The sequel to one of the most hardcore action shooters ever.
Gears 2 is almost the same as the first except they've added new ways to kill people, some new weapons and a few other things. I've never played the first Gears in my lifetime, and I thought it would be a bad idea not to as I was starting up in Gears 2. Yes you do have to know the plot to the original, but since Gears 2 is almost exactly similar to the original, (which isn't a bad thing because the original was a masterpiece) it seems like you are playing the first one over, so that would be good for newcomers who already know the plot.
Mostly this game is run, cover, aim, shoot, cover, reload, etc. Some of the different covers are damaged cars, tables, walls, columns, and so much more. You get the original Lancer with the hefty helping Chainsaw Bayonet on the bottom, and shotguns, sniper rifles, an exploding bow and arrow, grenades, and a few others. The graphics have somewhat improved over the original by adding a clearer sight and much more.
The plot works exceptionally well here, and at parts will feel purely epic, especially on the last chapter, and at moments are very, very sad, which there are quite a few moments like that in the game, I should say. The game will take you about 10 hours to beat, and it is longer than the first I've heard.
Now onto the flaws. There are only 3 flaws in this game I had trouble with: action can get extremely hard at parts if you are not used to the Gears of War gameplay, the gameplay can start to get a little repetitive towards the end of the game, and the one that really got me is on the last chapter the A.I. of Dom was so stupid that he just stood up out of cover doing nothing whatsoever not even moving at all and he was getting shot up, and so me and another A.I. had to hold off the Horde while he was doing nothing, so yes the A.I. can be pretty stupid at times.
I do not have XBOX Live but I hope to get it soon. I played the Training Grounds on this game with bots and it actually felt like you were playing with other people from across the world. You can either play as the Locust or Humans, but I stuck with humans most of the time I played through it. There are about 10 maps and about 10 different matches you play through but almost each one seems similar except for a select few. Another flaw that I encountered is that you can only play Horde on Live, or with other humans, and no bots, which let me down a lot because I was looking forward to playing Horde, and not just by myself through 50 waves of oncoming Locust.
Besides these 4 flaws the epic gameplay and storyline keep it from getting an even lower score. The ending has a twist after the credits so look out for it. This game was an amazing achievement that shouldn't be missed by anyone even if you have or have not played the original, or you are just looking for an all around fun and hardcore third person shooter. A 9.5 out of 10.
-horrorboy