#16 - “Biggest fish I've ever caught”

Forget the Brumaks, Corpsers, Reavers and even the giant tequila worm. The best boss in Gears of War 2 has to be Leviathan, a sea monster so epically gigantic that it barely squeezes onto the screen. In fact, it could probably destroy the aforementioned beasts with a single swipe of a single tentacle.

The true reason we love Leviathan, however, is the cinematic way in which it is introduced to the player. Slowly. Sparingly. Suspensefully. A small wave here and a boat bump there. A severed tentacle and a pool of murky blood. Like in the movie Jaws, you’re fighting it before you understand what “it” is, and when his full visage is finally revealed, the effect is dizzying.

#17 - Maria’s fate

You may have seen this moment coming, perhaps before you started the sequel, but that didn’t make the death of Dom’s wife any less shocking or saddening. The cutscene is absolutely heartbreaking to watch, especially since the game shows you the happy ending you were hoping to see before brutally transitioning back to reality.

The reunion isn’t rushed, either; the developers let the gravity of the situation sink in before moving back to the action. A full minute of sobbing, apologizing and soulful parting? In an Xbox 360 shooter? There could be hope for “mature” games after all.

#18 Locust go lambent

Tales of pure good versus pure evil are fine for children – the rest of us deserve some moral complexity in our stories. Do you really want to fight the simplistic equivalent of zombies and Nazis in every game? We don’t, which is why the breakout of Locust civil war in the underground is so fascinating to us. The enemy is as desperate and besieged as humanity, if not more so.

Which faction will prevail? Which faction will perish? Which factions will ally to remove the third faction from the equation? So long as this three-way collision doesn’t play out like a rerun of the Covenant in Halo 2, we’ll be eagerly anticipating the answers.

#19 - “I thought she was supposed to be butt ugly.”

Based on her somewhat sultry voice, we expected the Locust Queen to look presentable. What we didn’t expect was for the regal villain to look so unmistakably human. No reptilian skin, no slits for nostrils, no clawed hands, no fanged teeth... who exactly is this woman and where exactly did she come from?

Most intriguingly, how does she know Marcus’s father, Adam Fenix, and why does she speak so lovingly of him? And most disturbingly, which ugly brute does she have to mate with to create new Locust? We shudder at the thought.

#20 The final chapter

We can’t conceive of a better way to end Gears of War 2 than with this last mission. After 8-10 hours of trudging heavily from cover to cover, you’re suddenly piloting a Brumak who can smash through walls and wade through armies with ridiculous ease. After 8-10 hours of conserving ammo and carefully choosing weapons, you’re wiping out dozens of Locust with one stomp of your foot, crushing a Corpser with one press of a button and demolishing cities with one salvo of rockets.

Of course, the difficulty is practically nonexistent, but that’s kind of the point. This final chapter is pure “thank you for playing” reward, a parting gift from the sequel’s creators to you. Now if only the rest of the ending was as perfect; we’ll have to save that complaint, however, for the next page.

Next up: Gears of War 2’s ten worst moments. Boring characters, stupid bosses, lukewarm romance and much, much more!