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- Gears of War 2: Hollow brings the Xbox 360 classic to PC as an unofficial recompilation.
- It includes the game's Road to Ruin DLC and features higher resolution/framerate, chapter saves, graphic toggles, and mouse-and-keyboard controls.
- Multiplayer and Horde are included but untested; the launcher is on ModDB, and files are available online.
Gears of War 2 is one of the few entries in the chainsaw-filled series that didn't make it to PC, which likely had a lot to do with series creator Cliff Bleszinski's concerns about piracy at the time. However, fast-forward to 2026 and Gears of War 2: Hollow has dropped, giving PC players an unofficial way to relive the Xbox 360 classic (via PC Gamer).
According to xHeliox, the recompilation's creator, Gears of War 2: Hollow is based on a build of the game that leaked with Windows binaries back in 2008. Along with a higher resolution and frame rate, the port also features the game's Road to Ruin DLC and saves your progress when you complete each chapter.
There are options for more advanced graphical settings, too, including anti-aliasing, shadow quality, and anisotropic filtering. You can even turn off certain visual features, like lens flare, bloom, depth-of-field, and rebind keyboard controls. I really appreciate the ability to turn off bloom in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess' Dusklight PC port because it gave the game a much clearer, more modern look. Given the amount of bloom in Gears of War 2 on the Xbox 360, I bet I'll feel similarly about Gears of War 2: Hollow (the game is full of bloom).
Gears of War 2's PC port features multiplayer, but it isn't guaranteed to work well
The unofficial recompilation even features mouse and keyboard controls.
xHeliosx says that Gears of War 2's multiplayer and popular Horde Mode are also included in Gears of War: Hollow, but that they don't guarantee the features will actually work since their focus was on the title's singleplayer. You can use a controller to play the port or, new for this recompilation, keyboard and mouse controls. However, mouse and keyboard controls still feature on-screen controller ports.
Gears of War 2: Hollow's launcher is available on ModDB, and other files you need to get the port running are on xHeliosx's Discord server. That said, their server is down right now due to a ton of join requests coming through. You can find the recompilation files elsewhere with a quick Google Search.
The next release in the Gears of War series, Gears of War: E-Day, releases on PC and Xbox Series X on October 6th, 2026.
