In the future, every videogame will come in the form of an Epic Trilogy.
But the future, as they say, is now, and up rocks Gears of War 2, the second instalment in Epic’s over-the-shoulder, third-person, ‘action horror’ shooter trilogy.
The original Gears of War was the break-out 2006 console exclusive for the Xbox 360 that managed to take the shooter genre by the horns and wrest the spotlight away from even the mighty Halo franchise. Powered by Unreal Engine 3.0, Gears was a gory, visceral sci-fi romp that for all its standard components achieved a magic gestalt: the sum was greater than its parts.
A new super franchise was born.Know the score going into GoW2: The Locust Hordes, mysterious underground aliens of the planet Sera, are pushing human civilisation to the brink of extinction. Gears, the de facto space marines of the COG military, fight a desperate battle, aided by chainsaw bayonets and more man beef than three Arnold Schwarzeneggers bolted together.
When we last left the fight, COG had detonated a device that supposedly scourged the Locust from their subterranean warrens. Six months later, as our next game begins, we discover that it was a failure. The Locust are sinking entire human cities from below, with Jacinto, the last metropolis built upon thick bedrock, organising the final counter-offensive.
GoW2 impresses with the massive scale of its opening cinematic sequences. The direction has improved: where Gears struggled to paint a picture of gritty warfare and often ended up feeling forced and at times unintentionally goofy, GoW2 looks more genuine and the character dialogue rings truer. There are still moments when things get silly – and not by intent.
Perhaps trying to write emotional scenes for characters that are modelled to look like a collection of tree stumps strapped into battle armour is an effort doomed to a certain measure of futility. Even so, there is more ‘story’ to GoW2 and it’s more meaningful.
A lot of interesting details are dropped in incidental dialogue that serves to flesh out planet Sera to a surprising degree and, dare I say it, make you actually begin to care about the COG’s struggle.
Enough about the story though. You’re here for the shooting and the chain- sawing. In this, Gears of War 2 doesn’t disappoint. While it is in some ways purely an expansion of the original’s play mechanics, every decision and refinement is sound. More so than any specific change to the weapon list, it is the overall flow of combat that has been carefully
tweaked. The scale of battle scenariosis much larger. Enemies behave with more intelligence and self-preservation. Locust baddies are no longer ridiculous bullet sponges – it pays off to go for the headshot or the debilitating ankle hit.
Enemies in the campaign now have the ability (and advantage) of recovering from a near-death stun, creating a new dynamic where it is not enough to merely shoot a Locust until he goes down. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll find those snipers you thought you took down revived by their comrades, just about the time they put a round into you where the sun doesn’t shine.
And it’s the campaign as a whole where Gears 2 addresses the biggest shortfall of the original: it’s just plain longer. Gears of War was a game that came to a halt just when it felt as if the story was beginning.
No matter how you sliced it, there wasn’t a lot of meat on the bones of its campaign. GoW2 is comprised of five acts, just like the original, but on average, they’re longer and indisputably have a greater variety of situations.
It does feel as if some things which could have easily been used as set pieces or an end cap to the saga have been intentionally left out (hello there, Gears of War 3), but it’s a lot more satisfying this time around. Campaign co-op works as well, if not better, thanks to more team-based mechanics that require precise coordination between players that feels rewarding rather than cumbersome.
Most of the time, at least, players are going to want a word with Epic about a particular sequence involving a large bomb – you’ll see. But the thing about GoW2 is that it’s one of those games you don’t read a review of to decide whether you want to play it – you know you do.
Rather, you come to see if you’re going be let down by the hype and your expectations. Read me now and believe me later: Gears of War 2 doesn’t disappoint. And yes, the chainsawing is even better.
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