Right, into the nitty gritty straight away. The single player mode. While this is of a shorter length of halo: combat evolved, it is still long enough to have a good player, playing on legendary for 25+ hours. The game starts which a brilliant cut scene in which the scene is set with the Master Cheif and the Sarge recieving awards and the Arbiter recieving his punishment for the Halo masacre. the ship which the Master Chief is then bombarded by covenant troops and you procede to lay into them, with all the trade marks of the Halo series. The Master Chief then decides to take the bomb which was intended to be planted on his ship, back and plant it on a Covenant Ship. It then takes an un-expected twist where you can then play as the Arbiter. you must take on missions which you should never succeed, the idea being that his death will be an honourable punishment for his "heracy" from the first Halo mission. The game takes a switch every 3-4 levels and allows you to take on a series of challenging tasks. The graphics: in game these are the best graphics i have encountered on the Xbox. These graphics are photo- realistic during the game and you sometimes must think again as to whether its a real battle your encountering. Now the draw back here is that Bungie decided to use the same graphics engine to make the cut-scenes. Meaning that the Xbox is processing the footage while you watch it, this is as close to a live single plaer cut- scene as you will get on the present generation of consoles. "wheres the draw back here? " you will be saying. Well its because Characters and environments appear, followed by textures which appear half a second later. Yes its very very frustrating. Now Halo 2's peice de resistance, and well i really cannot say enough about it, is its multiplayer. The maps are on the whole, balanced and each have their uses. The weapons are also more balanced and there is more of a use for each weapon in this game. The vehicles are now easier to handle and have better manouverability,and finally, Xbox Live. there is one word to say for this, WOW!. It will have you hooked and its more than worth the £45 payed for the game and it really is the best online game ever produced. The stats are brilliant and leave you wanting to get better and help you play against those of simular abilities, and the maps again are fantastic. So, what is my final assessment? is Halo 2 a worthy sucsessor to Halo: Combat evolved? well i belive the answer is an overwhelming YES. The best first person shooter ever to be created, and while it has its flaws, i cannot remember playing a game that i enjoyed so much, in all my life.
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
