. A+
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