Gears of War 2

Hello Gamers,

This is my first post of 2009! Yes, I've been gone that long! Anyway, this post is a review of Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360. Although this game came out in November, it is still considered a very recant game.

Campaign/Story:

As some of you who read my review of Gears of War already know, I'm not a fan of the story. My reasons being that it's not original at all and that some of the characters lack personality and character which allows the gamer to relate to them, not to mention that Epic Games gave them a very bad script. Gears of War 2's story is actually very much the same as Gears 1 which is actually okay. The reason why is because almost every game sequel is going to have similarities to the original game. My problem though is that the original story for Gears wasn't even that great to carry onto the second one. This story in a nut shell is this: Marcus Fenix and the rest of the Human resistance realize that the lightmass bomb used in the first game didn't have the effect that they wanted it to, so instead, they are going to use all that they have left and take the battle to the heart of the enemy. One thing I was really pleased about for Gears 2 was how long the campaign was. It's been a while that I could actually say that a shooter lasted more than three days. It's actually almost longer than Doom 3. Although it was longer though, I didn't find most of the levels to be better than Gears 1. In Gears 1, they had levels such as the night levels where you have to walk in the light in order to keep getting killed by the Kryil. I'm not saying that Gears 2 didn't have any really good levels, I'm just saying that there are some levels on the campaign that I'll never play again. Also, they let the gamer get even more story with some of the background battles from pieces of news paper and notes. It's a very good idea from Epic Games and I salute them for it.

Multiplayer:

The best improvement from Gears 1. In the first game, I NEVER played the multiplayer because the person with the sniper rifle could shoot anyone even if they were in cover. Gears 2, however, improved the maps, added new modes and fixed the glitches. They also added a "training mode", that allows you to get used to the multiplayer modes with bots instead of going online and getting your butt kicked because you don't understand the rules or maps. They also added a "Horde" mode, which allows you and four other players to play a survival mode against 50 waves of the Horde! It's really fun! Epic, I give you a standing ovation for your improvements on multiplayer.

Weapons/Abilities:

This is where the game really shines. Not only did they make the Lancer's power SO much better, but they basically improved every single gun in the game. Now, it won't take three clips of ammo from the Lancer to destroy enemies and you'll swap it for the Sniper Rifle, but you will actually want to keep the gun throughout the entire campaign. They also added new weapons like the Mulcher (a portable gun turret), Mortar, and one of my favorite guns, the flamethrower. The new abilities in the game are equally impressive. The "crossed swords" feature for the chainsaw attachment, to the Lancer, allows you and an enemy to lock chainsaws and fight to see who can win (instead of a coin toss like in Gears 1). You can also take downed enemies as Shields instead of just curb stomping them.

Enemies:

In Gears 2, you get to face new enemies from the Locust army. You get the huge guys like the "Grinder" who contain the Mulcher weapons. The smaller suicide enemies, the "Tickers", will explode if you don't shoot them, they are really effective at getting you out of cover. The "Bloodmount" which are beasts that allow grenadiers to get to enemies quickly and finally "Maulers" which are giant Locust with sheilds and use grenades as maces. The main enemy leader of the Locust is "Scorge", who carries a chainsaw rod and is extremely powerful. One of the enemies that I think everyone would agree are a rip off of the Flood is the "Sire". The Sires have tentacles on their backs, they can get back up after being shot (like the flood off of Halo: Combat Evolved) and can have limbs shot off. Yeah, it sounds like Epic likes the idea of the Flood.

All in all, I thought that Gears of War 2 was overall better than Gears 1. In still needs some improvement though. I give Gears of War 2 an 9 out of 10.

Ups: Long campaign, WAY BETTER MULTIPLAYER, better weapons and abilities

Downs: Story still needs improvement, Epic needs to make enemies that aren't a rip off of other games.

Well, that's all for now,

HANG TIGHT GAMERS!!