Gears Of War 2 Review

First impressions:

• Lots of cutscenes - about half the game play time feels like I'm watching cutscenes
• To add to that, it seems like someone in the first one complained that there wasn't much story, so they've tried to make up for that and then some.
  
• They have kept the duck and cover mechanic that was so much fun in the first - this is a good thing
  
• There are a few annoying parts where you need to shoot a moving target - very easy with a mouse, (How I anticipate the game was designed) not so easy on the XBOX 360 gamepad that I'm using.
• I'm first playing on the normal difficulty level and there seems to be an aweful lot of level and scare monsters. I'm looking forward to re-playing it on a harder level.
• The AIs for your companions is the best i have come across in any game - they are actually willing to push ahead without you having to force them forwards
• Ammo is (on this difficulty level) plentyful.
• They've (mostly) avoided the current trend in current generation FPSs of making everything 20,000 different shades of grey + blood. There are blues and yellows and everything. This is a very good thing - I can see the georgous game that I'm playing.
  
• The actual combat itself is fun! Contrast this to Prey.
• No more bezerkers (yet). I hated these levels in the first game - the first one was fun/new/challenging; by the 3rd time I was bored and fed up. So far they've avoided this and that's for the best. In a game that's supposed to be a fast paced shooter, sneeking around and stealth are a welcome occasional change of game mechanic, but still not what I bought the game for - stick to what you bought the game for.
• So far no vehicle section - again this is good. If i wanted to play a driving game I'd break out the steering wheel and play PGR 4 - unless they wanted to support using the steering wheel as a method of controlling the combat vehicle - then that would be cool! (for the first time anyway).
• They have a habit of doing: checkpoint, really boring easy section, section that requires you to learn new skill/figure out puzzle. So having a difficult bit after a boring bit means you have to play the same boring bit several times - which grates!
  

Overall, a lot of fun and a very very good looking game. Just don't take it too seriously, even if the person who wrote all the cutscenes that break the flow of the game did.