"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."
