Gears of War 2 - Horde Top 100

If you read my previous review of Gears of War 2 or you've played the game, you've heard of Horde mode. Basically, you get wave after wave of enemies to fight off while trying to survive. The first few waves may seem easy enough, but that can be deceiving. After about wave 30 the challenge really kicks in. So long as your whole team doesn't die you can continue on, attempting to add to your high scores.

A few weeks ago a few of my friends and I attempted to go for a high score in Horde mode. We did pretty good I thought, breaking the top 200 then on the map Jacinto. The high scores are publicly available on the Official Gears of War 2 website, listed according to what map the game was played on.


Tonight some other friends and I attempted the same thing. The challenge tonight came in that we went into the game with only 4 of the possible 5 teammates you can bring in, so we started off with a self induced handicap. Four hours later we broke into the Top 100 scores, landing at #98. All in all, it was a fun filled night of gaming with friends, playing a game we all enjoy. Maybe in a few weeks we'll try for the overall high score on Jacinto, this time on hardcore difficulty (we did it tonight on just normal difficulty).

Tips for Horde on Jacinto:

• Hold a grenade spawn tower
• First priority is ALWAYS the shields--before ammo or weapon pickups, always pickup a shield, you'll need all 5 of them.
• Never kill a mauler on the stairs unless you have 5 shields already, as the shields glitch and fall through the map.
• Place 2 shields backwards on the stairs next to the sandbags. Place 2 other shields boxing in the area where you land after jumping over the sandbags going up the stairs. Place the last shield at the top of the stairs in the gap farthest from the grenade spawn.
• Always use weapons that have auto ammo refills each round (lancer/hammerburst/shotgun) and use a boltok pistol as it spawns right in front of the stairs, making ammo runs quick and easy at the end of a wave. Other weapons are pretty useless after the first few waves as enemy health is too high.
• Only shoot grinders when they're weapons are overheated. Sure, it may be slow, but in later waves grinders will one hit kill you without ever downing you.
• Kill wretches last. They make it easy for you and your teammates to grab ammo while the wretch chases you around.
• Wait for close range kills (bottom of stairs) instead of wasting ammo on long range kills.
  
• When grabbing ammo at the end of a round, have everyone plant their 2 grenades, preferably far from your defended stairs and spread out enough that one won't set off another.