When it comes to Gears of War 2, one thing that's immediately clear is that Epic is fully-aware of this need for violence and simplicity over innovation and political sub-texts, because the game itself is essentially the same as its predecessor. It’s had a few extra improvements and multiplayer modes slapped on to help beef it out, but at the core it’s still just a run-n-gun game. And it’s still browner than last week's underwear.

The bad news however is that it still is essentially the same game and though the engine has had a few extra tweaks and there’s a veneer of emotion that’s been tacked onto the continuing story of the Locust / Human war, it is still very much just a corridor shooter. The cool cover-mechanic, path choices and grenade-aiming features which made the first game so accessible are still there – but they aren’t as impressive as they once were and very little seems to have stepped in to replace them, meaning the game does feel a little disappointing to play given how huge the hype is.

It’s a really bizarre mix of results when you actually take a step back and consider it. The super-accessible ability for you to use cover was one of the main things which made the original Gears of War stand out and Epic has been very vocal on how it has improved it further with the addition of mobile cover and some internal tweaks. The result though is less than astounding and we honestly couldn’t pinpoint any difference from the original system.

You can read the entire article at Bit-Tech.