New Weapons, Same Dull, Rusty Gears

Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately—it’s not that Gears of War 2 is by any means a bad game. It looks extraordinary, just as the first one did. It is fun on the first play-through, delivering blockbuster action that makes its predecessor pale in comparison. The sequel also vastly improves level variety, the original’s most pressing problem. So why am I skeptical of the game? If the lesson of 2006’s Gears taught us anything, it’s that Epic Games, the game’s developer, is adept at creating blockbuster single-player campaigns that initially satisfy but end up disappointing. The seeds of that disappointment have definitely been planted in this game.

The core gameplay mechanics remain intact. Gears is all about “stop and pop,” a system in which the players carefully make their way across an intense and dynamic battlefield, taking cover against walls, pillars, cars, tables, and couches, while eliminating enemies in order to advance. At its core, this system is repetitive and sometimes tedious, but there is no doubt that it is highly addictive. Anybody who found the first game irresistible will not be disappointed by this one.

There are also new weapons to use, such as the always-satisfying flamethrower, as well as a mortar that serves the same gameplay function as the Hammer of Dawn from the original. The game encourages you to use as many different weapons as you can, giving you achievement points for eliminating enemies creatively.

Such gameplay is made even more fun by the game’s biggest improvement—level design. Where the first revolved around cramped, dark interiors and monster closets (specific points in the game where enemies are triggered and must be defeated for the player to advance), Gears 2 constantly drops the player into new environments that create impressive surprises and challenges. Epic put in everything from turret sections to flying pillars that threaten to flatten and demand to be dodged. I won’t ruin some of the best parts, but let it suffice to say that most of these episodes trump the excitement and fun of the famous berserker scenes from the first.

There is a downside to these roller coaster rides, however. Many can be frustrating. The turret section is probably the most maddening part, as enemies come at you from every imaginable direction, and you’re expected to hold them all off. In a game as linear as this, one bad section throws off the entire experience, and I expect many players to be frustrated by the difficulty of some of these action set pieces.

Despite the initial fun, I can’t help but wonder if Gears of War 2 will hold up. While I am sure that the multiplayer modes will be popular for a while, I worry that this game will disappoint players just like the first one. After the shiny veneer of the initial play is peeled away, I’m sure that the flaws will become more evident and problematic.