Great sci-fi shooter that's fun as hell to play, but lacking much in story and character depth. Should be called GOW1.5
Gears of War 1 had absolutely no story at all. I really didn't understand what was going on most of the time, and had I not read the story in the manual would never have known why the heck Marcus was in jail in the first place (it really should have been explained in-game). I just let it go as I figured Gears was meant more for multiplayer shoot 'em ups and just offered the campaign as a solo option. Otherwise, the story wouldn't have sucked so badly. Well, when I heard that Gears 2 was supposed to have a really great, in-depth story I got excited. I loved playing the first game, and I really wanted a story to go with the bunch of badass (though dull and almost lifeless) soldiers that fight along your side the whole game. Gears of War 2 does have more story. Yet, it is still not enough. The whole thing is a series of questions. There are absolutely no answers and no insight into what the hell is going on. There is a mission and you see it through, yes. But all the drama that's brought up about the war in general, the queen, adam fenix, the sires... WTF? Why bring this stuff up if you don't connect any dots. Obviously its to open things up for a sequal, but seriously, couldn't they have given us SOMETHING???
EDIT: Where they do try to throw in some story detail only to raise questions they leave a massive stain of predictability. If they do make a sequel (all bets would bank on it) I could probably tell you exactly what would happen. What's worse is its happened a hundred times in movies as well as other games. There's a lot of similarities here to the Fallout series even. I won't go into detail for fear of spoiling the game (though there's not much to spoil), but its obvous. All too obvious.
Anyway, story leaves a lot to be desired... blah, blah, blah. The real mess here is the characters. Don't get me wrong - they are all total badasses whom I would totally love to fight alongside again and again. However, they have no souls. Period. Dom seems to have a little heart, but he really can't show it due to very poor voice-acting. All the dialogue is like something you'd find in a cheesey '80s comic book. They're like a bunch of macho frat boys at a wet t-shirt contest; they just don't know how to act. Epic, fire they kids writing your scripts on colored paper with crayolas and hire some real freakin' literary talent!!!!
As far as game play goes, if you've played Gears of War 1 then you have played this. Nohting has really changed and NOTHING has improved. Moving around can still get problematic in tight places or when being swarmed. Taking cover is still a matter of luck at times. And the aiming controls are still a bit sloppy. The graphics are also better in detail but worse in lighting. Everything is SO brite. Even underground Marcus shines like a white knight. No matter what the atmosphere or terrain Marcus and the boys shine. There's no character model shading? Hell, no landscape shading? What gives? GOW1 looked all dark and menacing. This game looks like my TV is glowing the wrong direction.
Oh, and its harder to die. Yeah, one of the few things they did change is that a nearby teammate can revive you if you've been shot down. The thing is they have to do it before the screen goes totally red, and you have to crawl to them if they are away. This doesn't always work, though. More often than not I'd crawl to Dom's feet and the b@stard would step right over me. Oh well. Also all the boss fights are little repetitive sequences where you have to do a certain thing at a certain time to win. This takes little to no skill whatsoever. If, however, you miss a step you'll find yourself loading the last checkpoint. For example, one of the epic boss battles is basically a sequence of rapidly pressing B-button three times. Thats it. You win.
Due to the lack of story and gameplay upgrades this game seems more like a well put together expansion. They really should have called it Gears of War 1.5. If it weren't for the amazingly fun cover-and-shoot portions of this game I would have let Marcus Fenix fall into the hollow with the lightmass bomb a whole game ago. But it is fun. Very very very fun. Just don't expect much of anything else. Just play it.