Just a word caution, there probably will be spoilers but I'll try to stay away from as many as possible.
So I instantly fell in love with Gears 2. Everything was more badass, the weapons, enemies, levels, art, multiplayer, just everything really. A couple people at work said they weren't impressed with the game after the first level and I instantly went off on them.
So I played it some more last night because I last left off at what could only be the most awesomest part of the game. I just escaped underground and OMG A GIANT WORM JUST ATE ME!? AWESOME!
And then I had to stop for the night but I just kept building up in my head how awesome that level was going to be. You're playing inside of a giant freaking worm and you're going to go after its heart! Fucking awesome!
So I sit down to play last night and the level was actually pretty bad. They tried putting some action in there by having random little creatures attack you but they just really weren't that fun since they ran at you and that was about it. That really wasn't my biggest gripe about that level though.
It's pretty much a giant puzzle level but the puzzles just aren't that good. You have all these timing puzzles where you have to run under digestive teeth, shoot sphincters, cut through membrane, shoot acid spitting things, which all sounds really cool but just wasn't really that fun. It was just really odd and didn't fit. It's cool they tried to change up things a bit so you didn't have arena fight after arena fight after arena fight but I just didn't like that level.
Now onto the worst part-- the cutting of the hearts. At first, the idea of doing this was badass and the first one was badass, then they told me there was another heart. Ok, so I run around and get to the next heart and OMG TWO VEINS!?!?! Yeah, I cut through the two veins and then there's another heart.
Are you kidding me?
I find the next heart and cut through three veins this time and guess what: there's one more fucking heart. Did you really need to throw fucking four of these at me? It was cool to see my character get bloodier and bloodier but each of those involved casually walking up to a vein and just using my chainsaw. Woohoo. Cool the first time, fucking annoying the third.
They at least tried to change it up by the fourth time and add being able to be drowned in blood and those little pest coming at you but the novelty had already worn off by the fourth try where they added yet another vein (and of course the veins were always grouped so there was no real searching). Also, the pest were never really a threat because the three people with you easily took care of them and I'm sure you could only drown if you casually strolled to every corner of the giant room and were absolutely blind because they pretty much shoved the veins in your face.
Lame.
Anyways, I finished that level and decided to keep going because it just couldn't get any worse. After that you're off to some secret facility. Good, back to Gears gameplay we know and love!
Too bad the facility was worse than the work section.
The beginning of the level wasn't bad. It was obvious there was going to be a giant fight there eventually and you knew retches were going to be there eventually because you could see little holes for them to spawn from all over the place. So you go on and find out you need explosives. You get back to your buddies and get the big explosives. And the twist? you get to carry them back to the door you want to blow up.
Oh my God.
You and Dom have to carry this giant box back to a door while retches run at you and the cars in GTAIV handle like a dream compared to this. While most games seem satisfied to have the random bad vehicle level, Gears decided it wanted the bad escort a giant box level.
So while these retches are running at you you're forced to carry this giant box with Dom you can't put down and just shoot them with your pistol (that has unlimited ammo-- what a cheap cop out). Let me put down the fucking box and just shoot the damn things. It's bad enough these are some of the worst controls I've ever experienced but...it was just so bad.
So I finally get the giant box to where it needs to be and I eventually find more retches. Now, this whole section wasn't bad but it just pointed out how terrible the retch AI really is. Let me tell you about Gears 2 AI. Anything that doesn't use cover just sucks. Retches and tickers are the best examples. They constantly get lost and constantly get stuck on things. If you just watch stand near cover and watch them it's embarassing how badly they navigate the area and how often they get stuck on things. On just about every encounter where they throw 50 retches at me there is usually one stuck on a wall somewhere.
And while I'm on about enemies that don't take cover-- try watching the boomers or any of the big guys that don't take cover. Notice that they are just on a predefined path and once they reach the end of it they just stand there.
Anyways, you keep going deeper and deeper into this place killing retches and avoiding security systems until you get to these things called Sires. Now I won't say anything about what they are just to avoid spoilers but damn that section was so lame.
They lost so many opportunities to really surprise and scare the player but instead they introduced you to possibly the lamest characters in the game. To get past this whole section just hold down the B button. That's it. The things will just run right into your chain saw and die. They never throw more than two at a time at you and you can always see them coming from a mile away so it's never a threat. This was just another really cool opportunity missed just like the giant worm.
So after that razor hail starts falling which is a cool idea and looks awesome but it's such a pain in the ass. Sometimes you have to run through the razor hail but you're never sure where because sometimes if any of it touches you, you just instantly die. On the spots where you have to run through it, it just slowly kills you.
BE DAMN CONSISTENT
If it wasn't for the fact you were never sure what parts you could run through or what parts if even your toe touched the razor hail you instantly die it would have been really cool. Instead, they fucked it up.
Anyways, I've ranted for a bit now so I'll stop for a while. I might rant about the vehicle level next (which wasn't bad except for a few parts) but I'll hold onto that for a while and let the rage build up a little.
It's just a shame that the game had so much going for it and then they fucked it all up by two really bad levels in a row.
To sum it up for people that don't want to read:
- worm level-- awesome idea ruined by lame repeated puzzles they hold your hand through and then overdoing the heart puzzles.
- secret facility-- shows off how bad the AI for non-cover taking enemies and then shows you the lamest enemies in the game that could have been really cool.
), I'm going through it again on insane for the challenge and acheivements. The problem with the sires on insane mode is the number (they don't come at you one at a time), and the damage (one hit = almost dead), and you are no longer invincible when chainsawing. 
