Wow! An entertaining single player, and addictive multiplayer. Only a few flaws that can go unnoticed.
Forutunately, this hype wasn't for nothing! About 14 hours after the midnight release here in Wichita, KS I went home with my very own copy of the sequal to, perhaps, the greatest game to be on a console.
After about 15 hours of gaming, I was done with the single player campaign. Although proud of myself I didn't feel entirely satisfied. In the parts of the campaign where I played as the Master Chief I absolutely loved every bit of the old Halo 1 style gameplay, using marines for help & driving warthogs around. Then I was introduced to "The Arbiter". I see where Bungie took me with the story, but all of the levels (at least in the first half of the campaign) seemed generic with you battling in some close combat levels. I don't actually remember playing with the beamer for very long as the Arbiter. There is one sequence where you fly through outerspace in a banshee & get some cool air combat, but other than that the Arbiter isn't my friend.
Multiplayer is definently the strong point of Halo 2. With xbox live matchmaking it's arguably the best multiplayer experience online. When Halo 2 first came out, the person dual wielding SMG's always won, the game was just designed to make dual wielding, sniping, & shooting with rockets the only way to win. Thanks to xbox live's update system throwing grenades & meleeing is now a useful tactic.
This game is great, if you own an xbox you better have this game & xbox live or you're a total loser!