I've been meaning to buy 2 for quite a while, and haven't yet. I'm not sure why not. Gears 1 though. . .great game. The story was good, but, as is proper in a shooter, the gameplay was what made it fun. Most shooters frustrate me, unfortunately. They seem to focus on getting the player into and out of the action as fast as possible. It's common to die before you know who hit you, kill someone before you really realize they're there, etc. You twitch, and you hit. Next time you miss. Do it as fast as you can, die a million times, and at the end, see who had the best average overall.

Gears (to me) feels like a more strategic shooter. Cover is important, things are slowed down, you can't usually be killed without knowing who's killing you, etc. At the same time, it's not one of those boring stealth action games, where you tediously spend 20 minutes sneaking into a base, only to be spotted by a random guard high up in a tree, and have to start all over again. Gears gets you into the action, and then puts focus on (imagine) staying alive. It strikes a good balance between twitch and strategy, and as it turns out, I really like that.

Gears is excellent.