The original Gears of War was the reason I swallowed my pride and all my hatred for the Xbox 360. As soon as I saw it at my friend’s house I was hooked, and after my first time playing the multiplayer online against other friends I knew that my life actually had a meaning. Then along comes Gears of War 2 to show me that the original game in fact sucked by comparison.

GoW2 takes everything the first game did right and takes it to the next level, and multiplayer is no different. Doubling the number of multiplayer modes the original shipped with, adding party play, increasing the amount of players per game amongst other gameplay and aesthetic additions are pretty much sprinkling heroin on the already addictive formula of the first GoW.

The new multiplayer modes are Submission, Guardian, Wingman and Horde:

Submission is a twisted version of capture the flag in which you have to shoot down a civilian, who is by the way armed with a shotgun, and then carry him to a designated area, while your teammates try to protect you from the ever respawning onslaught of enemy forces trying to stop you.

Guardian is a regular warzone match with one difference: as long as the leader is alive the other player will keep respawning, but the leader’s death does not end the match either.

Wingman places you and a friend in a battle against up to four other teams of two in a no holds barred battle. Your friend will control a twin of your character, so shoot whoever doesn’t look like you. And then there’s…

Horde is the most unique of all the multiplayer modes, and in my opinion the best. A team of up to 5 players faces off against wave after wave of increasingly numerous, and resilient enemies. Players will have to work together to survive even at the lowest levels of this mode, and towards the end it gets so frantic that it reminds me of a zombie movie, where one person tries to board up the entrances while the others shoot the oncoming onslaught of enemies.

Party mode is for friends who want to stick together for more than one match without having to restart the game to change modes; and even making it possible to play with friends on ranked matches (which are now known as “public matches”), which I pretty much avoided in the first game because it was a pain finding a good group to play with.

Achievements are, unlike they were in the first game, unlocked throughout all modes, multiplayer or campaign, making it actually fun to get them. Most of the achievements in the original games were setup to only unlock on ranked matches, which were so frustrating to start, or play for any length of time that only the most diehard players (or those achievement boosting) unlocked them, which is kind of sad in such a great game. In this game achievements not only unlock while you’re playing with friends, but there is also a counter telling you how close you are to a certain achievement, which will keep your interest in the game going a bit longer, pushing you to get those 3 more shield melee attacks, or to win just one more chainsaw battle.

The campaign mode will only take you a couple of hours to complete, so multiplayer is what will keep this game in your 360’s disc drive. It’s just nice to know that multiplayer only improves on the good points of the old game, ensuring you will have fun with this one for many months to come.