Even though I have my issues with the way Gears 2 ends and the turns the story takes halfway, the game is still incredibly fun to play-especially with a friend, which I’m sure is what most people are glad to hear. Co-op in general has gotten a tweak in the form of individual difficulties, which will give more experienced gamers a bigger challenge while letting their inexperienced friends play alongside them. A drop-in/out feature should also make playing with other people easier than ever.

While the online co-op is great (as expected), the online multiplayer still suffers from the same issues as its predecessor. Point blank shots will miss, people will get chainsawed from two meters away, and there’s always the chance that to hit a moving opponent, you’ll need to shoot where he’s going to end up, not where he is. On the bright side, the shotgun’s effectiveness has been tweaked to a more balanced level, so you’ll run into far less shotty-only players.

Epic’s new netcode certainly decreases the frequency of host advantage overall, and the aforementioned issues are less noticeable than they were in Gears of War, but they still persist making story the same as it was with the first game: it’s loads of fun when everything is working at an optimal level, and frustrating as hell when they aren’t. If you gave up on Gears 1’s multiplayer and had hopes of 2 fixing all that was wrong with it, I’m sorry to say that it doesn’t. Are the issues better? Yes. Fixed? Not by a long shot.

Thankfully, you don’t have to go online to have multiplayer fun with the inclusion of bots and the Horde mode. While plenty of other games have promised bots utilizing player-like AI and ultimately failed to deliver, in Gears of War 2 that promise is fulfilled. Just seeing the enemy AI in the campaign mode on the higher difficulties should show you how great the AI’s programming is, and the multiplayer bots are no exception. You’ll see flanking, diversions, and all sorts of tactics which are usually reserved for human players. You could even argue that the AI of the bots is more intelligent than the average Xbox Live player.

The Horde mode is the other great multiplayer addition which makes up for the frustrating host advantage in online play. The idea is simple: take some players, and pit them against a never-ending onslaught of increasingly difficult Locust forces. It’s essentially Tower Defense with the Gears of War 2 engine. The action scales up nicely, and once your wave of enemies count rises, things get hard fast. It’s addictive, fun, and a great way to enjoy the game with friends once you’ve already beaten the campaign mode and unlocked all there is to get on that.

In the end, Gears of War 2 is similar to Gears of War, but features some noticeable improvements and additions. The enemy AI is more intelligent, the environments are better designed, the overall presentation is much more epic and cinematic, and Horde mode is one of the most deceptively fun multiplayer modes on the market. Unfortunately, the game suffers from Halo 2 syndrome where the ending is lackluster at best due to the obvious conclusion(s) of major story points being saved for the next title(s). Don’t let that put you off, though, because just like Halo 2, Gears of War 2 manages to conquer that and remain a fun, entertaining, and overall memorable game which will be loved and played by fans for years to come, despite its shortcomings.