Gears of War 2

The first thing I have to say is that the multiplayer is awful. First off, the time it takes to get a game is unbelievably slow. In Gears of War 1, I could play about 20 games in an hour - probably more - but in Gears of War 2, I could play about 7, and that is pushing it. Personally, I think the reason for this is that Gears of War 2 tried too hard to imitate the multiplayer giants on the 360 like Halo 3. Meaning that EPIC had so much passion for their work, which I can't deny, that they wanted to make it the greatest game of all time, thus trying - but failing - to duplicate Halo's matchmaking system. This is probably because it was their first go at it, thus it was done badly. They don't really have a grasp on how to code matchmaking, because in Gears of War 1, all you did was see what games are available, and choose the one with the best connection, or if its on a map that you like etc. But I'm not trying to make excuses on EPIC's behalf, they should have kept to what worked....

Gears of War 2 is the sequel to the groundbreaking, original Gears of War. It comes with new modes, new features, and of course a continuation of the Locust killing campaign. It also comes back with a groundbreaking Multiplayer for players to test their skills against one another through Xbox LIVE.

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The campaign for the second Gears has been slightly upgraded and has a more followable route taken to it. You start from the Jacinto Hospital some time after the lightmass bombing. The Cog realize that the bomb didn't hit the Locust nearly quite as hard as they had planned, as they are coming back stronger than even sinking one city after another until Jacinto was the last one left.

This time around though, your taking the fight to their home turf to try and finish them were it hurts the most. Although this time it gets a bit harder as the enemy is coming in with new Locust...

THE GOOD:
Gears Of War II is exactly the same as Gears Of War I - Fantastic. After playing the game through, I have become completely engrosed in the game, and find it hard to switch off my Xbox360 console. The graphics are just as excellent as the previous Gears, the Gameplay is even better (With the Chainsaw features (Chainsaw'ing from behind, actually cutting through things, etc.)) and Gears II contains something that for me, wasn't in Gears I - A storyline.

In the previous game, you were pretty much thrown into the middle of things without a clue; however Gears II gives the player a much better knowledge of the history of the Locust, why the war is happening and more importantly; the depth of the characters. Dom, an underestimated character in the first game, has really come to life in the second. The player gets a preview of his home life with his wife, and in a way the storyline goes more into the personal, emotive side of the war between Locust and...

THE GOOD:
Graphics- This time around, Epic has turned the best graphics on the 360, on there head. No game holds a candle to the level of detail in these visuals. Clean crisp textures, fluid and correct animations, to the most advanced water and lighting effects to date. The unreal engine 3.5 really cranks out the looks on this one.

Sound- Sound design is similarly well done. Weapons sound like you'd imagine, maybe a little weak at times, but they sound right to me. Some guns have gotten new sound files, like the Sniper rifle, Boltok and Lancer. Voice acting is done pretty well, again and the characters sound like they mean it. In short, the sound is pretty damned good.

Gameplay- Single player in Gears of War wasn't much to yell and holler about. You could only play campaign, after that if you didn't have live [like I don't] you were screwed. This problem has been fixed in Gears of War 2. Not only does the story mode actually have a story. But...