Gears of War 2: Dizzying, Breathless, Relentless

Gears 2 still portions itself into acts and those acts into chapters and the chapters themselves into micro-tactical objectives, but the places you'll go feel more explorative and far less restrictive this time. From the flame-licked wreckage of human cities to the stunning fungoid beauty of the subterranean Locust hollow here, most areas are simply bigger, with more cover to cling to (and in a few intriguing cases, even defensive nubs you can conjure up yourself). Structures or underground tunnels now tend to have multiple ingress and egress points, and choosing alternative routes extends well beyond the three or four scripted moments that Gears 2 pauses like its predecessor and asks you to choose a road, high or low.

The enemy better understands how to take advantage of those routes, too, something that's especially obvious in the game's new multiplayer "Horde" mode, where the computer throws up to 50 waves of increasingly powerful enemies at you. Every 10 passed, the enemies dish out and soak up more damage, and without a solid group, they'll lay you out in less time than it takes to pull off a perfect reload.

Incidentally, it's worth dying on purpose here, because you can pull back and watch what's happening with handy text tags identifying the bad guys by name (as in their functions, like "grind," "boom," and "burn" -- guess what they do). Observing Gears 2's new-and-improved enemy quickly and intelligently advancing to flank or SWAT-style assaulting your pals is both illuminating and chilling. Spend some time here. You'll learn lots.

Epic seems to have a better handle on the game's pacing this time, too, intercutting battles with combat-free sections that give you a chance to simply pan and scan the eye-catching architecture or take a moment to reflect on the drama. Other times, after pounding through occasionally grueling sections that'll see you dying and reloading lots -- like one particularly inspired level where razor-sharp hail pours from the sky as you volley with Locust troops and try to navigate forward without leaving overhead cover -- the game will suddenly drop you into a vehicle with devastating weaponry and give you some space to blink and stretch and pour that pressure-cooked stress into swarms of easily eviscerated enemies. It's simple and perhaps a trifle juvenile, but cathartic and purposeful and evidence of solid game design at work.

Super Gears Bros.