Gears of War

Gears of War 2 Review

The original Gears of War was about laying the foundation and setting the stage for a massive struggle between man and monster. It introduced us to a planet named Sera and a band of warriors who will stop at nothing to preserve their people and make their home world safe yet again. Standing in their way are the Locust, a race of subterranean aliens hell bent on bringing down the Coalition of Ordered Governments and crippling the human race.

Now we're entering the second chapter in the universe Epic Games created. The events of the first ended with Marcus and Dom delivering the Lightmass Bomb into The Hollow after killing General Raam. Sadly the bomb had about the same effect as sticking a bull in the ass with an ice pick. The Locust only doubled their efforts and have been sinking cities on Sera ever since. Now only one remains: the city of Jacinto whose foundation is thick enough to keep the Locust at bay. But not for long. The Locust are poised to crush Jacinto just as they have every other city. Soon humanity's struggle will be over, all hope extinguished.

But not yet.

Click to watch our Video Review in HD.

Yes, Gears of War 2 is indeed more impactful than the first. Cliff Bleszinski, Rod Ferguson and company tried their best to create a deeper and more involved storyline with the second game in the series and for the most part they succeeded. In some areas flawlessly so. For example, one of my concerns when hearing of the new additions -- Tai Kaliso, Dizzy Wallin and Anthony Carmine – was that they would take focus off of the main focus of Dom and Marcus. After all, we've seen series add characters that are either focused on too heavily or are just plain uninteresting. Without spoiling anything, Epic did a wonderful job of keeping the focus where it belongs while still giving the new characters meaningful roles that not only enhance the drama but also evolve the motivations of the Locust.

There's no question that storyline plays a much more important role than it did in the first game. Characters are more emotional, more is revealed about the Locust and where they come from (as well as a look at the Locust Queen), and there are also plenty of new story threads that are opened up. Some of which are wrapped up in the end, most of which are not.

The focus of the story is Dom's search for his wife, Maria. It's important to note that while Marcus Fenix is still the main character of Gears of War, hearing him say some of the emotionally charged lines that come out of Dom's mouth would have been just plain strange. It was a good decision to go with a character who not only has a normal speaking voice, but whose personality is more conducive to being naturally emotional. That having been said, there are plenty of moments when you'll crack a wry smile at what you just heard on-screen. The writing is much improved -- as is evidenced by Prescott's introductory speech after the first chapter -- but that doesn't stop the voice actors from sounding extremely cheesy at times. Still, I bought into Dom's search for his wife -- and the Gears Universe as a whole -- for the second game.

But those not looking for a story intensive experience might be a bit turned off by the increased number of cutscenes and dramatic outbursts. There's certainly more to watch than in the first game, nothing like a Metal Gear Solid title, but there are frequent breaks in the action that rely on the player investing in the characters in order to hit home.
Fleshing out the Gears of War universe goes much deeper than simply expanding the scale of emotions and unearthing some back story for the Locust horde. Instead Epic took things further by expanding the all-important scope and scale of the action. It's there that Gears of War 2 separates itself from other videogames.

Players are fighting in a massive planet-wide war and in Gears of War 2 you feel the importance of your actions in a big way. The battles are massive and enemies that only made brief appearances prior are now being thrown at the player in droves. Brumaks and Corpsers are dispatched with ease and even the common courtyard battles are bigger and a bit more intense than before. Some of that is to do with the new enemies – including the likes of Raam's replacement, Skorge – and their number on-screen being much greater than in the first, sometimes stretching into the hundreds.

Click to watch clips of the campaign in HD.

Luckily all of the skirmishes aren't designed in the mold of Gears of War 1. Gears 2 does a wonderful job of differentiating its levels and keeping things as fresh as possible without ever deviating from what we all love about Gears. There are vehicular levels, each with its own mode of transport; there are also ice levels, water levels and even one that goes out of its way to show off the new meat physics. Despite all that, seeing the lair of the Locust is the level that takes the cake. The color palette changes throughout, the gameplay stays varied and it's made all the better by the fact that the campaign is a good two or three hours longer than the original's.

But all is not well with the structure of the campaign mode. The first four acts are wonderful and exciting and the fifth act is too, up until the last few chapters. The last boss is a complete joke and the ending feels just a tad too abrupt. I'm not talking Halo 2 style cliffhanger or anything, but the climax to the storyline and the action happen just a bit too early. Also, while there's no doubt in my mind that we'll see a Gears of War 3, I still would have liked to have a few more of the plot threads tied up before the curtain closed.

Luckily the core gameplay that pleased and excited so many in 2006 has remained largely intact, with every change bringing improvements to the system. The coveted A button is still the catch-all for most actions but it now functions with better responsiveness and is much more intuitive when it comes to predicting when and where you're trying to enter into cover.

There are also plenty of new moves that blend seamlessly into the already established foundation. It would have been a disservice to exclude new executions from the list of additions so Epic did their best to come with some of the squishiest, gushiest and most disgusting moves possible. Different weapons now have different finishers, as well as different active reload benefits, and Marcus and company have new abilities like taking downed enemies as meat shields and utilizing new, bigger weapons than were available before.

Mobile cover is another new advent to the world of Gears. There are three main types: the Rockworm, the Boomshield which can be carried and planted, and the retractable cover that makes an appearance later in the Locust lair. The Rockworm is probably the most unnatural feeling of these new forms of cover, but it's still an interesting creature to see. The Boomshield will be used the most and is great when you're stomping towards an enemy who can only continue to futilely try and shoot through the metallic cover. Moving between pieces of the environment is also much more fluid than it was before. You can interrupt SWAT turns and other moves if things get a bit hairy. In the end there are any earth shattering changes to the cover, but the alterations that have been made make total sense and fit right in with the rest of Gears 2.

Gears of War for PC Mimimum Requirements

Operating System: Windows XP
Processor (CPU): 2.4GHz Intel | 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon or better
Memory (RAM): 1GB
Hard Drive Space: 12 gigabytes free hard drive space
Video Card (GPU): NVIDIA GeForce 6600 | ATI X700 or better
Audio: DirectX Compatible
Misc.: Online Multiplayer – Games for Windows – LIVE Silver Membership (included)