Gears of War 2

Gears of War (GoW) was perhaps the Xbox360’s very first system seller. Carved using Epic’s own Unreal 3 engine, GoW was a visual masterpiece that was as visceral as it was beautiful. It told the story of a human civilization on the brink of extinction fighting for survival against the savage Locust Horde, a race of cruel (and not to mention butt-ugly) creatures that seemed to have emerged from the depths of hell itself. Standing between them and defenseless humans was a bunch of valiant, steroid-ridden soldiers called the Delta Squad spearheaded by Marcus Fenix, the game’s fearless protagonist.

By the end of the first game the Delta Squad held off the Locust invasion (or at least they thought they did) by detonating a Light Mass bomb deep inside their territory. Little did the unsung heroes know that this was nothing but a mere dent in the Locusts’ operations. Soon the Locusts gathered forces and hit back harder than ever in a bid to destroy Jacinto, the last safe place humans can call their home. Your mission in Gears of War 2 is to protect Jacinto at all costs, while carving a swathe of death and destruction using your will, raw power, fortitude and of course your trusty lancer, attached chainsaw bayonet et all.

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Delta squad

Enhancing the human element in this otherwise testosterone-fuelled orgy of wanton violence is Dominic Santiago’s (Fenix’s best friend) back story as he searches for his beloved wife during humanity’s darkest hour. Though the first game had a plot penned by Susan O’Connor (she wrote the plot for BioShock as well) it was mediocre at best and was totally lost amidst all the frantic action. This time Epic has hired renowned comic book writer Joshua Ortega to make sure that people no longer scoff at the game’s plot. It isn’t Metal Gear Solid by any means but it’s a marked improvement over the first game, and fleshes out a couple of pivotal characters in the process.

While the plot has been improved to a certain extent, the voice acting – just as in the first game – is cocky and brash, with Marcus and his merry men spewing tons of one-liners as they tear through the Locusts. (While I find nothing wrong with this – I especially enjoyed Cole Train’s clichéd quips – an intellectual gamer may find them a bit too juvenile.) What did surprise me was the way a few moments of emotion have been conveyed in this game. I was expecting to laugh or at least scoff at them, but here I was relating to a certain character’s exasperation, frustration, and sadness on-screen.

But hey, this is Gears of War 2 at the end of the day… so enough about the plot, let’s talk about chainsawing people in half.

Death from above

Gears of War 2 follows the “why fix something that ain’t broken?” principle, meaning gameplay is nearly identical to its predecessor. You have all the same mechanics that made the first game such a blast to play, right from the awesome cover system, the Roadie Run, and the pop-and-shoot mechanics, along with a couple of new ones thrown in for good measure. For starters, players can now chainsaw an enemy from behind as well, making for yet another awesomely gory execution. If an enemy feels like chainsawing you at the same time, both you and him will be locked in a chainsaw duel whereby you’ll have to frantically press the B button to win and chainsaw his ass in the process. And yes, two players can now chainsaw a single enemy, making for one intense pwned moment.

New to this game is the ability to take cover behind an enemy, using him as a movable “meat shield”. While an enemy is downed, run up to him and press A to take him hostage, after which you can walk around shielding yourself from bullets until his body disintegrates under enemy fire. If taking people hostage is not your thing, you can finish off a downed enemy by squashing his head under your boot or pummeling him to death using your bare fists or the butt of your weapon.

Throughout the game you’ll be assisted by certain members of the Delta Squad (unless you’re playing co-op with a mate) and except for a couple of retarded moves I had no complaints with them. Most of the time they’ll do a bang-up job of staying alive on the battlefield and they’ll be prompt in reviving your downed ass as well, but as I said earlier, there were times when I was crawling all over the place like a bleeding pig and they just stood still, doing absolutely nothing. Enemies on the other hand are as sharp as ever, and they’ll do everything in their power to stop you, whether it involves flanking you or throwing painfully accurate grenades your way. For your first play through I’d recommend a normal difficulty level – it offers a perfect balance, making missions challenging but not ball-busting tough.

Gears of War was widely appreciated for its multiplayer component, and now with GoW2 you have something that’s even better. Perhaps the most important addition to the game’s MP aspect is the fact that you can now hone your skills offline against bots without getting embarrassed on Xbox Live (with all the real people). In fact, the game has a five-part multiplayer tutorial that will ease you in on all the various game modes available, both old and new. If you still aren’t too sure of yourself you can even fire up a couple of local matches using bots of varied difficulty levels for practice.

Did someone say set-pieces?

But perhaps the most awesome addition to Gears of War 2 is a mode called Horde that pits up to five players against increasingly tough waves of enemies, controlled by the game’s AI. At first this mode may seem like a Serious Sam ripoff, but after the tenth wave things get nail-biting intense. Strategy is the name of the game and you’ll have to do whatever it takes to ensure your (and your team-mates’) survival for that round. (Playing as a team is very important in this mode.) If all members of the party die, the host has the option of restarting the mode from the last wave.

Other than Horde you have tons of competitive modes to keep you busy for a while. Old favorites like Execution and Warzone return, joined by some new blood in the form of Guardian, Wingman and Submission. At the time of writing this review the game had not officially released worldwide, which is why I couldn’t try out all the modes – but after playing a bit of Warzone and Horde I’m convinced this game may just knock Halo 3 off the top as the most widely played game on Xbox Live. Oh, and just like in Halo 3 you can click a picture and upload that image to gearsofwar.xbox.com

Say hello to my little friends

The first GoW made its debut using the very same Unreal 3 engine that Epic’s used for this game, and since it was the first game using that engine it blew people’s minds. Since then, tons of developers have used this engine to craft some gorgeous-looking games like BioShock and Mirror’s Edge (to be released, but we’ve seen this bad boy in action) so you’re probably thinking there’s nothing here that can impress you anymore, right? Wrong! Gears of War 2 will bowl you over again with its panoramic vistas, grungy Locust architecture, derelict locales, insanely detailed character models, gorgeous textures, and lots more. Of course, textures still load slowly, but it’s a minor price to pay for such a beautiful game.

As you would have seen by now, GoW2 is one badass, epic (pun intended) package. You have an awesome (and fairly lengthy) single player campaign that’s filled to the brim with “OMG did you see that?” scripted events and tense gameplay that don’t let up till the very end. Battles are no longer confined to smaller places; GoW2 aims much higher with epic battles that will take your breath away. Visually this game is top-notch; it’s perhaps one of the best looking Xbox360 games out there. Enhancing the whole experience are a bunch of diverse MP modes that will keep you occupied for a long, long time. There’s no two ways about it, really: if you own an XBox360 you NEED to own this game.