Second 'Gears of War' trumps first
Morgan Haines
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Entertainment
Epic Games, Inc., most famous for the development of the Unreal Engine that is widely used throughout the video gaming industry, has teamed up with Microsoft Game Studios to bring us the highly-anticipated sequel to "Gears of War," their 2006 Game of the Year.
"Gears of War 2" starts six months after the first game ended, where the humans inhabiting the planet Sera are still in a brutal battle with the Locusts, a subterranean race of vicious humanoid creatures. You play Sergeant Marcus Fenix in the COG army where the soldiers are referred to as "Gears" and you lead the other three members of Delta Squad in an effort to annihilate the Locust threat.
The Locusts attack from underground and have discovered a way to sink whole cities at will with no warning. It is your job to find out how they are doing this and put a stop to it. As the story unfolds you discover how they are sinking the cities along with their plans to overthrow the last human stronghold, Jacinto.
This game is not very different from its predecessor, in terms of game play mechanics. The controls are still the same, but a little more fine tuned with some new options that weren't available in the last game. The cover system works slightly better, there are more options as to what you can do to downed enemies and there are more weapons to choose from.
The upgrades that were made in the Unreal Engine between "Gears 1" and "Gears 2" were mostly visual, but that's never a bad thing. The game has a much brighter look than the dark and dreary tones of the first game and destructible environments that can help in the slaughter of Locust filth.
The sounds of "Gears of War 2" can be as frightening as they are pleasing. During battle, there is intense fighting music that comes to a satisfying conclusion when the last of your enemies dies.
This game has top notch voice acting as well. The voice of Bender from "Futurama" is actually the voice of Marcus Fenix, the main character, but don't let that fool you into thinking that he sounds like an alcoholic robot from TV.
"Gears of War 2" starts six months after the first game ended, where the humans inhabiting the planet Sera are still in a brutal battle with the Locusts, a subterranean race of vicious humanoid creatures. You play Sergeant Marcus Fenix in the COG army where the soldiers are referred to as "Gears" and you lead the other three members of Delta Squad in an effort to annihilate the Locust threat.
The Locusts attack from underground and have discovered a way to sink whole cities at will with no warning. It is your job to find out how they are doing this and put a stop to it. As the story unfolds you discover how they are sinking the cities along with their plans to overthrow the last human stronghold, Jacinto.
This game is not very different from its predecessor, in terms of game play mechanics. The controls are still the same, but a little more fine tuned with some new options that weren't available in the last game. The cover system works slightly better, there are more options as to what you can do to downed enemies and there are more weapons to choose from.
The upgrades that were made in the Unreal Engine between "Gears 1" and "Gears 2" were mostly visual, but that's never a bad thing. The game has a much brighter look than the dark and dreary tones of the first game and destructible environments that can help in the slaughter of Locust filth.
The sounds of "Gears of War 2" can be as frightening as they are pleasing. During battle, there is intense fighting music that comes to a satisfying conclusion when the last of your enemies dies.
This game has top notch voice acting as well. The voice of Bender from "Futurama" is actually the voice of Marcus Fenix, the main character, but don't let that fool you into thinking that he sounds like an alcoholic robot from TV.
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