Game: Gears of War 2 X360

[Animeniax]

This came out a couple months back but I just got around to playing it. Pretty cool, even better than the first one. They fixed some of the annoying aspects of the first game and added some gameplay elements to spice things up, like reload bonus/penalty and choosing paths. Otherwise it's a continuation of the first game, which is cool if you liked it, but not so cool if you're against sequels that are basically add-ons.

Weird thing is, I played in an my X360 at home on hardcore difficulty and I had to redo most levels 3 or 4 times to get past. Now I'm playing on hardcore on my friend's loaner X360 and I'm breezing through levels. I still have to repeat a few of the harder levels (boss levels), but it's just altogether easier. Not sure what to make of it.

Game score: A

[KrayZ33]

They fixed some of the annoying aspects of the first game and added some gameplay elements to spice things up, like reload bonus/penalty and choosing paths.

the first one had both too ^^... or do you mean with "choosing paths" that you can go in a totally different direction? I didn't play the second one yet, but I think it's the same, because the paths are for the co-op mode... player 1 goes left player 2 goes right

[Raven]

Yeah, the first game has both things you mentioned.

I love Gears 2, because they took what was already a great game in Gears 1 and just made it bigger, more epic and more bad-ass. I've already played through it twice and loved it even more the second time. Except for the end boss, that was kind of a joke.

It still cracks me up to hear Bender's voice in Marcus'. When he cries out in pain it just sounds exactly like him and adds a humorous edge to it.

[Animeniax]

Oh weird, why can't I recall that they had those things in Gears 1? I don't remember being able to choose going one way or another in the single player mode. And to be honest the reload thing is annoying when you miss it, and I can't remember being annoyed by it from the first game.

One thing that stayed the same: Dom is annoying as f*ck. At least in Gears 2 sometimes you go with Cole, and it's amazing that Cole won't do the dumb stuff Dom does. I guess they wanted to add some personalization to the characters, and Dom is the type to rush in and get killed or get in your line of fire.

Also, if you dawdle while looking for ammo or collectibles, your squad runs ahead and sometimes engages the enemy. This helps you know where to go next, but pisses me off because they score a lot of kills that should be mine.

[KrayZ33]

if you time your reloading wrong your weapon jams and your character says something like "Oh... come on!!" trying to fix it.
and if you time it right the bullets you reload do double-dmg (or at least more dmg, don't know how much exactly)
I've only played in on the PC but I doubt that it's a added feature which wasn't in the Xbox version.

btw, do the COG soldiers still wear this freaking cool helmet? They always remind me of the Final Fantasy movie. Too bad the main characters don't wear them :/
I want to play as Carmine :(

and how about ordering your squad around.. is it like in GOW1 or can you actually do a bit more with them? they were pretty useless in the first one in my opinion

[Animeniax]

I think it must have been added to the PC version because I do not remember the reload bonus thing at all in the first Gears game. I'll see if I can borrow Gears 1 from a friend and try it out.

You can't order your squad at all. I wish it was more like squad shooters like SWAT4 or Star Wars Republic Commando, but it's not. They are still useless in Gears 2 except they kill more enemies.

Do you mean this helmet?
http://gearsofwar.neoseeker.com/w/i/gearsofwar/thumb/1/15/Carmine2.jpg/200px-Carmine2.jpg

[darkshadow]

A. and B. carmine are playable in multiplayer and no, the reload thing was in the 360 version, can't believe how you can forget about that o_O same with the choosing paths.
And you do go with cole a few times in Gears 2.

[animus]

Yeah, the reload damage bonus was in Gears 1 as well. It's really easy to hit after you get the timing down. It took me like 2 minutes playing the game for my first time.

Silly Carmine brothers, always dying.

[KrayZ33]

Yeah, the reload damage bonus was in Gears 1 as well. It's really easy to hit after you get the timing down. It took me like 2 minutes playing the game for my first time.

Silly Carmine brothers, always dying.


hey don't make fun of them :( don't know about his brother but the first Carmine was cool.



Do you mean this helmet?
http://gearsofwar.neoseeker.com/w/i/gearsofwar/thumb/1/15/Carmine2.jpg/200px-Carmine2.jpg

exactly

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/185/91691708vi4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

or watch http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=7gtAsENBOcA&feature=PlayList&p=4705CAC4D88F64D2&playnext=1&index=20 if you haven't seen the movie

they are really similiar and I like them a lot.
and on a sidenot, they were the only cool thing about the movie, but hey... I enjoyed every action scene with them in it ^^

to the reload thingy:
I liked that feature alot, even though it's easy to learn it's more fun this way... it'd be cool if this feature will be added in FPS games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 or so.. (even without the +dmg bonus it would be fine)

[darkshadow]

Not all of them do extra damage, the bonus varies, the flamethrower for instance makes the flame more violent and caries farther.
Oh and B. carmine is even cooler then his brother.

[Stitch]

This review is coming from the same guy who said that God of War 2 is boring because it's too similar to God of War 1.

Come on, now.

[Animeniax]

Right, but one game is a button masher hack and slash, and the other is a badass FPS. Apples and oranges you whiny little bitch.

I just went on the reaver ride and killed the hydra. That was intense.

[animus]

Gears of War isn't a FPS.

[Stitch]

Right, because the simple game mechanic of aim and shoot is so much more complex and intricate in design than button mashing, hack and slash.

According to animus, you can't even get your genres straight, and that wasn't even the first time you were wrong in your own thread.

[Animeniax]

Same thing, it's a shooter versus a button masher game. Shooters are always more fun than button mashers and require a lot more skill. Especially since God of War isn't much of a game in the first place, so making a sequel was unnecessary.

How about some mod action here? Stitch isn't even talking about the game, fucking witless troll. And what makes it "my thread"? It's a thread about a game. You can't even troll correctly. Quoting animus is evidence of that.

[darkshadow]

.... Especially since God of War isn't much of a game in the first place....


game (countable and uncountable; plural games)

1.(countable) A pursuit or activity with rules performed either alone or with others, for the purpose of entertainment.
Shall we play a game?

That was a very ignorant statement right there ;(, just because you didn't like it doesn't make it any less something. What ever happened to stating opinions instead of "facts" ;[

[Animeniax]

There are various degrees of being "game". From those without any game to those playas with bus station skanks on each arm and Escalades with the bling trim. God of War would be the Stitch-game-level game on 16" wheels with the hubcaps fallen off.

[animus]

Same thing, it's a shooter versus a button masher game. Shooters are always more fun than button mashers and require a lot more skill. Especially since God of War isn't much of a game in the first place, so making a sequel was unnecessary.

How about some mod action here? Stitch isn't even talking about the game, fucking witless troll. And what makes it "my thread"? It's a thread about a game. You can't even troll correctly. Quoting animus is evidence of that.

Many people disagree with you, as do I. They're making a third even.

Gears of War 2 requiring skill is laughable compared to real twitch FPS. If you played any of the multiplayer you would probably understand.

[Animeniax]

Yes, and God of War's required skill level is laughable compared to Gears of War. And multi-player FPSs require even more skill than third-person shooters when fighting computer AI. What's your point?

I was thinking Diane Kruger would make an awesome Anya in the movie version of Gears. Stitch could play Baird, since they both do nothing but bitch and complain all the time.

[animus]

The point is, skill is relative. I'll use your analogy. They're "apples and oranges".

It's about time you stopped attempting to flame Stitch. All of your replies after Stitch's have had unwarranted flaming, which is 4 of your 7 posts in this thread.

[Animeniax]

Shrug, it's my thread after all.

Yes skill level is relative, but button mashers will always be at the bottom of the barrel. Even hack and slash games are a step above button mashers.

Gears is the exclusive title that made everyone want to run out and get an X360. Even with its flaws, it's latest iteration is a better game than God of War 1 or 2 or 3 (unless 3 deviates from 1 and 2, but how much variation can you get from a button masher game?).

[animus]

Shrug, it's my thread after all.

Yes skill level is relative, but button mashers will always be at the bottom of the barrel. Even hack and slash games are a step above button mashers.

Gears is the exclusive title that made everyone want to run out and get an X360. Even with its flaws, it's latest iteration is a better game than God of War 1 or 2 or 3 (unless 3 deviates from 1 and 2, but how much variation can you get from a button masher game?).

Probably. But this is probably looking at action games like God of War on normal. Have you tried button mashing your way through on the hardest difficulties? Especially Titan Mode on Inner Sanctum. Good luck trying to button mash that.

[6Zabuza9]

I got gears of war 2 the day it came out. I enjoyed the campaign a lot but however the multiplayer is broken. It lags quite often and theres a lot of bugs which ppl have fun abusing. When I play with friends all that we ever want to do is chainsaw each other in chainsaw battles. Horde is fun to play for the first little while but after u beat it it just gets repetitive.

[Animeniax]

I have yet to buy a game based on its multiplayer offering. Particularly for a game like Gears, I think the standalone campaign should be what you judge a game by, and multiplayer is just a perk.

[animus]

That's what they used to be viewed as. Nowadays, in Shooters for it to score well, it HAS to have a good multiplayer. It's the standard in any shooters now. Sure the Single Player can be unique. But it depends how well the multiplayer is executed where you can get the most for your money. $60 for a game, and you play it's multiplayer 4 hours a day, for a long time compared to say another $60 game that you barely touch or don't play multiplayer in. It's easy to see which game gave you more for your money.

[Animeniax]

If I get all I need from a game's single-player, then it's $60 well spent. Anything else like easter eggs, collectibles, online content, multiplayer, making-of DVDs, posters, etc are perks that usually I can do without. If a game's single-player is lacking, nothing else they add will make up for that.

Edit: I finished the game today. Going through on insane mode now, which just means you die easier and I think the grubs are slightly harder to kill. I'm disappointed they don't send more grubs at you on the hardest level.

Spoiler: like Raven said, the end boss is ridiculous. Just make sure you grab the hammer of dawn the one time it's available in the game and you'll be fine.

[darkshadow]

How does sending more grubs on insane mode be any different then you taking more damage from the normal amount of grubs? The difficulty stays the same.
Plus this way you can mix difficulties in co-op mode.

[Animeniax]

More stuff to kill = more fun. Plus I have this complex where if it's a showdown and I'm shooting something and it's shooting me, I won't stop shooting until one of us is dead. On insane mode, that means I'll die more often than the grub. I also do this in real life with stare downs, games of chicken, and when people are walking on the wrong side of the walkway.

[KrayZ33]

Hahaha...

and when people are walking on the wrong side of the walkway.

this turn out good if you meet someone who is also very stubborn ^^

I really can imagine how it'll look like if 2 people walk into each other and fall to the ground.

but that aside, it's better if they don't throw more enemies at you... it would totally destroy the "tactical"-aspect in the game... go from cover to cover and so on. (even though GoW is far less tactical than GRAW or Las Vegas etc.)
so, making them harder to kill and you easier to die will do the job a lot better.

So I doubt that more to kill will always equal more fun.
For me it's a lot more fun if the enemies become really challanging and you have to watch out what you do and mistakes nearly always result in death.

[Animeniax]

I admit I usually lose those contests if it comes down to it because I'm the smaller guy, and I don't want it to get to the point where we do run into each other and fall down or I get my ass kicked. Since I'm on the correct side of the walkway, it's their fault and I get real pissed off if I have to step aside. But I won't back down from these grubs, so I end up dying a lot.

Yeah you guys are probably right. If there were too many enemies coming at you it would quickly become less tactical and you'd just run out of ammo more often. I imagine your battle buddy kills fewer grubs in insane mode so you have more work to do anyway.

[Animeniax]

I'm playing on insane mode now. It's really not that much more difficult, except Dom acts more like the Dumb from Gears 1. He runs into the fray, gets shot up, then begs you to rescue him. The bad thing is how fast the blood meter goes up, and if you don't rescue him in time then you fail the mission.

Also Carmine consistently gets in your line of fire, as well as running around in circles distracting you. Cole so far has been the best squadmate, but I haven't reached the stages where it's you and him paired up, so we'll see.

I think they turned the difficulty down, so insane is actually about as tough as "hardcore" from Gears 1. Or maybe I'm just better with the X360 controller than I used to be.

[Kagemane_no_Jutsu]

it was a good rent. played through hardcore mode... cant remember the last boss, some giant mutated brumak right? was really anticlimatic and simple if you ask me. but then again epic isn't known for their epic storytelling skills.

I wasn't all that impressed with it, seemed more like gears 1.5 than 2. wouldve been a badass expansion or somethin, deff not worth 60 dollars. campaign was strung out, you can tell they were desperate for time sinks when you start looking for his babys momma. and too many "boss" encounters for my taste. none of them had that OMGWTF feeling as they did in the first game. they lost their edge on this one forsure.

[Animeniax]

I'm not all that impressed with you or your review.

Desperate for time sinks? It's called a storyline, even if it's hackneyed and you could give two shits less about Dom or his chick. They could have just as easily added another unit that needed rescuing or another test facility to explore.

You probably thought Halo was chock full of time sinks. Why make 3 games when they could have made 1 right? Like, for sure!

edit: nothing is more fun than using the chainsaw against melee-only grubs like wretches and sires. You just have to run around with the chainsaw revved and you instantly kill anything you encounter. It's f*cking hilarious.