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Video Game Review: Gears of War 2

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By ROMMIE JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2008

System: Microsoft Xbox 360

Publisher: Epic Games

Reviewer's rating: ***1/2

ESRB rating: Mature

Game type: Shooter

Kind of like: "Army of Two"

Best feature: The new "Horde" mode is both fun and challenging.

Worst feature: For the most part, it feels like more of the same.

The bottom line: A couple of years ago, the unthinkable happened: A game came along that made us care about shooters again.

"Gears of War" wasn't particularly original. It followed the sci-fi story of an impossibly buff soldier with a big effing gun, who — surprise! — leads humanity's charge against a nefarious and seemingly unstoppable alien race.

I'll give you a moment to yawn before I continue.

There. Ready? Great.

Putting aside its lack of originality, "Gears" did a lot of things right. It had absolutely jaw-dropping graphics that made us feel like we hadn't completely wasted our money on those next-gen Xbox 360s. It was incredibly polished, with smooth controls, top-notch production values and easily accessible, lag-free online gameplay. And it featured one of the most bad-ass weapons in gaming history: the Lancer assault rifle, which is equipped with a chainsaw bayonet. At the risk of being rushed off to an asylum for the criminally insane, I'll admit that there's nothing quite like the visceral thrill of a chainsaw roaring in your ears while you split a friend down the middle into two grisly halves, spattering the TV screen with blood in the process.

(Speaking of which, this is probably a good time to mention that "Gears" — like its sequel — is rated Mature, so parents should think twice before letting their kids play it, even with the filter enabled to remove the bloodshed.)

But for all the sweet eye-candy and cathartic over-the-top violence, what really sold us on "Gears" was a simple, tactical tweak to the standard shooter mechanics: "Gears," like very few other shooters, used a cover system. So instead of just charging ahead and blasting away at everything that moves, you spent most of the game hiding around corners or kneeling behind fallen pillars, waiting for your chance to pop out and catch your enemy while he was re-loading.

Of course, in retrospect, the "Gears" cover system isn't nearly as elegant as the one used in the last couple of "Rainbow Six" games, but it still helps lend an element of strategy to a genre that was starting to feel stale to everyone except hormone-crazed 15-year-old boys. And in one fell swoop, it made other, more traditional shooters — even popular series such as "Halo" and "Call of Duty" — seem almost "retro" by comparison.

Flash forward two years and the inevitable sequel arrives with higher expectations and a fairly deafening swell of hype — at least within the gaming community. So what landmark innovations does "Gears 2" deliver?

Well, none, really. It's just "Gears" all over again, with the addition of a couple of really annoying vehicle-based levels. Which would be massively disappointing if more than a small handful of other games had outclassed the "Gears" formula since its original release.

But they haven't, and so a little more "Gears" while we wait for the Next Big Thing is entirely welcome. We especially love the new online co-operative mode known as Horde, which reminds us of Terrorist Hunt in "Rainbow Six: Vegas." You and up to three friends take on wave after wave of Locust invaders with few places to hide and limited ammo at your disposal. After countless hours, a friend and I have still only cleared 47 of the 50 levels, which eventually become as insanely intense as they are difficult.

As for the campaign, it's a continuation of the original story featuring the same characters — including main men Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, who share either a deep "male bond" or a latent bromance. It'll take about 10 hours to work through, and your friends can drop in or out at any time for co-op action, even on different difficulty levels. Gameplay-wise, the levels are evenly paced and well-designed, though — with few exceptions — strongly reminiscent of the first "Gears." There's nothing as inventive as the level from the original where you have to avoid dark areas or risk being devoured by swarming Kryll, and none of the bosses are as challenging as the original's General Raam.

Even so, Horde alone is almost worth the price, and when you throw in 10 new maps for online multiplayer matches, "Gears 2" is probably a must-own for anyone on Xbox Live. Maybe it doesn't match its predecessor for innovation, but "more of the same" is easy to swallow when it's this much fun.

Games are rated on a scale of 0-4 stars.

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