I’ll be dead honest with everyone right off the top of this article; I didn’t like the original Gears of War. I’ll tell you why I didn’t like it: it was short, repetitive, riddled with samey environments and offered nothing new in the area of gameplay. Fan boys can complain and shout all they want, but that’s not going to change the fact that the original Gears of War was a bonafide hype-machine to help shift Xbox 360's off store shelves (especially in comparison to Crackdown, which released a few months later, received less hype but contained a lot more gameplay functionality). This is not to say that Epic didn’t have a gravitating new franchise that lured gamers in with an intriguing premise and eye-catching characters. In all seriousness, it was the atmospheric presentation that Epic Games had setup within Gears of War that made it so memorable. That’s why I’m somewhat pleased to know that this time around Gears of War 2 will at least maintain what made the original truly standout, but it will also contain actual gameplay too.

Now don’t get me wrong, the original Gears of War did some of what it did nicely. But the problem wasn’t in what Epic provided gamers; it was what they didn’t provide gamers with. Several years before the release of the original GoW there was Kill Switch, which was very similar in its gameplay and shooting mechanics. What’s worse is that the very year that GoW came out there was Rogue Trooper, which also mirrored the gameplay mechanics of Gears of War. Now some gamers might argue that the aforementioned games should not be classified in the same category with the 360's “first real killer app,” but I beg to differ.

We call the 360 and PS3 the “next-generation” of gaming coming from the PS2/Xbox era, yet the comparison for the original Gears was only monumental when it came to the graphics. As much as it might pain 360 fan boys to read this, the original Resistance: Fall of Man at least didn’t overcompensate itself in the spotlight for what it had to offer. But on the upside of this discussion there is a great deal of promise looming overhead for Gears 2.

For those of you who don’t know, Gears of War 2 will actually have a heavy focus on delving into the fiction that seemed all but absent in the original game. Players will be immersed in a game that – this time around – will put a lot of weight on the player’s shoulders for saving humanity. GoW 2’s story takes on a much darker overtone, with Epic using the victory from the first game as leverage to propel players into a desperate and nearly unbeatable situation for winning the war in the upcoming sequel. And amid the inclusion of a more detailed and gritty story, Epic is promising to include what the original GoW lacked: massive battles and more gameplay depth.

As a gamer you can’t help but feel the goose bumps of excitement spring into action when you hear that Epic has finally fine-tuned the Unreal Engine 3 to support actual hordes of Locust soldiers. Vehicles will also play a much more prominent role in the action sequences, in addition to enemies being much more imposing this time around. The biggest change worth noting is that Gears of War 2, unlike the original, won’t allow players to forever hide behind perfectly placed cover points. Taking advantage of the 360's hardware, Epic has employed destructible environments that will chip away from bullet fire and fall apart from carnage inducing explosions. These are the kind of features that real gamers look for, the kind of features that’ll keep gamers coming back to the game again and again, just to blow the living daylights out of crap.

My only gripe at this point is that while Gears of War 2 is truly shaping up to be a killer app, it’s miles behind the likes of Sony’s Resistance: Fall of Man 2 and 2K Games’ Borderlands. The free-roaming, massive battlefields of Resistance 2 has already earmarked it as a must-have, especially considering how solid the first game was. And Borderlands is infusing everything that made Diablo replayable with everything that made Halo fun. The truth is Gears of War 2 will have to tee off with some big name competitors this time around and the necessary additions to the character development, story arcs and gameplay might prove to be a little underwhelming. But as the gaming industry has proven before: a big publisher with a lot of money, a good hype campaign and some sparkly graphics are always a sure bet for heading down the road for platinum sales.