“Humans are no strangers to war. After all, we’ve been fighting for as long as we can remember. War is all we know.”
The original Gears of War was an instant classic upon release due to its tight cover-based combat system, next-gen graphics and cinematic presentation. Two years later Epic Games followed it up with a sequel that basically repeats the formula, providing a solid but familiar experience. There are some new wrinkles in the form of enemy and weapon variation, and the story moves forward and expands the game’s universe, but there are too few new elements for Gears of War 2 to separate itself from the original and claim classic status for itself. It iterates and refines more than it innovates. A less groundbreaking experience than its predecessor but one that is just as good.
The Lightmass bomb dropped at the end of Gears of War did not work as intended, and so we’re back on Sera, where Marcus, Dom and the rest of the gang remain engaged in a war with the Locust Horde, fighting for humanity’s survival. The Locust have become more aggressive, sinking entire cities and finally targeting Jacinto, the last remaining safe haven, thought to be impenetrable but proving otherwise. Further, the bomb has caused the vaporization of the toxic underground pockets of Imulsion, which has leaked to the surface and caused a disease called “rustlung” to decimate the human population. Forced to action, the COG plans an all-out counter-offensive attack against the Locust. What it all boils down to is a setup for a bunch of firefights, which is what we’re here for anyway, right?
I didn’t find the story to be as consistent this go around. The emotional angle receives increased attention by focusing on a subplot concerning Dom’s quest to find his wife. This comes off as very heavy-handed and forced and clashes with the otherwise corny romp through the grisly wasteland. So while we have dramatic moments like Dom making irrational tactical decisions in order to chase a faint hope of reuniting with Maria, these scenes are tonally mismatched with more cartoonish fare like the COG soldiers jumping onto the backs of Reavers and taking them for a spin and the comic banter of Baird and Cole. The story’s alright, and doesn’t stagnate, but I didn’t find it to be as confident in its direction as the first one. It seems like writers weren’t sure if they wanted it to be a dramatic thriller or an 80s action movie, so they went with both, which just doesn’t work. The action-oriented macho-man storyline is too slapdash and full of holes to allow the dramatic story beats enough quality narrative development to land with any sort of meaning. The cheapened dramatic elements only serve to make the carefree blood-and-guts sections feel somewhat subdued or inappropriate. Meh. It’s a game, though, and it succeeds on that front.
Where the game gets some bonus points is in its presentation, which feels very cinematic and does a great job of staging some nice set pieces that allow the player to continue playing through the best parts instead of switching to cutscenes. The flow of the story and the setting up of epic confrontations are areas where I think Gears of War 2 showed a lot of improvement over the original. There are a number of these memorable moments and they mostly hit at just the right time. There’s one in particular, where Marcus and Dom try to cross an underground lake on a small craft and have to do battle with a hideous monster that feels particularly like you’re playing through a movie.
Fundamentally, the core gameplay of Gears of War 2 is a copy of the original; if it ain’t broke, yada yada. There are a few additions/changes that improve the sequel. In the first game, many of the levels were linear and took place in crowded spaces. The level design of the sequel is still very linear, but the environments are much more open, allowing for more expansive firefights with a larger variety of enemies to fight and more of them on screen at a time. Unfortunately, the developers did not take note that the vehicle section in the first game was an atrocious bit of game design, and so there’s another equally annoying section in this game. Instead of driving between streetlights now you’re driving over a frozen lake that is getting bombed; real fun stuff. But if you liked the cover-based shooting from Gears of War, the bulk of your time will be spent doing just that. It’s the bread and butter of the game, and it’s just as strong here as it was in Gears of War.
The multiplayer for Gears 2 was massively popular, both for the usual deathmatch, VIP, and the like, but also for the co-op Horde mode, which pit a team of players against successively tougher waves of enemies. I never played much of these game modes, but they seem attractive enough and, like most addictive multiplayer games, could easily turn into an endless time sink for a player of a certain temperament—hence why I personally stay away from them for the most part these days.
Gears of War 2 does not wow players the way the original game did. It’s not trying to do that. Instead, it delivers a rock solid iteration on a system that already works very well. It’s over-the-top and bloody and vulgar and cheesy, built on a super tight game engine, featuring characters and a conflict that people are invested in. They would have had to try really hard to mess this game up. Instead, they tried really hard to make it marginally better. They succeeded, definitely, but there’s simply no way to marginally improve and make as big of a splash as the first time.