I got a copy here in Japan. It hasnt been released here officially, but the Asian version was in Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. On the very same day some were imported to certain stores here and I got a copy after digging around.

My impressions so far.

The Good

Visually stunning.

An insert comes with the game that allows 5 of the original maps to be downloaded. This brings the multiplayer maps to 15. Not bad.

Lots of mounted vehicle fighting. But not so much vehicles you control. Rather ones you are mounted on and kill from.

New weapons. The flame thrower is nice. And there is a mortar. It can rain down multiple shot from above. Or you can free wield it and shoot around a clunky ball that explodes after a few bounces. Strange but fun.

Crawling while downed takes away from the frustration of being completely helpless like in the last game. In multiplayer it adds a whole another dimension to the gameplay.

The Bad

The story sucks. The voice acting is lame. And the one liners become annoyingly cheesy even before the first chapter is finished.

The new enemies are gimmicky. Especially the stupid little crap thingies that crawl around and explode on impact. And what is up with the predator-like Locust? Could they have been any less original? Even the new COGS are uninspired, though it is fun to have more variety of characters in multiplayer as a result.

The AI is still ridiculously stupid, especially the BOTs in multiplayer.


Overall I like the game but Im not as impressed as I hoped I would be. I guess I got too caught up in the hype. From what I have seen Id give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Did anyone see that Epic demo they did earlier with the UE3? The one where Marcus was playing around with a cube of meat.. well you get to see what they did with that later on.. that mission was fun .. and gross at the same time.

not too happy with it...prob gonna go back to gears 1.. i mean u can't even quit out of a match..u can't pick the setting u want..i feel its more clunky and slow pace

I'm loving the changes so far in Gears 2. Much more organized and the multiplayer looks like they put some thought into it unlike the first which honestly to me felt like much of an afterthought. This is probably the reason why I never really got into it. The interface side alone in the first game was a total chore. Other things like host advantage and shotgun dancing was really lame. Glad they made changes to address both of those.

Horde mode is awesome and I love the tweaks they made to the weapons. The new weapons and enemies are really sweet too. It's going to be enjoyable learning to master the mortar launcher. I just started the story so can't comment much on it yet but it feels a lot more open and epic compared to the first game.

Totally met my expectations.

What a f***ing pos this game is, wtf is that all about can't quit a game, I was in the most laggy match I've played and I couldn't even quit, screw this game, can't even choose which map I wanna play in. I hope they fix this game because its broken.

I just finished Gears 1 a couple days ago, and now I'm playing the section of Gears 2 where we ride on those huge vehicles. At first, I was let down by the graphics. It seemed a little less sharp. However, the area I'm on now is very impressive. I fully intend to be blown away by game's end. The pacing is great! I'll log in a couple more hours of single player before tackling any online modes.

*edit* the default is too bright.  Anyone who feels that Gears 2 was slightly inferior to Gears 1, tone down the brightness, and you should be more than satisfied.

I still have yet to beat Gears 1.. but Gears 2 its more like a hollywood action block buster with its set pieces. There's some annoying parts but most of it the ride is pretty enjoyable.

For those that have a ps3 and 360, how are the visuals in Gears 2 compared to Uncharted/Resistance 2

Are they similar, or is Gears 2 a level beyond?

I haven't played Resistance 2, but so far Gears 2 seems to be a decent representative of the 7th gen. It's a different art style. That's all. I saw 2D waterfalls in Resistance 2 on XPlay earlier this week. I saw 2D plants and such in Uncharted, and I can spot graphical flaws in Gears 2. I'm only on the second stage, and I won't be able to play it again until tomorrow (gotta go to work). It's definitely a beautiful game, but it doesn't destroy everything that came before it. Then again, I play both consoles at 720p and I'm far from an expert.

@d2lewis

So its just a different art style with impressive visuals?