Gears of War 2

Posted 4 years ago By - Brian Edey

The Xbox brand has a few huge exclusive titles which are the definition of system sellers. Of course there is Halo, Fable and the impressive Gears of War series which has now seen its second game on the Xbox 360. To say the first Gears of War was a huge game is an understatement, it sold millions of copies, had its gameplay ‘borrowed’ for other games and has stayed near the top of the Xbox Live charts since it launched two years ago.

It was only a matter of time until the sequel was announced and what a sequel it has turned out to be. Building upon the great Gears of War and adding several new features into the mix. Epic Games has given the Xbox 360 faithful plenty of reasons to buy this new game, especially with the chance to find out more about the Locust Horde and Delta Squad sub-stories. With one of the more touching and impressive stories in a video game (it has made people cry) and the same great multiplayer and co-operative gameplay we saw in the original the only question which should be on your mind is, “Will Dom find Maria?”


If you played the first Gears of War you know it had revolutionized, but did not introduce, the gameplay of using cover for protection and blind fire or dropping out of cover to fire. It also had drop in and out co-operative gameplay, active reloading for a bit of a boost and some fantastic multiplayer. But overall what could the sequel do to improve on such impressive gameplay? Well Epic gave us all of that plus much more, with more executions to perform on your downed enemy, using enemies as meat shields, more weapons including a portable chain-gun, flame thrower and mortar as well as what is possibly the best multiplayer game mode, called Horde. Horde offers up to 50 levels, with 1 to 5 players, but it is best with 3+ players across a ton of maps and one of the most exciting single player games we have seen in a long time.

It does seem that local co-operative gameplay did not receive the same attention to detail as the rest of the game as it does not have the same drop in and drop out co-operative gaming for split screen as the first game does. The only way for two players to play the game locally is to restart the area. But since nearly all co-operative games will be over Xbox Live I can see why Epic did this, but having the option availible would have been nice.

One thing Epic Games has done extremely well with Gears of War is the control scheme which is very simple to use and done very well as it uses all of the impressive gameplay controls with ease. At most you will need to hold down a single trigger and hit a button or move a thumb stick and it becomes second nature almost everyone can pick up the controls in minutes. With gaining achievements being an important goal in Gears of War 2 as they were in the original Gears of War Epic has added a progress bar telling you how close you are to obtaining the achievement. This feature is most handy with such achievements as Seriously 2.0 in which 100,000 kills are needed to obtain the points and luckily any kill in any mode including single player adds to the score.

Gears of War was one of the best looking games on any system when it was first released, it showed how powerful the 360 was and how amazing the Unreal 3 engine is. Now we have an updated Unreal 3 engine (3.5) and a new game in the Gears of War universe and amazingly the game even looks and runs better then the original.

The overall art design has not changed, but it has become more detailed and complex, especially during the later levels when we begin to find out more about the world of Sera and the Locust horde. The character models are more detailed, especially with the Locust which are fantastic looking, especially the Queen and her new minions. Architecture wise the game has some very impressive level design and overall art design which has built upon the first game and given us a beautiful game to run and gun our way through. The particle effects (special effects) are excellent as well; especially the fire, smoke and blowing cinders which some levels are full of and those levels are some of the better looking ones.


When Gears of War was released the audio was the very top of the line in each and every way. It would be almost impossible to think that the audio wizards at Epic Games could better what was already created, but in fact they did best it and they created a new level of audio greatness for the sequel. What is most amazing is how much better the sound effects sound in the environments, the voice acting which brings an emotional and humorous value to the story rarely heard in an action game. Lastly the music is always stirring and upbeat when it needs to be especially during the amazing story and the exciting cut-scenes. It is not a hard choice to put this game on the top of the charts audio wise above any other one this year.

There is so much value with this game it is actually hard to choose our favorite part, from playing Horde with five people, the amazing single player and co-operative campaign or the always fun multiplayer game. You will not find any better action game this holiday season and you can easily waste an entire day away with your friends playing Horde and trying to reach that lofty goal of hitting Level 50 and not even notice the time during those cold winter months.

Possibly the single best action game ever, but certainly in the history of the Xbox 360 is all you need to know about this must buy game. The co-operative gameplay, multiplayer and The Horde mode are also great additions for the gamer who likes to play with friends.

Editor-In-Chief’s Take

I remember saying to myself months ago: "I hope Epic doesn’t go all Unreal Tournament with this sequel". Now, I’m just surprised of the final result as my expectations were not only attained but also surpassed in every way. If Sony has it’s "almost perfect game" on the Playstation 3 with Metal Gear Solid 4, Microsoft has now it’s own console definer game with Gears of War 2.

Games like this really makes the Xbox 360 look good in every way as the franchise continues in the right direction. Of course, the game shines and was born to be experienced on the multiplayer level through cooperative play and the other matchmaking modes but the solo campaign itself will give players enough bang to their buck and will even make you want to plug your console online in order to satisfy your curiosity and explore the whole "Gears" aspect to the limit. Talk about a "killer app" game huh?

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