Above and Beyond
Above and Beyond
WA Julian
2006’s Gears of War erupted from the ground with smashing sales, breaking reviews, and even Game of the Year Awards (it was even my game of the year). Sure, it had its problems, but its winning combat formula won the day for Epic Games, making it easily one of the best Xbox 360 games out there. Beating it would be tough, but as if intentionally, there were enough holes left in Gears of War that a sequel could potentially be groundbreaking. And that is exactly what happened with Gears of War 2.
The first and most obvious thing missing from the original Gears was a memorable plot. It was pretty much a simple “do this and the bad guys lose” story. It had minimal plot twisting and you definitely didn’t feel much of anything. Yet, somehow it was deep enough that it left you wondering. There was obviously a ton of backstory but virtually none of it was explored. Gears of War 2 fills in a ton of those holes but still manages to leave you craving more. It also features some of the best moments in gaming I’ve seen in a long time. The Cole Train’s big entrance, the already famous line “There it is: the beginning of the end”, the Cole Train’s speech to the Locust, your first steps into the Locust cave… there are so many points in this game that are simply breathtaking. Yes, the story is a bit on the predictable side but so is a roller coaster and those are still one hell of a ride.
Contributing to the breathtaking-ness are the visuals. They are simply incredible. Gears of War had the reputation of “best graphics ever” for a long time and I think Gears 2 takes that mantle for console graphics. The lighting is incredible, the character models are incredibly fleshed out and improved from Gears, and the gore looks great. There are some new touches to the Unreal Engine 3, such as stuff breaking if you shoot it. It doesn’t really affect gameplay, but it’s just a touch of realism and intensity to see your cover get stripped down by gunfire.
Speaking of gunfire, the sound is excellent. They replaced the majority of the sound effects with all-new and better sounds. The shotgun gets a spotlight here for sounding much-improved over Gears, and also sounding exactly the way a shotgun should. It booms loudly and its cocking sound is aggressive. The other guns are the mostly the same way. The voice-overs are well-done for the most part, but I have to complain about Dom. He’s a central character in Gears of War 2, but he’s easily the worst voice-actor of the bunch. The other actors are incredible, especially Cole and Marcus.
The gameplay is pretty much exactly the same as Gears of War, with only a few differences, for instance, it’s possible to cancel maneuvers now (e.g., a SWAT turn). There are new guns, such as a flamethrower, which is pretty cool but you won’t stray from your Lancer (assault rifle with the chainsaw)/Gnasher (shotgun), or your Lancer/Longshot (sniper) combo. Just because you won’t use them, doesn’t mean that these new weapons aren’t awesome. They make for some really cool enemy types. There are also new heavy weapons, such as a mortar and a chain-gun, which are both awesome and hard to resist using. Also, there’s a new boomshield, which can be used as portable cover. There are new curb-stomp moves and you can now pick up enemies and use them as shields. Frickin’ awesome.
There are quite a few levels in Gears of War 2 that are really unique, but not all of them are pulled off too well. For instance, there’s a mission where you drive a tank but for some reason it just doesn’t handle right. And there’s a mission where you’re inside a giant worm, it’s got great entertainment value but as a level it’s pretty dry. The final boss is more of a playable cinematic than anything, so don’t expect anything spectacular. But literally every other mission besides those three are amazing and a ton of fun.
The multiplayer is truly where it’s at. There are new gametypes, such as a version of capture the flag that’s more like “capture the dude”. The “dude” is alive and will shoot at you, so you have to knock him down and carry him as a meatshield back to your base. There’s horde, where up to five people must battle wave after wave of Locust. It’s a sweet cooperative mode that brings in a new way to have fun. I also discovered that if you haven’t had the chance to get Xbox LIVE yet, then you can go to “training ground” and there you can play with bot-supported multiplayer. It’s been a while since a game has supported bots. Now, it’s not perfect because the bots are pretty cowardly and if you die, then they pretty much hang back and don’t really go offensive. At least they aren’t suicidal, though. Xbox LIVE play isn’t perfect, it takes quite a while to get into a match.
Gears of War 2 is definitely the game to pick up this holiday season. I mean, what’s a better Christmas gift than the gift of curb-stomping and meatshielding?
