Gears of War 2 (XBOX360)

9/10

Pros: 

Stunning Graphics

Improved Mechanics

Feels HUGE in both Gameplay and Story

Cons: 

Some slowdown

A few too many cutscenes

Some laughable voice acting

Year: 

2008

MPAA Rating: 

NR

caps: 

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"Gears of War 2" Official Site

Story

For years, each game system has had its own handful of "money" franchises, exclusives that often determined which system a conflicted buyer would spring for. With today's unsure economy and increased exposure for all aspects of gaming, it's no longer lucrative for companies to develop exclusives unless they are dynamite enough to persuade buyers to pick up one console over (or in addition to) another. The original "Gears of War" was the flagship franchise of the XBOX360, and news and rumors have run rampant about the sequel for the last year and a half since its release. Shockingly, "Gears of War 2" surpasses its own hype with style, class, and a gnarly chainsaw.

Graphics

The first "Gears of War" game was meant to showcase the 360's graphical might, and to an extent, it did. If the original was a stained glass window, "Gears of War 2" may as well be a cathedral. Unlike its predecessor, "Gears of War 2"s color scheme is not limited to muted browns and grays, instead opting for vibrant renderings of headshot bloodsplatter, toxic glowing "imulsion" and dazzling weather effects. Aside from the occasional upgraded (read: covered in vegetation) landscape from the original, you will very rarely see the same environment twice, which helps add tremendous scale to the game. The characters themselves look largely the same upon first viewing, but are quite a bit more detailed this time around. The new additions to the cast look just as good as the old favorites. Your COG team still looks like a gang of larger than life roid freaks, but the new digs do a lot to make them feel more like living, breathing creatures.

In the heat of battle, things tend to run very smoothly, with destructible environments, new weapon effects, and some truly gruesome Locust to look at. Although you run into many duplicate enemies throughout the game, there is enough variance throughout the course of the game to keep you interested. You don't want to spend to much time staring at the new character designs for fear of losing your ass to enemy fire, but you can get a good look at just how nice the new Locust look through the scope of your sniper rifle, if you catch my drift.

Although "Gears of War 2" is pretty damn close to the best looking game I've seen all year, I do have a single complaint. Throughout the game there are very fleeting moments of slowdown when there are dozens of enemies on the screen and when you've just completed an objective. Thankfully, this happens very rarely and doesn't do anything to detract from the overall experience, but I did notice.

Sound

Overall, the sound in "Gears of War 2" is solid as a rock. The COG soldiers call for backup, the Locust make nasty noises, and each gun sounds like it should. Sound effects are made to serve their purpose without being distracting, and this is very much present here. Audio cues like the "you just killed everyone in this objective" sound effect serve a very logical, gameplay driven purpose and help to draw you into the flow of the action.

The real balls of Gear's sound design is it's epic score. When you are engaged in battle, you get the sense sonically that you are truly "storming the castle" in the most glorious battle of all times. When you're moving from destination to destination, there's enough ambient chatter and low-level score to keep you in a relative state of unease. Unfortunately, the one area of sound that has not improved since the first game is the voice acting. Fenix still sounds like a pro wrestler that swallowed an industrial sized bag of gravel, and Dom's pouty voiceover nearly undermines what turns out to be a pretty weighty story arch. Again, you'll hardly notice in the sea of awesomeness, but toning down the cheese factor of the voice actors should be a final challenge to tackle in upcoming iterations.

Gameplay

Epic games really nailed down a solid cover-based combat system with the first game, and as such was able to respond in kind with a number of new gameplay mechanics this time around. First of all, you now have three kinds of mobile cover: meat shields, boom shields, and rockworms. It's difficult to describe the satisfation of using a near-dead enemy as living cover (Meat shield), or marching toward an enemy with a huge shield in one hand (Boom shield) and a power-packed pistol in the other. Out of the three new methods of cover, the Rockworm, a plated worm that provides mobile cover while pursuing its food, seems to be the most gimmicky, but it's great to see the team behind this game expand on the cover system it perfected almost two years ago.

Another major complaint that has been fixed with "Gears of War 2" is the variety in gameplay. The first game consisted mostly of battles in courtyards and battered buildings, but this latest installment very rarely puts you in a duplicate environment. In your travels back and forth from the surface and the underground, you will encounter every sort of terrain and weather condition in the book, including one particular "sticky" situation that literally made me gag when I realized where I was. You will also find yourself in extremely tense battles aboard dueling tanks, boats, and other platform based vessels. These new timed segments (i.e. kill such and such before you fall off a cliff) ratchet up the intensity while adding to the overall "big battle" feel pervasive through the entire game. In "Gears of War 2", you really feel like you're fighting an all out war instead of just taking a single city. In short, "Gears of War 2" feels absolutely HUGE.

Epic was also not content to bridge every gap between areas with cut scenes this time around, and as such allows you to pilot both inanimate and living "vehicles" in your travels. Each unique vessel handles in its own way and has its own weapons system that forces you to adjust the fly. Chances are, if you see something on the surface of Sera, you will likely have to kill it at some point and ride it at another. Although fans of the series will squeal with delight at such a proposition, this particular expansion is much more than simple fan service. In spite of these new elements, I found the game to still be a bit cut-scene heavy for my liking at times, which is especially disappointing when there are great examples in the game of unique ways to connect the environments via gameplay.

Online play this year has also improved, adding some new modes in addition to the tried and true 'buddy' system of last year. The most lauded of these new modes, and my personal favorites is "Horde" mode, that involves you and some buddies taking on a virtually endless onslaught of Locust. I say virtually endless because only the most dedicated players (of which I am not) will be able to give up enough time and energy to make it all the way through. Despite its difficulty, Horde mode stands up as a great "I want to sit down and shoot shit online for a while" mode, and comes as a welcome addition to the capture the (meat)flag and assasination-style standbys.

Replay Value/Final Thoughts

If you're interested in purchasing this title, you've likely already read dozens of reviews that say "Gears of War 2" is "The Best Xbox 360 game ever." Although I personally tend to stray from such accusations, I can say that "Gears of War 2" is an incredible game worthy of its flagship status. I was happy with the first game, but ended up reselling it after completing the single player campaign. This time around, with more challenging achievements, improved online modes, a beefed up emotional story, and gameplay so nice you have to play it twice, I don't see myself doing that again. With indications of a sequel (watch through the credits), I have a hard time picturing how this game can outdo itself in the future, but I trust that Epic is more than capable of following through. Believe the hype, "Gears of War 2" is more mightily badass than a stack of Brumaks, and enough to make a fanboy out of me, a tremendous feat unto itself.