Gears of War 2 - An Amazing Sequel

Gears of War 2 has been regarded as one of, if not the best in the entire franchise and its my favorite in the entire series. In this video, I'll be going over the full story and why this game did so well when it released.
Forgot to mention - Graphics also look better cause of the fps boost on Xbox
0:00 - The beginning of the video
3:10 - Additions and updates
5:26 - Tip of the Spear
10:38 -Denizens
23:06 - Gathering Storm
35:25 - Hive
45:21 - Aftermath
48:54 - The end of the video

[@acrazysheepdog1555]

My biggest gripe is that Carmine gets little mention after his death, of course during the trip to the Niles research place, Dom mentions how Carmine would’ve loved the flame throwers and Marcus joked about it saying he would’ve probably burned their asses with them too. Dom, for once being nice towards Carmine, actually says “rest in peace Carmine.” Other than that…he doesn’t really have any other mentions. I would’ve loved if Marcus mentioned him another time during Gears 2 or 3, since apparently in the lore Marcus was affected by his death more deeply than the game shows, hell, during his dream in Gears 3 Benjamin makes an appearance with Marcus and the others. It’s subtle since they don’t really mention it and you would only know if you pressed LB and saw the names and the objective point. That’s just me tho.

[@willmelvin2351]

Yeah its things like that that I wish were in the games more. I always noticed that the Carmines were there in his dream sequence but didnt know Marcus was affected that heavily though.

[@frankdutko7750]

Dude looking back at the whole series, carmines were something i fell in love with, going from the Oldest, Anthony and seeing how he served first and was a Strict soldier , to Benjamin dying to the glowing wretches, to Clayton being a fucking Monster from losing his Brothers in the 3rd game, and in 4 the kid on the turret I thing was dalton carmine or something. Every character had an enthralling story it just took time to go into deep context. RIP Tai

[@Loonfuzzy]

I think the reason Tai's death hits so hard even though you don't see him much in the game, is that he's supposed to be some super macho guy whos unkillable, so the fact that the next time you see him, he's all beaten and broken, and on top of that he just offs himself is what sells it. Like, I think if he was just already dead or died like, kinda normally by something else then it wouldn't be as tough. Something about him committing suicide just makes it worse.

[@DarkheartedMKGames]

dude said he's old now and I'm 7 years older,caught a stray one like I was a carmine

[@rfagamingcruz6328]

This review is extremely what i've felt towards this game growing up, it was my first game I played on the Xbox 360. This game will be my personal favorite gears of ware game and franchise of all time.

[@jay-ernest3801]

I played 1,3,judgment then 2…but 2 is my favorite campaign

[@walkings7ick58]

Running under the reaver is genius I alway just mag dumbed behind cover until they dropped lol

[@WisdomThumbs]

You can also throw frags into their saddle. The pilots might deflect it, but you can land the frag between them. This maximizes the damage dealt, since their tentacles are highly resistant to all damage. A.I. Dom taught me that on Insane difficulty. It works in every game that has Reavers. You can also land frags in the chest holes of Carriers in Gears 4-5.

[@walkings7ick58]

@@WisdomThumbs holy crap I need to try that.

[@WisdomThumbs]

@@walkings7ick58 Bonus points if you land a Reaver Ringer on a moving target. It instakills the flying Reavers in the Gears 1 train levels.

[@willmelvin2351]

I did not know this at all wow I gotta try this

[@groggywater2006]

This guy still deserves more subs from the effort he puts in to these

[@somerandomperson9670]

What you said was all fax, no printer

[@baldbeardedbassist]

Tai was the baddest Gear and he snapped after a couple hours under the Locust torture Maria was with them for twelve years That scene was DARK dark but with all the context there it's just horrific to the core

[@ericlamb4501]

Well you do have to consider, Tai was tortured. Maria was probably forced to do hard labor, starved, and more likely than not r*ped too. Though I don't think it mentions how long it's been since she was caught? At least not 12 years

[@Local_diamond]

They didn't start capturing people until more recent in the story. When they became desperate to escape the lambent and needed more hands for labor. Maria is the Jane Doe from early in the story meaning she was living with other survivors and traveling around at least two weeks prior.

[@haroldjunior2964]

Bro did the locust really rape humans? Is there gonna be a hybrid species or sum 😂​@@ericlamb4501

[@XXAnthonyCarmineXx]

@@Local_diamondAnya says she’s not the Jane doe

[@XXAnthonyCarmineXx]

@@ericlamb4501she’s been missing since gears 1 so a few years ago

[@nofacedgoldfish6216]

Gears 2 will always have my favorite story. Gears 3 was a beautiful conclusion to a perfect trilogy. An end to an era. But it doesn't give the same amount of gravity of what war is like the first two, or the general horror of the Locust, and the planet of Sera being terrifying enough as it is(the Riftworm being natural to the planet, and not a mutation like the Locusts).

[@willmelvin2351]

True! never even thought about the worm thing til you just said that either

[@SwesomegamerX]

hollow creatures like reavers and brumaks are condition by the locust to obey them and are native to the hallow and have been down there before the locust, so they pretty obey who ever rides them cog or locust

[@willmelvin2351]

Ahhh ok cool, didnt know that! Makes sense tho

[@AskingA_]

Gears has such a special place in my heart. Easily one of my favorite series ever. Gears 2 was the first game I've ever beat and I beat it with my dad. My brother's and I played the hell out of the series and I still play it to this day.

[@m1garand164]

Gears has always been video game comfort food to me. The big beefy enemies to shoot and the charging forward slamming into cover, hitting those pumpkin headshots. It just feels so good to play.

[@natebush8217]

It still blows my mind how much effort was put into this game back in 2008; the characterization, the story, the gameplay, on-rail sections. I definitely agree that this is the best Gears game of the 360 era (don't know anything about the post-Judgment games).

[@willmelvin2351]

True! I didnt even get much into the on-rail sections but youre right, this was great for a game in '08

[@cophater298]

back when it was an art and developers actually cared about their craft

[@ZZZ_22thumper]

I have been replaying Gears series for the past months and I've been loving the gears content I've been getting on KZbin

[@HeiressOfShadows]

Coolest thing about the reaver flying section i learned while playing through the game again recently is that you pass over previous levels on your way back to Jacinto, you fly over New Hope, the Rift Worm Corpse, Land down, the place where Skorge and his Hydra come up is the Rig Section in act 2 where you fight climbing locust for the first time and where you kill your first Brumack

[@willmelvin2351]

Wait are you serious? I’m gonna have to go back and play it again I never noticed that! That’s cool af, lol another excuse to replay these games

[@bobbysanders8715]

I remember playing this game when I was kid. I’d always bring my DVD case to cousins house and we’d play the campaign together.

[@tropixi5336]

My first memory of gears was my brother made me help him get the co op achievements for the hardest difficulty and then Iv played every one since

[@brandogents6624]

Gears of War was the first game I played on the Xbox 360 my dad bought it for the game. When 2 came out I was so hype for the story to continue. Gears 2 is still by far my favorite of the franchise, still holds up really well even today

[@JV-ll1cu]

I just played Gears 2 for the first time couple of weeks ago and it became one of my favorite games.

[@Khornecussion]

What I remember: " They're sinking cities with a giant worm! "

[@WisdomThumbs]

Thanks for the video, I love seeing how other people experience my favorite franchise. You asked about how we fight Reavers, so... Standing under the Reavers is the best way to fight them, well done. But you can also throw frags into their saddles (easier if at least one pilot is dead). Reavers take more damage while flying, maybe because they fly with gas-bags, so I've seen one frag instakill the flying ones. It's also possible to frag-tag their tentacle when it's planted in the ground, which does *extra* damage. And flying Reavers tend to die in one shot during the tank level, so it's worth trying to shoot them before they land. I don't blame you for hating the tank level, but I always *loved it* because it worked just like the tank battles of history. The key rules of tank warfare are: 1: move by stages in defilade, don't just drive forward. 2: scan the horizon at all times, tank fights are long range. 3: escape quickly when ambushed. 4: tanks are really fast and can catch serious air time to clear rivers/canyons/houses, especially small tanks. BTW, Ben did just walk through the Riftworm. Falling in would be exactly as painful as *crashing* in. Ask a survivor of a chopper crash, it feels back-breaking even when your spine survives. Everyone was lucky that parts of the worm's insides were squishy. Anyway, the implication is that Ben decided to try and kill the worm from the inside, but failed because he was alone and inexperienced. We know he's as athletic and acrobatic as any other Gear, so it's no surprise that he navigated the digestive teeth, and just cut through a different wall that was later blocked off. Love it when you point out the other weirdness and plot holes. Nexus really is close to Ephyra and Jacinto, so that's not a plot hole, but that shit with the Queen's survival was. We used to talk about shit like that for hours on XBL and the forums. Crispy, just like I like it.

[@biggycheese2169]

This is one of my favorite games that I’ve played since I was 7 and I’m still finding out about things in this game

[@Big_Giant_Ben]

I haven’t played this game in probably 10 years. This review makes me want to get an Xbox again. God, I wish they’d remake all of the games!

[@elreiec1]

I just replayed GoW 1 and 2 on the 360 after not playing them for ten years. Worth your time when you get a chance.

[@Big_Giant_Ben]

@@elreiec1 yes! I got gow1 via the Microsoft store. It’s been fun!

[@ProjectRaijin]

I was 8 and my older brother was 11 when my grandma bought this game for us 😅, I still tear up thinking about Tai 😢

[@callsigncoyote7931]

One of my favorite exploits in this game was plugging in a second controller and picking up weapons as Dom, because when you went back to single player, he’d still have those weapons.

[@aterriblesliceoftoast4096]

I am only NOW learning about the ‘Who Wants Toast?’ Easter egg 😂 Can’t wait for my next playthrough, thanks man

[@5hane9ro]

Gears 1 might be my favorite game, but hot dam, I love this game's campaign & Horde mode. One fantastic sequel & game in general.

[@justbethinking]

i first played gears when i was six and found out a lot of these things just from being curious lol

[@justbethinking]

i was a kid so i never paid attention to the dialogue, but instead the scenery and atmosphere. i pretty much made my own story in my mind lmao

[@WisdomThumbs]

That’s how my little brother said he played Gears as a kid. He was about your age, too.

[@Ayoiscracked]

glad im not the only one who played gears 2 before the first. when i first played 2 i thought that there would be no game to top it and to this day i still stand by that. gears will always be my favourite series

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

In terms of map variety and map packs, I think Gears 2 and 3 easily take the cake in having the best DLC content of all time back in the Xbox 360 days. The campaign has the most unforgettable moments in gaming, the giant riftworm being revealed to be the force that's sinking cities, the dark secrets of the COG being revealed in Mount Kadar, going into the Locust hive of Nexus, it's just the perfect game. And the music is on a different level too.

[@GITM_ZomBie]

Gears of war 2 was my first gears of war game and no doubt has the best campaign in the series, from training Ben Carmine, to storming the hollow, to getting eaten alive by the rift worm it was a amazing game and playing through it all with my cousin when I we were kids was one of my most memorable experiences ever in gaming. Great summary 👍 The music in this game was amazing!

[@Slifer29]

Fun Fact: There’s DLC that is essentially a deleted scene. After Dom euthanizes Maria and Marcus tells him that he has found a way to sneak into the nexus, but if Dom wants to go in guns blazing he wouldn’t blame him. It is here that you have the choice to either just go straight in or use stealth if you choose to go in stealth you kill a couple of Theron guards, and take their uniforms and sneak in all the while you and Dom will run into Franklin whom you save from processing where he tries to tell Dom that he saw Maria down there unaware of what became of her and he will follow you for a little bit but once he becomes aware of the mission, he then starts to go his own way while Marcus and Dom press on

[@donisbaddass]

I'm glad you mentioned the first sighting of the worm cause I didn't notice til my recent playthrough two days ago

[@Amunate]

Bro this video deserves so much more praise and recognition such a good video on such a important game to many people!

[@James-ne3lc]

Kantus were never seen before because they were strictly just priests at least until the lambent threat became worse and were forced to fight towards the end of the war.

[@marranin007]

I can't believe your channel has only 62 subscribers... This is top quality content man

[@justbethinking]

i’ve just finished watching and a lot of your questions about the game is explained through the lore. like the reavers being controlled and blah blah blah. all the beasts in the locust horde are controlled by helmets. i think it was in the gears 2 horde mode, if you shoot off the beast rider first, sometimes the bloodmount will take its helmet off and you can see it’s face. a lot of the games creatures and lore is explained in books and collectables which is kinda annoying but makes for great world building

[@willmelvin2351]

Oh wow thats awesome I didnt know this either! That explains alot now that I think about it.

[@willmelvin2351]

And yeah Ive been needing to go read the books for a while now too

[@ericlamb4501]

There's also a few lines by Baird I think about the Locust literally just enslaving the creatures that naturally lived in the Hollow, like Brumaks, Tickers, and Corpsers, and using them as living weapons

[@donsongaming]

Great retrospective, apreciate your work so much. I also love gow franchise

[@JEMRocker]

Just found your channel, but I'll definitely sub. Always glad to find people that make great, long form videos about games.

[@Goldenblitzer]

There’s no way this guy has been grinding with multiple long, detailed videos and is under 1k subs

[@HarmonyGaming01]

Damn fam, we’re around the same age and got GOW2 around the same age. Great video, brought back hella good memories.

[@Alfie-mf2ge]

Really good video mate looking forward to the gears of war 3 video

[@kirasommers7211]

Your vids have caused me to want to play the gears series. Excellent work!

[@MrResources]

Can't wait for the Gears Of War 3 analysis!

[@kami7845]

rockworms feel pain in their tails cuz they're not armored there, you can see it by looking at the color there and their mouth it's the same

[@Godlyx77]

“Grindr, not name after the app” I’m dead 😂 but yeah I love there little helmets I don’t know what it is but looks really cool

[@andrewmoutrey9579]

Funny thing Is I'm the same my first game for gears was the second and made me fall in love with the franchise

[@thatsall3840]

After watching the whole review I checked the channel and found it was criminally low on subs, that needs to change, looking forward to more content from you.

[@KoopaTea]

I only really started playing The Gears of War Franchise around 2 years ago (since it was on gamepass) and its been really fun. I wish I could play these games at their peak but ah well nothing i can do about that lol. Good video! 👍

[@gtaakuma4514]

You earned a sub you have so few subs and you deserve more

[@rkitchen69]

Great videos mate. I plan on watching all of your critiques for the Gears franchise. Excellent videos and analysis.

[@willmelvin2351]

Much appreciated!

[@Swh-xb1hn]

Really enjoyed this video, all the things you said were exactly how i felt about this game as i grew up. Even though gears 5 was not the best gears game for story, i loved the references to gears 2. Good vid though, youve earned a sub

[@MeunomeehBad]

Really nice video, great work

[@willmelvin2351]

Thanks! I appreciate it

[@GSGNightCrawler]

Excellent review! Gears of War 2 is an amazing game. About the toaster scene, the dialog is based on what difficulty you're playing on. The higher the difficulty, the more dialog you will get.

[@willmelvin2351]

Ah ok. I didnt know that!

[@thatonebananaboi4617]

Important lore to never forget: Dom likes toast crispy

[@natebush8217]

@@thatonebananaboi4617 And Marcus likes it crispy on the outside. XD

[@eggofshell]

Bro this vid is top fucking tier shit straight had me wanting to play gears so bad i turned off some a fluffy comedy special to play the game. Good shit dude 👏🏻👏🏻

[@bruddabrian7379]

After years of loving and playing this game, I never understood why dom was so agro toward Ben. Most likely because of the missing case of Maria, but I’m not certain. W video man, keep it up.

[@sittingbullproductions]

I like your videos!

[@FervantTwo8]

Subbed. I will be monitoring your future career will great interest and anticipation

[@williamkeiser7562]

I remember getting this day on launch day. I remember going to the midnight release for this at a game crazy and waiting in line inside a Hollywood video. I loved the first one and played it nearly everyday. When I played 2's multiplayer for the first time, it was so bad. The blind firing was glitched when it all went straight to your feet and smoke grenades seriously ruined the gameplay. The smoke grenades also made only skorge an unplayable character as funny as it is. He would be the only character that would clip through the ground when rag dolled by the smoke grenades that were everywhere. I know as time went on they improved the game, but those launch day games ruined it all for me. I remember achievement progress resetting on me constantly as well. I remember being so close to reaching level 100 near gears 3 launch only for my game to glitch and reset me to level 1. This one honestly goes down as one of the worst gears games for me online.

[@Esyajj]

Yo i think i’ve seen you in the gow 2 lobbies in recent months. Cant wait to see your gow3 vid if you make one

[@Adiazpolo]

I love all of this

[@ZK9931]

my first gear of war was also 2 coz x box just goten popelliar in my country and i just bought x box 360 it was so good that i fell in love with it even though i did not know any english at that time

[@BJSSJ5]

Tai saving my boy Dizzy is the real hero

[@ELfabio5]

Gears 2 was the reason I got a 360. I was always a Sony kid but I never regretted my decision to jump to Microsoft.

[@GorillEggs]

Cool ta vidéo :)

[@Bar-Del]

Lol I was 8 years old when I got gears 2 in 2008. I was addicted to the first and the second I got launch day and played it so much on my Xbox not only did the disk stop working but the Xbox actually stopped working when the game was in the console for some reason. It worked for other games but not gears 2 for some reason after I played it so much. Such a classic game absolutely fantastic game I wish I didn't have to sell all my consoles and games to survive because il prolly never have another one and I really wish I could play gears 2 again.

[@smokyondagrass2353]

Who's here after the gears e-day showcase

[@WarpstoneHoarder]

heyo we're so back!

[@randomstuff_21]

Yes, it was 😊

[@Unbidleaf]

I first played gears of wars when I happen to get curious of what my uncle and cousin was playing on xbox one day

[@skullyinc.]

18:25 They also lobotomize, humans. I forgot where but I think you can find it on KZbin but locust would torture, starve, forced Hard labor, feed humans to the creatures of the hollow. ( Blood mounds enjoy human heads ) And just kill for Fun. :( Also the funny helmets the monsters of the hollow wear makes them docile and obedient to the locust.

[@ericlamb4501]

The Locust did build their architecture with built in defenses in mind, you have to consider they're literally just a mutated off-shoot of Humanity, and even if it hadn't been for the Lambent, war would have happened inevitably. So, a fortified castle makes sense

[@TurtleTarp]

Hey I'm about to get all 3 gears again man your reviews made me miss playing. If you still have any we should play

[@willmelvin2351]

Absolutely man! I’d be down. I’ve wanted to play some horde in a while

[@zazyoy2769]

Not just any worm. An Alaskan BULL WORM

[@James-ne3lc]

There's a trailer for the first game that has Prescott giving a speech before the Hammer Strikes are activated. Pretty grim.

[@aspizak]

Gears 2 is one of my faves, but that lake sequence can go fuck itself. It’s like they were like: everything is so good, let’s an awkward tank sequence and make it atrocious by making you drive it on a fucking frozen lake. What a bad bad idea. Otherwise it’s a dope sequel and far improvement on gameplay itself.

[@marioKILLEDyou]

26:22 after you chainsaw lancer anything roll back.

[@conhuss]

Bro😭 that edit 6:30

[@User-ge7ni]

21:44 wtf I never knew that I always just ran through them

[@tubefreak1025]

2:20 where is this located? Don't think I came across this during gameplay

[@Ylutis8888]

It’s in the new hope missions after the room with glass roof to the right

[@LichRC]

Nice video indeed. GoW 2 is certainly a great chapter, but there is one part I really cannot stand: when you have to defend the antennas in Jacinto from the incoming reavers. Quite painful, at least for me.

[@willmelvin2351]

Yeah i glossed over it in the video, but that part is for sure a pain in the ass. The angle made it annoying iirc

[@sista_fista_0364]

That weird scene is supposed to show that the imulsion is a living organism

[@GodsRighthandman]

dom putting maria down like a horse. was oh so painful as a kid

[@Snoozytube]

Surprisingly my mom allowed me to play this and the force unleashed but not halo reach because of the whole video games cause violence on news and at that time they were talking about halo reach being a violent video game.

[@codypaul7136]

I will play some Gears Of War with you.

[@Super50ldier]

32:14 You meant Chaps, the same guy from the gas station in the previous game.

[@marioKILLEDyou]

12:30 don’t stand there. I just did the co-op and a teammate got downed. 01/25/2024

[@creamyisdead]

Pog

[@Ylutis8888]

I fight the reaver by getting under using the chainsaw to kill the driver then do what you do

[@bgkitkat1237]

Gears 2 goated nothing else to say.

[@ryu411]

The collectibles “lore” is also from the POV of Damon Baird, if I remember correctly. The next time you read them, be sure to do so with his voice in your head. Lol

[@DBZHGWgamer]

What I always did to fight reavers is run under their belly and chainsaw them.

[@GodofDeathAnubys]

34:44 i never chainsawed the tentacles, i always just shot them and was raging bc i had like 2 seconds to shoot them enough for them to go away😂😂

[@willmelvin2351]

Lmao I never thought to shoot them

[@GodofDeathAnubys]

@@willmelvin2351 don’t. it’s not any easier😭

[@jakerudolph7937]

Yep that’s exactly how I’ve always killed reavers as well haha

[@Sephear]

Why do you and I have the exact same origin story for Gears?

[@willmelvin2351]

Right? I think alot of peoples start in the franchise was the second game. Probably due to increasing popularity of it by that time

[@morganharrell4174]

6:34 he died a heroes death😃

[@communist-hippie]

17:03 Eddie Hall ?

[@sarcastic_slob]

Oh you poor old kid... being 11 at 2009... Meanwhile i became 19 Edit: Also, if i remember correctly, you can skip basicly all/majority cutscenes and the slow walk sessions by pressing select... But if you do so for the slow walking part he will say something

[@Beef_Face]

im pretty sure the reavers have weak spots under them so i wouldnt count that as cheating

[@Void_Wars]

They don’t make stuff like this no more, just a rush to get the newest game out with the most stuff to buy to keep these monstrosities alive.

[@dirtyblue7292]

11:20 To be fair no one saw that sniper

[@dond1693]

If anyone wants to play GT D O Grizzly

[@bolojohnson711]

Halo games such as the human covenant war