Nowhere near revolutionary... Good, but not even close to great! Try Half-Life if you want great!
Gameplay: Halo 2 continues Halos's story with the Covenants finally finding Earth. To me, it seems like the only thing Bungie could do to try and get you interested in the story. The story seems pretty easy to figure out once you get a quarter of the way through. And the single-player missions are just an onslaught of enemies who are really, really dumb. They don't really have any personality or seem human or alien. They just shoot and dodge when they're shields are down. Grunts seem in the right place, but they could at least be removed. They don't een put up any difficulty against you. Infact, I don't know why they're there at all. Now, the multiplayer is a different story. People are a hell of a lot smarter than AI. the ranking system is not the best, but it still works. I wish they just would have given you one entire ranking for Live, but they split it up so you have to get to your respected level fifteen times or so so you can fight people at your skill level. I think that the ideas that Bungie added aren't even enough for an expansion. Dual wield really doesn't help when you face someone wiith a sniper of shotty. It doesn't change the game much, but adds a bit of depth. However, mulitplayer is not perfect like everyone thinks. The damage a gun should do sometimes is screwed up, taking three shot gun blasts to kill someone instead of one or two. And believe me, you'll get killed or barely get away from being killed. Also, when throwing stickies and frags, it would help if you actually could aim it with the aimer instead of hoping it lands somewhere near to where the aimer is. Wacking guys isn't well done either. The hit detection just isn't good. You'll have to be right up against a player just to make sure you hit him. Even if the animation makes it look like you hit him, you'll have to hit him when he's next to you and within the aimer. Other than those complaints the ownage of mutli can be quite rewarding. It feels good to no scope a noob or to just assassinate some idiot. If you invest time in the multiplayer,, you'll be rewarded. 8/10
Graphics: the graphics aren't really that good. The textures aren't really even there. The details don't look good. But, the game looks smooth with characters weapons, and vehicles. If only the game had great environment graphics, i'd give it a ten. But I can't. I thought that they just didn't put enough detail and care into it. It didn't work out. It seems like they used two different graphics with characters and environments. Some people might not notice as much. But if you're playing a game and actually look at the graphics, you'll find they aren't that great.
Sound: I thought that some of the gun sounds, mainly the sniper andc SMG, were just the same sound repeated over and over. The SMG never differs in tone or anything. Same with the sniper. Covenant weapons are actually interesting to listen to. They fit in real well. A couple frag noises also don't sound like it's a grenade mroe than a tini explosion from a smaller thing. The music is okay. I've heard tons better. The metal and piano just seem to be out of place when you're trying to blow up some gigantic flying craft. A piano solo isn't supposed to be in a shooter. DUH!
8/10
Value: The game is worth it if you got online or a ton of friends. Enough said. 8/10
Overall, you should get Halo 2 if you don't have a console shooter or want something other to play. It's a good game, but if you want a real shooiter. Look towards getting a PC Shooter like the ones mentioned above. They're really worth their money. Then again, I don't know a better console shooter out there. So, I'd say that this is a good bang for the buck for people who have crappy PCs or are console only people.