The world in which all this action takes place looks and feels very similar to the one from the last game. The city, character models, and environments all look great but, like the last game, are plagued by the overall atmosphere rarely changing. It’s great for a game to have consistency in its atmosphere but the rate at which Gears recycles textures is just inexcusable. This is actually kind of surprising considering how many different places your travel through the game. I’m sure many people will undoubtedly claim that a majority of the game takes place underground, and while it does, that doesn’t mean other settings aren’t explored. Mountains, city streets, the sky, an abandoned science facility, a forest, and even the stomach of a giant worm are all visited throughout the single-player campaign. They all just carry a very similar atmosphere keeping them from feeling like unique places within the world.

With that said, you can tell there are some pretty serious improvements from the last game. The character models, while very similar, are much more refined and polished. Also, the game’s ability to handle multiple enemies on-screen has dramatically increased from Marcus’ last venture; however, it really was the little touches here and there that impressed me the most with Gears2.  Whenever you run into a pillar dust is generated by your impact, gun barrels will start to glow red with continuous shooting, and the game manages to never drop a frame. It really is impressive how much the developer pushed the engine and managed to always keep the framerate up.

Even though most of the stages aren’t able to create a very unique atmosphere, the sound in Gears does a nice job of creating a great ambience, particularly, the level in the abandoned science facility. It’s evident that you are not welcome in the facility well before things go FUBAR thanks in part to the great sound design of the game. Also, the voice work for the game is excellent. That’s right, I said excellent. It’s not going to win any awards, but the voiceovers fit the game so well. The gruff voice of John DiMaggio fits the character of Marcus Fenix perfectly, and the voice actor for Dominic Santiago, Carlos Ferro, really makes the most of his opportunities to show what he can do with putting emotion into his voice.