Published by: Microsoft Game Studios
Developed by: Epic Games
Score: 70

Gears of War 2 has been the game 360 owners have been waiting for ever since Halo 3 mania wore off. The original Gears of War 1 built a reputation of being a gory 3rd person shooter with cover gameplay. Epic since then has been working on creating a successor that adds to what Gears of War 1 put out, but what should have been a manageable task given its predecessor has been somewhat of a mixed bag of success and failure.

The story picks up telling you that the lightmass bomb didn’t do a whole lot. Yes, that’s right, all that work you did in the first game apparently didn’t mean shit, as now the Locust are back and stronger than ever. All the usual suspects from the first game are back and once again, we don’t know much about them, except Dom who now has a reason to go on chainsawing locust. His reason? His wife, everyone else’s? We don’t know, and you never find out. I was hoping we’d find out more about Marcus and what he did in the Pendulum Wars. Why was Hoffman pissed off at him or why was he tried and put in prison? Keep in mind all these questions come from GoW1, not GoW2. So, let’s add those unresolved questions in with a bunch of new ones and that pretty sums up the story of GoW2, questions and more questions. Throughout the game, objectives change on the fly as circumstances change. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you were looking for even the slightest bit of resolution, don’t bother looking, it’s not here.

The multiplayer has improved at least in the way it’s organized. No more creating rooms, inviting friends and whining when opponents won’t switch teams. A full party mode is now there a la Halo 2 and 3.  That’s great, but how about the playlists? Okay, not so good. At the time of this writing there are 5 playlists each with their own “theme.” For example, the elimination playlist is basically the 3 primary modes of team deathmatch. Rather than having some semblance of choice you now have to pick a group of gametypes. Of course now there’s a voting system in place, but to play what you want isn’t really there. Not having choice in map has become commonplace now in big games, but to not be able to choose gametypes from the get-go is sort of a pain in the ass. But I have an even bigger complaint. At the time of this writing, matchmaking wait times are unforgivably long. Epic has acknowledged the problem, and I assume they’re working on it, but really, this is the one thing that needed to be 100% at launch and Epic fucked up. I don’t know if it’s a problem with the Trueskill matchmaking system or the optimum connection system, but it needs to be one or the other, not both.

Horde mode is a new addition which puts a team of 5 up against waves of Locust, with waves going up to 50. This gametype revolves around teamwork as the higher the wave count, the tougher the enemies become. Horde is loads of fun with other people and becomes in exercise in teamwork as it basically becomes a matter of holding down an area and supporting each other in some manner. Submission is the new touted gametype that Epic has been talking about the entire time since they started divulging details on the multiplayer. This mode has a stranded at some point in a map armed with a shotgun. The idea is to down them and use them as bullet shields while you carry them to a designated point. I wasn’t too fond of this gametype only because of the length of time it took. For every one match that was 6 or 7 minutes, there was another one that lasted 20 or 30 minutes. That’s fine if you love long matches, but if you want to do something else, you can’t unless you quit. King of the Hill is new as well, but it’s basically Annex except it doesn’t have a moving point. Kind of pointless and in general, it’s a gametype filler. Guardian is the new high point of the game because this is a perfect mix of teamwork and deathmatch. As long as your leader is alive you can respawn, but if he dies, you can’t respawn anymore. It’s simple, but it works well because now the doors open up. You can rush headfirst and try to get to the other team’s leader or you can try to hang back and move with the group.

There are some new weapons and some tweaks. Most notably, is the Lancer rifle (the one with the chainsaw), which now has better damage and a more powerful chainsaw. How is it more powerful? Well, it’s simply because at close range virtually nothing stops it. GoW1’s lancer could be stopped by a few bullets at close range, essentially nothing short of a full close up blast from the shotty will stop it now, as well as explosives. There’s also a sort of vacuum that the chainsaw now has that sort of sucks you into the chainsaw animation even if you’re a few feet away sometimes. Most disappointingly, the shotgun has lost so much power even at close range. Aiming is practically mandatory as the blind fire is practically useless with its horrid accuracy. There have also been some minor tweaks here and there, but aside from those 2 guns not much has changed in the way of the old arsenal. However, Epic has added some new guns. The flamethrower is exactly as it sounds. The Gorgon pistol is essentially a semi-automatic alternative to the Snub pistol or Boltok only with added power, precision and longer reload. Most notable are the heavier weapons which either slow your roadie run or prevent it entirely. The former has to do primarily with the shield. The shield allows you to use a handgun and protect yourself from enemy fire, it can also be planted and used as portable cover. Mortar is the new heavy artillery-like gun that allows a salvo of mortar to rain down on enemies causing instant death. The downside is that firing the mortar leaves you very vulnerable to attack and you can’t move as fast. In addition there is also a new grinder machine gun which again, you can’t run with, but makes up for that with its fire power and high rate of fire. The new weapons overall are interesting if nothing. They add a few more dimensions to some of the games, but not to the point that people won’t bother rushing the boomshot or torque bow. Grenades have new uses now. Rather than just being thrown around, grenades can be planted into hard surfaces and act as mines. Now, to me, this has been hit and miss. Yes, there is more strategy, but at the same time it encourages camping and just general pussyfooting. What makes it even worse is that smoke grenades now have a knockdown effect that has an overly wide and at times, erratic, damage radius. What was great about the first game was the ability to rush in either by yourself or with a team and stand a chance. However, now, you can’t even get in the front door of some areas without being knocked down upon entry and blasted by someone around the corner.

For those who aren’t into the competition or don’t feel they are ready yet. The single player is going to be home to you. Most of the elements are still there and the emphasis is still on finding cover. What’s different now is that, there seems to be a little more emphasis on being able to hold ground. For example, rather than chucking grenades out, they can now be planted into solid surfaces, essentially making mines. In addition, mortar and machine guns also allow you to fortify areas by keeping enemies at bay for long periods of time and distance. However this doesn’t change the fact that the action is still intense in many parts especially with the online co-op mode. Nobody was big on the driving section of Gears 1 so what did Epic do in response? Why, put in MORE driving sections, just to make me go insane. These driving sections are a mixed bag. Some of them are loads of destructive fun, but some are also exercises in trial and error resulting from craptacular driving design. I wouldn’t let this take too much away from the single player, as these aren’t too long in particular, and do offer a break from running, rolling and shooting.

As usual, the game pushes the hardware using a variety of textures and high detail. Here and there, the action does start chugging especially when fireworks are going on all over the place. For the most part the engine keeps up with what is expected. Areas don’t have a lot to explore except for a few crevices you can find collectables in. Voice acting is pretty average, it’s more or less the same as Gears 1. Marcus is constantly screaming or grunting while Baird is making snide remarks and Cole is being as stereotypically black as ever. Locust make the usual hissing and roaring noises, like I said, nothing much has changed. The soundtrack is pretty bland and sounds like any generic action movie soundtrack out there. If there is one highlight out of the audio, it might be the sound effects with surround sound. You truly feel like there are enemies rushing around you when the volume and bass is cranked up.

I don’t know if you can say that GoW2 is an improvement, because there are definitely a lot of setbacks. I’m really disappointed by the balancing and general redesign of the multiplayer gameplay. In trying to make the game more tactical, it’s become slower and less fun in general. After the last patch update of Gears 1, the multiplayer had really hit its pinnacle for what it could offer with good balancing and only a matchmaking system missing. GoW2 tried to keep the balance and add in features and new elements, but couldn’t make them work. I’ve placed a lot of emphasis on the multiplayer in this review because without a doubt it’s the part of the game that is most important for the longevity of the game and its relationship with gamers. I don’t think Epic gave the gameplay nearly enough polish and it shows. I’m disappointed that Gears of Wars 2 didn’t build upon what was already there, but all I can hope for is that Epic tries to go back to the controlled chaos that was Gears of War 1.