Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360)

Epic shooter leaves things wide open for a sequel -- like that's a bad thing?
11/7/2008 7:15 PM | 6 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Wisely refraining from meddling with a good thing, Epic instead focused on a handful of subtle tweaks and tasteful new additions.

There's a new enemy called a Ticker -- picture those annoying galloping creatures that used to swarm up to you and claw you ... but with bombs strapped to their backs.

Remember Boomers -- those guys that would enthusiastically yell "Boooom!" before flattening you with a one-hit-death missile? Now they wield flamethrowers, Mulchers (a kind of rapid-fire Gatling gun) and a medieval-style flail and shield. Defeat any of these beasts, and you can equip their über-weapons yourself and wreak some serious havoc. The flamethrower is particularly satisfying, for obvious reasons.

You can also grab the discarded shield and run with it. Sure, it slows you down, but it proves to be impenetrable to pretty much anything. I used it to great effect, on one occasion walking right up to a machine-gun nest while the nearly point-blank bullets ricocheted harmlessly off. You can also plant the shield in the ground and use it as portable cover. If there's no actual shield handy, you can always grab a fallen enemy and use it as a "meat shield" to absorb a few hits.

The distinctive crouch-and-run technique, the so-called "Roadie Run," is for the first time actually used in a puzzle-solving context, as is the chainsaw gun (to mow down cables and scenery).

Co-op mode has undergone some welcome refinements as well. It's still the Dom and Marcus show, with a mixture of side-by-side fighting and branching-path missions in which you're forced to split up. Often, though, you're paired with another computer-controlled character who can still heal you if you happen to go down. One of the most frustrating things about co-op in the original Gears was having to restart a checkpoint because a player died during one of the branching-path missions while cut off from the healing abilities of the other player. Gears of War 2 puts players into this situation far less frequently. Also, each person can select a separate difficulty level, allowing players of different skill levels to still work as a team.

Beyond co-op, the game offers a comprehensive set of eight different multiplayer modes, including new ones called Horde (where a team of players faces off against waves of increasingly challenging enemies) and Submission, a twisted take on capture-the-flag where the "flag" is actually a human character that the others must try to drag back to camp.

What truly makes Gears of War 2 so much of a triumph is that while the gameplay feels instantly familiar, situations don't feel like retreads. The tension-release pacing is superb; scenes shift seamlessly into the next with checkpoints updated and new orders being issued on the fly.

And more than in the first game, I found it a genuine pleasure to fight alongside my computer-controlled comrades. They would shout out hints about where enemies were hiding; they looked at each other when they talked instead of staring like mannequins; and when I got hurt they'd actually run over and heal me.