Gears of War 2 Review (X360)

Gears of War 2 Review (X360)

Marcus Fenix and co are back, and back to save the human race. Again the Locust are causing damage and are growing stronger and stronger. Not much can get in their way apart from Marcus and co. What am I talking about? Gears of War 2 obviously.

Epic’s sequel to the 2006 fastest selling game Gears of War has been widely tipped to become 2008’s Game of the Year. But is it? Is is better than it’s predecessor? And if so, why? So many questions, but does GoW2 give us the answers we need? Let’s find out. One thing I will say, you can’t help but feel a little nostalgia setting in.

You return as Marcus Fenix, part of the Gears troops. Your aim, to save the human race against all odds. The story starts up as you re-acquaint yourself with Anya from the first Gears. Anya, like in Gears1, becomes your eyes from above throughout the game, telling you your next mission. For gamers who have never played Gears before you have at this point the option to take on some training. Here you will get used to all the features found in the original GoW. The third person over-the-shoulder camera view is back, along my favourite weapon, the rifle attached with chainsaw. All my memories of the first game are flooding back at this point, and I can’t wait to get on with the game. 

Gamers who have played the previous Gears will find themselves in very familiar territory. There are 5 Acts with each act dividing into different chapters. The story of Gears 2 really draws you in, as not only are you trying to save the human race, but you are also trying to help your partner in crime Dom find his Wife Maria (who has been captured by the Locust). Various cinematic cut-scenes during the game make this story very emotional (not that I was crying or anything, but you feel sorry for Dom and there is nothing you can do about it). You can’t help but want to go from chapter to chapter without stopping. It’s a bit like a great book, or a thrilling TV series. you just want to find out what happens next. The problem for me starts here. The story doesn’t seem to last very long. 7 or 8 hours max and that was playing the game n Hardcore difficulty. There are 4 different difficulties; Casual, Normal, Hardcore and Insane. You are unable to play Insane from the beginning so you have to complete the game on Hardcore first, which I din’t find very hard. Thankfully when playing on Insane the game becomes a lot more challenging.

As far as the gameplay goes things are pretty much the same. But why fix something that isn’y broken? So instead Epic have included plenty of new features which are all welcome and make great additions to the game. 

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Part 2 coming soon