The original Gears of War stands out as one of the big success stories of the HD generation. The fast-paced action and gorgeous graphics won gamers over, and helped Unreal Engine 3.0 become one of the most widely used game engines in the industry. Under the gloss, however, lay a game with a few problems; a shallow, short single-player mode with plot that’s easy to miss and a number of frustrating sequences, and a multiplayer mode with serious balance and latency issues. Epic has taken these complaints on board, and spent the last two years figuring out ways to upgrade the Gears formula. The result is fantastic; not only is Gears of War 2 a worthy sequel, but it improves upon the original game in every way.

Gears of War 2’s story picks up a short time after the events of the first game. The light mass bomb Delta squad detonated underground succeeded in destroying much of the Locusts’ tunnel network, but only strengthened their resolve, resulting in bolder attacks and the sinking of more COG cities. COG forces are fatigued after non-stop fighting, and many are falling ill to Imulsion sickness resulting from the light mass bomb, resulting in a fall back to Jacinto a city that is impervious to the Locusts’ city sinking tactics. After an attack on the Jacinto Hospital (while you’re training Delta’s new rookie, Carmine), COG Command decides it’s time to launch an all-out assault on the Locust stronghold: The Hollow.

Epic has put a lot more emphasis on the story in Gears of War 2, hiring comics scribe Josh Ortega to craft a more weighty narrative. Within the over-arching plot, there are several subplots to try and bring more life and feeling to the characters, such as Dom’s search for his wife Maria. The script itself seems to work against this more mature approach; moments such as Cole’s WWE style dissing of the Locust Queen and Dizzy’s referring to the headlights on his assault derrick “Betty” as “titties” often result in a heavy sighs and face-palming. These situations and the frequent cursing for the sake of cursing would suggest that lead designer Cliff Bleszinski hasn’t grown up as much as he has tried to lead us to believe.

The first thing that players are going to notice about Gears of War 2 is the distinct visual upgrade. Epic claims that the game is running on a new version of Unreal Engine, which they’ve dubbed UE3.25. The most obvious enhancements are in-game lighting, wide open levels, increased numbers of enemy units on screen, enhanced physics and partially destructible environments. Gears of War 2 also uses a greater variety of colours to promote a more realistic world; you’ll see plenty of trees and vegetation, snow capped mountains and frozen lakes – a bit of a contrast to the original’s drab grey and brown underground setting. Characters are especially meaty once again; the Gears still look like a bunch of steroid abusing freaks, but the designs of the new characters and enemies are pretty good nonetheless.

After the short (and optional) training sequence, Gears of War 2 ramps up the pace of the action, and the fighting doesn’t stop until the credits begin to roll. Basic gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game – stop and pop gunplay sequences built around the game’s cover system, blind fire and over the shoulder shooting mechanics. There are a few minor improvements to the basics; clinging to cover is less of an ordeal, your teammates are less likely to run out into open fire and get transformed into Swiss cheese, and they actually try to crawl back to cover when they do fall in battle. In addition to a whole new set of execution moves, players can pick up downed (but not dead) enemies and use them as a “meat shield” to protect them from incoming fire

Gears of War 2 begins to upstage the original rather early in the piece by offering larger scale battles and a variety of different gameplay sequences. The most symbolic example of this comes in the approach to The Hollow on the assault derricks, where plays get the opportunity to dispose of Corpsers and Brumaks (major bosses/threats in the first games) like they’re nothing. The way the game builds up is fantastic – it feels like everything you do over the course of the game is making a great impact against the Locust threat. Many of the scenarios in the game are particularly memorable, such as when Delta squad gets swallowed by a riftworm Pinocchio-style, and has to fight its way out by destroying the creature’s internal organs, or when Cole gets shut down after making another comment about “all dat juice”.

There are a number of new weapons to assist in your crusade against the Locust, though many of them originate from new classes of enemies. The chainsaw-equipped Lancer is still going to be doing most of your Locust disposal, but it’s well supported by the shotgun and the new flamethrower, which is excellent for dealing with wretches, and their new equally fast but rather explosive friends, the tickers. A new heavy weapon class has been added, which is made up of a rather deadly mortar and the mulcher, a high calibre machine gun. Enemies have access to the mortar, which can result in them shelling you from cover, and the mulcher is attached to the new grinder class of enemy, a relative of the boomers from the first game. Some of the drones are also carrying lancers, and trying to carve them up with the chainsaw will trigger the new chainsaw battle, which is in reality just another button mashing exercise, but has a rather gory pay off.

In addition to your regular running and gunning, there are a few vehicle sequences which vary greatly in quality. The Centaur Tank portion is probably one of Gears of War 2’s bad points; the tank controls like a brick with wheels, yet somehow Epic expects you to be able to steer it across an icy lake which is being blasted to bits by mortar fire. It’s a truly frustrating experience, but players will be glad to be able to move on, especially since you get treated to sequences where you control Locust vehicles after this. Even though these portions are pretty much on rails, it’s still a lot of fun being able to blast large numbers of Locust drones while riding atop a reaver.

Gears of War 2’s difficulty has been considerably toned down from the original game. To get an acceptable level of challenge, most players will need to play on the hardcore difficulty setting, and even then, that’s only roughly equivalent to the original game’s normal setting. On the other hand, the insane difficulty mode has been ramped up, but it’s not unlocked until you beat the game. Players don’t seem to be punished for not staying behind cover as they were in the original; it’s almost possible to go for Rambo-style suicide runs, and live to fight another day. The game is considerably longer than the original; it should take a player of reasonable skill about 10-12 hours to beat the game, depending on the difficulty level chosen. It does end rather abruptly though – it seems like there’s a whole lot more to come, and the final boss battle seems like another day at the office, then bam – the credits roll. Cooperative play has been enhanced to allow players to have independent difficulty levels, along with the ability to join a game at any time.

Multiplayer was a point of contention in the first Gears of War, with notable problems such as host advantage and an overpowered shotgun casting a shadow over what was otherwise a fun game. Gears of War 2 does its best to fix the problems of the original game, as well as adding new match types and expanding the amount of players on a server. Ten new maps are available from the outset, with five maps from the original available via a download code provided with the game. The party/lobby system has been improved considerably, making it easy to team up with friends. Bots are also available for offline play or filling up the numbers.

There are nine different multiplayer modes on offer. Many of the old favourites like Warzone and Annex return, and are joined by new modes. Guardian takes the formula from Assassination, but alters it so that players continue playing (albeit with only one life) after the leader dies. Wingman breaks the ten players up into teams of two, allowing for a five-way team deathmatch encounter. Submission is your capture the flag style game, but the flag is substituted for a downed enemy, which must be carted back to your base. The best mode is Horde, which allows five players to take on up to 50 waves of AI-controlled Locust enemies, which become stronger and more accurate with each passing round.

Gears of War 2 is the game the original should have been; an action-packed, large scale shooter that plays as well as it looks. With the exception of the toned down difficulty levels and bad vehicle controls, every aspect of the formula has been significantly improved in this sequel. Gears of War 2 is an amazing experience and a must-play for all Xbox 360 owners.