by Alex Ramirez

Created on: December 03, 2008   Last Updated: April 02, 2010

It's hard to believe that it's been two years since Gears of War first invaded our living rooms, and now it's time for the second entry in the series to follow suit. Epic Games promised several improvements to the already critically successful Gears of War franchise, but Epic Games doesn't always have the best track record as evident by some of the Unreal Tournament games. Luckily, they seem to know exactly where they want the Gears of War series going. A much more moving story, refined gameplay mechanics, and improvements to the Unreal graphics engine keep the game from ever missing a beat.

Gears of War 2 picks up shortly after the first one left off with the humans wondering just how much the lightmass bomb affected the Locust. Since the bomb, attacks have steadily increased from the Locust and many wonder if this is just merely out of desperation. Nevertheless, the Locust eventually push them back to nearly their city Jacinto. The thing that makes Jacinto so special is that the Locust cannot come up through the ground Jacinto is built. So begins the story and it really never looks back. Plenty of plot twists and intense battles await those who ready to tackle the single-player campaign. I don't want to give too much away, but its somewhat anticlimactic end is nothing when compared to what lies at the end of the credits. Let me say, you do not want to miss it.

Epic Games has also included a Horde mode to accompany the single-player campaign which, at times, more than earns its merits. In Horde, you and your friends battle up to 50 waves of enemies that increasingly grow in difficulty. It provides a nice alternative to those who have already completed the campaign but still looking for some coop action. Also, those who don't have a lot of time to make a lot of headway in the campaign will surely love the short bursts of action Horde has to offer.

The world in which all this action takes place looks and feels very similar to the one from the last game. The city, character models, and environments all look great but, like the last game, are plagued by the overall atmosphere rarely changing. It's great for a game to have consistency in its atmosphere but the rate at which Gears recycles textures is just inexcusable. This is actually kind of surprisingly given the fact of how many different places your travel throughout the game. I'm sure many people will undoubtedly claim that a majority of the game takes place underground, and while it does, that doesn't mean

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