Gears of War 2

Chuck Norris in a dinner suit

And whilst it's entirely linear, the game exhibits a strange, other-worldly sense of taking the player for an unpredictable ride. It's an undeniably exhilarating trip, and one that pushes all the right buttons to induce gaming euphoria. It's more refined than innovative, mind you, but no real innovation should be necessary or demanded in a series that still feels so remarkably fresh.

So just how do you jazz up a game that almost everybody has played? For a start, Epic have gone back to their original promises for the title and thrown in plenty more stuff to shoot. There are now all kinds of Boomers, for example, carrying all sorts of weapons: one variety of them even tries to bludgeon the life out of you. They've introduced the Tickers, too, which are basically walking land mines, and the Kantu, a member of the supporting Locust cast who is a dab hand at reviving his comrades.

There are gameplay elements like the Rockworm, a self-explanatory creature that mixes up the cover system because it's not a static entity. You twist and turn with it, popping up over its impenetrable hide to take pot-shots at enemies. Moments like these add a new dimension to the gameplay, and even though they sound simple and rudimentary on paper it's surprising just how much depth they lend to the experience.

As for new weapons, you've got the Mortar, a devastating artillery weapon that's reminiscent of Enemy Territory in the implicit difficulties of aiming the bloody thing: it doesn't provide any clues of how much power you need to put into your shot. The Boomshield, a portable shield, makes you harder to hit but means you're stuck with one-handed weapons if you're carrying it. Then there's the Scorcher and the Mulcher, a seriously heavy flamethrower and gatling gun, respectively. They're similar to the heavy weapons in Halo 3 because your movement is severely restricted whilst you're trotting around with them. In a fashion similar to the new enemies, the new arsenal sounds less exciting on paper than it is in the game. In reality, though, the weapons provide a surprising amount of joy during the campaign, and they definitely help brighten the multiplayer modes.

Whilst we're at multiplayer, games can now accommodate ten players, which makes your average game more frantic than before. Maps have been made slightly bigger to accommodate the extra people, and playing online is as good as it ever was. The new weapons have helped enliven multiplayer tremendously, essentially revitalising the whole affair.

Getting in a well-placed mortar shot is incredibly satisfying.

Also worth a mention is the new Horde game type, the undisputed star of Gears 2's online modes. You and a group of human buddies get thrown into a relatively small arena and then are forced to work together and kill wave upon increasingly difficult wave of Locust adversaries. It's remarkably difficult after about wave twenty, so it's much more than a temporary little diversion from deathmatch. It feels similar to something like Smash TV, and I predict it will become a serious mainstay of Xbox Live for a long time to come. Because it's brilliant.

The gameplay, then, is fine. Epic are confident with that, I imagine. If Gears 1 was an excuse to show off a beautiful body, then Gears 2 is about exhibiting that bodies' heart and soul. It's still strong, but it's dapper now as well. Like Chuck Norris in a dinner suit.

Interestingly, new copies of the game come with the Flashback map pack: a code for Xbox Live that gives you versions of five of the original's multiplayer maps, those being Canals, Gridlock, Mansion, Subway and Tyro Station. In a period where the games industry is trying to rally against retailers selling pre-owned titles, what better way to deter people from second-hand copies of the game than creating content that will only be applicable to people who buy the game new?

To conclude, then. Reviewing Gears of War 2 feels slightly redundant because it's a game of so much quality and finesse it basically sells itself. And for anyone that slips through the cracks, Microsoft's humungous advertising campaign will surely bring them up to speed. It's not a game that fails to live up to expectations, though, and manages to confidently strut its stuff in the limelight.

I pity the developers that have to release their games around the same period as this, because Gears of War 2 is magnificent.

96%

By Martin Gaston