Gears of War is back and with more explosions!

Quite possibly the highlight of the E for All Expo, the sequel to Gears of War is everything any fan of the first is hoping for.

The demo displayed the new Horde mode, which allows for a group of five friends to get together and kill the re-spawning villains, or “Locust” as they are better known to fans of the series. While playing, Locusts are coming after you wave after wave. After a wave is completed, the next one will be much harder in that there are more enemies, more destructive weapons and/or the enemies can absorb more bullets.

A team effort is absolutely necessary in order to proceed to later waves in the game. If for whatever reason your whole team is separated, expect a quick loss. That isn’t to say one player cannot take on the whole enemy horde; it is indeed possible. However, if you don’t work as a team, your chance of reaching wave 10 is definitely limited.

There are numerous new enemies and enemy types in the game. The cockroach-like Tickers do kamikaze attacks by exploding. The Sires are enemies that have an uncanny resemblance to the Flood from Halo—they run towards you and use their giant arms to knock you out in a few hits. Boomers are back but now there are new variations of them. The Flame Boomers are Boomers that use flamethrowers as their main choice of weapon. The Butcher Boomer uses a giant meat cleaver that can kill you in one swipe. The more destructive Mauler Boomer wields a huge shield as well as an explosive flail that can take out more than one enemy at once.

With all these new enemies comes help: brand new destructive weapons are at your disposal. You can pick up the flamethrowers that the Boomers drop and the flamethrower happens to be one of your best friends when you are playing defensively. The incredibly destructive mortars can knock out groups of enemies at once if you aim right. A new handgun fires in small machine gun-like bursts. Probably the most destructive, though, is the new mountable chain gun. Yet another weapon that is widely used defensively, it works as a portable Troika turret from the first Gears of War. Old fan favorite weapons are still here and waiting to be used, such as the sniper rifle, the Boom Shot and the Lancer.

Aside from the new modes, there are definitely tweaks to the great Gears of War formula. When you are down, you are able to crawl away to safety given you a much better chance of being revived by your teammates. You are also now able to take a Locust hostage and use them as a meat shield. Once you’re done using the poor sucker, you can then proceed to snap his neck. You will find yourself having a smoother game overall as the sticking to the wall mechanic has been tweaked so that you stick to the wall of your choice and not just randomly sticking to the one next to it.

The visual department doesn’t disappoint, either. The main artistry of the game looks the same, but everything is filled with much more life and detail. The game looks a lot smoother, environments are very destructible and the blood and guts look more realistic than ever. Guns receive lots of added oomph when fired and the music keeps your heart pounding and gives a very twitchy trigger finger.

There are more modes, a more personal storyline and more blood guts than your favorite slasher flick, Gears of War 2 is shaping up to be the game to buy this November. Everything that made gamers fall in love with Gears of War is here and many problems that were in GoW 1 (such as shot gun abuse) were definitely looked after and fixed. Get your pre-orders ready, this game is going to be a hit.