Halo was a memorable game. Every aspect, aside from the sometimes repetitive level design, was spectacular. It was THE game that launched a million X-Box purchases, so to speak. When Bungie announced Halo 2, nothing short of pandemonium was born. One of the best developers was making a sequel to one of the best games ever- what wasn't to be excited about? Best of all, it would have X-Box Live support and a great, epic single-player. Well, Halo 2 is finally here, after tons of delays and false rumors, and it's everything you could've hoped for. The single-player IS epic. It DOES have excellent, incredible online multiplayer for up to 16 players. It DOES improve all the problems that there were with the original Halo- except, of course, for the occasionally repetitive level design (which is less frequent in the sequel, but is still there) and the extreme frustration (especially in the parts with the Flood). It's everything that we expected, yet in a way, it's more than we could have imagined from a game, even the sequel to one of the best ones ever. The gameplay is extremely similar to the first Halo's- in that it's excellent, and this makes up for the frustration in many parts of it. The dual-wielding, the biggest new gameplay feature besides hi-jacking (which also works extremely well), is great, and you will create custom favorite dual-wielding combos over time. The vehicle-driving, and the hi-jacking mentioned above, is all great. The weapons are plentiful, and now you can use the kick-ass energy sword that Elites could use in the first game but you never could use. The gameplay online is even better than in single-player, and easily surpasses most online games on all other systems. From creating custom game modes to having epic 8 vs. 8 CTF matches, the multiplayer gameplay is top-notch and is one of the best multiplayer game modes ever, from any game. The graphics and sound in Halo 2 are top-notch. The graphics are beautiful, and there are some amazing cut-scenes (my favorite being when Master Chief drags a Covenant bomb into the airlock of the space station, opens the airlock while clutching onto the bomb, and flies into a Covenant reactor with the bomb, setting it and floating away just in time to see an entire Covenant spaceship get blown to pieces) and some amazing views (such as the enormous Covenant spider-like tank destroying entire parts of the city while you stumble about underneath it trying to find a vehicle and dodge Covenant turrets), but unfortunately, some of the textures just look god-awful, even after the "good" version loads. This makes the graphics far from perfect, but doesn't ruin them enough to make them anything less than awesome. The audio, on the other hand, is flawless. The soundtrack is absolutely badass, with excellent, memorable songs both taken from the original's soundtrack and created just for Halo 2. The speech is all realistic and done very professionally- just like the original Halo. The ambient sounds, like in the Flood parts, feel very appropriate, and the sound effects are very nice. Overall, the audio is so perfect that you'll feel that the Collector's Edition should just feature a soundtrack CD instead of a "Director's Cut' DVD. The value in the game is surprisingly high- the single-player campaign will last you about fifteen hours your first time through on Normal, though you can easily spend fifty hours playing the game on the nearly-impossible Legendary mode. There really isn't an ending to the game, as reviewers are pointing out as a "flaw". However, this is obviously setting up Halo 3, possibly, HOPEFULLY as an X-Box Next launch title. If you read the trilogy of Halo books, you will notice that Halo 2 takes place RIGHT after First Strike, and follows it closely, even having Dr. Halsley get an award in the beginning, Master Chief be directly at Earth, and Sarge Johnson surviving and kicking Covenant ass along with Master Chief. The multiplayer is even more of a value point, with limitless possibilies in custom game type creation and limitless amounts of fun. Honestly, if you group with fifteen other people and play a Team Slayer, Slayer, CTF, Land Grab, Assault, or other game mode match on any Halo 2 map, you would be hard-pressed to be anything other than bewildered. The game has the same kind of beautiful shine to it in value, the kind that makes you feel like playing it again and again and the kind that assures you that it'll still be a popular game years from now- unless, of course, Halo 3 gets released soon. Overall, Halo 2 is an absolute blast. The single-player is lengthy, contrary to what reviewers say, even on an Easy or Normal mode. The multiplayer has endless replay value. The graphics are almost flawless, only messed up by some awful textures. The audio, however, is beautiful, and is something so perfect that other developers should delay their games just to get the audio to rival Halo 2 in greatness. Halo 2 is the kind of amazing, breathtaking, memorable game that, by itself, is worth buying the whole system for. It's virtually impossible to be disappointed by this game, and it's also impossible to imagine anyone talking about anything else when someone mentions the words, "great, timeless first-person shooter".
By Madskillz999 | Review Date: Dec 23, 2005 | XBOX
I'm finally ready with the review of this awesome game! First off, this is obviously the sequel to the hugely popular initial Halo game. You are Master Chief, a space marine who is sent out to battle the enemies. You... Read Full Review
Halo 2 is a worthy sequel to Halo. While the story does lack in some parts, overall, the game is still excellent, one of the best games ever. To get the bad points out of the way, i didn't like the single player campaig... Read Full Review
