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Gears of War 2
In A Word: BIG!
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It’s hard to review a sequel. On one hand you want there to be things that are different, and on the other hand if they change too much then that’s no good either. I like Gears of War 2 because it struck a nice balance between those two. The core gameplay is the same but the story is much better, much better told, and every level has you doing something interesting and important to the advancement of the plot. This is in stark contrast to the first GoW where you spent the first half of the game doing something that was completely meaningless, other than to discover the threat you face is much larger than you expected. That is not a revelation worth 6-8 hours of game play, if you ask me.
The single player campaign in GoW2 is really, REALLY fun. I was amazed how every level could have some massive battle, or some massive creature, or some massive... something! No matter what, everything going on around you is always big and spectacular. Most shooters save this kind of action for the final level, but every single minute of GoW2 is filled with that kind of intensity. I don’t want to say too much, but you find yourself at the end of this one level covered in blood from head to toe. That’s fairly early on, too!
I’ve read reviews saying that some GoW fans may not like the amount of dialog and story, and although I’m one who really likes that kind of thing, I did not find it to be story heavy. If I remember correctly, actually, I think I was annoyed by it much more in GoW1 than I was in GoW2. I remember often wanting to run somewhere but I couldn’t because Marcus had to talk to someone in his earpiece. It happened in GoW2, but not nearly in the same amounts and not at the beginning of checkpoints like GoW1 did, so you had to listen to it every time you died. I found the storytelling in GoW2 to be clear and concise.
I’ve also heard some complaints about the game being too short, but I thought it was a fine length. There’s nothing worse than a game that drags out content just for the sake of making a 20 hour long game. I would much rather have what GoW2 has served up, which is a slightly shorter campaign that is packed with awesome action and interesting, non-repetitive level design. I probably clocked in at about 15 hours, and that’s just the first play through on Normal difficulty. You can easily get another 15-20 out of the single player by trying to complete it on Hard and get all the collectibles. That, also, is worth mentioning. The collectibles are much more interesting than COG tags ever were, as they serve the same purpose, have interesting locations, and provide back story if you want to read it.
That’s just the single player. A fine offering in its own right, but GoW is really a multiplayer game to me. The best change that has been given to us in this sequel is how gunfire slows a player from walking and rolling, effectively eliminating the roll and shotgun blast to the face that permeates the first title’s multiplayer. Now if you are pounding a guy with gunfire and he tries to roll towards you, he’ll just roll in place and not get within one-shot distance. It’s a great change and makes the game much more fun online because now all the weapons can be used to varying effect instead of everyone chain sawing and shot gunning.
The new maps that are available are really fun, or at least I enjoy them. I am unfortunately not well-versed enough in the first game to comment on how they differ, but I can say that a pack of maps from the first game are available for free download. Another feature I really like about GoW2 multiplayer is the camera view you get once you’re dead. They’ve done a great job in letting you watch 75% of the map at once and easily make major camera movements to catch moving action. If you don’t want to use the presets you can always bust out a ghost camera, too. It’s annoying, however, that the ghost camera seems restricted in the height it can go, often not even being able to go to the 2nd floor of a building that players can, and do, go to.
Another great new multiplayer feature is the Horde mode, which I’m sure you’ve read about everywhere else. I really enjoy co-op fighting, and this mode reminded me of playing Rainbow 6 Vegas with buddies. You just face wave after wave of enemies, all the way up to 40 waves. It’s fun to play these types of modes because you’re competing and cooperating at the same time. In the long run, though, I don’t think I’ll be playing much Horde. It’s fun, but the competitive multiplayer is much better and really how Gears is designed to be played. |
Graphics
It looks great, but has not been improved by much since the first title. A lot of time has passed since then and the bar has been raised by quite a few titles now that look better than this.
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8.5 |
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Sound
No complaints about sound, but nothing that stood out really either.
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9.0 |
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Gameplay
Gears really did invent the cover fighting system, even if others had done similar things before, and the second title is no exception. Excellent controls in this series that provides for seamless play.
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10.0 |
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Originality
You want to keep much the same in a sequel, but on the other hand people expect something new as well. There just was not enough separating this from Gears of War 1 to give it a high originality score.
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7.5 |
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Interface
No major complaints. Finding your objective is always easy, but some kind of addition to the LB functionality to let you confirm you're headed the right way would have been nice.
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9.0 |
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Fun
I had a blast with this game right up until the very end. Every level, every moment, of the single player campaign is tense and filled with excitement. Multiplayer is a blast as well.
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10.0 |
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Lasting Appeal
If you played Gears 1 to death then you're gonna have fun with this one for a long time to come.
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10.0 |
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Overall
When you read this review you should notice that I didn’t have a whole lot of negative things to say, and just like a fun action flick Gears of War 2 is a guilty pleasure. Whether single player or multiplayer is your thing, it does not disappoint.
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9.1 |
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