REVIEW: Gears of War 2

Developer: Epic Games | Publisher: Microsoft Games Studios | Format: 360

Two years ago Gears of War burst into gamers lives like a desert eagle blast to the temple. It was polished beyond belief and offered up one of the most exciting FPS experiences in years. Rather than have gamers race in blindly killing everything that moves, it forced you to hide behind debris and then pop out to kill something.

Gears 2 feels more like Gears 1.5, sure the visuals have been polished, environments are far more varied and there’s some nice visual touches but overall pretty much everything remains the same. Characters flounder around like drunken rugby players, gameplay is exactly the same. Run around, duck behind an a burnt out car then pop out and shoot an alien or three.

The online mode is where the action really shines and with that in mind the story mode generally involves our hero Marcus Fenix being accompanied by Dom. This is far more entertaining when another person plays along side you, it allows you to explore a variety of different tactics and utilise the impressive big ass guns, such as the mortars and the sweet ass chain guns which really are impressive to use.

Back to the online mode, the different modes on offer Submission, in which a soldier becomes become the flag in Capture The Flag, and the awesomely fun Horde, which allows five players to survive 50 enemy soldiers till none remain. Horde is one of the most addictive multiplayer experiences ever and worth the price of the game alone.

The greatest problem with the game is that it tries far too hard to aspire to be a truly cinematic experience. The game is a intended to act as the middle part of a trilogy and takes some time to explain the origin of the alien insurgents. Shame then that the characters and dialogue are so laughably handed. The score though is fantastic, Steve Jablonsky who scored last years Transformers does it again delivering one of the finest game scores of all time.

All in all Gears 2 is a highly entertaining and enjoyable experience let down by some rather dull on rails sections. Like many middle sections to a trilogy the game suffers from far too much exposition and not enough action.