Gears of War is back and it's much more enjoyable than it ever was. The campaign is better, graphics are improved, there's horde mode, and so much stuff to talk about in this game.
When Gears of War first came out, it was definitely one of the more popular games for the 360. Weather it's the Lancer or the perfected gameplay mechanics of a cover-based shooter made it popular is all based on one's opinion. Gears of War 2 pretty much improves everything what Gears 1 did although they did make some tweaks to the game.
The story continues the battle of the COG and Locust. The war is more hectic than ever since now Locust grows in number and quality. We are basically outnumbered and outgunned and we're trying to fight back. That's pretty much the whole idea of the storyline, but there are some unique twists to make it more interesting. For example, the game finally focuses on Marcus's partner, Dom, a bit more in this game. He's actually searching for his wife Maria since she's been take by the Locust and he has no idea what they're doing with her. It's somewhat cliche to see someone fight for something to rescue one close to another-you see it in many movies, but it's a bit better than the whole story focusing on how bad-a** and tough Marcus was. The whole plot progression is improved from the first game and it's much more intriguing than ever.
The game is still dark and gritty.
That Bruamk is armed!
Graphically, this is probably the best 2008 game when it comes to visual. Sharp textures, models don't look blocky, and everything is real detailed. Long story, short-Gears of War 2 is one great looking game and everything else looks top notch weather it's the COG soldier's equipment or the Locust's skin. The sound effect are all fine just like the first game and there are new music made by the same composed of the original Gears of War and it feels very similar towards it.
An example of Horde mode.
You can Chainsaw duel now! If you spam your "b" button faster than your opponent, you win!
You can use a downed enemy as cover and use your pistol as your weapon.
Juicy.
It is still a cover-based shooter and there are changes and additions. You move a bit slower now for some reason and your weapons all shoot slightly slower than the original game. However, it feels very similar to the original game so there's not much to complain about. Like every new sequel to a game, there are new enemies, weapons, maps, game modes, and more. Some of the new weapons are like a new variation of a burst-shot pistol and there's a motar launcher that's very deadly at taking group of units, but it's such a heavy weapon, that you can't have it with you-you can only carry it and it slows you down. Some of the new enemies were there in the original game, but now you can fight them more oftenly like the Reaver. They will come down on the battlefield and help their fellow comrades to battle and it can make the game real chaotic at times. Then there's new enemies like the Bloodmounts which are basically locusts on these deadly white lions and they are very tough to kill-they're basically as strong as a Boomer. There's also new variation of the older enemies like if you thought the Theron Guards were tough to kill, wait till you fight the Palace Guards. Gears of War 2 is noticably much more intense than the first game. There are so many firefights in this game. At times, I was getting a bit tired of getting into these crazy battles and they keep happening everytime. The game is very relentless in terms of action and that might make you think it's all repetitive and dull, but thanks to good level design and different cover placements, it will keep the game different from the last fight you've been. Not only that, the enemy AI are still smart like they were in the first game. Sadly, your team, I can't say much to them. Sometimes, they like to run a gun at a situation you don't want to be in and if one of your teammates die ( a reference to you and Dom), you have to start everything from scratch. Since Gears 2 is pretty much more intense than Gears 1 in everyway, this means this game is also harder than the first game. In Gears 1, there were a couple of annoyances, but in Gears 2, there's a bit more. In some situations the game put you in, are literally insane. There's a lot pressuring moments to say like you have to kill these amount of enemies before another patch of fresh enemies will come and get you and if you don't kill them in a certain amount of time, you're pretty much screwed. Not only that, more enemies means you gotta be more focused because someone could flank you or you could get overwhelmed by enemies. One of the moments that was hard for me was you were basically in this middle spot and you were surrounded by a group of Locusts and Tickers which are like the black wretches, but they are much more annoying than they are and later on I was getting seiged by flying Reavers with their missles in the air and after they land on the ground and give them support fire and it was pretty brutal and it took me a couple of tries to get it right. There are vehiciel sequences and they are much better than the god-awful one in Gears 1. Gears 2 is much more enjoyable and this time, you can kill a lot more than trying to survive. The campaign will take you around 15 hours and it's a lot more memorable than Gears 1. Also you get to fight Brumaks (they were absent in the first game) in this game and I must say, when I killed the Brumaks with my Lancer, it felt so rewarding and I basically had no more ammo left in my Lancer.
Horde mode is real fun if you have a pal that want to survive a couple of tough waves of Locusts with you. It's recommended to play with 5 players since it's pretty much made for that mode, and there's a matchmaking mode for it. Each round gets tougher with more enemies and higher rank of enemies, and each ten rounds you finish, enemies get tougher in life, damage, and accuracy which force you to start all over again with the same wave of enemies you were fighting on wave 1. Horde Mode can be played on all of the multiplayer maps you play. Speaking of multiplayer, it's somewhat similar to campaign, but if you love getting kills with the Lancer, you're not going to get kills in this mode. To get kills, you usually gotta rely on your shotgun or snub-pistol or any power weapons you can find since the Lancer just doesn't have enough stopping power or speed to kill a target in this mode. I'm not really into the multiplayer so I can't really talk much about it.
Gears of War is back and it's much more enjoyable than it ever was. The campaign is better, graphics are improved, there's horde mode, and so much stuff to talk about in this game if you just play it. There's really no reason why you want to play the original Gears of War if you already have the sequel. This is what you call a sequel. 10/10