There Will Be Blood

Written by Mike Ellis Tuesday, 18 November 2008 15:58

There Will Be Blood

Technology

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

Chainsaws on rifles and bloodthirsty wishes

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,

Chainsaws on rifles and bloodthirsty wishes

New blood, old blood, bad blood, and litres upon litres of regular blood: Gears of War is back. Fans of the original will be glad to know that not a lot has changed; ultimately Gears 2 delivers a top-notch sequel experience, delivering more of what made its predecessor great in precisely the areas you want.

Initially Gears 2 suffers under the weight of expectation, feeling less meaty and satisfying. The whole experience is similar to first impressions of playing Bungie’s Halo 2, like returning to your local pub to find foreign wheat beers have replaced the familiar ale. Change isn’t always a bad thing, though: by the end of the second act the differences become second nature and it’s destructive business as usual. The set-ups where players were surrounded by innumerable foes are gone, with more dynamic scenarios seeing players move through devastated cityscapes at a much faster pace than the original.

Epic Games have put a lot of time and effort into making the action suitably epic. When the original Gears emerged the 360 was still in its relative infancy, but Gears 2 shows just how far the machine can be pushed. Rolling mountain ranges look spectacular and when you are literally blowing chunks out of a Brumak or creeping through pulsing bloody walls, you have to appreciate the mastery at work. With its beefy steroid-infused soldiers that put Arnie to shame, Gears has never aimed for Call of Duty style realism, but the environments are every bit as captivating which is no mean feat considering the almost cartoony feel in parts.

Where Gears failed to capture the raging war boiling around our heroes Marcus and Dom, this time around you are left with no doubt that humanity is pretty much screwed and stretched to breaking point all over planet Sera. Your squad finds itself reduced to small fish in a big skirmish; some sections managed to convey an impressive sense of claustrophobia, with one in particular delivering the biggest scares since Resident Evil 4.

Everything is much more varied: whilst you still find yourself hanging on to your trusty Lancer and Longshot combo, the variety of enemies in which to bury the bullets has vastly increased. You’ll fight them above ground, underground, on huge war barges and on the back of… actually, I won’t spoil that one. Multiplayer has been given a nice lick of paint too, with a selection of new modes adding new twists to classics. Submission, formerly known as ‘Meat Flag’, is notable for its civilian ‘flag’ that won’t hesitate to take a pop at you if you get too close.

The best addition is Horde, pitting up to five players against wave after wave of increasingly hard enemies with the sole aim of killing them all. It leads to desperate stands against intelligently advancing Locust and tense hunts through the level for that last one hiding away in the corner. One big drawback is that multiple players can’t fight online without separate Xbox Live accounts – a strange decision in comparison to online stalwart Halo 3. However since Call of Duty got away with it and became an Xbox Live favourite, maybe it’s not such a big deal.

Gears 2 is a top-notch shooter that stands amongst the best the platform has to offer. It remains to be seen whether it will stand the test of time like its prequel or Halo 3, but with winter setting in, there are definitely worse ways to alleviate essay boredom (or alleviate essays altogether) than to stick it to the Locust all over again.

[4/5]

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