Humanities last hope on Sera, but how does it play out?
The tone of the second game is different from this first. The first Gears was about a small unit of soldiers trying to complete a desperate act with almost impossible odds. Gears of War 2 is about the humans taking the offensive every step of the way. The conflicts that you face are part of a larger battle going on, as the massive military force of the COG is scratching and clawing for survival. You will be joined by several Gears, new and old, to help Marcus and Dom. Augustus Cole and Damon Baird from the first game will be joined by Benjamin Carmine, the rookie brother of Anthony Carmine from the first game, Tai Kaliso, a giant of a man that is an old war buddy of Marcus form before E-Day, and Dizzy Wallin, driver of the rig "Betty". Also making the return is Anya Stroud, the connection between Delta Squad and COG Command, and Col. Hoffman, the leader of the military forces of the COG, now much more trusting of Marcus and the rest of Delta. While the offensive against the Locust is the primary story driver, we learn early about Dom trying to find his missing wife, falling short lead after lead in catching up with her.
The core of the game remains the same, with some fun new additions. You experience the game through an over the shoulder third person prospective. The left stick moves your character around while the right stick aims your weapon in the default. Being a massive bulk of a soldier, Marcus does not turn on a dime, especially when running. It is not uncommon that you hit the wall face first when running if you try to just use the left stick to move around. A combination of both sticks needs to be used to successfully navigate the game without frustrating yourself when trying to navigate a corner.
The shooting mechanic remains the same from the first, following the premise of "If it ain't broke, why fix it". The Left Trigger aims your weapon, while the Right Trigger fires it. The Right Bumper is your reload, and active reload button. You can also still duck run by holding down the A button. As with the first game, you can hold four different weapons, using the directional pad to select. The primary weapon through the game is your Lancer assault rifle with its chainsaw bayonet. The bulk of the weaponry is from the first Gears, with some additions in the form of a new submachine pistol of Locust creation and a gas grenade that slowly drains health and blocks your vision. The grenade mechanic is still the same, but now you can plant them on a wall, turning it into a proximity mine. There are also three large guns that can be picked up and used, but with a negative in the form that you move much slower and cannot run. The flamethrower spews a stream of napalm, the mortar cannon lets you unleash a long range barrage of explosive projectiles that are very powerful, and the Grinder chain gun unleashed a large amount of ordinance, but can fall prey to overheating.
The Active Reload feature has received an upgrade. As in the first game, when you reload a weapon if you hit the reload button at the right time, you received a damage bonus and a faster reload. If you missed the mark on the reload bar, your gun jammed and it takes longer to load your ammo. In Gears 2 this remains the same, but the reload bar has a second, much smaller area that if you hit, you receive an even larger damage bonus, making every weapon in your arsenal incredibly deadly.
Firefights, for the most part, are handled the same from the first game. Engage your enemies, find cover, kill him, and rinse and repeat. The A button is still your primary cover button, pressing it puts you behind the nearest thing that is solid. Peaking around corners and hitting the Left Trigger lets you shoot from behind cover, while just hitting the Left Trigger button lets you blind fire. You can move from cover to cover by pressing the A button from the ends of your cover, which is needed much more now that a lot of your cover can, and will, get destroyed as it takes weapon fire. Unless it is made of metal, it can and will break eventually.
A new wrinkle to firefights is the addition of something your squad from the first game had that you did not, the ability to get rescued. If a teammate of yours is taken down, they will crawl towards you for help, which pressing the X button near them does. If you get knocked down by gunfire, you can crawl along the ground, going faster by pressing A, and get revived if you make it to one of your squad mates. You still will die if you take an explosive shot directly, or crushed by something really big, but bullet fire will not kill you straight out. If you have no squad mates still on their feet, then it is game over. If you take more fire while crawling on the ground, or do not make it to your squad mates in time, you will die. The new wrinkle adds a level of teamwork with the AI that the first game felt it was missing, and does not make the game any easier.
Level design is a mix of the same, with a little bit of the new. The majority of the game will be taking place in the underground Hollows of the Locust home, and features the same jaw dropping tunnels from the first game. There will be times that your squad will have to split up, and now the two paths are much more important. One path will usually be responsible with providing cover for the other group. Not every level is about running and shooting, as there are levels that require more thinking to navigate. It definitely changes the pace of the game and offers some of the more memorable moments. Through your game, you will also be traveling via vehicle, both standard and a little strange. These vehicle sections range from driving, to rail shooting sequences, and they are plenty and welcomed, as some of the game's largest battles surround these moments. There is also a large amount of collectables to find through your travels. In addition to the COG tags are newspaper clippings, journal entries, and other strange oddities. Each collectable has a little story attached to it, and give good insight to the current and previous war. Everything collected can be viewed in the War Journal from the main menu, plus what you are missing from every level.
The Locust Horde itself has added a few new tricks. Battles in the beginning of the game start out to how Gears 1 was, but as you progress, you will run into larger groups of enemies. Drones will now try to charge your position while the larger Horde tear through you cover with giant weapons. Horde will use air support and long range weapons to flush you out with Brumak encounters not uncommon. The game's main antagonist, a chainsaw staff wielding Predator look-alike, is a much more chilling villain then General RAAM was, and the Locust Queen's message of genocide always filling the air.
The first Gears set the bar high for the 360 graphically, and is still one of the best looking games on the system. While up close Gears 2 looks similar to a little bit better, the scale is what has vastly improved. In the background there always seem to be something going on, from collapsing buildings to massive fleets of helicopters in flight. The underground levels are a glow with oceans of Immulsion, with massive waterfalls adorning the walls. There are times when it looks like you can see for miles, and there is some sort of activity going on in your view. The weather effects are some of the best seen, with torrential rain, blinding snowstorms, and deadly hail a visual feast. A nice little addition is the on screen cues of achievement progression.
In the end Gears of War 2 exceeds in almost every aspect compared to the first game. Shooter fans should give this a try (if you haven't already)