I loved Gears of War. Let me get that out of the way first. I’m not an online, quote-spouting, forum-posting fanboy, but I really enjoyed the first Gears of War. It was different from all of the other shooters at the time. Halo was nice and all, but it was a variant on Doom. Most shooters are variants on Doom. Gears of War added tactical combat to the mix. I loved taking cover, working as a team, and closing Locust holes. It was fresh and different to me.

Gears of War 2 isn’t much different. It’s Gears of War refined. I popped out and purchased it at launch and have enjoyed the single player campaign ever since. I also love the coop campaign from both games. Sure, Gears of War 2 does what every sequel does: more weapons, more enemies, more characters. But I wanted more Gears of War and I got it. I love Gears 2 campaign.

Some may balk that it’s just more of the first. Sure, it is a sequel but it’s a new game. The levels play out very differently from Gears 1. The later levels kinda recalled the firefights from the first Gears but other aspects showed a lot of creativity. It would’ve been easy to just recreate the first game with new levels and move on but it shows that the designers were intent on doing something different through level design. There seem to be more and larger bad guys, extremely limited use of the Hammer of Dawn (only in one place, I think), no Beserkers, and many fewer emergence holes. It’s the same basic game but tweaked so as to provide a different experience.

There are a lot of level aspects that harken back to similar stuff from Gears 1. The razorhail reminded me of the Kryll level but it’s more interesting. There are collectible objects like Gears 1 but they now show backstory when picked up. It’s not just collecting, it’s filling in backstory and depth. The vehicle sections are greatly improved over the single level in the first. The execution is back but now that there are multiple executions based on weapons, I actually want to perform them to see them all.

I’ve seen reviews that talk about how the story is heavy handed, especially with Dom’s wife. Frankly, I really enjoyed it. Gears 2 has much more emotional depth than most game stories and I didn’t think it dropped the ball with creating characters that I cared about. I did feel that the story jumped the shark when it is revealed how to destroy the Locust. Basically, in one scene the characters suddenly decide to finish what the Locust had been trying to do at the beginning of the game. That really pulled me out of the game. Surely there’d be much more hesitancy than was given. It just didn’t make sense.

I did appreciate how the game ended. There’s obviously going to be a Gears 3 but if you walk away from the game when the credits roll, you get a real sense of a completed game. With the exception of the escape of a major enemy character, the game feels wrapped up. No Halo 2/Empire Strikes Back unfinished business feeling. Sure, there was a part about a lab containing secrets that weren’t fully revealed and a bit more about Marcus’s father, but these weren’t so necessary to story that they weren’t ignored momentarily for the ending. Rather than being integral to this story, they likely just set up parts of Gears 3.

Delta Squad also feels much more capable. In the first Gears, I often felt like everyone on the squad was rather incompetent. In Gears 2, your squadmates take care of business. There’s an unfortunate trait in which they seem utterly unqualified to handle Reavers (who also seem to come after me to the exclusion of the rest of my team) but they are otherwise helpful in a firefight.

Gears 2 takes some effort to try to show a larger context in which other squads were often in view and sometimes even fighting in the same skirmish. I appreciated the attempt but more often than not, it’s just me and my squad wandering about. I’d love to see Gears 3 show some really epic firefights and give the sense that there’s an entire army at work but Gears 2 simply doesn’t provide that.

I have to step back and mention multiplayer. Epic put a valiant effort into making Gears 2 an awesome multiplayer game. Coop campaign is still a lot of fun and Horde is a fun blastathon, but network gaming is essentially nonexistent for now. This seems to be a common complaint. I played a few rounds the day I purchased Gears 2 but haven’t been able to actually play since then. I’ll try to connect but it bailing me back to trying to find a team. I haven’t played a match online since the first day. This is really a shame. I’ve downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo and been able to connect to games quickly. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Gears 2 simply there yet. I know some people never have this problem, but I simply can’t connect no matter how I’ve got my network configured.

Bottom line: If you liked the campaign from Gears 1, you’ll like Gears 2. If you need the multiplayer from Gears 1, I’d still recommend Gears 2 because it might work and, if it doesn’t, I’m sure it’ll be ironed out sooner rather than later. If you like shooters and want a slower paced, more involved game, try Gears 2. If think every shooter should be like Halo, Gears may not be your cup of tea.