Review: Gears of War 2

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

After the enormous amount of hype after the first Gears of War, you had to wonder: could the sequel live up to it all? Well, good news, Gears fans: it did. Below is our CherryAv Xbox 360 Review for Gears of War 2.

The first game was a critical and commercial success, selling well over three million copies. There were some nagging issues with the game, though, such as a host lag advantage in the online play, a storyline that wasn't fully fleshed-out, and an A button that was a bit too sticky. Epic, the developer of the game, took all of these minor complaints about the first and chose to fix them all in the second game, as well as add a few new features. In the end, they created what amounts to the perfect sequel to a blockbuster game.

What was already the best-looking game on the 360 has been improved here, with the same outstanding art direction and less texture pop-in (a common issue in the first game). Epic also brought in an entirely new composer for the score, and while the music is not Oscar-worthy, it holds its own and is ultimately an improvement over the original. As mentioned above, Gears of War 2 has a much stronger story than the first game, and it is a much-needed improvement. Nowhere is this more apparent than after the training level of the game, when the story kicks off with a riveting speech from the Commander of the COG forces, accompanied by the sweeping orchestral score. It is then that you first realize that you are playing a game that has risen above the rest and is to be considered truly epic. The single-player campaign as a whole is incredible, and the Insane mode is, as always, an irresistible, addictive challenge that simply must be attempted if you consider yourself to be of any worth as a gamer. The entire campaign can again be played in its entirety with a friend through the co-op system, which still holds its title as the best of its kind. The exciting, stop-and-pop gameplay of the first has been duplicated as well with some subtle improvements. The active reload system has been refined, with slightly different timing for each weapon, and the A button (used to take cover) has also been adjusted so that the issues found in the first game with accidentally being pulled against objects are almost nonexistent. The change-up to the normal run-and-gun style of shooter is still fresh, even on your second time through Sera.

Multiplayer has been improved as well, with five players on each team this time (as opposed to four). In our opinion, the new player count makes the games a little more frantic and exciting, and the mode as a whole has several extremely entertaining variants with plenty of replay value. The community on Xbox Live is booming right now as well, so you shouldn't have any difficulty finding a game to play in. One thing to note: the shotgun's power has been reduced this time around, which might discourage fans of the first game's tendency for players to charge each other and fire blindly with the shotgun until one party explodes in a hail of gore. Not so, this time around. Playing behind cover is more necessary, and don't go thinking that you will revert to using your chainsaw more now; there are duels to prevent this, and trust us when you say that if you intend on partaking in these often, you've found yourself a quick path to acquiring Carpal Tunnel. The Horde mode is a terribly fun new mode that you also must try; it consists of fifty waves of enemies, each wave increasing in difficulty. Think you're hard? It took us accomplished gamers five whole hours to get to wave 44.

Bottom Line: Gears of War 2 is any Xbox 360 owner's wet dream. With the numerous improvements, varieties of play modes, and the longevity of the multiplayer, expect Gears 2 to rule the charts for a long time coming. Any self-respecting gamer must own this game. Buy it now. Play it. Enjoy it. You won't be disappointed.

Our Score: 9.7/10