Gears of War 2 Review

The core gameplay hasn’t changed much, but there are some new features thrown in.  This is one of the primary reasons why Gears 2 is so fun: you’re able to pick it up and just play it.  All of the same gameplay dynamics are there, and the controls are the same.  Strategy primarially is cover-based, and you use the same controls to stick to a wall, turn a corner, blind-shoot and aim.  The Roadie Run and Active Reload features are still intact, which are very satisfying features that make the game seem more realistic.

One of the new features Epic has implemented is a little mini-status of how far along you are to achieving some Xbox Achievements.  Every time you make a kill with a new weapon, a little popup appears on the bottom-left of the screen that shows you a bar on how far you have to go to unlock the “Variety is the Spice of Death” achievement (basically make a kill with every weapon in the game).  There is another achievement where to achieve after wasting 100,000 enemies, using Meat Shields, and other stats that must be built up.

There are a few new weapons that add to the gameplay.  There is now a portable heavy Chain Gun (referred to as a Meat Grinder), which lays down a huge spread of Lead Death.  Some new huge Locust have huge shields that you can take, which provides portable cover.  While carrying the shield, hold the left trigger to cover your body, which lets you move while under cover.  You have your right hand free, so you can only use your pistol in this mode, but it lets you get right in front of mounted guns and infiltrate the enemy line.  You can also plant the shield right in the ground, which frees your hands up to use your other weapons.  Using this tactic you can get into a perfect strategic spot by adding cover.

Speaking of dynamic cover, you sometimes encounter barriers that can be destroyed or even removed.  While in the Locust Stronghold, there are levers and valves that can remove your cover (or the cover of your enemies).  If you can flank them, you can turn off the cover that the Locust are hiding behind, which lets your team totally mow them down quickly.  There’s even a scene where you must cross a body of water, and the Locust are trying to turn a valve to start the waterflow again (which will drown you).  These gameplay dynamics give you an immediate mini-goal to accomplish while completing a larger objective.

One of the more difficult gameplay areas is traversing your tank across a frozen lake.  You’re trying to make it to a Locust Stronghold in the snowy mountains, and the roads are blocked:  so you must cross a frozen lake to continue the trek.  Well, the Locust make it difficult for you by firing rockets into the lake, creating large holes for you to sink into.  It’s hard enough with a sliding tank without having to suddenly change course to avoid a watery death.

Some of the huge boss battles are also over the top.  In one area your tank completely loses power.  In the dark.  You can see the eyes of some large creatures surrounding you.  As soon as you get power back and the lights on, you see 3 Corpsers surrounding you, with your back to a wall.  There’s another scene where you’re on a gunboat in the middle of an underground lake (where even the Locust don’t venture) and must battle a huge Leviathon-like creature.  Its tentacles try to take your boat down, so you must use your Lancer to cut them off in time.  The beast chomps down on the front of your boat, so you have to do some quick thinking before he takes the boat down (I won’t give away how to do it just yet, though).

Another satisfying strategic element to the gameplay is the ability to use a Meat Shield.  When you take out a Locust soldier, he may not be completely dead.  He may start crawling away to get help.  Instead of just curb-stomping them like in the last game, you can pick him up and use him as a shield.  Since your left hand is dragging the soldier, you can only use your pistol.  If your Meat Shield takes too much damage, then he is destroyed, leaving you unprotected.  You can also choose to dispatch the wounded soldier at any time.

Oh, yeah, and there’s chainsaw duels now.  If you run into an enemy with a chainsaw, you are locked together and have a button-mashing session until one of you is the victor.