As exciting and visually arresting as this is, however, there is a nagging concern that Epic may have gone for spectacle to the detriment of interactivity. While one player mounts the derrick’s mounted gun, cutting down Brumaks and shredding the decks of hijacked vehicles, his co-op partner is left with little to do except to stave off the occasional boarding attempt. Odd though this is, the moment of disorienting obsolescence whizzes by, and soon you find yourselves barrelling through the tight, snow-sprinkled streets of a deserted township, taking out mortar positions to ensure the safe passage of your derrick, before plunging down through Sera’s topsoil into act two.

Even if, with some of the larger set pieces, Gears 2 manages to look more interesting than it is to play, you are never given a chance to forget just how sturdy a shooter this is. Interspersing the showboating is a welcome number of down-and-dirty gun battles, each of which exploits the environment to keep you moving and wary of being flanked. Epic’s supreme competency here is made particularly evident in the multiplayer co-op mode, Horde, which sees players fight off wave upon wave of enemies. It’s a fraught affair, always keeping the five players exposed to attack from more angles than they can effectively cover. As the waves move into double figures, you fend off ever more lethal foes: heavily armoured Boomers wielding chainguns, flamers and flails; vicious scampering Sirens, who have a nasty propensity for coming back from the dead; scuttling living explosives called Tickers and mounted Locust riding grotesque, reptilian dog-pigs. Under increased pressure, it becomes hard to keep the squad together, particularly since ammunition and weapons tend to respawn in the least defensible areas.



With an improved matchmaking and community system, the multiplayer component of Gears will hopefully finally achieve the longevity it deserves. It’s difficult to say on the merits of the first act whether the single-player campaign will have the same persisting allure once the thrill of its spectacle becomes old. Nonetheless, if it manages to maintain the frantic pace of its opening, then Gears 2 will deliver a riot of bombastic visuals and delicious sci-fi tosh, enriched as ever by its staples of co-op and cover. The plot may be more po-faced, but like many inadvertent gems of the B-movie genre, it’s difficult not to greet it with a big, childish grin.