An awesome followup to the original.
The story in Gears of War 2 goes like this. It takes place a few months later from where the first Gears of war ended. Marcus Fenix and his buddy Dom are back to take the fight to the locusts. THe locusts have found ways to sink entire cities under ground, so you as Marcus Fenix takes part in a mission where the humans send COG soldiers underground to fight against the locusts. The story is a lot better than the first Gears of War, but leaves to many questions unanswered in the end. I don't want to tell you much about these questions, because, that will ruin the story for anyone that has not yet played it. Let's just say that the story is improved from the first Gears of War.
The gameplay in Gears of War 2 is identical to the first. You take cover, and then peek around cover to shoot at your enemies. A few new things have been added, like the ability to use other guys as meat shields. There are a few new curb stomps, like taking you gun and just smashing the enemy with it, or beating their face down into the ground. One thing I absolutely hated about the campaign is all the defend this mission, which normally sticks you on a turret. I don't mind them if there are only a few of them, but I thought there were a bit to many in this game. In one scene you have to defend a communication device from a bunch of reavers. Of course you have to get on a turret and gun them down, but this part got me so angry, because, I had to play it like 10 times, that I almost broke my TV. This had to be one of my only complaints with the gameplay.
There are a few new weapons like the burst pistol, and some of the weapons have been redesigned like the burst rifle, which has been change to a single shot gun. The weapons feel good and control a lot smoother than in the first one.
There are new enemies like the blood hounds, and the tickers, which are these little bugs with mines on their backs. The new enemies are really cool, and there are also some new bosses as well.
The graphics in Gears of War 2 look awesome. Unlike in the first Gears of War where most of the environments are a bunch of destroyed cities, Gears of War 2 has more organic like environments. The new environments look amazing, and you can pick out a lot of details in everything. The character models and weapon models look good to. Vehicles and everything also look really good. When things blow up, that also looks awesome, and it normally sends debris everywhere.
The sound in Gears of War 2 has improved a lot since the first Gears of War. Voice acting id a little bit better, though some of the voices still sound like cave men. The biggest improvement is the weapons sounds. The lancer in the first Gears did not sound anything like a machine gun, but more like some sci fi sounding thing. In Gears of War 2, it actually sounds like a machine gun.
When things blow up or come crashing down, you hear the ground rumble a bit and the building crumble. Over all the sound is really good.
The single player can take about 10 hours to beat, but it is fun to go back through co op, aor if you don't want to do that, then you can play the multi player. THe multi player is the biggest improvement in Gears of War 2. In the first Gears, the multi player was good, but not even close to other games like Call of Duty. Gears of War 2 takes everything good about the first Gears, and adds a lot more content to it. One new mode is horde mode, where four players try to hold off 50 waves of locusts. This new mode is fun and addictive. There is also a bot mode, so if you want to practice, you can do that without even going online. Some of the new modes are Wingman, Guardian, king of the hill( which was in the PC version of the first Gears) and many more. All tof these new modes are a lot of fun to play, and I personally like the map selection a lot better than in the first Gears of War. There is a rank system, but that does not do much, like you do not unlock like any new guns or stuff, But the multi player is still awesome. One thing I did not like was the match making system, which is a lot like Halo 3. I never liked the match making system in Halo 3, and I still don't like it in Gears of War 2. In my opinion, it takes to long to get a match going. Not to mention, a lot of people like to leave right when the match has begun, so the teams are uneven, and the system does not go out and try to find more players. It makes me wonder, if you are going to borrow things from a games multi player match making system, then why not borrow from a game like Call of Duty 4 where you don't have to constantly find new people ever match, and when people leave, the game goes out to find more people. Over all Gears of War 2 has awesome multi player.
Gears of War 2 is an awesome game, that defiantly proves ot be an awesome game, and a rightful sequel to the first Gears of War, and is one of the best games to come out this year! If you like the first Gears of War, then Gears of War 2 is a must buy!