Gears of War 2 combines enticing visuals with a solid campaign and exciting multiplayer. But where is the balance?

User Rating: 7.5 | Gears of War 2 X360
By Engage28 | Review Date:
The first Gears of War was truly amazing; a game that shook the ground below every other shooter available at the time. It had solid multiplayer which provided for plenty "Wow!" moments, yet the story wasn't quite what it should've been. Now we have the sequel, and the roles have seemingly been reversed. The storyline of GoW2 captures the grit and passion of the Cog army while displaying the ultimately visceral and malicious ways of the enemy Locust. A story of loss and retribution is layered with exciting moments and enemies that react to you and your tactics with sleek intelligence. The pop-and-shoot mechanics and linear level designs are, while presented well with wonderful cinematic cutscenes, something that lose momentum as you near the conclusion of the game. Hit detection and chainsaws are some of the downfalls to the game, yet the storyline does a much better job of handling these issues than does the multiplayer. GoW2's multiplayer is substantial to say the least, and does in fact become addicting with statistical progression and a new ranking system incorporated for the first time. The problem that remains is the gameplay itself during multiplayer, and the numerous glitches and advantages of player-controlled opponents. Server lag is frequent and the game experiences significant hosting issues at times and players will often get disconnected after only a few rounds. When a shooter of this caliber is unable to satisfy fans of the first Gears of War, perhaps there is something wrong with it. In no way is this sequel terrible, it simply cannot maintain a balanced and fair multiplayer experience and loses points in this area alone. Gears of War 2 is definitely worth a playthrough, but taking the challenge on Xbox Live is something players will have to choose. =)

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