Like the first Gears of War, the sequel (the most anticipated game of the holiday season) is a gorgeously drawn action-adventure with film-like scenes. Few games look this finely detailed. But mostly, the purpose of Gears 2 is to provide massive amounts of bloody, bloody killing.
The plot: You delve deep underground - planet interiors resemble Aliens and a nasal cavity examination - in search of aliens trying to extinguish humanity in the future.
Your character is the size of Schwarzenegger, so you're a big lumbering dude who shuffles slowly, hides behind corners and peers around to shoot creatively ugly villains with disgusting bodies and sharp teeth, armed with tusks, claws, grenade launchers, flamethrowers and on and on.
It takes a repetitious mess of bullets to kill uglies. You shoot and shoot, and they come and come. That's acceptably entertaining, although online battles (perhaps the biggest selling point) move almost too slowly to deal with, and wait times to load online have been awful at 15 minutes for me.
But if you loved the first Gears, this sameness will please you. The gore is unfathomably blood-splattery and yucky.