Gears of War 2

Can Epic move things forward again in this year's overcrowded shooting genre?

	Version 360	Developer Epic Games	Publisher Microsoft	Genre Action

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Graphically Gears of War set a new standard for home consoles, and Gears 2 uses better lighting and particle effects to create an even more believable world. Watching sandbags burst and concrete shards fly away as explosions and shrapnel rip through your environmental guardians creates a greater sense of urgency in the war zone. Even if a grenade doesn't blow you into a thousand sticky pieces of crimson tendon and pink-grey brain, it will often see your marine tossed across the room like a seal's first and last introduction to a killer whale. The greater peripheral vision of a third person viewpoint makes Gears stand out amongst so many of its FPS peers.

Gears of War 2's campaign is little longer than the original's, but it includes enough variety to make sure it doesn't outstay its welcome when it essentially provides more of the same. The designers have been busy coming up with several nasty new shades of Locust for your chainsawing pleasure, and in some levels hundreds of them will be charging you at once. The vehicle levels provide a great change of pace, be it steering a monster-truck inspired tank across frozen lakes or sitting shotgun on a Reaver in an aerial battle reminiscent of Space Harrier. There is even an unforgettable level featuring slamming walls and timed runs to make your way through; the sickening crunch caused by carelessness here is one of the goriest moments in gaming yet. This is an injury your squad mates will need a mop, superglue and a bucket of TCP to patch you back up from!

The first Gears was a massive Xbox Live online success, although it arrived at a time when there was much less competition for your subscription. Epic have long been an online gaming expert (Unreal Touranment 3's atrocious "Campaign" was testament to that)and that expertise shines in the perfectly balanced maps, weapons and game types that Gears 2 serves. Warzone, Elimination and Annex all make a return, but the big draw this time around lies in 5 player co-op mode Horde. This sees you and up to 4 of your Live enabled buddies team up across the maps to fight ever-stronger waves of Locust. Good communication and teamwork is must if you wish to see level 50 here.

Of course you can still play through the campaign with a friend (picking a separate difficulty level each if you are playing with your Nan) but Horde's old school arcade shoot-em-up mentality is a refreshing change from the endless team death matches which Halo, COD, R6:V and various other acronyms have been parading in various guises. Those who do want to go back to fighting human opposition will also find a few new game types thrown into the mix. My favourite, Submission, is a capture the flag game, where the flag is an old man armed with a shotgun. Never has a flag fought so hard to avoid capture!

Gears of War 2 is simply a must buy for all fans of the original or shoot-em-ups in general. It delivers a much better campaign than the original did and its online modes (although suffering lag teething problems) and maps are second to none. It offers very little new or original, but as shooting aliens has been a staple of computer games since Space Invaders was released I am quite happy to forgive it. The storyline assures us there is more to come and I can't wait to see more background on the Locust (and more of their insides) in the next instalment!

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