General Information

Do NOT play this game splitscreen with two different Xbox Live accounts in any game mode for any reason. This causes the game to be more prone to crashing for some reason.

There is a bug that can render some Xbox Live accounts unable to play the game, as signing in with that account will cause the game to crash.

Downloadable Content (DLC)

Gears 2 had a total of four DLC map packs released, adding 19 additional multiplayer maps. A deleted scene from the campaign was also added with the Dark Corners DLC, made playable from the "Deleted Scene" option on the main menu. Later on, the content from all four DLC packs were made available in a single package called the All Fronts Collection. At some point, the individual packages were delisted and the AFC was made available for free. Download this before playing the multiplayer (PvP or Horde).

The game offers no indication of which maps are from which DLC packs in the game itself. Below is a list of all 29 multiplayer maps, sorted by map pack (release order, oldest first) and alphabetically (A-Z)

Base Maps (Included with the game)

Flashback [November 2008]

Combustible [December 2008]

Snowblind [March 2009]

Dark Corners [July 2009]

General Gameplay

(This section is for information about the gameplay that applies to all game types.)

The Lancer's chainsaw has a flinching mechanic. When damaged, a player will be unable to use the chainsaw until a few seconds have passed without taking damage. If an attempt is made to use it, a flinching animation will be played instead, causing the player to take a step back. This makes using the chainsaw finicky.

I don't think Boomshields get a full explanation for how they're used. Picking one up limits the player to just using the pistol until the shield is dropped (select a different weapon) or planted. Aiming down sights (holding LT) will cause the shield to expand out. Anything that hits the front of the shield will not damage the player holding it (except melee attacks, which may or may not do damage depending on how the game feels about it). Holding LT and pressing A will plant the shield, which (usually) can be used as a point of cover until picked up or knocked over.

For some bizzare reason, picking up grenades will cause a held shield to be dropped, but only if it's a different type of grenade from what the player has or last had. This does not happen when picking up grenades of the same type or when picking up any kind of pistol or ammo.

When holding A to start running, the player will begin running in the direction the left stick is pointed. This isn't properly explained in the game and causes some confusion because of it. Holding A while the left stick is in a neutral position will cause the player to just run forward.

All four difficulties are named accurately.

In a custom game lobby, the player who starts the lobby is the host. This system will act as the game's server. When the host pauses the game or opens the Xbox 360 guide menu, it pauses the game for everyone. The host is not able to transfer the host role to a different player in the lobby or in the game, meaning that changing the host requires a new lobby to be made by the player who will be the new host.

Social and Ranked games also have host players, but the functionality is a bit different. The host can't pause the game or bring the party back to the lobby, but can still end the game.

Players who join a game (everyone that isn't the host of the game) will experience some amount of lag due to connecting to a server (the host of the game). The lag compensation is almost non-existant, which can make aiming more difficult. Shots don't get fired at where the player is aiming, but rather, where the player was aiming a few frames ago. The conventional advice for this here and in any similar game: "lead your shots!"

Campaign

For some reason, the campaign is particularly prone to crashing. From what I can tell, it's most likely to happen during the last few chapters of Act III and some earlier chapters of Act IV.

The game has collectibles hidden around the campaign and there are achievements for finding some or all of them. It doesn't offer any real explanation for what a "collectible" is, making searching for them more challenging than it should be due to not knowing what to keep an eye out for. Here's some pointers that should help with that.

- There are no collectibles in sections where the player is operating a vehicle. Only sections where the player can move around on foot.
- Most collectibles will be objects on the ground and hidden away in a part of a map that would normally be ignored or missed altogether by players not looking for them.
- At the beginning of a new campaign, the player is prompted to train the new recruit or skip training. Not only is there an achievement for completing the training, but there are two collectibles in this section that will be missed by skipping it. While other path selection prompts exist in later parts of the campaign, this is the only one that can result in collectibles being missed.
- The achievements for finding 5 and even 20 collectibles can likely be done without a guide. Getting all 41 will almost certainly require a guide, as some of them are kind of bullshit.
- Once a collectible is found, it stays found across all future playthroughs. Finding them all can be completed over the course of multiple playthroughs.

It is totally possible to beat the entire campaign solo on Insane difficulty, but bringing a friend along would make for a better experience.

Horde

Horde is a multiplayer mode, so some information from that section will also be relevant for Horde.

There are 50 waves in Horde, but it's best to think of them as five groups of 10 waves. Waves 1, 11, 21, 31, and 41 have the same composition of enemies (in this case, just Wretches and Drones). Each wave afterwards will introduce more enemies and more types of enemies until rolling to the next '1' wave or completing Wave 50.

The difficulty increases greatly as the waves progress, due to the Horde getting helpful boosts. At the beginning of Waves 11, 21, 31, and 41, the active effects applied to the Horde will be displayed (The Horde Grows Stronger!)

Ammo is important.

The number of times a teammate can be knocked down in a wave depends on the difficulty, with harder difficulties having less total downs.

At the end of each wave, scores and kills will be displayed. A multiplier for the total wave score is also applied based on the selected difficulty. The multiplier is displayed during the end-of-wave stats screen and is the only indication of what difficulty the game is on during a Horde match.
x1 = Casual
x2 = Normal
x3 = Hardcore
x4 = Insane

In its original form, Gears 2 Horde had no option to select a wave to start on. Additionally, failing a wave kicked the party back to the lobby. Players always started at Wave 1 and failing at any point meant going back to the beginning. Updates eventually changed both of these, allowing players to start on and continue playing from any wave. Despite this, the mindset created by the original version of Gears 2 Horde never completely went away. It's not uncommon for more experienced Horde players to leave, restart from Wave 1, or end a game upon failing a wave. This is likely the result of attempting to get a high score or finding more challenge in trying to make it from start to finish without failing a wave. This contrasts with more casual players and playsessions, where the goal is just to have a good time or to finish Wave 50, even if a wave is failed and the score is lost.

One wave of Horde will never give much XP, but over the course of a full game, it slowly adds up.

One wave of Horde counts as one round of multiplayer for the achievement "Party Like It's 1999".

Multiplayer (PvP)

There are several achievements that can be described as "reach level X and do Y". Objective 'Y' can be done before or after reaching the necessary level.

Some players may have a golden Hammerburst or Lancer. These were only obtainable by getting codes, the Hammerburst from attending a GameStop release event and the Lancer by buying a new copy of the limited edition.

Gears of War players, throughout all the games, primarily use shotguns and have fast-paced, close-quarters engagements in PvP modes. The bots in Gears of War 2 generally use assault rifles and have engagements that are longer range and more cautious. This makes playing with and against bots vastly different from how facing off with only human opponents would normally go.

When joining a game in-progress, a player will not be prompted to choose a character to play as or whether to spawn with a Lancer or a Hammerburst. The game will use the preferences set in Options -> Multiplayer Settings.

If a player queues for a Social match when there is no one else playing that game type, the game will look for a little bit, then put the player in a match filled with bots.

Social matches use a map rotation. When a game ends, then the map will change to the next one in the rotation and another game will begin.

Not sure if this is true of all modes, but the map rotation for Social Annex is every single multiplayer map in alphabetical order.

Playing a social match with only bots and one human player severely limits the amount of XP given. Increasing the number of actual people in the lobby by one, even if the two players are on the same team, removes this limit.

Multiplayer levels work on an exponential scale, with higher levels taking more experience to reach than the last.

Resources

Gears of War 2 was developed by Epic Games for the Xbox 360 and was released in 2008.

Gears of War and all related images and materials are the copyrighted works of The Coalition and Microsoft.