Gears of War 2, the second installment of the Gears of War series, continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad. Locked in an increasingly desperate battle against the nightmarish Locust Horde, Gears of War 2 is an epic saga of survival, loss and retribution.
GenreFirst-Person Shooters
Platforms xbox360
DEVELOPER Epic Games | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Gears of War 2 Reviews xbox360
videogamer.com review
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gamestyle.com review
In fact, everything has been improved, from sound design to script and especially the graphics, echoing a more organic feel to the first game’s industrial feel. Nowhere does it feel like there has been changes made for the sake of it, and in fact those changes even extend to taking away things that appear in the first game. You no longer have the limited squad commands from Gears 1, probably because nobody ever used them. Besides, when you can play the entire campaign with a friend in co-op and shout at them to provide cover, who needs to command the AI?Multiplayer returns triumphantly, featuring some new modes and maps, and some old ones as well.
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thunderboltgames.com review
As a sequel, you’d be hard-pushed to track down a game that is as brilliantly structured, nurtured and evolved as Gears of War 2. With a ruthlessly enthralling pace and variation of set pieces, this is an effortlessly superb package. I haven’t enjoyed a game as much as this since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which is surely one of the greatest compliments a title can get. With refined gameplay and a real sense of evolution, Gears of War 2 has sliced the battle for Game of The Year wide open with one limb-dismembering swipe of fury.
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acegamez.co.uk review
The objective of each mode is largely based around destroying the other team but with various twists to the action, depending upon the game type. Warzone is the standard deathmatch, while in Execution the enemy players must be executed in a certain order in order to be eliminated altogether. This is where it’s time to embarrass the competition, as there are a lot more ways to execute your enemies this time around, thanks to unique finishing moves for each weapon – or you can just use them as a lovely meat shield. You really are spoilt for choice! Guardian, however, shines through the rest as the gem of the multiplayer mode. Each team has a leader and they can respawn an infinite number of times – but once your leader bites the dust, the next time you go down, you stay down. These matches can go on forever and it just goes to show that Epic has been listening to the public who don’t want to be waiting on the sidelines for the next round to begin – it’s a hectic battle until a leader falls, at which point victory quickly follows.
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x360magazine.com review
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pgnx.net review
The Unreal Engine 3 has powered dozens of great looking games but it’s clear that no other developer has mastered the engine as well as its creators at Epic Games. Gears of War 2 is an incredible looking game, with almost ungodly detailed character models, razor-sharp textures, and stunning water and lighting effects. Somehow the game manages to throw even more enemies onscreen than before while maintaining a smooth framerate. The levels themselves are even wider and more open than the previous game and aside from simply seeing more enemies onscreen you’ll also a larger variety of (and simply larger in size) enemies.
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ztgamedomain.com review
As you can see, Epic put a lot more attention to the multiplayer with Gears 2. They also added a photo mode. After you have died in a multiplayer match, you can view the battlefield in various ways. And when you get to a view you like (perhaps of a Locust about to get his head squished) you can snap a photo. You can then upload the photos to www.gearsofwar.com.
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g4tv.com review
Two elements that really humanize the beefcakes in Gears 2 are the relationship between Marcus and Dom, and Dom’s quest to find his wife Maria, who has been missing for quite some time (The keen observer may remember Dom asking the stranded, Franklin, in Gears 1, if he had heard anything about Maria.). At the very least, they make the cut scenes more engrossing, and at best, they give you good reason to separate Locust heads from Locust bodies. Another fun moment is Chairman Prescott’s rousing speech. If this Independence-Day-style President’s speech doesn’t make you want to get into the action, then you may not have a soul. Locust Lover!
1up.com review
This level variety is great and assures that you’ll get your mitts on all of the new weapons (handily keeping track of each different weapon kill you get with its “Variety is the Spice of Death” Achievement tracker). Standouts include the flamethrower (one of the few in a 3D game that has some heft to it — it’s a joy to use) and the firebombing mortar, which satisfyingly keeps track of how much power you put in each shot, making subsequent volleys all the more simple.
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gamefocus.ca review
The overall art design has not changed, but it has become more detailed and complex, especially during the later levels when we begin to find out more about the world of Sera and the Locust horde. The character models are more detailed, especially with the Locust which are fantastic looking, especially the Queen and her new minions. Architecture wise the game has some very impressive level design and overall art design which has built upon the first game and given us a beautiful game to run and gun our way through. The particle effects (special effects) are excellent as well; especially the fire, smoke and blowing cinders which some levels are full of and those levels are some of the better looking ones.
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3djuegos.com review
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play.tm review
Back to the gameplay, though: it’s still a title built for co-op, and for that purpose it doesn’t disappoint. There are now even more sections where Marcus and Dom need to split up and cover different routes, and the age-old frustration of the game stopping if one player dies makes a swift return. It’s a bit more forgiving this time around, though, and each player can set the difficulty for their solo sections to something a little bit more comfortable if their partner is better or worse than them. It still makes for occasionally painful segments if you’re both going for completion on the Insane difficulty, mind.
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ign.com review
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gametrailers.com review
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vandal.net review
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gamespot.com review
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gamedaily.com review
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armchairempire.com review
Gears of War 2 is a very good action game and Epic Games has taken full advantage of the groundwork laid by the original, by mixing up the enemies, the locales and even making story an actual component of the game rather than an afterthought. For an action fix, particularly Horde mode, Gears of War 2 is recommended.
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gamingnexus.com review
A deeper story comes with deeper gameplay, and Epic has done a great job tweaking the combat system they pioneered. Marcus (and every other character, friend or enemy) can take cover behind nearly all of the game’s set pieces, from simple concrete barricades to pilfered enemy shields, and even mobile rockworms that inhabit Sera’s caverns. The cover system in Gears 1 was pretty extensive but there were a few times when I’d try to hide behind something and just end up rolling against it. In the sequel, if it looks like cover it is cover 99% of the time, and a lot of the stuff that doesn’t look like cover is too. This makes for a much more fluid, dynamic battlefield, where advancing feels natural and there are very few hitches that interrupt the action. Combat maneuvers, like rolling, sliding and dodging are easier to execute, and can be interrupted if necessary
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gamingxp.com review
Am kommenden Donnerstag geht für viele Xbox 360-Besitzer ein lang gehegter Traum in Erfüllung: Das Action-Game “Gears of War” bekommt nach über zwei Jahren eine Fortsetzung spendiert. Die Entwickler der Epic Games haben sich wieder stark ins Zeug gelegt, um nicht nur die nun verwendete “Unreal 3”-Engine voll auszureizen, sondern auch auf Kritik am Vorgänger einzugehen.
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teletext.co.uk review
The original popularised a dependence on cover in action games that is still copied today and the control system is as elegant as ever – with the game now sticking you to the right bit of scenery with unerring accuracy.
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wired.com review
Gears of War 2 is an exciting, enjoyable experience, cramming in a wide range of action and doing so with an abundance of style. So what’s not to like?
Plenty, especially if you’ve been behind a virtual trigger of some sort since the early days of the shooter genre. The game delivers the same grizzled, gore-laden action we’ve come to expect, and it does it extremely well — but it’s as if the original Gears has gotten a face-lift, and been expanded upon, without much real change.
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