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6. What we now know - Gears of War 2's story will be darker and won't be a prequel.

Details are thin on the ground to be sure, but there are story hints to be found if you look hard enough. And we have. At the beginning of the teaser trailer Marcus says: "Sometimes, death is all you can see. It's all around you. It consumes you." Now the first game was never a bed of roses, but in that one sentence we get a sense that Gears of War 2 will have an even darker tone than its predecessor. In the trailer, we then hear a random soldier cry: "Oh no! They're all dead! They're all dead, Sarge!" Lovely. Marcus adds: "So you have to look it in the eye, and bare your teeth. God damn Locust. Sigh. It never ends." Joy.

We also know that Gears of War 2 will not be a prequel, which had been rumoured, but a proper sequel. According to the official press release from Microsoft: "Gears of War 2 continues the story of Marcus Fenix and Delta Squad in an epic saga of survival, loss and retribution." The key word here is "continues". Expect to have questions answered.

5. What we still don't know - Will Gears of War 2's story be an improvement on the first?

One of our biggest complaints about the first game was that the story rarely made any sense, we darted from location to location with nary a word of explanation and it was simply too short. Why was Marcus in jail? What's his father got to do with the war and exactly who is the female leader of the Locust? We like the idea of a darker tone and a Marcus Fenix who is even edgier, but the most important thing is that the game's story is more cohesive, makes more sense and explains more of the Gears universe's back-story. And let's hope Epic makes the campaign longer, perhaps around 10 hours, to give it room to breathe.

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