Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2

Gears of War was a slick and cinematic rollercoaster ride of run and gun gameplay, its rock-solid cover system innovative, its washed out colour palette iconic and its alien-breaking subject matter unexpectedly fresh. Since the original's release there have been many pretenders to its throne. But none has quite had the style, force, belief or budget to match the Xbox 360's flagship effort.

So it falls to this sequel to up the ante, a task it carries out both with raw statistics – four new multiplayer modes, support for 10 players instead of just eight, a host of new weapons including a flamethrower – and jaw-dropping execution. The result is a suite of compelling multiplayer modes and a ten-hour single player campaign that never lets up the pace as you race through a war-torn earth in the battle for humanity’s very survival.

The story takes place six months after the events of the first game, the invading alien Locust forces now so powerful that they can sink entire cities from below. In contrast, humanity is on its last legs, waging a war it can no longer afford to fuel in due to depleted resources and a new scourge of the army, the disease known as Rust Lung. Into this breach step Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, the musclebound, oversized men of Delta Squad who stand with their guns and grenades in between the invaders and humanity’s extinction.

Mechanically Gears 2 is almost identical to its forebear, save for refinements that help the interactions feel even more solid than before. Now you cling more accurately to cover surfaces (Marcus leaping behind the nearest low wall or pillar with a tap of the A-button) while the weapons are all supremely well balanced, the machine gun complementing the pistol, rifle and grenades to offer firepower suitable to any situation.

When knocked down by enemies not only can you be healed by team-mates but, to speed up the process, you can also tap A to crawl toward them. This subtle tweak makes a big difference as you try to make it to safety, praying that you make it round a corner before the opposition flattens your head under the tread of a heavy boot. In close quarters you can use the machine gun’s on-board chainsaw to tear into both obstacles and enemies, now with the option to tear upwards from the crotch if you attack an enemy from behind.

As with the previous title, the whole of the campaign features drop-in play whereby friends can back you up - arguably the best way to enjoy the experience. Gear of War2 is a true spectacle, stretching and showboating the Unreal Engine to provide some mesmerizing outdoor environments and gigantic underground cavern levels. With dozens of enemies on screen at once and huge structures and bosses to contend with, the game is of a dizzyingly grand scale and succeeds in bettering the original and contemporary competitors in almost every way.

5 out of 5