Gears of War 2

Gears of war 2 had a lot to live up to, considering it is the follow up to one of the biggest games released on the 360. When the original GoW came out it made almost every other TPS before it seem outdated. The cover system worked perfectly, the co-op was mad fun, and entire campaign felt like a bad ass roller coaster. While the first two remain true for GoW 2, it doesn't feel special anymore, and the later couldn't be more off.

The cover mechanic is still the best out there, but it honestly doesn’t feel much improved over the original, and Co-op in games today is standard fare. I think the "been there, done that" feeling I got from the campaign was the reason my friend and I had to push ourselves to actually finish the game. You will see a lot of cool stuff, such as the worm level, and it goes without saying that the game looks beautiful, but it’s just not enough to keep the excitement up. It doesn’t help that the story is embarrassing, the whole relationship between Dom and his wife seems like a joke. The ending is also very anti-climatic.

Then you have the multiplayer, which is good enough. While I was not a huge fan of the original gears multiplayer, if you were you will find a lot to love in GoW 2. It has enough new content to keep you satisfied for months. Hoard mode (killing wave after wave of enemies) is a pretty cool idea, and most people will probably get some enjoyment out of it, but it really isn't anything that special.

If the way I wrote this review makes me sound like I hate GoW 2 then I am sorry for giving off the wrong impression. It is still the sequel to a game that kicked a lot of ass, and improves on some of the worse parts of the original (like the driving parts) but it just feels too much like the original for it to blow me away, or even want to come back to it. If you enjoyed the first don't pass it up, but don't expect to feel the same about it either.