Gears Of War 2

Gears Of War 2 can be considered as a bland main stream game only know for it's above average multiplayer. So is this game as good as everyone says it is or does the single-player wiff of golden piss? Well lets dive into this unknown liquid to find out.

Story: The story follows two of the muscliest humans ever to walk on the plant.It makes Arnold Schwarzenegger look like a pussy, but then they are in full battle gear so they might be skinny men with chin surgery. The main characters are called Marcus and Dom, Marcus's character is more the hard on Sargent not making his emotions get in the way of his duty, which in my book makes him generic. Dom's character is abit over cooked, he has to much emotion on one character (no not Marcus) Maria (close), she's missing Dom's getting upset, a bit too upset in my opinion (well it is written by Joshua Ortega  a writer who did a star wars prequel graphic novel). There are other characters but they are more comic relief than characters.

Now onto the Plot. If you remember in the last game the Locust (a underground race of aliens) try to take over the world (OF COURSE!). At the end of the last game Marcus and Dom use a light-mass bomb to destroy the Locust. Well that didn't stop them, now there back and badder than ever they've destroyed nearly every city there's only one left and even that's struggling to survive. You and the army must take the war back to the Locust where it should be.... underground. The story is O.K. at best but no-where near as good as some other games that follow the same story line.

Gameplay: This is where we get to the heart of the game. The very reason it is so popular is because of what the first Gears Of War did to third-person shooter. It invented the cover system, now seen in nearly every third-person game; e.g. Mass Effect and Army of Two: The 40 Day to name two. Even if the cover system has nearly been done to death, the game stays fresh by it's great pacing, let me give you a example: sometime in the middle of the game you will battle hundreds of enemies underground when all of a sudden a giant worm will eat you...no joke, and you know what, it works. The worm section is probably my favourite part of the game, mainly because it comes out of no where, it's completely different and comes at the right time, in that section there are little to no enemies, you just run threw the inside of the worm looking for its heart(s).

The weapons chew threw meat like it's nothing (did someone say meat physics?) but you'll hardly ever stray from the set of weapons your given ( chainsaw gun, shotgun you get the point). The game is way too easy on the normal difficulty because enemies can unload a full magazine of lead into you and you'll only be slightly worried. Even if you do go down your A.I team mates can help you back to full health,but don't depend on them most of the time they'll be next to you shooting at some wall, later in the game there A.I.  improve (about time) but they're still annoying.

All in all the length and the pacing makes this a must buy for anyone who owns a xbox, it may look like a dumb action game and it is but think of it like Arnold Schwarzenegger, yes it maybe dumb and stupid but my god is it cool.

Liam Hackett

p.s. why is it that every sci-fi game or movie there must be a evil race ruled by some sort of queen?