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Gears of War 2 | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $40.73
You Save: $19.26 (32%)
New (41) Used (30) from $35.55
Rating:  161 reviews
Sales Rank: 29
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: shooter_action_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: C3U-00001
Model: C3U-00001
UPC: 882224691635
EAN: 0882224691635
ASIN: B000ZK9QD2
Release Date: November 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.
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| Features:
| • | Award-winning sequel picks up six months after the events of the blockbuster original | | • | Innovative third-person tactical action gameplay; Xbox LIVE delivers online multiplayer (up to 10 simultaneous players) and cooperative action | | • | Unreal Engine 3 delivers jaw-dropping graphics; new effects include ambient occlusion, dynamic shadows, advanced destructible environments, and more | | • | Winner of several awards at E3 2008, including Overall Best Shooting Game, Overall Best Graphics Technology, and Best Action Game | | • | Original cast of characters returns, including Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, as well as several newcomers |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The gears of war continue to turn as Marcus Fenix and his squad of Cogs go back into action. Gears of War 2 continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad, locked in an increasingly desperate battle against the nightmarish Locust Horde for the survival of humanity. It is an epic saga of survival, loss, and retribution. Gears of War 2 raises the bar with the amazing technological advances of Unreal Engine 3, delivering a bigger, badder, and more intense experience.
Party system and skill-based online matchmaking - form a full or partial team with friends and continue together from match to match without the need to reform after each game. A skill-based online matchmaking system groups players of similar skill level together in competitive multiplayer matches
Amazon.com Product Description
The wait is over, Gears of War 2 has arrived. Ever since the original was released, fans have clamored for this sequel. Developed exclusively for the Xbox 360 by Epic Games, Gears of War 2, which has already garnered several awards, picks up six months after the events of the blockbuster original Gears of War. Players are thrown back into the role of Marcus Fenix, leading the battle for humankind's survival against the Locust Horde. With innovative third-person tactical action gameplay and unsurpassed high-definition graphics, Gears of War 2 is a must-have game for the Xbox 360.  | Gears of War 2
Players:
Offline: 1-4
Online: 10
Gameplay Modes:
Single player, competitive multiplayer, cooperative multiplayer, system link multiplayer, online multiplayer with voice support.
Format:
16:9 Widescreen on HDTV 480p, 720p, and 1080i. |  | | 
Gears of War 2 offers stunningly realistic, vast environments to play in. View larger. | 
The enemies in Gear of War 2 are huge and downright nasty. View larger. | Huge Environments, Bigger Gameplay
For those who loved Gears of War, Gears of War 2 builds upon it in every way, but with several major enhancements. There are more weapons, bigger vehicles, and more action. The enemies are more dangerous, and the total experiences is more immersive than ever. And with a revolutionary tactical combat system, the game will require not just fast reaction times and shooting skill, it will also challenge you to devise a strategy that will work against the enemies who exhibit smart AI. Jaw-Dropping, Realistic Graphics
Just as Gears of War did the first time around, Gears of War 2 ups the ante for graphical prowess. Combined with the sweeping vistas and evocative locales of Sera, where the story takes place, Gears of War 2 offers jaw-dropping graphics that are made possible through advances in Unreal Engine 3. New visual effects include ambient occlusion, dynamic shadows, improved character lighting, the ability to render hundreds of on-screen characters simultaneously, improved water physics, additional blood and bullet decals, advanced destructible environments, new weather effects, and the introduction of fluid objects. Immersive, Gripping Story
Taking place six months after the end of the first game, Gears of War 2 returns the cast of characters of the original, including Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, as well as several newcomers. Novelist and comic book writer Joshua Ortega, who assisted with the writing, has created a story that is big on character development and personality. With a new in-game conversational camera system and multiple story arcs, the story is presented in a gripping cinematic style where characters gain an emotional depth that matches their realistic graphical representation. More Characters, Upgraded Vehicles, Badder Weapons
Those who were impressed by the original Gears of War will be in for a real treat. New characters such as Tai Kaliso, weapons like the burst pistol, and huge vehicles like the COG Centaur tank will give players a whole new dimension and scope of gameplay in both single-player and multi-player modes.
  
Multiplayer Action with Xbox LIVE!
Gears of War 2 features a multiplayer mode that allows up to 10 simultaneous players for outstanding multiplayer fun. Taking full advantage of the Xbox LIVE service, which boasts 10 million gamers, Gears of War 2 features both competitive and cooperative multiplayer gameplay. Setting up games is simple with LIVE, and you have the ability to drop in and out of co-operative campaigns at any time. Everything you loved about multiplayer in the original is back, including the classic death matches, but with this sequel there is an added emphasis on teamwork. New multiplayer game modes will require better coordination in order to win. The game also features voice support, so you can communicate with other players around the world -- whether you're on the same team or trash talking! Gears of War 2 won several awards at E3 2008, where it was first presented, including Overall Best Shooting Game and Overall Best Graphics Technology of E3 2008 from IGN, as well as Best Action Game of E3 2008 from the Game Critics Awards.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 156 more reviews...
 Very solid gameplay; story could have used a little more refining + better integration November 8, 2008
Shann Yu (Nashville, TN)
55 out of 67 found this review helpful
To start off, I played the first Gears for the campaign/co-op campaign. And I purchased this game for the same reason, so if you're looking to know more about multiplayer gameplay, check out another review. That said, this game plays very well, very much like a thrill ride for the most part. Story can use a lot more refining and better integration. This gets a 5-star in its own right. But Halo 3 and BioShock are still better games overall than GoW 2.
GAMEPLAY: A+
This game still plays like the first Gears, except with a wider array of weapons and features (ie, chainsaw battles, different modes of executing a downed enemy). This is a third person shooter, for those who have not played the first one. And also, expect a lot of blood and violence, so if you are parents considering this game for your children, this serves as fair warning.
The campaign takes longer to beat this time around (10-20h I think). The graphics are very beautiful and realistic, and a lot more 'vibrant'. The first Gears was in general a very dark and gloomy game. You see a lot more color in this one. Co-op campaign gameplay continues to be addictive and I think a strength in this game. It is still as immersive an experience for all players involved as the first Gears was.
Further, the creators definitely outdid themselves in design of the levels. You should expect to be pleasantly surprised with every single level that comes up. While you can clearly expect to see yourself running around in the streets battling waves after waves of Locust, you will also see another order of magnitude of fighting, with sometimes even as many as 80-100 Locust rushing through your field of view. To emphasize the creativity of the creators, there was also, at various points later in the game (spoiler warning), a section where you had to traverse a pitch-black tunnel to safely escort a vehicle across, and even a level where your squad somehow ends up inside one of the Locust beasts and had to fight your way out...
Overall, this game has been quite an experience. It deserves an A+ and Game of the Year awards.
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STORY: B
Given that this game promised to have more leads on the storyline of the series than the first one, it does a better job. A lot of the early story is centered around Dom and him trying to find his wife, amidst all the fighting. The voice acting is compelling for the most part, and you can tell a lot more easily that it's a dark time for humanity on this fictional planet. In the first Gears, playing through the story was mostly humorous because of the way all the guys were joking around in between fight scenes and the light talk that went on. In this Gears, those dialogues are still present, but with a lot more of a sense of urgency mixed in here and there. And cutscenes are well made. The script is definitely that of a cheesy scifi as some of my buddies like to call it.
Finally, instead of COG tags for collection, we have bits and pieces of 'collectibles' like newspaper clippings, ads, so on and so forth that in some cases contribute to the backstory a little bit, kind of like the way those terminals worked in Halo 3. All of these, when found, are put in some scrapbook that's accessible from the Main Menu, and arranged in a more or less logical order.
The reason the story only gets a B+: if you think about games like BioShock and Mass Effect and the Halo series with their very immersive storylines, GoW 2 is still not quite there. But it is closer to that state now than it was previously.
I won't reveal any more in this part, but definitely expect a lot more of a plot that serves as a backdrop to all the fighting that's going on. Epic Games did a good job of piquing your interest and making you want to learn more.
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CHARACTERS: B
The characters come across a lot more human in this one. I have mentioned that the mood in this game comes across with a lot more of a sense of urgency to beat the Locust. As you play the game, you begin to feel more and more of a connection with each of the characters and in some cases, almost have to just stop playing when certain characters die... Let's leave it at that.
All that said, the game needs a better scriptwriter if it is to convey a stronger storyline.
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REPLAYABILITY: A
With the first game, I recall beating it my first time around with a friend on Hardcore, and then on Insane, and then going around and helping each of my roommates and a good number of friends beat the game on both difficulty settings. The same will probably hold for this game. I think it's a thrilling enough of a ride that I wouldn't mind going over it over and over and over...
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To sum up, this game is definitely worth the $60.
PROS: This is all about gameplay and the feel of the game. Even on top of all the additional features and improvements, it is still undoubtedly Gears of War. The controls remain very intuitive and easy to learn. It's easily one of the best 3rd person shooters out there, in my opinion.
CONS: I think storyline could have been a lot deeper. I guess they are saving this for Gears of War 3. Violence may be a little too much for the unprepared. Right now, this is all I can think of.
FINAL VERDICT: A. This is a very well-made game. I have the tendency to buy games and sell them back when I'm done. But I think GoW 2 will probably be a mainstay in my library, just as GoW was. For that, plus all the +'s I have mentioned, I think this game deserves an awesome grade. Can I hear Game of the Year?
 Multiplayer not as good as Gears 1 November 10, 2008
gringote (Mid-Missouri)
19 out of 30 found this review helpful
Pros:
1) Better graphics
2) Some cool new weapons
Cons:
1) Shotgun sucks now. Blindfiring is very innacurate and shotgun battles are history.
2) Lancer is the only weapon you can use with success. It destroys everything in its path.
3) Chainsawing is way too easy. It is very difficult to disarm someone's chainsaw and about 80% of the kills I'm seeing today are chainsaw kills.
4) The game seems slower. In order to keep people from charging with shotgun, the game designers made it impossible to shoot your weapon while your a button is pressed down so you can't shoot immediately while running. You have to release the a button and then shoot. In the case of shotgun, you pretty much have to aim w/ left trigger to get it to kill anyone. Running also seems slower in general. To keep people from wall bouncing, they somehow made everything clunky and heavy feeling. If you felt like a cheetah in Gears 1, you feel like a gorilla in gears 2. Slow and lumbering.
5) Stopping power - lancer fire slows you down, which was also a way to stop shot gun charging, however the result is that the lancer is the only gun that is effective in most fights.
6) Stunning smoke grenades - smoke grenades now make you fall down if you are in the vicinity of the blast. Games are devolving into smoke grenade battles to knock someone down and then move in for an easy kill.
7) Proximity mines - you are now able to stick your grenades to walls so when someone walks by, they're either dead or on their butt. This prohibits you from running freely around the map looking for enemies and also encourages camping.
I would much rather play GoW 1 Online. Epic should have just done the following:
1) Improve graphics
2) Add new weapons
3) Add new maps
4) Add a few new characters
5) Keep everything else the same
The hype on this game was incredible. The end result was disappointing to anyone who played Geow1 faithfully. New players may like this one better because all they have to do is use the lancer and chainsaw and they can beat even the best GeoW1 players.
EPIC - FIX THIS GAME!!!
 Same Old Mistakes + more November 21, 2008
mrfatpockets (CA)
19 out of 36 found this review helpful
I would like to start off by saying Gears of War is by far one of my favorite multiplayer games of all time. That being said it has always been plagued by unforgivable bugs that cause me great pain when i think of all the fun that could have been had with this game.
Multiplayer...
Number ONE:
Matchmaking issues that should have been fixed were exacerbated by the inclusion of teams of 5 players and a ranking system. This game by far has one of the worst matchmaking systems i have ever used. Why should you have to wait for 5 minutes while a full game is created? Well because for some odd reason you are unable to join a match in progress. If they would have just copied the normal matchmaking style where you continuously fight with the same people until they get tired of it or you get tired of it, and rounds just keep rotating through, the jump in jump out model of matchmaking would have worked perfectly. Really all the problems that plague matchmaking in Gears has to do with the fact that you can't jump into a match that is already in progress: unfair teams (3 v 5), long waits to play, having to wait after every match, etc.
Number TWO:
Superweapons (boomshot, torque, hammer, and mortar) cause matches to be repetitive and one-sided. I understand that this will always happen in all mutliplayer games with pickups. The battles tend to focus on the uberweapons and then when one group gets the weapon the match is pretty much over unless the other team has some great players. For maps with a boomshot it is always the same thing over and over again, go for the boomshot and win the match. The other weapons don't affect the tide of battle as much but still cause the battle to center around them which gets very repetitive.
Number THREE:
The problems with the chainsaw are not new but some things were fixed while new problems arose. The biggest issue which really... really needs to be fixed is that there is no timer on revving your chainsaw after you get hit. You can just run through a shotgun blast and then latch on to your target with the chainsaw. It doesn't even stagger them to get hit with a bullet, so if you have any other gun out but the lancer your screwed... seeing as how it is the only automatic weapon.
...fix these three issues and I will be happy. Number 2 would require the addition of a new game mode or a choice for players before the match starts for no special pickups, just ammo.
Singleplayer...
Number ONE:
I have gotten stuck 3 times already: once in multiplayer and twice in singleplayer. It only bothered me in singleplayer because I was of the way through a boss battle when it happened the second time and had to start all over. And what puzzled me about where I got stuck was that it was on flat ground.
Number TWO:
Tank and rail portions of the game. It is great that they want to break up the monotony of the game by adding a tank level and a few rail shooting parts but come on. The tank level was the hardest part of the game... and not hard in a "My strategy needs a little fine tuning hard"... it was hard in the way where you throw your controller and turn off the game. This is due to bad design. It is never ok to cause the player to go up against something that is a one shot kill and can't be predicted. This gets even worse because if you make one mistake you die and have to start back further than where you died (ICE anyone?). Something like the tank and rail portions of the game should only serve as light interludes to the normal Gears gameplay not nuisances that remove the fun and replace it with frustration.
Note:
Most of these negatives are inexcusable because this is a sequel that uses the exact same engine. They added a few features; but other than that it is the same game. It is hard to believe that any good designer could have labeled these flaws as acceptable or that any tester worth his weight would let them go unnoticed. It is equally as hard to believe that it took 2 years to make this game with the pittance of new features and the minuscule length of the story.
Positives...
Great story.
Great gameplay.
Solid multiplayer (once you get passed the gatekeeper).
Gears of Garbage 2 November 7, 2008
Shawn Stowell
18 out of 83 found this review helpful
Now before i start i want to say i loved Gears of War 1. With that out of the way, Gears of War 2 is a complete disaster. From the moment i popped it into my 360 Elite to when i popped it back out after a couple hours of campaign and a few games of multiplayer. I already sold it back to GameStop. Epic should change their company name to Epic Fail because they sure did drop the ball on this game.
Where do i even start? I guess i'll start with the campaign. It's decent, just a Gears of War 1 rehash, nothing more. Definitely forgettable. The dialogue is completely childish and immature this time around throughout the entire game. Dom does nothing but [...] all game, it gets really old after about the first mission. It just feels so clunky and thrown off.
Now onto my favorite mode and what kills the game for me, Multiplayer. What the heck was Cliffy B smoking when he made this game? The multiplayer is a sheer disaster. Instead of being able to chose what type of game mode you want to play you have to vote now. You can't even choose your team. It's like Halo 3 gone wrong. It's just bad. The shotgun, which was the best weapon and most fun in Gears of War 1 has been completely dumbed down and is now one of the weakest weapons in the game. This game caters to all the Gears of War 1 cry babies that sucked at the game. If you were a lancer noob from Gears of War 1 this game will probably be right down your alley.
1/5 stars, would of gave it zero if i could. Don't buy this game, don't even rent it. Save your money, Gears 2 is just a rehash of the first game that hasn't improved at all. Buy Resistance 2 for the Ps3, it's the best shooter this generation and the best i've ever played. R2 is easily Game of The Year
LESS ACTION NO GUEST - NO FUN November 7, 2008
Laurie Clark (Michigan)
15 out of 104 found this review helpful
I loved gears 1 online although I was not a huge fan of the story, although I doubt anyone was because they purposly made the dialogue like a cheesy scifi. But the greatest part of it was bring guest online and playing with your friends. As is such the appeal of halo. I was really looking forward to going home opening up and playing with my friend who has waited in line with me for 2 hours. I logged online and spent 10 minutes trying to find how to log a guest in till I realized they had not included that feature in gears 2. In my opinion the worste mistake they could have possibly made. Not only that, but they have also made several key tweaks to the weapons that add up to make mediocre online play. For example the smoke grenade now stuns. Considering every player in the game starts off with one of these it makes it impossible to hold cover. It has already become quiet common for a gun battle to just turn into an exchange of smoke grenades. Also they have make it so you can turn frag grenades into a sort of makeshift mine. Naturally players are just standing on the frag grenades waiting for them to repop so they can put them in your spawn. They have also added a pointless ability to crawl while you are down. This is not only pointless its humiliating. Dont be mistaken, their is not escaping when you are down. It just makes it funner to humiliate you for the other team. Another wonderful addition is the shotgun is now even MORE powerful. Although they have managed to make it possible to keep them at bay from a range. Close range the shotgun is now extremely powerful and accurate. It is not at all uncommon to be eliminated by the first shot, which pairs just wonderfully with the smoke grenade stun. The game has just turned into a race for who can through a smoke grenade faster. Another huge dissapointment is the game types promised and maps. The new game types simply dont offer the excitement that simple execution and warzone provided in gears one, and the maps often foster overuse of smoke grenades and frag mines. I can say though the roadie run and cover system has improved vastly. The campaigne play is much funner, and the story is much more involving. But as a person who would only by a game for only play I am extremely dissapointed. Between no longer playing with guest, a very unbalanced play style, and not delivering on new game types, my worste fears of come true. After months and months of waiting Gears of war 2...... Sucks
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