After putting off playing it for what 2 years now I am stunned by how much better it is than the first game!
There were too many incidents of overwhelming odds and struggling from one autosave point to the next. The glowing set pieces were spoiled slightly by having to go through them again and again and again. The COG's weapons felt under powered, the Locust over-tough and the developers slowed things down too much putting in hard, one solution confrontations with major bad guys in a way that seemed to be more about being clever than moving the story along. Thankfully the second game doesn't fall into that trap at all.
The bad guys are still tough but don't seem to absorb an endless supply of extremely scarce ammo before going down. Your squad mates, who were pretty useless in the first game, merely providing a slight bullet screen while you did most of the hard work, are now a serious force in there own right. They can even handle some waves of bad guys on their own, (if you feel inclined to sit back and watch at any point), I have done it just to be impressed by Dom, Cole and Baird's tactics and tenacity. The rest of your squad are a useful bunch and what makes it better is that when the old gang is back together they bicker and banter like the characters from your favorite Vietnam war movie. The Cole train even steals the show with one of my favorite in game moments of all time with a verbal tirade that had me laughing even after it was finished.
And this too is another improvement of the second game over the first, the script has been fleshed out immensely, the story is epic and contains some truly emotional moments. The voice acting is top notch; Dom's character getting the majority of the emotional lines, which is fine Phoenix is a hard ass, right?
This game is full of fantastic moments, fantastic story, fantastic graphics, fantastic characters and fantastic fun.
If like me you have waited 2 years to play this then don't wait any longer, with Gamestation selling the pre-owned steel box version, (which is the one I got), for £9 you are cheating yourself out of a great gaming masterpiece, at a brilliant price!!!