Always room for improvement, but i say it definitely outran the Halo series.
Great graphics, outstanding gameplay, and a good story, makes Gears 2 an instant classic. One thing that I noticed about the game was that they didn't really make too many improvements.
The graphics didn't really have the mind-blowing effect as the first one, because we were already expecting good graphics. As far as gameplay goes, they added maybe 4 things that a player may wanna try. The meat shields, the Horde mode, new vehicles, and new ways to execute someone. This is just my personal opinion, but i thought Epic could' ve taken this game farther.
Overall, your really going to love this game. And it kind of has that cliff hanging effect that Halo 2 gave you, which I think is a good thing.
To sum it up, This game is bad---.