"LOCUST!" This is the familiar word you'll be getting used to (again) as you encounter the hideous species as you, Dom and the rest of your squad are put up against them in this jam-packed sequel once again.

Gears of War2 (GoW2), feels like it has taken a double dose of steroids than its predecessor; the textures and graphics have been improved, more locust on one screen so you can get more kills in one go, longer campaign and an impressive wave after wave locust killing mode; Horde.

The first quarter of the story in GoW2 is quite simple; the COG is making an all out attack on the Locust Horde as you have only one bastion of defense left against the vile creatures and you're sent to the Locust stronghold to wipe them out from the face of your once-peaceful planet, but as you progress through the game the story becomes more interesting worth noticing this time around.
At the start of the game, you're placed at Jacinto to fight off the oncoming Locust assault. As you do so, you gain a new member for your squad; Anthony Carmine, who, incase if you don't know, was Anthony Carmine's brother in the first Gears of War.
Like Gears of War at the start of the game, you'll be able to get a choice to either train Carmine or go straight into the heat of combat. These sorts of scenarios where you get to choose where to go is also back in GoW2 throughout the game.

The campaign in GoW2 is considerably longer and more enjoyable then its prequel. You'll be able to ride in new vehicles (and new creatures...oops), see more of the devastation the locust has done to your planet and of course the new weapons. New additions to the gun line-up include the mortar emplacement gun, the grinder (an MG), hammerburst (locust semi-automatic rifle) and the scorcher (I shouldn't have to explain). My favourite one personally is the mortar because as it shoots into the air it breaks into tiny bomb clusters for massive damage, which has its most effect in grub holes and large sprawling areas.

Along with the weapons, you'll also be able to finish off your enemies with style like punching their face in until there face bleeds to death, using your gun and smashing their skull, crushing their face with your heavy boots or being able to use the enemy as a hostage. You can only carry a pistol while you do this, but it is very effective if you go in an area where there's a bunch load of Locust in front of you. When the enemy shoots at you, the shots will only harm the hostage until the point that the body has been decimated with so much bullets that it collapses out of your hold. Make sure not to get surrounded by the enemy when using a hostage as you can get hit by bullets that go into your back and sides.

Being able to collect COG tags was an interesting concept in Gears of War1 and started a collecting feature that rushed its way to next-gen games such as Halo3 and COD4, but in GoW2 you'll be able to collect a heck load more of collectibles then its predecessor. These can all vary from old parchments to letters written by the Stranded and COG soldiers alike and they are scattered throughout each level.
Theses collectibles can hold very interesting information for you as you progress through the game, as some of them hold info on Dom's wife and even locust artifacts.

After you've completed the single player campaign, you'll want to experience GoW2 the way it's meant to be played; multiplayer.
The MP in GoW2 has quite a few playlists to choose from and have certain game modes inside. For example, The Player's Choice playlist has classic game modes like Warzone, Execution and Guardian. Another playlist have other strategic modes in them like Annex and the new King of the Hill mode.
Other new modes include Submission -where you have to carry a Stranded hostage to your base-, and Wingman -which is like Halo3's take of Team Doubles but a bit different. The other modes have also had slight tweaks in them for better gameplay.

What kind of ruins all these cool game modes is the fact that playing Matchmaking can take a considerable amount of time just to find a match and let alone finding a match with any aussies in it so it won't lag like hell, forcing you to always invite your friends into a party.
It really pissed me off when one time I was holding the B button with my chainsaw on an enemy and to find out about eight seconds later I finally mowed down my helpless opponent (damn Americans). This is because there is no sort of good connection filter option that Halo3 gamers loved. You would expect such a feature in a high-class game like this to be available but I was disappointed that there was none, since Cliff Blezenski has said that there would be filter options for MP (I suppose he just meant similar skill searching).

Gladly though, Horde makes up for the annoying Matchmaking system.
You and four other players can team up to face fifty waves of Locust in any map and difficulty of your choosing and once you defeat all the enemies in one wave, a scoreboard comes up saying who got the most points and who died.
Teamwork and communication is vital to surviving in Horde as you're going to be doing things that your squad mates will hate you for, like going off into the open where a locust can easily kill you so you might want to make sure you stick together because if one of you die then you don't come back until the next wave, or if a mate comes to revive you (which can be quite hard given that Locust will practically roam the entire map).
Guns and ammo will also reappear once a new wave arrives so you won't need to worry about losing precious ammunition if you're getting cornered into a lonely corner by the enemy. Personally, I reckon people should try Hardcore difficulty to start off with as it is far more of a challenge than the standard Normal mode.

GoW2 is an excellent game that Gears fans will either love, hate or possibly cherish as the SP campaign is longer and more fun and the bonus addition of an addictive Horde mode is even more rewarding. It's a shame that the MP matchmaking has its few issues, but the game is still a top-notch title that I recommend any shooter player should experience.

Gears of War has definitely carried on the tradition of being a Halo clone albeit slightly better at it than Halo 3 (single player wise). With great visuals and fairly standard controls that are easy enough to pick up for any self respecting FPS there are still many flaws that do bring this "hit" of the summer down a peg or 2. The amount of "on-rails" levels in this game really detracts from all the other great shooter levels that I found extremely addictive. Just wanting more you are interupted with slow, aged, platformer style gameplay which leads to frustration due to limitation of the levels design that makes you wonder if its just lazy dev's or if that’s what Epic intended. It is however saved by a better story and the new weapons are impressive although too little time is spent with these. But as Joaby said this isn't what makes the game.
Horde is where the money's at, surviving wave after wave with enemies increasing their strength and accuracy at the end of every 10 level cycle is like crack injected straight into the eyeballs! Unfortunately the ability to get your hands on said crack is few and far between probably due to the length of each game(if your good enough) and poor connection set up. Over all a good game with a fair amount of room for improvement.