Is Gears of War 2 Over Hyped?

I had just recently finished playing Gears of War, and was wondering if GoW2(Gears of War 2) is worth purchasing since it is being released in November. It is a question that has been bugging me for a while now, and since I just finished the first one I wanted to post my opinions.

First I want to take time to say what I feel is good about the upcoming game. GoW2 seems to be sporting some upgrades into its hardware, as well as its new multi player modes. It will be showing off, what I like to call, a beefier Unreal Engine 3. With this being said the visuals should be off the charts and the detail that the programs have to work with should be amazing. So say bye to that piece of junk V6, because I am switching to the hemi. What has also caught my eye in the new GoW2 has to be the new 5 player “Horde” mode in which a group of locust is sent at you in waves from varying difficulties. I personally feel that by adding this new mode to the line up, it will give GoW2 a better chance at becoming a fan favorite for online play. This will diversify the online modes rather than sticking with the typical co-op campaign mode and 4 player death match. Also, the addition of newer enemies and terrains will definitely give players something new and interesting to look forward to as well.

Now, I know that the faults of one game do not make the sequel to that particular game bad, but it does not give me much to look forward to on GoW2. First off, let us talk about controls. The first games controls were at best average. The cover system was a great idea, but was not executed well in my opinion. I had a hard time trying to go forward while in cover. Instead, I found myself switching to a different cover position or side rolling to new cover. I honestly can tell you that this problem had gotten me killed more than a few times. Also, strafing side to side was very slow and turning was almost unbearable, which had also gotten me killed on more than one occasion. I, for one, do not think that the control scheme will change much if at all. If this is the case, I will be pretty disappointed. Secondly, there was absolutely no story. Ok, they had to destroy the Locust for some unknown reason and that you needed to deploy the resonator. Other than that there was no story at all. What I want to know, is who is this Marcus guy and why was he imprisoned. It would also be nice to know where the Locusts came from? When I played through the game, I was wondering when they were going to explain these small bits of story they randomly threw out there. This sucks, because they never did explain anything at all. How can you throw out pieces of information like that and not follow it up in a game? Though now that I think about it, how could they develop a story in what is a ridiculously short game. I just hope that GoW2 has a legitimate story line and well fleshed out characters to take the sour taste out of my mouth that was left by the original.

GoW2 has a lot of explaining to do and a lot of improvements to make if it intends to live up to the hype that it is getting. Most sequels keep a big chunk of what its predecessor had, and from my point of view, it would be an epic fail if they were to take that approach. This game needs an over haul on just about everything if it would even come close to what some are saying could be the next Halo. GoW2 could turn out to be the same roller coaster ride that we have all been on but with better graphics. This, my friend, would be shame.