Gears of War 2 Xbox 360 review

One of the more noticeable differences between movies and video games is that movie sequels universally suck, and game sequels are almost always better than their predecessors. Movie sequels tend to be bland, shallow attempts to mimic the success of their predecessor, while video games take on board everything that made the original work, then enhance it. Even so, Gears of War set a very high benchmark for any successor to match. The strength of the original was in its simple, unabashed machismo, so in the run up to the game's release, we felt a niggling doubt that Epic could provide the same pulpy enjoyment for a second time without overcomplicating things, or just being too samey. Our fear was utterly misplaced. Gears of War 2 takes the winning Gears formula and applies a very simple design philosophy: make everything bigger, better and more badass. In standard combat, enemies are far more numerous and the ranks have been swelled with additional varieties which require slightly different ... (link)