Gears of War 2
Xbox 360
Nostalgia Factor:
There isn’t much for me to say here. Up until last year, I had never even played a Gears of War game. I thought the first game was… fine. Looking back at my review for it, I said it reminded me of a video game version of a Michael Bay film, and I gave it a C+. Honestly, there wasn’t a whole lot about it that was very memorable to me. It was a good, quick time waster. I recall having a fun time while it lasted. That’s about it.
Storyline:
I don’t remember squat about the first game’s storyline. All I remember is that humanity was at war with a hostile, possibly alien species that liked to burrow up and attack from belowground. Here in the sequel, this war is still going on. Rather than simply engaging in a defensive battle, you and your fellow troopers take the war to the aliens. You lead a strike team below the surface of the planet to annihilate the threat once and for all.
I do think Gears 2 struggles with its storytelling. There is actually a lot more going on with the game's storyline than just that small little paragraph above. It is just that everything moves so quickly in the game it is hard for me to remember a whole lot of details. I looked at the game's Wikipedia page and it has this long, detailed plot synopsis. I don't remember anything from that synopsis happening in the game, though! All I remember is a lot of running from point A to point B and shooting enemies. Eventually you make your way deep underneath the surface of the planet where you set off a bomb that hopefully kills the bad guys once and for all. All the other stuff mentioned on the Wiki page, I don't remember at all from the game. I don't know if that is just from me not paying close enough attention as I played, or if it was the game not getting its point across clearly enough. Either way, whenever it is that I play Gears 3 I am going to try to think back and remember what happened in the first two games and I am going to draw a complete blank. I am calling it already!
Gameplay:
Don’t expect a whole lot of variety while you are playing this game. You run, you take cover, you shoot things. You run, you take cover, you shoot things. You run, you take cover, you shoot things. Got that? If I had to compare the game to something I have already played, I guess Uncharted would be the closest thing. Not Uncharted as a whole, just the combat sequences. The way you take cover, the way you fire, the way you reload, even the way you change your weapons are all exactly the same. You are given the opportunity to use vehicles or to man defensive turrets from time to time. You’re still going to be shooting stuff, but you are not going to be running or taking cover for the time being. As far as variety goes, that is something, I guess?
I hope it doesn’t sound like I am being critical of the game. While, yeah, it is a little bit repetitive, it is also a lot of fun. I never got tired of playing this game. It never felt like a drag. In fact, I was having a great time for most of this game, much more so than the first game. A lot of it boils down to how impressive the stages and the set pieces are. My particular favorite is when you and your buddies have to enter a massive worm. Your goal is to find all of its hearts and cut them out with a chainsaw, putting an end to the destructive creature once and for all. The whole thing is incredibly clever to me, especially when the screen starts filling up with blood that threatens to drown your characters. It is so violent and gory and over the top, and I love it. Play through this sequence of the game and tell me you don’t feel like a complete badass after you finish it. I dare you.
So yeah. You big man. You have gun. You shoots things. The premise may be a bit shallow and to the point, but it is FUN. That’s really all that should matter, right?
Graphics:
I can’t say enough about how impressed I am with the game’s visuals. There were several points in the game where I had to stop fighting and simply pause to take in all the impressive sights. Some of the game’s landscapes are quite beautiful. Interiors look really good too, especially when the game’s action takes place in the “real world” on the planet’s surface. I put real world in parentheses because I don’t even think this game is supposed to take place on Earth, that's how much I don't remember about the game's storyline. But whatever. Even though buildings are damaged and in partial ruin, there is still an impressive level of detail that was put in to making things look authentic as possible. You can really see in your mind how things used to look BEFORE all the fighting started.
The characters look great. So do the enemies. Water effects, lighting, smoke, and explosions all look fantastic. The action is fast and furious, and although there is almost always a lot going on onscreen at one time, the game’s framerate never slows down. I can’t believe this game is ten years old. It looks better than some newer games I have played that have been released within the last few years. Good stuff.
Sound:
Everything sounds exactly as it should for this type of game. You are in a war zone, so expect to hear lots of gunfire and explosions. No complaints for me in this category. The characters voices all sound pretty good, certainly miles better than Shenmue, which I had just finished before starting this game. Again: no complaints there.
If I had to criticize one aspect of the game’s sound, it would be its music. Not that the music is bad, necessarily. I just don’t remember any of it. Most games have at least one catchy tune, one memorable track that gets stuck in your head. Gears of War 2 did not. In fact, if you were to play a bunch of the game’s tracks for me, without telling me what game the music was from, I wouldn’t be able to tell you where the music was from. And I just finished playing the game! So yeah. Very forgettable. On the plus side, the music wasn’t BAD. At least I don’t remember it being bad. You’d think I would have noticed if it was.
Overall:
Gears of War 2 is a relatively short game. There are five chapters, and I would say that, at most, each chapter lasts about two hours. So I finished with this pretty quickly. I know that most people play Gears of War games for the online multiplayer aspect, but I don’t care about that. I have never been a big online shooter person. I don’t even know if people still play this game online anymore - it is ten years old, after all. So that aspect of the game is a wash to me. I only care about the single player campaign.
And even though the campaign is short, I still had a lot of fun playing it. All the running and shooting and death never got old for me. Which is weird, because I thought the opposite when I played the first game. I think the game’s set pieces and its bigger battles and grander scale of action was the difference maker for me. It certainly wasn’t the game’s storyline. Even though I just finished the game a few days ago, I have already forgotten most of what the game’s storyline entails.
So yeah. This is not the deepest video game experience I’ve ever had, but that doesn’t mean much. I enjoyed myself. And really, that’s what it is all about. If you don’t have a good time playing a game, then what’s the point? If you are into mindless destruction and want a short, relatively easy game to bide your time, you should check this out. I can’t give it a higher score because so much of the game is not memorable in any way, shape or form. But it is fun while it lasts.
Final Grade:
B
If you liked my review of Gears of War 2, please check out some of my other reviews:
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