Is epics newest installment to the critically acclaimed Gears of War series all its cracked up to be?(full review)
Opening Comments:
In all honesty i did not enjoy Gears of War 1 as much as some people who thought it had a great story and revolutionary multiplayer. All i saw was a generic story and a crappy shotgun fest multiplayer that didn't live up to its hype. After watching a bonus movie on Unreal Tournament 3 showing the new way multiplayer would work, i decided to give this series one last look. I was pleasantly surprised.
Graphics
Most games use Epics Unreal 3 engine which is probably the best looking engine 2nd only to the engine Crytek use to fuel Crysis. In short this game looks awesome. In a longer explanation this game has breath taking environs ranging from cities to open forests to underground chasms filled with Brumaks and Imulsion. Whilst the game is strictly linear the way the levels are presented give a more feel impression. Characters also look very nice. Ranging from Cole and Tai's bulging biceps to Skorges slim predator style physique. Whilst the character still look rather emotionless even in the emotional parts, they do there jobs well and when backed up with superb animation you cant go wrong. Special effects also take a step up with physics being implemented, destructible cover and the addition of bullet streams + more. Bullet streams just look cool, making you feel like your in a war zone, and also let you pinpoint enemies with ease. The hammer of dawn also has a new laser look making it look totally awesome in comparison to the original.
However its not all good. For one the game is filled with texture pop-ins when you start a multiplayer game, although it does slowly place detail in after a few seconds. The game is also buggy as hell. You get caught on cover, your character can get stuck mid vault thus hovering over cover, in coop your guns may start totally empty, enemy bodies get caught everywhere, debris can attach to your weapons or person and the list just goes on and on. Its a real disappointment because the game as a whole does look very nice.
Sound
Gears 2 offers a pretty generic, if good backing track with orchestrated themes and what not. This as stated, is good. What isn't good is the voice acting. I know some people love the whole macho american thing, but i for one am sick of that whole thing and hated nearly every line of dialogue. You have Marcus who sounds like a guy who's smoked 1 to many cigarettes, Dom who sounds like whining teenager, Baird...well i fund baird rather funny, and Cole who EVERYONE loves but i personally find him annoying. Filled with your stereotyped black moron dialogue. Shame the voice talent couldn't live up to the graphics. Sound effects on the other hand are rather good, from the sound of a Hammer of Dawn smashing things to pieces to the powerful roar of a lancer.
Gameplay
Well gears 2, like gears 1 lacks anything good in the story department with basic reasons to go there and kill that. Luckily the killing part is a total blast. You fight hundreds of locust at a time in some scenarios with the occasional larger than life monsters like Brumaks and Corpsers to mess your day up. People who have played gears of war 1 know what to expect weapons wise, but there are some new additions such as the Boom shield which deflects pretty much anything, the mortar which can rain firey death on an entire team, the Mulcher which is a hand powered Chaingun abale to rip through flesh and bone in about a second and finally the Scorcher which just burns everything in sight to great effect. These new weapons are all welcome additions to the standard Gears weapons. And with some weapons tweaks to the Lancer, Shotgun, sniper rifle and Hammer Burst you might find yourself loving a new weapon over your Gears 1 favorites.
Most people who buy Gears 2 will be in it for the online, and there has been some major changes. There are new modes such as Submission, King of the Hill, wing man, Horde and guardian. These are great and add a huge amount of variety to your games. Ontop of this there has been a player cap increase from 4 V 4 to 5 V 5 on every mode minus wing man which is a 5 teams of 2 free for all. The final additions are Smoke Grenades Concussion effect and the inclusion of Stopping Power. Smoke grenades where near useless in gears 1, but in gears to they are a invaluable asset. A smoke grenade knocks everyone its radius to the ground for a second or two allowing you to charge in and slaughter them. It may seem annoying at first but once you get used to it, it makes the game WAY more frantic and exciting. It stops you from staying behind 1 bit of cover and forces you to move which can be a tricky business in Annex or King of the Hill. Stopping power however stops all those Shot Gun Whores from sprinting at your and killing you in the most annoying fashion. All guns slowdown a targets movement speed which means that the Lancer is VERY powerful as you cant just rush in without getting torn to shreds. It adds more stratergy to the online and makes it more enjoyable. However Online is ruined by bugs, balance issues and glitches. Corner Sniping has been made worse, Chainsaw blades are nearly unstoppable and every gun apart from the lancer has been weakened in some way. People can survive boom shots, active sniper shots and even torque bow shots on the rare occasion. Further more maps are highly buggy with single player issues transfering over making it unenjoyable. Unless they patch everything up Gears 2 will not be played online and Gears 1 will be the place to be.
Overall
A good game. Buggy, but fun. I reccomend you atleast rent it and hope it has been fixed so you can enjoy some amazing multiplayer.
8/10