2007 and the world has moved on...so should you. Stick to the first Halo and hope for a Halo Reach PC port soon.
To be honest, I am a big fan of the first Halo and the recent new release of Halo Reach on the Xbox 360. Being a PC gamer with minor console habits, I am quick to point out that Reach is a terrific game that deserves all the hype and critical appraisal from reveiwers. It was a PC-esque feel to it with Call of Duty moments peppered throughout as well as a decent mutiplayer. Yes, I think Reach has just killed Halo ODST. But I am not here to review Reach. I am here for the 3 year old + Halo 2 - the last Halo game ever to hit PC .
A fanboy of PC gaming, I obtained myself a copy of Halo 2 on PC just to see how it was (can you believe it sill costs $40 at EB?!). Essentially, its the closest thing I can get to play Halo Reach on PC. And before you laugh at my stupidity, I must tell you I DO own a 360 and I DO have Halo Reach and I AM playing it RIGHT NOW.
But, alas, PC gaming runs deep in my veins and can never be replaced.
Halo 2 was a critical success on the original Xbox. The first game was released on PC a few years after the Xbox launch and was greeted warmly by PC gamers for its well-handled gameplay and excellent transition from console to PC. The year was 2004 when its sequel hit the aging Xbox. The brilliant graphics, new toys to play with and excellent multiplayer elevated Halo's status further as Microsoft Xbox's posterboy. Its 2007 and 3 years on, Halo 2 finally hits PC. In the same year, great titles like Bioshock, Oblivion, Battlefield 2, FEAR and Mass Effect had hit the shelves. More importantly, Halo 3 on the Xbox's successor platform was deemed for release as well. The story continues AFTER the novel Halo: First Strike and NOT the Halo: Combat Evolved. So you're the Chief again and yes, its time to blast away more Covenant moving from A to B and pressing a button and moving from B to C. Jump in a vehcile! Move from C to D. Explosion or whatever. Next level. Yea. Whee. Anyway, while the linear progress doesn't hold up to the intriguing plot of the single-player (which I wont spoil), multiplayer still has the power to bring a few PC and Xbox gamers together for a frag or two. New weapons and maps exclusive for the PC only sweetens the deal. But thats after you have exhausted the single-player which will bring nostalgia. Nostalgia of the first game. Nostalgia and pure frustration that this game could've been a lot better or to the very least, on par with the original.
The combat seemed a lot less frantic and at times, humorous. Allies make the most silly comments in firefights with the covenant. Gunfire of the different weapons, with the exception of the covenant energy devices, sound dreadful unlike the fantastic sounds of the first game. The health system, which was brilliant in the original, has now been replaced with a mere 4cm shield which refills when you take cover...very slowly. The melee attack also seems to have been downgraded with a weaker effect and looks retarded on screen when you actually try it. Combine this with plenty of close-quarters combat in tight areas and you have a stale, big-reticle FPS title that screams 'Screw the PC, get an Xbox 360 because this is an Xbox console-4va game that we're only producing so you will buy Windows Vista and give us $$$'. Think I am a bit cruel? Check out the options menu. Usually it requires a mouse-click or Esc to navigate but instead, we're stuck with the A and B of the 360 for A and B of the keyboard. Try using the mouse and be rewarded with a clicking exercise as you frantically try to get into video option menu with over 12 clicks befor eit responds. The most ridiculous of all: the control bindings. YOU CANT CHANGE THEM. That's right. Its either 'Default' or 3 of the multiplayer default bindings. Once you get used to the new bindings, you'll probably be already pissed off at the technical side of the game.
Technicality is the main element that will put some off this title. I am playing Halo 2 on a Windows 7 Premium, Core 2 Duo CPU with 2 GB RAM on 512 MB RAM graphics. And hell, you wont believe it. It runs like a cow. Putting everything maxed out really kills the look sensitivity and fps in combat. This is a 6 year old game which looks worse than Half Life 2 played on a PC which can play Crysis on medium settings perfectly and run Bioshock 2 on high brilliantly. Racking AA off and reducing the graphics quality to Medium or Low improves fps dramatically. But we're still baffled by the poor performance of a game which runs WORSE than some of the most system-intensive games of all time! Truly it's because of its inability to take full advantage of multi-core CPU's making it using only one core of your processor while the remaining cores are left twiddling their thumbs in boredom. Or maybe the Xbox-version of Halo 2 only had a maximum resolution of 480p with graphics dumbed down to cater for directx9b which essentially looks like the PC version on Low/Medium with no Anti-Atialising. Its baffling but I guess we can blame Microsoft for this. Halo 2 is a posterboy for the now-aged and much loathed Windows Vista which it was apparently the only OS who is 'allowed' to play this title.
Regardless of its aged engine and the technical irregularity it presents, Halo 2 is an essential collection for those obsessed with Halo: Combat Evolved or any of the other titles on the 360. And I mean ONLY for those who call themselves Halo freaks. This is a game which appeared late in a world where all other FPS games have gone beyond the standard 'A to B shoot everything' style of play. For that, its better off you look elsewhere to satisfy for FPS desire. Like Halo Reach. Which I am off to play now. Before I go down to EB games and get a refund for a game which deserved a lot more than being a posterboy for a crappy OS by a money-obsessed PC giant.
BETTER THAN: A dead Grunt
ON PAR WITH: Halo Zero
WORSE THAN: Halo: Combat Evolved
Pros
- Great storyline
- Some good level sequences
- New multiplayer content.
Cons
- Butt-ugly graphics for a 2007 game
- Missing in-game options
- Sluggish performance even on a modern PC
5.5/10
Dated and console-tastic without the fun of the original. Move along people, nothing to see here.