Gears of War 2 Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Epic Games
Released 7th November 2008
Played Co-op
After the overwhelming critical and financial praise of Gears of War, Microsoft and its Epic Games team would've been ignorant if they were to not continue this train of success with a sequel. And they weren't, as it took exactly 2 years for Gears of War 2 to release to Western audiences, with promises from the designer Cliff Bleszinski to improve and fix the faults of its predecessor, amping the quality up a tenfold.
Story
The story of this spectacle of a sequel follows Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago once again, 6 months after the ending of the first game. The COG is continuing to fight against the Locust alien species, as humanity's last havens sink underground and Marcus' crew is forced into a mission to save mankind again. The setting and narrative are both great and follow the incredible, gritty, harsh world of Sera, just like its predecessor, only in a greater fashion this time around. While the environmental story-telling is not as impactful as in the first game, it does manage to grab the environmental narratives and place them down elegantly, as if they were well-made puzzle pieces. However, most of the story is forgettable. Not in the sense, it's awful, but as in how amazing some sections are, that they overshadow the rest of the tale, making the player mostly remember the top-tier moments instead of the 8/10 moments as well.
Gameplay
The gameplay is back to its cover-based roots as you bob and weave in between bullets to gain access to vantage points. The environment in the sequel is ever-changing, with scripted moments that allow for more dynamic cover-switching. This is an incredible feature to add to the already fantastic system. The tactical assessments the player makes alongside the perfected reload mechanic are back, and the player's weapon selection is fixed. The weapons you come across, both old and new like the Chainsaw Lancer or Flamethrower, are balanced in their own rights and the scarcity of the weapons and their ammo is more of a flaw the player must consider instead of liability like in the last game.
Having played with a friend, I'm glad they added multiple ways to deal with being knocked. You can use knocked enemies as meatshields, execute them in a cool fashion, drop a grenade while knocked to perform a suicidal martyrdom and even be able to move rapidly to your buddy for revival; these additions add to the already numerous paths the player can take mid-firefight.
The enemies vary in between levels and I rarely found myself feeling like I've defeated the same kind of enemy for the 100th time. The chilling and awesome introductions are gone unfortunately, however, the new enemies make a unique-enough presence that really challenges the player's intuition of combat. Like mentioned before, some moments are top-tier quality that reflects on the gameplay and change it up a bit, however, these, unfortunately, overshadow the nearly as good moments. The game also adds in a chainsaw duel mechanic that, though rare, made for some really badass fights and an even cooler boss fight.
Bossfights
The boss fights are semi-cool. While each one has a monstrous design that I love, and utilises some pretty cool scripted moments, they feel very videogame-y. Dodge this attack, shoot, dodge this new attack, shoot, scripted moment to indicate progress, repeat. That's how all fights went and that's disappointing to see as variety seemed to be this game's strength in regular gameplay. At least the fights were cinematic epicness.
Characters
The characters once again are written brilliantly. While the whole generic war grunt aesthetic still applies to the characters, the ones that gain the development are brilliant. While at first Dom's wife's situation felt forced, the scenes and dialogue following felt heart-aching and sorrowful as the player got to experience the same pain he got (well almost; some moments were not presented in the best way, resulting in me and my co-op partner mocking the scene). While this game strays from individual development, the relationships are what advance, especially between the poster boys, Marcus and Dom.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is decent. Like in its predecessor, the atmosphere feels like a fall in quality, compared to the rest of the game. The environments feel gritty and strong in giving off a war-like aura, but they feel monotonous at the same time as every location feels the same except a couple like the frozen warzone or the imulsion-flooded caves. Sound effects are brilliant from the sharp blast of every bullet fired to the revving of a chainsaw, but not all give the best feeling imaginable. The atmosphere isn't bad, it's just a fall from grace when paired with its story and gameplay.
Story - 8.5/10
Gameplay - 9.25/10
Bossfights - 7/10
Characters - 8.5/10
Atmosphere - 7/10
Great
An excellent, stand-out sequel, especially when measured by the standards of other sequels released in the mid-to-late-2000s.
