Gears of War 2 is a sequel that delivers on all fronts.
You are Marcus Fenix, head of Delta Squad. The COG army has successfully defeated the locust from the first game by lighting the bomb. Or have they? It turns out that the Locust have survived the blast underground and have returned and are now stronger than ever. Once again, Marcus and the squad are sent to fight the locust, this time the fight continues underground. The sequel introduces several new characters and a new purpose in the storyline which is the search for Dom's wife, Maria. The story won't win any awards, but the characters and story are so cheesy and over-the-top, you won't care. It's all about fun in Gears 2. Nothing is to be taken seriously.
If you've played the original Gears of War, than Gears 2 won't surprise you from a gameplay standpoint. You still rely on the old cover system from the first game, though it's more refined this time. However, there are several new additions that should keep Gears fans happy. The flamethrower is an awesome new weapon that can be used to cook enemies to a crisp. Meat shields are brand new and can be used in a couple of ways. Place it anywhere and use it as cover, or go into a firefight behind a shield. You can also tag grenades to enemies and to walls.
The campaign in Gears of War will last around 8-10 hours and is a blast all the way through. There's a great variety in the environments and in the set piece battle. The artificial intelligence for the enemies is solid although friendly AI has its dumb moments. That dumb AI can be dealt with by playing in co-op. Gears 2 features drop-in/drop-out co-op and each player can select their own difficulty. Gears of War 2 has awesome cooperative gameplay and is the highlight of the campaign.
Gears 2 also has a huge selection of multiplayer modes to choose from. The big addition is horde mode. Here, you and 4 other players survive 50 waves of increasingly difficult locust. Every ten waves, the enemies get stronger. This is an addictive and well thought out mode that will keep you coming back to Gears of War 2 for many months.
Of course, the competitive multiplayer is back and better than ever. There are several different modes to choose from and 10 maps on the disc to choose from. Competitive multiplayer is a riot and there's nothing more satisfying than chainsawing a competitor. The game also uses a experience system in which you gain experience for kills and winning/finishing matches. Unfortunately, there are no rewards for ranking up which would have been awesome and provide even more incentive to keep playing. The major downside is that the game suffers from major connection issues in multiplayer and horde. The game will randomly disconnect you and everyone else from the game for no reason. Also, you may also run into a bit of lag although I never found it too bad.
Gears of War 2 is one of the best looking games on the 360. The lighting is beautiful, textures are solid, and the scale and variety in the environments is outstanding. The explosions and effects look great and the blood effects make the chainsaw kills look extra awesome. The only issue is slight frame-rate slowdown when things get hectic, but it's easy to ignore. The sound effects and music are top notch as well. The sound of explosions and gunfire sound great and the music is superb. The voice work for the characters is great in a cheesy way.
If you were a fan of the original, Gears of War 2 is absolutely worth the money. It provides more of what made the original so much fun, and throws in some awesome additions to the gameplay and new multilayer modes. The scale of the bosses, added variety to the environments, and campaign co-op nicely compliment the fantastic multiplayer modes.
Visuals- 9.5
Audio- 9
Controls- 8.5
Gameplay- 8.5
Replay- 9
Multiplayer- 8.5
Downloadable Content- 9
Overall- 9
Gears of War 2 Game of the Year Edition includes the base game plus all the DLC including 19 new maps and the deleted scene Road to Ruin. Best of all, you can find it for $30. A great bargain and if you're new to Gears 2, it's what you should look for