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It's safe to say that sales dictate the commercial success of a game, but a gaming success is something that latches onto the collective consciousness of the gaming community and doesn’t let go. These two goals have traditionally been mutually exclusive with the odd exception, and one of those exceptions was Gears of War (GOW). GOW was a product of Cliff Bleszinksi (AKA ‘The developer formerly known as Cliffy B’) from Epic Games. It was released in late 2006 and instantly filled a void that gamers didn’t even realize existed. It had (and still has) a great plot, stunning graphics with a fresh and intimate, albeit stunted, online experience. It seemed like it was assisted to greatness by divine providence, especially when you consider that the Australian censors slammed Fallout 3 for using morphine shots, but apparently using a chainsaw bayonet to carve your opponent in two even halves lengthways was perfectly fine. It sold 3 million copies in the first 10 weeks and soon after its release a sequel was expected and later confirmed by Epic Games. So the question is how do you improve on greatness? The weight of expectation was very heavy, and now that GOW2 has hit the shelves and the wait is finally over, have Epic Games delivered?

GOW segues nicely into GOW2 in terms of plot progression. Once again you play Marcus Fenix, a COG who has now achieved legendary status amongst the COG troops as a result of his activities in GOW. The single player campaign starts with a new Rookie being assigned to your team, and you are reintroduced to the controls with the aid of a tutorial where Fenix shows the newbie some COG moves. You can skip this tutorial if you wish as not long after that you are dealing with some bad dudes. It doesn’t take long for you to realise that this is not a mere rehash of GOW. One of the first things you notice is just how good the game looks. The graphics in GOW were (and still are) impressive, but GOW2 has taken it up another notch with some stunning lighting effects and incredible detail, right down to the skin textures of the COG’s. The urban environments are beautifully designed and very atmospheric. The single player plot itself is hugely engrossing and there is the right amount of cut scenes with solid voice acting and good dialogue. The believability of the characters helps the digestion of a fairly far fetched plot with several twists and turns. Like GOW, you must play GOW2 right through in order to unlock ‘Insane’ difficulty. As you progress you become aware of additions and improvements to the game. Bullet damage has been added so you can see the carnage that you are causing which adds a degree of realism to every fire fight. Certain types of cover can also be partially destroyed resulting in a head or a shoulder being exposed. The same also applies to cover that you are behind so it pays to be constantly on the move.

New weapons have been added to GOW2, such as the flame thrower, mortars, locust rifle and poison grenades. Mortars are hugely destructive but are cumbersome to use. The left trigger plants the mortar on the ground and the right trigger must be pressed and held to increase range with the release of the right trigger launching the mortar. The mortar breaks up high above the target area to cause extensive cluster bomb damage. Anyone in this target zone will simply be destroyed. The flame thrower is great fun as you get to roast and toast bad guys or, your buddies online. Active reloads of the flame thrower increase its range and a couple of hits on a target will give it the Red Rooster treatment. The locust rifle is a very accurate single fire weapon with a partial zoom scope, and the poison gas grenade is a new type of grenade that kills anyone who doesn’t exit the gas cloud quickly enough should it detonate near them. Boom shields can be picked up and someone crouching behind one is virtually impossible to take out from a frontal assault with gunfire. Further to this, there are some refinements to GOW2 that make it a bit of a departure from the previous version which means that there is a little bit of learning and relearning to be done.

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