Gvirus05 has 26 chronicles

1. A Real Gears of War 2 Review
   

   Player Chronicle -- Posted on Nov 11 2008

   I've seen a good handful of chronicles about Gears of War 2 posted recently, but they do not elaborate about the game. I have beaten the campaign, played every multiplayer mode, and have over half of the achievements. It's time for my impressions.
   
   First off, if you didn't like the 3rd person aspect of Gears...nothing has changed. Which is good for those of us who like it. This is a third-person tactical shooter after all. You can't just run out and start shootin like in FPS games, you need to utilize cover and your array of weapons to skillfully take out your enemies while sparing your life. For the most part, the controls and combat haven't changed. While there are some new and fun weapons (flamethrower, mortars FTW!) the core mechanics are the same. The cover system has been tweaked, but only the true Gears fans will notice any difference. Also, there are now a variety of executions to take out your downed-but-not-out enemy. The X button performs a curb-stop, except this time you roll them on their back and crush their face. B is just a melee hit. Y is your special execution, you'll either get on your knees and beat the crap out of them with your fists, or perform a special execution with a weapon. The A button allows you to pick up your enemy and use them as a shield. You can then snap their neck or hold them up for their teammates to kill. Muhaha. One of my favorite things to do is Chainsaw duel. If you and an opponent fire up your chainsaw at the same time, you go into a duel of who can press B the fastest. It has some excitement to the battles as to, "I need to hurry up and win this duel before his teammates find me" type of situation. What a rush. In Gears, when you take enough damage, you fall to your knees. Then enemies can take you out, or you just bleed out. In gears 2, you can tap A to crawl towards your team to be revived, or you can hold R to detonate a grenade when an enemy gets too close. It's awesome to crawl and see a trail of blood left behind. I'm freaking morbid, I know.
   
   One of the main gripes about Gears of War was it's lack of story and short campaign. The new campaign is roughly 10 hrs, it gets longer with difficulty because Insane mode is down-right brutal. I applaud Epic for giving us a storyline that produces emotion and anticipation, but they left more questions unanswered than answered. Part of the story is the search for Dom's wife. This really does add the human element to the main characters. While Marcus is still the bada** locus killer, it makes sense to have Dom, the level-headed, emotion showing character to have the love story. The battles in the campaign are a lot more epic. You fight more locus at a time. The boss battles are EPIC (except for the ending boss, what a pushover). There are some driving/flying levels. The driving is a bit sloppy, but manageable. Overall the campaign is better and enjoyable, but quit leaving important facts unanswered. Obviously the game sets up for another sequel, so we will just wait until then.
   
   Multiplayer is still awesome. Although I'm a bit upset now, instead of just searching for the type of match you want, you have to choose a category that has a list of matches in it. (Like Halo) So I can't just go play some execution, I have to play "Elimination" which consists of Warzone, Execution, and Guardian. While this allows the player a chance to experience every type, I just want to play my f***ing execution. Oh well. There is a ranking system similar to halo as well. I guess it's so the n00bs won't get pwned by experienced player. Makes no difference to me, my rank is on its way up. I don't care what your skill is, I will still grenade tag your a**. .
   
   There are many types of multiplayer modes, including some new ones. Submission is like capture the flag, except each team tries to capture a surviving human. You have to shoot him down, pick him up, and take him to a location. Very fun, very funny.
   Wingman is pretty awesome. There are 5 teams of two out to kill each other. My favorite of all the new modes is Horde.
   
   Horde allows up to 5 players to take on 50 waves of locusts. Each wave gets harder and harder. Ammo is scarce, for the most part, there are no weapon spawns on the map. You have to take what your dead enemies leave behind. If you die, you get revived if your team makes it to the next round, or if your team dies and you have to retry. I've spent hours in this mode with friends. So addictive. I'm up to round 37 and it gets BRUTAL.
   
   Along with the 10 new maps gears 2 ships with, you can obtain 5 remade maps from the first. My LE came with a code for them, I dunno if the regular game gives you the code or not. Anyway, they have remade Manion, Tyro Station, Canals, Gridlock, and Subway. The levels have changed a bit in appearance, but are laid out the same. For example, Gridlock is now covered with overgrowth while canals is frozen over in a blizzard. The new maps are pretty fun. Some of them have changing elements. Hail is a map where after a minute or so, razor hail falls from the sky, you have to take cover or get shredded. Avalanche is a mountain town in a snowstorm. If you hear sirens, you better run for cover from the oncoming avalanche. etc etc.
   
   Overall, Gears of War 2 is a fantastic experience. While I have some gripes, the good definitely pwn the bad. All I can say is, if you wanna play horde, just let me know.
   
   Score 9/10

   
   

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Gvirus05 has 2 comment s on this chronicle.

1. Gvirus05
   Posted On Nov 12 2008

   [This chronicle comment has been deleted by the chronicle owner]

2. BEN
   Posted On Nov 11 2008

   Wow, love the details and insight you had in this game review! I've been hearing nothing but good things about Gears of War 2, so it's nice to hear some more in depth opinions from an experienced player. Thanks for doing your best to also keep it clean. That approach is much appreciated and will be more respected all around I'm sure.
   
   With video game reviews like this, I'd love to challenge you for another one on a different title of your choice!