Gears of War 2 is an extremely satisfying shooter with plenty of intense moments, but it has a few kinks in its armor.

User Rating: 9 | Gears of War 2 X360

The Good: Graphics are some of the best that you'll ever see on the Xbox 360; solid third person shooting action; tons of new weapons and new multiplayer modes; amazing voice acting and sound design; same non-stop, gory violence you've come to expect from the first Gears.

The Bad: Story seems far too different from the previous entry's, and leaves too many hanging questions for its own good; takes too long to find a game online; online can be ridiculously unfair in some situations.

The first Gears of War made a name for itself for its over the top gore and action. Gears of War 2 is looking to capitalize on its predecessor on every way possible. Does it accomplish its goal, or does it take one step forward, and two steps back?

First off is the campaign. At the end of the last Gears, Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad set off a light mass bomb in the locust tunnels to get rid of the locust threat completely. Let's just say, it didn't work too well. The locust have, somehow, gotten a lot stronger. As the locust sink entire cities, the COG have no choice but to hold down their last remaining city: Jacinto. The story itself is good; the locust are back and their attacking relentlessly. However, when it comes to new twists and questions, Gears of War 2 just doesn't seem to know when to stop. Different ideas and questions pop up constantly and are left unanswered. This makes the story a bit harder to understand.

Another problem with the story is how far it strays from the last game. The first Gears had a simple story: A bunch of stupid alien brutes who live in underground tunnels named Locusts are trying to kill all of the humans and take control of the planet Sera. In Gears of War 2, the locust seem to completely switch their game up. They're incredibly smarter than the previous entry...and I'm not talking about AI.

That said, the story is interesting and throws a variety of emotions your way. Just don't expect a direct story. Things are a lot more different in Gears 2 where the story is concerned. However, the story is not short on intense moments that appear throughout the lengthy campaign. You'll do things in this game that you could only dream of in the last game.

The controls are basically the same as the first game. However, there are more actions mapped to the "A" button. Besides running, rolling and taking cover, the "A" button also allows you to take enemies as "meat-shields". In the last game, there were a lot of actions that the "A" button had control over, and here...it's starting to get a bit problematic. At times you may want to pick up a meat-shield, but instead you'll roll forward. This is especially frustrating on multiplayer.

There are plenty of new weapons in Gears 2. The Grinder is a giant machine gun that resembles a Troika from the last game, and the Hammerburst is a single-fire, locust gun that packs a powerful punch. Some old favorites return as well like the Hammer of Dawn and the Boltoc Revolver.

A couple of advancements have been added to the game as well. When two chainsaws met in Gears 1, the computer basically just chose the victor...and if you were the victim, you felt ripped off. This is remedied by chainsaw battles. When two chainsaws meet in Gears 2, each player is prompted to press the "B" button as many times as they can before 3 seconds is up. Whoever hits "B" more will win. While it makes things slightly fair, it's still quite annoying. Since you're completely defenseless during a chainsaw battle, anyone can come up to you and take you out immediately...which is kind of ridiculous.

Another problem in Gears 1 was how when you were downed in multiplayer, you couldn't move at all. Now, you have the chance to crawl to an ally before you meet your demise. This is a good addition and is especially helpful when you're sniped from a distance.

You also have the ability to tag grenades to walls. Once a grenade is tagged it can be set off by gunfire or an enemy. When an unsuspecting enemy comes close to a tag on the wall, it will explode. This adds a whole new dimension to multiplayer games. You can no longer charge after your opponents every match...you have to be more wary of your surroundings. However, some people may think it is cheap when they fall victim to a frag grenade that has been tagged on the wall or ground...because it kills you instantly.

A technique that most people did in the first Gears of War was rolling and then using the shotgun to take you out once they were close. Gears of War 2 remedies this by putting stopping power on every gun. This means that you become slower when being hit by a barrage of bullets. It may sound unrealistic and strange, but it definitely works.

Though a lot of adjustments have been made to Gears of War's multiplayer, new problems inevitably arise, along with some old ones that were never fixed.

A technique dubbed. "the two piece" is one of the most popular Gears of War 2 techniques. Once someone gets in close with a shotgun, they melee you with the "B" button. Once you're hit, you are completely open to attack and about half of your health is gone. After you're hit, you are then taken out with the shotgun. It's an annoying move. The developers either need to make the melee less powerful, or not allow your character to stumble backwards after being hit.

Though there are chainsaw battles, the chainsaw itself is still ridiculously cheap. It's an insanely annoying experience to have someone chainsaw you. The weapon itself is awesome, but it's time that the chainsaw be removed from online or made less powerful. Perhaps the developers could limit its use and have it use fuel that gradually depletes when you use it. It's a problem that has to be fixed.

Multiplayer is pretty fun at times, but can be very inconsistent. Sometimes shotguns don't kill people close up, and sometimes they do. The computer randomly chooses a host, which can result in connection issues and lag that can totally ruin a game. However, when you're taking down everyone in your way and winning every chainsaw battle that you get engaged in...there's no other feeling like it. It's absolutely incredible. However, it's when people use cheap techniques that ruin the multiplayer mode in some matches.

Multiplayer is a mixed batch, but where it really excels is in its maps. Maps like Avalanche have players struggling to move out of the way of an avalanche that occurs in the middle of the game, revealing new weapons and areas to explore. Security is another inventive map that has red security beams that will fry any good (or bad) soldier who gets near them. Hail is a map where razor hail randomly falls from the sky during the match and players have to seek shelter lest they get cut up. The maps are extremely fun, and inventive.

The multiplayer modes are also interesting. There's Horde: A five player co-op scenario in which a map is chosen and fifty waves of locust attack you. It's an interesting mode, and involves a lot of cooperation if you want to survive. Execution and Warzone also return, but there are some interesting new additions. Wingman is execution between five teams of two that involves two player cooperation in order to reach fifteen kills. Submission is a capture the flag mode, except the flag is a guy with a shotgun (otherwise known as a Stranded). You have to go up, down the guy, then take him as a meat-shield and bring him to a specific location. The modes are, no doubt, diverse and fun.

The first Gears had outstanding graphics. Gears 2 follows up and adds colors other than black and white. Simply put, this game looks incredible. Lighting effects are spot on and the textures look great. The environments are much more varied this time around, and the result is jaw dropping. Though there are a couple of glitches in multiplayer and a couple water-related glitches in the single player campaign, it's pretty hard to find a game that looks this good.

The music is epic. There's a lot of incredible scores that make the game feel so intense and contribute so much to the to the atmosphere of the game. The voice acting is also amazing. Not one line is delivered out of place, and the voices sound great. Each character has a personality. When they get angry, they curse and struggle loudly. When they're sad, they stutter and speak with a tone of desperation. It's simply amazing. The sound effects also rock. Guns sound appropriately powerful, and smacking your back against cover always sounds great.

There's plenty of multiplayer modes, plenty of fun achievements and a single-player that has multiple difficulty settings and is pretty lengthy in itself. Bottom line: sixty dollars is a perfect fit for this game. It's appropriately priced and there's plenty of entertainment here for everyone above seventeen to enjoy.

Altogether, this game is a good step above the last game. However, in trying to solve some of the problems of the previous entry, some new ones have been added. It's still an amazing game, but a couple of flaws hold it back from its true potential.