This game will forever define the Xbox's legacy.
Halo 2, the sequel to the widely acclaimed first person shooter that has won over 70 awards and become one of the most widely played games around the world is here. The hype for this game has made it one of the most anticipated games in the history of gaming. We have all drooled at the screenshots, watched the videos hundreds of times and dreampt about this game for 3 1/2 years. So now the final question remains. Did Halo 2 live up to its high expectations? Everyone has their own opinion; this is mine.
3 1/2 years ago, Bungie released a teaser trailer showing the Master Cheif take a weapon, go down an elevator leading to a room. Walking foreword to a window, he gazed onto a badly beaten Earth on what looked like the verge of its destruction. All this time, messages popped up checking off different objectives the MC had accomplished. Then one popped up stating, “Stop destruction of human race: In Progress.” The Master Cheif then gets behind a structure in the center of the room and hits a switch. Cortanas voice booms into the MC’s ear, “What if we miss?” The Master Cheif answers, “I won’t.” Then to cap off the 40 seconds of vid, the Master Cheif jumps out of the ship and hurtling to Earth. This got everyone talking. Thousands of questions popped up about the game and what would happen in the story. Then E3 2003 came around and Bungie released an 8-minute video showing a level from Halo 2 and many of these questions were answered. We were left with the MC arming a plasma grenade after 8 minutes of some of the wildess gameplay footage any of us had ever seen. So now many new questions arrised. What would Halo 2’s plot involve? Many speculated it would just be stopping the covanent from destroying Earth. They were right, kind of.
Halo 2’s plot started out great. After a great opening sequence involving the aftermath of Halo’s destruction the Master Cheif found himself defending one of Earth’s defense stations from being destroyed. After defending the station he finds himself defending a city on Earth. So at this point in the game, many are speculating that you would be defending Earth the entire game (Unless they read Gamespot’s review before they got Halo 2.) But then Bungie suprised us with something we never expected. No one ever expected that you would be playing as the Convonant. But yes, indeed you are. In fact, Bungie focused the whole plot on the Covonant which is where they went wrong. In Halo 1, the story was focused from the human side of the story, so Bungie decided that they should focus Halo 2 from the Covonant side. Their attempt was to make the player feel simpathy for this convonant character that you play as but human nature is to hate aliens because in all games that involve aliens they are usually the enemy. To make the Convonant seem ruthless and violent in Halo 1 and then turn it around and try to show a lighter side to them will not work. Which is why Halo 2’s plot failed in satisfing me. I have beaten Halo 1 countless times as well as read all three books that go along with it and I looking foreword to the campaign more than the multiplayer. Unfortuantly, there will not be much replaying of the levels for me. The levels are long as they were in Halo 1 but they aren’t as fun. The first and second levels are very fun, but then the game dries out once it gets more into the story. In Halo 1 you were given new challenges every level, in Halo 2 your given the same challenges over and over. The game itself is much harder, Heroic seems like Legendary once you get into harder levels and you will find yourself dying a lot. What the harder difficulties do though which I like is that you have to stratgized somewhat to get through different parts in the game. Since the A.I. is much better in Halo 2 you have to outsmart it to get through different parts of the game and use your resources in order to survive.
The story itself was pretty good overall but then Bungie went and screwed us with another cliff hanger ending that is one of the worst I’ve seen not only in a game but in any book, movie, etc. Being an aspiring novelest, I could have thought of much better ways to end the game in that way. Of course, if I got to pick an ending I would have ended the story right there. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a Halo 3 but there is a limit to how far a franchise should go and Halo is no Super Mario or Legend of Zelda. The last thing I want to see is a Halo Kart 64. Bungie looks to have no intentions to make a Halo 3 so unless it comes out for Xbox 360 those of us who want to see this story closed will have to hope for another book. From watching the Dvd Bungie would need to have much more time than they did with Halo 2 to finish a Halo 3. From the way they acted they almost didn’t finish Halo 2. Overall, the plot was the worst part of the game. Now don’t get me wrong, it still is very good but Bungie could have made it so much better. In Halo 1 the cliff hanger was good because we were expecting Halo 2. Unfortuantly, many aren’t expecting a Halo 3, at least not right now which is why a cliff hanger doesn’t work here.
You remember it. The first time you watched the E3 2003 demo and the Master Cheif took one SMG in his right arm, and one in his left. Holy sardines Batman! Did he just pick up two weapons? Why yes Robin he did, now get in the batmobile and lets get out of here before he blows us to kingdom come! Now I have no idea if Adam West is a Halo fan but Im sure there were plenty of people who had a similar reaction. Duel-wielding is one of the many new features in Halo 2’s gameplay. What comes along with it is new weapons, new vechiles and verturaly different, yet similar gameplay. The new weapons are a kiss on the lips, there are 9 (off the top of my head) new weapons and the returning weapons have been revamped. The new weapons include the Battle Rifle, which is the new Assault Rifle that has a scope, longer range, and shoots in three shot bursts; the Convonant Carbine, which is similar to the Battle Rifle; the SMG, which is basically more like the assault rifle but more powerful and smaller; the Fuel Rod gun, which is what the Hunters use, Convonant sniper; the gun the sentinels use; the Brute Plasma Rifle, which is more powerful than the Plasma Rifle but overheats faster; the Plasma Sword, which is great for close combat; and the last one I’ve already forgotten. Anyway, the returning weapons have new looks or different functions. The Rocket Launcher has the most significant, it has a lock on feature so you can lock onto moving vechiles and blow them up much easier. The pistol isn’t as powerful as well, which makes it a sidearm by itself but deadly with another weapon by its side. The alien weapons are also better. The weapons system is much more user friendly than in Halo 1. The duel-wielding is fantastic, another kiss on the lips. Double whatever and watch out little boy, your about to get burnt. That is unless he has double whatever as well. Those that can master duel-wielding can master Halo 2 in my opnion; know what to use in different situations and you’ll find yourself on top the leaderboards often. There aren’t many new vechiles, most of them are covonant, but there all avaible in multiplayer, which is what I’ll getting to later. All I can say is the warthog still owns, and you better hope someone doesn’t have a rocket launcher when your flying in a banshee. Halo 2’s gameplay is different but it still feels like Halo.
The graphics, in my opinion, are the best I’ve ever seen from a console game. Although Halo’s graphics were excellent, Halo 2’s are better. Most games dont have explosive scenery or dynamic lighting. Halo 2 has both. Include this with some of the best character models I’ve ever seen and some beautiful scenery and backgrounds and you get Halo 2. What I love the most about the graphics is how much better the charcters look. The Master Cheif looks smooth, not chunky like in Halo 1. The Marines look more realistic; they have real facial features instead of pictures attached to bodies. The Covonant are the most improved, (well besides the MC) their facial features and overall look are excellent. But great graphics do come with problems. The main problem with the graphics is during cut scenes many times you will see the graphics as blochy or somewhat fuzzy before the actual graphics load. This is probably because Bungie is pushing the Xbox to its limits with the graphics. I really don’t have a problem with it at all but it does need to be pointed out. Another problem I noticed is that they kind of messed up the hands. Halo 2 features indivdual moving fingers, which is an improvment from Halo 1. But some of the characters, particulary Captain Keyes’ daughter, have ghastly hands. The fingers look pointy and the nails seem to come out way to far. Again, not a big problem or anything but it’s noticable. Overall, besides some small frame rate drops the graphics are excellent and without them Halo 2 would be nothing compared to what it is.
What would be Halo 2 without its multiplayer? Nothing, there would be no Halo 2. The fact is Halo’s success was from its multiplayer. The campaign was excellent but without multiplayer Halo wouldn’t have been half the game it was, which would have led to no sequel, so no Halo 2. Fortuantly for us, they did make a multiplayer. So will Halo 2 continue in Halo’s legacy and have an excellent multiplayer? Hell yes. The main reason people were excited about Halo 2 was the fact that you could play on Xbox Live. Even our poll found it to be true. Millions were forced to play Halo on Xbox Connect which produces lag unless you have a T1 or T3 connection, plus communication was limited to messages on keyboards. The fact that you could play on Xbox Live, which is the biggest selling online service for a console with over 1 million subscribers (and probably triple that now) was more than enough for people to go crazy over this game. Like I said above, Halo 2 will be remembered for its multiplayer. The maps are the biggest I’ve ever seen in a game. All the gametypes are back expect Race (which I give my condolenses to but don’t mind to see it go) and there are many newer gametypes inside the old ones. Also 2 new gametypes, assault and territories are very fun. Xbox Live also gives you different game features including custom game, match-making, and clan matches. Custom matches are just games you and your friends can play in and their usually full of people so its mad fun. Match-making are ranked games and basically you can pick from a number of different game types that range from a few people for slayer, to huge team battles. You play people around your rank and the more matches your team or you win, the higher your rank gets. Ranks range from 1-50. Clan matches are self-explanatory, you can create your own clan that can have up to 100 members and fight other clans in clan matches. The more clan matches you win, the higher your clan rank is. All game stats are posted on bungie.net and if you link your gamertag you can see all your and ur clan’s stats. That makes the competition much more enjoyable. Halo 2’s multiplayer is excellent, probably the best I’ve ever seen in any game. People will still be playing Halo 2’s multiplayer when Xbox Next comes out.
Halo 2's soundtrack is very good. The music carries the story well throughout the game and the soundtrack also features music from Incubus and Breaking Benjamin. Although sometimes the music is a little arcadish, it still should be the obvious choice for best soundtrack. The sound effects are excellent as well, especially if you have nice speakers. All the gun fire, explosions and rumble of engines sound crist and clean.
All I can say is, it was worth it in the end. After all the waiting and losing sleep over it Halo 2 was well worth going out at midnight to pick up the first copies. Well worth it to stay up to midnight writing this review. Halo 2 has shaped a nation, everywhere you go even the most unsuspecting people have Halo fever. Some days I thought November 9th would never come, that time would stand still and never reach it. But it did. Will Halo 2 go down in history as one of the greatest game ever made? I believe so. 2004 has been a wild year for gaming, probably the greatest year gaming has ever had. Halo 2 finishes 2004 with a bang. I dont know how else to put it. Welcome back Master Cheif.