Grenades play a much bigger part in Gears of War 2 than before, as you can now plant any type of grenade in a wall as a trap for foes unlucky enough to stroll by. You can also play martyr by equipping a grenade right before you fall, then triggering it when an enemy comes to finish you off with a curb stomp or beat down. There are a bunch of new finishing moves this time out, many of them weapon-specific. This may not sound like much, but it beats seeing the same old moves over and over again, and you'll find yourself switching weapons when it comes time to finish off an opponent (we're awfully partial to the Torque Bow decapitation). While that feature is largely cosmetic, the grenade mechanics will change the way you approach certain situations.
These new gameplay features come in particular handy against many of the game's new enemies, some of which are extremely powerful. In addition to the Boomers from the original Gears, you'll be forced to deal with the minigun-wielding Grinders as well as nasty behemoths like Butchers and Maulers. While they can be a bit tough to take down with just a Lancer or Longshot, there are some great new weapons at Marcus and Dom's disposal, the coolest of which is the Mortar. Yes, you'll be able to rain hot death down on your foes, albeit only when you're "supposed" to, given the ammo limitations. While you won't spend as much time with the special weapons (which also includes the aforementioned minigun), using them will make for some memorable moments.
While there's a lot to like in the single-player campaign, there is one definite weak spot: the vehicles. Every so often, you'll mount up and spend some time either driving around in a vehicle or riding on one during an on-rails sequence, and it ultimately ends up being a frustrating experience. It's not that the controls are actually bad, it's more that there are some limitations that make the proceedings more challenging than they should be. You'll likely end up using a trial-and-error approach to getting through some of the sequences, although they are mercifully few and far between. Thankfully, there are no vehicles in the multiplayer game, as that would hurt the overall experience quite a bit.
Then there's the matter of unfulfilled promises. During a presentation at this year's Game Developers Conference, Epic's Tim Sweeney showed off some new features in Unreal Engine 3, some of which were expected to be in Gears of War 2. While chunks of debris will be blown off whatever you take cover behind, it really doesn't factor into the gameplay as much as we would have liked, so calling it "destructible cover" would be a stretch. There also isn't much in the way of large-scale battles, aside from firing into a crowd of Locust while stationed behind a mounted weapon.
You'll once again be able to play through Gears cooperatively with a friend, and it's largely the same experience as the last game, with one notable exception. This time out, two players can play on two different difficulty levels, making it a much more user-friendly experience for everyone involved. The ability for a newb to play on Casual while their battle-hardened buddy attacks Insane is a great feature, particularly when you want to play split-screen with any non-hardcore friends that come over. The campaign plays out the same during co-op play, although, as in the original game, there are times when you and your partner will take different paths.
Given the fact that Gears of War topped the Xbox Live charts for months after its release, it's probably not surprising that Epic didn't mess with a good thing, except to improve upon it. There are a few notable new gametypes in the multiplayer arena, including Wingman, which matches multiple teams of two against each other, and Submission, a mode that tasks you with grabbing a prisoner (who you'll use as a human shield) and taking him to a specific location to score a point. It's a great twist on the standard Capture the Flag gametype that we've seen millions of times before, especially since the "flag" is now armed with a shotgun and will try to fight you off. The competitive multiplayer also features a new ranking system, as well as an interesting democratic voting system that will leave the map and gametype decisions up to the players.
