more than a review this is a counter-review to what has been said by our darling -not much- Greg Kasavin, it has been done to him once before and he, although aknowledging it publicly on the boards, did not even bother to argument his statements npw let us proceed "Everything that you maybe didn't love about Halo is pretty much back, too. Let's face it: Halo was an incredible game, but some aspects of it were relatively weak. Most notably, many players felt that the game's occasionally repetitive level designs undermined the action, such as when the Master Chief squared off against the Flood in the infamous Library level. Also, though the game's visuals were terrific in the heat of battle, Halo's cinematic cutscenes using the game's 3D engine left a lot to be desired--they looked decidedly rough when compared with the rest of the game. These shortcomings rear their heads again in Halo 2, at least during the game's campaign. Some of the in-engine cutscenes are kind of ugly, though they're much better than those of the original. Meanwhile, the action itself is as dynamic and intense as ever, to the point where it can be tons of fun to replay the same sequence over and over, since you'll find that the friendly and enemy forces you'll be battling with will never act quite the same way twice. However, Halo 2's campaign--though it features a number of memorable, spectacular set pieces--frequently boils down to straight-up run-and-gun corridor crawls, one after another." A few points here. Cinematics kind of ugly.....like,...which one? I cannot recall a "bad" cinematic throughout the whole game, pointing out some would be good but I guess it is not really possible , unless by "ugly" he means because of the "clipping" that sometimes in the FIRST cinematics tends to be noticeable on the textures. As I sad in the successive cutscenes it turns almost completely off. Might he mean ugly because they are not long enough? they look pretty long to me after all they accumulate to what? 100 minutes? -they say so in the additional DVD if one wants to know-. Might they be ugly because they are are not in CG but they are in the same engine of the game? Why would that be bad? the graphics are extraordinary, the cutscenes where the arbiter is on the foreground for all to see allow you how much detail they put in his armor alone....a detail so great that it DESERVES more attention that one could give to it during a pretty frenetic game. Corridor fights: yes...we have our share of corridor fights, it's true...someone likes them....someone does not....but in the end they are always sided by large battlefiels fights. on the covenant "death-star-like" base there are pretty much large environments even if one would have expected a very claustrophobic setting, same for the levels where the intestine war between Brutes and Elites takes place, both kind of fights are given equal space -although I think the battlefield ones are favored- and that is granting that even most of the indoor environment are still SO huge that there is plenty of space to run freely. "All your attention tends to get concentrated on the action itself, partly because the action is just so good but also because there's often little of interest in the game's environments. The level design is quite striking at times--you'll find yourself stopping just to gaze at the architecture--but it's occasionally monotonous enough to be confusing. You'll sometimes wander aimlessly for a few minutes, unable to tell which way is forward and which way is backward, until you happen upon the next signs of enemy resistance. Basically, the campaign is still a linear series of shootouts, some of which are open-ended enough to afford you the ability to choose from multiple weapons or vehicles, and some of which are more rigid. If the Flood levels of Halo didn't bother you, then you probably won't mind the similar sequences in Halo 2. If you don't fondly recall those bits of the first game, though, you might find yourself frustrated that Halo 2 follows a similar formula." This somewhat proves me that dear Greg did not pay much attention to halo 1 or halo 2.....or both of them first off without really taking much off the action one can really understand where the heck he is going and where he came from, but I admitt that sometimes in the claustrphobic levels the architectures are somewhat reptitive and with fatal coincidence those levels usually involve Fore Runners plants while open field and human related architectures are always ok.....so.... it is that maybe they wanted to give the player the "feel" of those alien architectures back from halo 1? maybe..or maybe they are lazy....who knows oh........and no one ever mentioned a "aerial only" part of the levels -well...just one but still a novelty- Second, the Flood levels:......MIGHTY differences here that have been conveniently overlooked by our ever so dearest Greg number 1: the flood is not as mindless as before...it is no more a "run forward and always attack type of enemy,,,,the infected bastards keep moving around hiding behind obstacles sometimes...the warriors created from covenant elites now retain sometimes the energy shields and they can even drive vehicles -thing that they did not do before- another thing is that now the "infection" form of the flood works much differently...it not only attacks victims but it RESURRECTS -yes you heard me, resurrects,- the dead warrior/worker forms by parasiting them again so that now one REALLY needs to pay attention to them rather than just kill off a few and let the others self destruct on him, unless of course one wants be attacked once again by the same enemies he just left on the ground....that also forces the player to choose weapons wisely so that he will not leave behind much to be resurrected. Now....why was this not mentioned? bah......let's move on "Even the content of Halo 2's campaign isn't significantly different from that of the first game. Prepare to take on many of the same foes in many of the same types of situations and locales. Of course, the game does take you into some new territory and pits you against some new threats (such as some hard-to-hit flying enemies and an enormous spiderlike Covenant battle tank), and sure enough, these sequences turn out to be some of the best bits of the campaign. Early on, for instance, you'll be defending Earth itself from a Covenant assault, rampaging through the war-torn streets on foot, at the wheel (or the mounted turret) of a Warthog 4x4, or in the belly of a devastating Scorpion battle tank. All this is thrilling. Yet while it's hard to imagine a better setup for Halo 2's action than putting the fate of Earth's defense in your hands, the game turns out to have other intentions, and rather suddenly changes gears after just a few hours." MMMMM, although MANY enemies have been brought back from halo 1 ALL of them have been modified in several ways, let us make examples Grunts: well.......not much of them has changed really, apart the fact they seem much more prone to throw granades, but then again they always were cannon fodder so...oh yes but some of them can also use the active camouflage Jackals: they are now also covenant snipers...and they are pretty damn accurate...and the "beam rifle" -the covenant sniper rifle- does a VERY good job eating through your shields Elites: aside from the fact that now Elites with active camouflage RETAIN the protective shield many elites now have jetpacks which adds a totally new dimension to this kind of enemy Hunters: they have not been changed much apart for two things: 1- they weapon is now a healthy spray of energy rather than an explosive weapon and the "1 shot kill" trick does not work anymore ^^ wow.......it pretty much looks to me like the OLD enemies are not so old and repetitive after all "Halo 2 gives up some of its focus from a storytelling standpoint, which becomes especially apparent once you finish the campaign. A great deal of attention is paid this time around not to the humans struggling for survival, but to the Covenant and what turns out to be a major political upheaval within their ranks. You spent the first game indiscriminately killing these fiends--yet now you're expected to be sympathetic to them and their hatred for humankind. To the game's credit, all this adds some newfound complexity to the story (even the collector's edition version of the game's manual is written from the Covenant perspective), and the plot itself is executed quite well. Still, chances are you'll wish that the game spent less time telling you about the Covenant and more time telling you about the Master Chief, his trusty AI companion Cortana, and, well, the fate of Earth." and this is bad...HOW? I really have absolutely nothing else to say about this.....there was absolutely no point in it whatsoever...but maybe it's just me really "As previously suggested, easily the worst part about the story is the way it ends, insofar as it doesn't. You'll run into this game's cliff-hanger ending like a compact car into a brick wall, and you'll certainly be left aching for more. Cliff-hanger endings are not necessarily a bad thing--some of the most successful film franchises in history (Star Wars and Back to the Future, to name just two) have relied on cliff-hangers to sustain their audiences' feverish excitement over time. The difference is, those cliff-hanger endings arrived in the context of storylines that at least offered some resolution or catharsis, whereas there's little satisfaction to be found in the ending here, and there's no telling when the next Halo game will come around to potentially wrap things up. There's a good chance you'll feel emotionally betrayed by the story, and it certainly doesn't help that the campaign, at the default difficulty, is going to take an average player less than 10 hours from start to finish. Many excited Halo fans will quickly blow through it in a day, or even a single sitting. Yes, the actual gameplay of Halo's single-player campaign is a blast. But the campaign also winds up being the most disappointing part of the game--probably the only disappointing part. Fortunately, Halo 2 more than makes up for these shortfalls in other ways." ok, here too as he himself said many extremely successful franchises had their masterpieces -as part of a whole greater story- end with a cliffhanger, now considering I expectes Halo to be a Trilogy to begin with am not surprised nor disappointed...besides such thing as the ending does not take away from the overall gaming experience.....otherwise Zone of the Enders -for example- or soul reaver 2 should be ratet in a much lower fashion. " However, even if you're piloting a burning husk of a vehicle that seems held together by duct tape, chewing gum, and hope, it won't blow up unless your shield meter is depleted and you're killed as per usual. This seems counterintuitive, but then again, not having to worry about your vehicle's health independently of your own certainly doesn't hurt the game. And besides, if your opponent is sporting a shinier ride than you are, you can try to take what isn't yours." EXCUSE ME???????? whoever has played the game KNOWS this is not true for 4 fundamnetal reason 1: if this was so no un-mounted vehicle could be destroyed....and we all know it is quite the contrary considering that it is a pretty good tactic to destroy an un-mounted vehicle -ghosts mostly- to have your enemies been destroyed by the secondary explosion 2: it was not like that even in halo ce 3: you can be killed independently by the vehicle with a simple sniping shot and the vehicle will not blow up....also you enter the tanks AFTER killing the occupant either with a granade or melee attacks...if it was like he said then the vehicles would explode too but it does not 4: it just is NOT the way it works....just go back and replay the game Greg because this REALLY tells me you did not pay attention to it at ALL ok, I am going to end it here, really there is nothing more to say after this las exploit it is kinda obvious someone else should have reviewed the game well, my scores are pretty obvious on their own......the 9 in sound is mainly because I do not like the fact I can't turn off the music......I just don't like music in my videogames the 9 in graphics is because of the afore mentioned clipping effect.....obscured of course by the rest of the breath taking top of the notch graphics.....but an imperfection non the less my 2 cents, and forget my grammar errors, sadly my spell checker is disabled for some strange reason
By Madskillz999 | Review Date: Dec 23, 2005 | XBOX
I'm finally ready with the review of this awesome game! First off, this is obviously the sequel to the hugely popular initial Halo game. You are Master Chief, a space marine who is sent out to battle the enemies. You... Read Full Review
Halo 2 is a worthy sequel to Halo. While the story does lack in some parts, overall, the game is still excellent, one of the best games ever. To get the bad points out of the way, i didn't like the single player campaig... Read Full Review
