Halo 2 is a amazing game that was well worth the lengthy wait.
One of the many highlights from the original game was the story, but sadly in Halo 2 the story really doesn’t have the same impact as the original and just falls short. Once again you play as the Master Chief and the opening level sees you having to defend one of the many capital ships that are orbiting earth preventing the Covenante fleet from passing and reaching earth. What is offered by the story yet isnt as effective original game but is still likeable and will have you hooked and wanting to know more.
What I found most interesting about the story in Halo 2 is that it focuses on something completely different than what most fans were expecting. As unlike the first game you get to see a different side of the story from the Covenant’s point of view threw playing as the Arbiter as well as playing as the Chief. Not a lot is found out about the Arbiter in the course of Halo 2 other than that he has been held responsible over the destruction over the first halo and that he should have not been blinded by the Flood and instead to focus his troops on killing the Master Chief. This change to the story was one of the main points to Halo 2 that differentiated it from its predecessor as it added a different element to the story and deepened our understanding of the characters and what is going on.
Yet easily the main point that stopped the story from being as great as it was made out to be was the Cliffhanger ending, it hits you instantly and is completely unexpected. But this is not generally a bad thing as the story was left open and leaves you longing for a third game in the Halo series.
While playing Halo 2 you really get an appreciation for the game and get immensely involved in it plays so well and unlike any other game in its kind, it has its own unique feel to it. Although it plays similar to the first game, there have been some huge improvements to enable an even more enjoyable experience. The most vast improvement to the gameplay is the vehicle hijacking where you simply approach a slowly moving vehicle and hold down x, doing this you will remove the apposing player out of the driver seat and you will now posses that vehicle, this is a very simple but very effective addition to the gameplay as not only is it incredibly fun to do but it stops the vehicles from dominating, but vehicles do still play a big part in Halo 2.
Also now part of Halo 2 is the ability to duel wield certain weapons, if you want to duel wield; you approach a gun that is on the floor (e.g. neediler) then press and hold X while having another gun either the same type or another light or mid powered gun and you will be able to hold two guns at the same time, adopting the grenade trigger for the left handed gun and the right trigger to fire the gun in your right hand as usual. One of the interesting things about duel wielding is that depending on what weapon you have in either hand depends on how good the duel wield is, you will need to play the game a number of times to have an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the different weapon combo’s adding an element of strategy.
One of the minor touches that Bungie have introduced to Halo 2 but possibly the most effective of all the new features is the vastly improved health system. They have completely gotten rid of the tradition style of health system from the previous game and now you rely on just you energy shields for a source of life. At first when I heard this I thought that it was going to be a huge mistake but it works amazingly well and gets rid of all the frustration from the first game of having to play cautious throughout the rest of the level due to low health instead now if your shield is depleted all you have to do is wait to your shields have recharged again and your off, in a sense you are either at full health or at the verge of dying, simply yet very effective.
Along with the enhanced gameplay features there are some new additions to the Covenate fleet. Firstly my favourite of the new aliens is the drones or buggers as they are called in the game, an insect like creature that has the ability to fly and wields duel plasma pistols and is incredibly accurate. They also live up to their nickname quite well as if you don’t pick them off quickly they can really be an annoyance. Secondly there are the brutes, a very strong creature that has gorilla like qualities. They wield a ferocious weapon titled the brute shot that is a grenade launcher with a battle scythe on bottom of the gun to deal with you if you get two close. Finally t here are the Prophets, the Prophets are the covenate leaders and head of their religion, they are not really made for battle but they control the covenate fleet and keep them in order.
Halo 2 being a shooter obviously has got to have a wide variety of weapons and this it does, I’m not going to mention all the weapons but there are a lot of new weapons at your deposal, they are all fun to use and is a good balance between the covenate and human weapons that are alike. Out of the new choices of weapons in Halo 2 my favourite has to be the Plasma sword, which you would have seen the elites use in the original halo. It is strictly a melee weapon but that doesn’t mean it isnt good as it is far from that, attack as normal with the B button or R trigger, or line up your target and when the reticule goes red launch at your opponent killing them instantly.
One of the things that annoyed me with the weapons is that the removal of the assault rifle from the original Halo and the Magnum pistol has lost out on its scope and its power output has been dramatically weakened to make the game more user friendly.
Like the original game halo 2 has vehicles that are on offer some from the original game with minor improvements such as the ghost with a boost function a new type of warthog with a gauss cannon and finally the Banshee having a missile launcher, sadly only enabled in the Campaign mode.
As Handling is concerned they are very easy to control if you are new to the series it wont take long for you to get used to the controls of the vehicles and get going. One of the main highlights of the vehicles is that they offer variety in the levels and give you different ways of playing the game, whether you use them as cover, whether you use them as a battle station or whether you use them merely as transport or a bit of both t just adds to the variety of how many different ways in which you can use them in ways that suit you best.
One of the minor difficulties that affected the first game in terms of vehicle combat was that if you had drawn the short straw and happened to be in the side seat and you had use up your ammo clip you would need to step out of the vehicle to reload your weapon as the same button to reload was the button to exit the vehicle making you and your friends vulnerable while you reload. In halo 2 they have changed this system and now you can reload normally whist still sitting on the side seat, to get out of the side seat you press and hold the X button whereas if you want to reload your weapon you tap the X button once to enable the character to remain in the vehicle whilst reloading.
One of the points that I liked about the fact that in Halo 2 there is the option to either go on foot or by vehicle as now unlike the first game the combat between the two elements are completely balanced. Unlike the first game as the vehicles would surely always win as they were invincible, but in Halo 2 they break apart and will eventually blow up rendering them useless.
As you probably would expect for a game that has been in development for well over 2 years Halo 2 looks amazing. The graphics are outstanding and really complement the game and the overall quality of which halo 2 is, the lighting looks amazing, the environments that you experience although the level design does start to get similar in places is also of high quality and easily the best part of the graphics in halo 2 is the damage models for the vehicles, as you blow up a vehicle they will realistically blow apart into tiny pieces leaving a burning shell which is deaply satisfying.
But there is one thing that happens during the duration of the game which stops the graphics being as good as they could have been and that is texture pop ins. As you are probably aware that in some cut scenes there are texture’s loading on screen, you see characters and the environment going through the various resolutions till finally completely loaded, this occurs mainly at the start of the levels and the cut scenes as they first pop up, it is a minor problem but it does effect the overall shine of the graphical quality of the game.
The A.I like the previous game is also of high quality your enemies will flank you, throw grenades when in cover, climb on top of objects, regroup, charge and then melee attack you, there are endless possibilities of which this highly intelligent A.I can do. But sadly to say Halo 2 is not perfect, there are some minor blips as to do with the A.I such as when you are being driven by your A.I counterparts in a spector or a warthog they will occasionally just drive around in circles or go of route and start crashing into loads of stuff
The Music in halo 2 is second to none and is easily all bar the fantastic gameplay the best feature of the game. Marty O Donnel returns to compose an amazing score for the game, it is in an orchestral score and is very atmospheric and really complements the game, in a way it gives Halo 2 a sense of existence and as though it is something more than just a game, and I have found my self in times as the game is loading up just listening to the opening soundtrack as the title screen emerges. There are also some appearances from well known bands such as Hoobostank, Incubus and Breaking Benjamin who record some Rockier tracks for the more faster paced scenes in the game, these are also of very high quality, and really fit in with the game.
After completing the campaign mode in Halo 2 you would be doing yourself harm by not visiting the multi player features of this game as you will loose most of your time spent here either threw co op, offline or online multiplayer hours of fun can be had in just this section of the game.
The co op feature as like the original is you and a friend sitting threw the campaign mode, it is great fun and if you cant get threw the levels by your self this is the way to do it, there is no difference from the graphics or frame rate in co op than the single player game so it really holds its all. One of the things I would have liked to see was say some different levels in the co-op game than the single player also an online co-op would have been nice but there is always Halo 3.
One of the several game types on the halo 2 is called slayer which is basically a 2-16 player death match, that is if you have enough mates and x-box's, it is incredibly frantic and a load of fun, some of the other game types are ctf, race, territories, zones, oddball and many more. And then there is the feature to be able to create your own custom game types that add to the replay value of the game, basically you get a pre made gametype and edit it to your desire, this giving you endless possibilities of different game types that you can tweak and edit to your own needs.
But clearly the main improvement to the games multi player aspect from the first game is the inclusion of xbox live, here you can go no wrong by not giving it a visit as it is an amazingly gripping experience and the most amount of fun can be found here after you are done with the single player and co op options that the game has to offer.
Overall thou Halo 2 is not a missed opportunity, it makes true on most of its promises and improves on the first game with enhanced mechanics, but sadly the story, the minor graphical faults and the odd dodgy A.I stop this game from achieving the perfection that this game was aiming for.
Pure and simple Halo 2 is a work of art and should not be missed by anyone and was well worth the lengthy wait.