With all the hype and expectations from GoW 1, when it finally arrived through my door day the before release, I was excited to say the least. My expectations were no disappointment at all too. I was hooked on it for a week. What a game! As Cliff Belizinki said, more & better gameplay, more Badass, and better graphically. How right he was.

Gears Of War 2 is a typical 3^rd person shooter ala Gears 1 jumping into and out of cover. A very clever system of controls which worked a treat. With some new weapons thrown for good measure plus use of the enemies shield when dropped was great. The gameplay was a typical of Gears 1 with better visuals, more weapons and more environments, more story then the previous game. Without spoiling the game too much, first you start off the story from the previous story/game defending a Hospital (albeit a rather run down Hospital) with tons of close quarters combat. This spills out onto the street where the Gears eventually meet up and decide new plans. Your Robotic assistant, Jack, now has a communications with central command centre making the Human resistance more organised then before.

More effort in this game was concentrated on taking the fight to Locust on the home turf this round and so underground you go several times. A wild ride it is too. You actually get to see Locust architecture, Locust lifestyle and living and how the populate the underground. Intense battles wave after wave, environment after environment lead you to some much unexpected places and the use of Lancer Rifles Chainsaw is more usable then just melee attacks in this game.

The game sets out to show a post apoclolyptic human World overcome by alien invasion and it does so really well. There is more colours in the game then previous Gears, which looked too B/W to me the last time but this game showed some colourful scenes and indicated better lighting effects in game. The introduction of some new weapons in game was a great attraction, the flamethrower a prime example. The shield you got off a huge Boomer when you killed it was useful too and heavy artillery in the form of Longshot was useful.

All in all, Gears of War 2 was everything Epic Games and Cliff Belizinki said it would be, better game play, better graphics, and MORE BADASS! A high octane action adrenaline rush! Having just completed the game after a week I must say it was a very enjoyable experience and I want more, they changed the Normal difficulty to casual in reality, so next play through will be hardcore or Insane. Also, do not switch off at the credits as you do so in games, there is a surprise at the end which has you thinking after defeating the last boss (which was easy with Hammer Of Dawn incidentally) which is puzzling and making you wonder what is in store in Part 3 and the end of the trilogy.

Game Rating: 9.5/10

Review: Skidpro

Pics courtesy IGN.