Oh goody.....more chest high walls....

Ok, before I begin I have to say, I really don't want to do this review. It's not because I caught flak from the GoW people, being unknown, I have the distinct privilage/disadvantage of not being noticed. With that said here's yet another text review, and just for the fun of it I'm reviewing....

Oh dear God.........SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!

So Gears of War 2 picks up where the last one left off......and I'm not even sure where that was anymore.....nor do I really care. Let's face facts here people, this game is basically the first one repackaged with a new game mode. There's hardly any improvements. The story is still as shallow as the first one.

Once again we follow Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. You're given a new recruit to train....you know for the lucky people who missed the first game, but because of a sharp blow to the head and a loss of IQ points decided to pick this one up. This is fairly simple, and gives you the overview of the controls. It doesn't take long before everything goes to hell and you're back in the fray. Now this I will admit is executed very well....to bad it's in GoW. Anywho, you soon regroup with the rest of the COG forces....oh yeah I didn't tell you about that did I? Well the global governments decided to pull together to fight the Locust. There's more to it of course, but I don't care.

Delta Squad....is there anyway to join the Locust?

So yeah, you're sent back out to fight the Locust.....just like the first game. Only this time you don't have to rely on the stupid chest high walls! You're the ultimate badass, you can.....oh who am I kidding. Again that's the main focus on combat, cover. Lots and lots of cover. You know I have to wonder if there's a magical chest high wall gnome walking through the game about 5 feet ahead of you just putting them down. (Totally not ripped from Yahtzee...)

The AI on your teammates is still borderline retarded, and the Locust seem to have cranial implants to know exactly where you are, where to shoot, and what ammo to use. The effect is basically put your head out at the wrong time and you're hamburger. There's very little in the way of new weapons to use, and what onces you do get to use are pretty much useless as you'll be using the gun from the beginning of the game through most of it.

Destroyers of Humanity....and somehow I'm rooting for them

There are a couple of new areas to explore, like the underground lair of the Locust, more grey walls. The surface of the planet while riding a large vehicle, blue sky, green grass....and brown cliffs. The inside of a gigantic worm....this time you get to see red and brown walls! It's nice to see that a little color has been added to the color pallet....but then again most of the game is the same grey and brown from the first game. This game, just like the first one, looks ugly. Don't worry I'm not going off on my tangent of how Unreal looked better and that came out in the 90's.....though my argument is still valid.

Grey, grey and more grey.

Ok, since I takled the main story I should talk about multiplayer.....I should but I'm not. In all honesty, I didn't even bother with muliplayer. One I didn't like the campaign, so the multiplayer didn't interest me. Second, I'm tired of playing with idiots and people who think they're better than you are because of a videogame. Let's face it, if you're arguing with people over the internet, or you feel superior because of being better in a game. You need to take a step back and re-evaluate the path that your life has taken.

Cliffy B. doesn't appreciate XBL harrasment

As I said before there is a new mode to GoW 2, and I have to admit, I like this mode. It's called Horde mode. Basically what you have to do is hold out for I believe 50 waves of enemies. With each subsiquent round getting tougher. You may face some straight up assault Locust in one wave, and in the next it's snipers.  This is all designed to test your skills and force you to improvise and come up with new tactics. You can also grab 3 friends and play together. This is where one of my favorite game modes for Halo, Firefight, got it's inspiration. So this is fun for me at least.

So there you go, basically a rehash of the first game. Very limited new weapons, hardly any new enemies, and a game mode that I really enjoy. All and all, you should probably just pass on this one. If you're a die hard GoW fan and you've happened to stumble across this review and my previous one, then I'm already expecting hate mail. If you're not and you're just mildly interested in this game, rent it. It's not really worth a spot in your collection,

Also I'd like to apologize for this review being farily sparse. I just don't care about GoW, and because of that I'm not reviewing the next game, let alone playing it.

Vangle