Gears of War 2 - Review

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Creator: Epic Games
Genre: Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360
Release date: 2008-11-07


Review
Blood and guts, and villainy sliced up in a ballet of bullets and blades comes sampled from the first Gears of War in small graphic morsels. This takes the good bits from the previous game and tries for a grander scale. Where the first Gears of War may have not been much, as it did well at killing and nothing more; the sequel tries to do this and more. So instead of having a great product with little selection, its delights come forth in a McDonalds' style of variation. What it offers up for consumption is lacking any real quality or substance, but this isn't for a lack of trying. It tries with all its might but , this is a little engine that couldn't follow its better brother, it goes instead to a watery grave never reaching the roller coaster heights of joy.

Still, improvements do come as it tries to beat its better bother, though it is in parts little more then a opera with blood and guts of dance at every movement. The first Gears of War sets things up on a grand stage. A great stage, with impressive settings and graphical improvements comes with Gears of War 2, though the scenery of this stage doesn't change that much with the sequel. It uses the same gradual colors that blend together with better lighting only to show how bland it really is. The bland murk allows the blood to stand out better with each brush stroke of the chainsaw. Other then throwing away the flaws of the past, it has kept it, as a badge of honor.

From the start of the revving chainsaw into the enemy until the massive explosion at the end. Along with the lack of color in this abysmal world, is the attempt at the horror genre as the majority of the game is being in the dark where things go bump in the night. A good example is while heading to the digs spot where Dom and Marcus, the main characters, have to go through a tunnel with light only from the tip of where the characters are moving. Whilst on the move, creatures known as Tickers, enemies that explode, run at the characters. Ooh things coming from the unknown, that is really scary. While the dumb and easily excited cry out for their binky, others will be bore with this. Especially after the fact the tickers have been doing this in well lit areas, while being shot at, for most of the entire area. The fact that it is dark and things can go boom without notice is something that didn't work well in the first one but still manage to make it into the sequel. The fact that the character was being swarmed with enemies at every turn, with little break between each wave of enemies and a story that just moved from point A to B, was a staple that made the first one so great. Pacing is key! It is something that couldn't be kept in the second game. Breaking things up for story, was more of awful forced wine tasting for ears then anything else.

Gear of War 2 could have worked, if there had been attempts at making everything so much grander in scope; an example being the rail shooting sections that are done while viewing what could have been passing by. The view that greatly restricts the characters movements, making it little more than a strap on turret gun while the body slams carelessly is digging into enemies happily. This makes duck and cover system that was great go out the window . Part of what makes the game fun, gets knocked out of the park for a view that causes more headaches then anything else. It allows for more enemies to be placed on screen but that means you can only munch them up. More enemies are a good idea; the fact that the Bromaces that are so tough to take on is ridable near the end was cool. The problem was that to get to one ounce of joy, there be 10 pounds of fat has to be chewed first. The fat of this being nails, and composed of every chew that makes every turn of the wheels hell is being push in under the nails yelling "THE SONG THAT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIEND IT IS NEVER ENDING SONG" over and over because the idiot AI can't drive worth a damn. So when given a chance at the wheel of controlling the beast that's been attacking most of the game, it just becomes boring. Moving the body and shooting without worry of being hurt takes a lot of the fun out of it. When the worry about getting hurt is in, the game play is so frustrating with the ass hat of the AI thinks driving into the enemy is coming. So when waves and waves of enemies come forth, the only thing you can do is shoot waiting for it to die. The story follows the same idea. Epic tried to give Gears 2 some depth, with having Dom whining, bitching, and crying about his wife but mostly. Marcus is going with Dom since at times it leads to more killing. The whole deal with it's perks at killing things is ok, but the main story just asks a lot of questions with no real answers so there could be high demand for the next one in hope for some conclusions.

The question to why these creatures were made. Why do the bodies of the bad guys act all funky with the oil, the emulsion in the game? Why is there a building to go through with experiments of the enemies? These being just a short list of questions driving this short bus.

The points where it should be a grand old time near the end, feels more like a push over. A very anticlimax, where things kind of fissile out for the most part. The game feels like there is no real challenge. It might be that to get to the point where there is any challenge one has to go through the game on hardcore mode. This is rather pointless because of the ease of hardcore. Compared to the first one hardcore is easy. Anyone who really enjoys that level of difficulty will find it a pain to beat the game just trying to find the fun version of it. Much like filling out taxes before you can eat a piece of cake; the pain of all the taxes for just a slice never feels like it was worth it.

With a case like that for the main single player mode, the online portion must make it worth the selling of one's soul. It surely must have some challenge if the AI isn't. Well with Gears 2 new things including of chain saw duels, using a foe as a shield, and new weapons should be a barrel of blood soaked fun. It is with things like horde where your friends and you play together to take on waves of enemies. This one bit was done magnificently with beauty of the world shown as blood soaked chainsaws grinding them down as a buddy covers you paints beautiful art with bullets and blood which the main game lacked. While the online is fun and almost makes up for the game. Although the ranking system is flawed, being able to take a chain saw to dumb sniper is worth it. The fact one can place grenades as mines to trap someone who is chasing you is also great. With some small delights of multiplayer is much of what one would expect of multiplayer, people swear and shoot. When things have been shift around so crappy players take on experts. Turning any new people into corpses to target practice. This does lean towards, learning the game to be better, though the online community for Gears gives little reason to why. Outside the Horde mode, the online makes jail rape sound pleasurable. Horde mode has this exception, because a team of humans take on wave after wave of enemies. Taking the best of the game, give the cake that people dream of. Making the idea of shooting people that are different, fun. Horde mode has the difficulty, fun, and every good part of the game placed on a silver platter. A slice, so great, people may hail the rest of the game as great without noticing any of the faults of Gears.

Conclusion
Gears of War 2 in small ways is an improvement over the first one. While overall is a poor follow up. Most will probably say that this is a great game because of the small bits that are good rather than evaluating the whole product. If you're going in for the multiplayer aspect and have the cash this is a good investments. This is said since most people that play online get in to their games as most would do when with a good girl. They get in and stay there for a good long while, and when it is fun who can blame them. For those that find enjoyment in a good shooter, I would suggest going for the first game over the second one. It's not the greatest thing out there. Gears of War 2 is like a rebound relationship, you. want more out of it than the first one, but you find it isn't good as the first one. Usually the case, the second can't even pass for the first one. So most will rent it, finding it to be enjoyable, and then go back and buy the first one till Gears of War 2 is in the bargain bin. It may be a good gal, but it isn't worth the full price tag when it can't pull off the same great experience as the first one.

Pros

* Ride a Bromac into battle
* Chainsaw Duels
* Hordes Mode


Cons

* Rail shooting frustration
* Clucky Controls on vehicles
* Story makes no sense

Gameplay 17/25
Fun 17/25
Sound 10/25
Graphics 22/25

Total 66/100