Introduced by lead designed CliffyB, here’s the first footage of actual campaign gameplay from Gears of War 2. The scenario we see here is called “Assault” and features Marcus Fenix doing what he does best — killing off hordes of Locust. As expected, the game looks stunning and indeed shows off some of the Unreal Engine 3 advancements that Epic showed at GDC earlier this year. We also see some of the new gameplay mechanics that we’ve heard about, like chainsaw dueling and using enemies as shields.

If you’re itching to see this gameplay in HD form, then jump on Xbox LIVE where the ~150MB download is already waiting for you.

Gears of War 2 is scheduled to be released in November, just in time for the holiday season. And, of course, nothing says Happy Holidays more than butchering Locust. Good times.

Update: If you haven’t played the original Gears in a while then at first glance the new visuals may not look that different from what you remember. GT has put together this a very nice comparison video that shows that GoW2 really does look considerably better.