Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 Gears of War 2 is one of the reasons I keep bringing up the story when I talk about this series. There is a lot more going on than just moving to the next fight and killing whatever is in front of you. The cities are sinking. The Locust are underneath everything, and the COG takes the fight down into the Hollow. That gives the game a different setting from the first one without losing the people you've already gotten attached to. And this is where some of the really heavy parts of the series come in. Spoilers for Gears of War 2 from here, including torture and suicide. I already talked about Tai, but I can't talk about this game and leave that out. Seeing what happened to him genuinely bothered me. When they find him, you can tell something is terribly wrong before the scene is over. The fact that they physically got him out didn't make what happened to him go away. That was the part I carried with me. I was thinking about it for months afterward. There are games I enjoy, finish, and move on from. Then there are scenes like that one that stay with me well outside the time I spent playing. Dom's search for Maria is another big part of this game's story. He's trying to find his wife while everything around them is falling apart. The war is something happening to these specific people, not just a reason to put another enemy on the screen. That's why I love the characters in Gears. When the story takes a turn, it matters who it's happening to. You have spent time with these people. You've seen them talking, fighting, and trying to get each other through everything. Then the game puts them through something that you don't just shrug off. The combat also added things that became a big part of the series. Chainsaw duels, taking a downed enemy as a shield, and Horde all belong in the conversation about what changed with the second game. Horde gives you a different kind of problem from the campaign: keep surviving as the waves get worse, and work out how you're going to get through the next one. I love the gameplay and the mechanics, but when I think about Gears of War 2, I keep coming back to what happened to the characters. That's a big part of what makes the whole series more memorable to me than just a collection of good firefights.