Halo 2 brings back the same great game play seen in the original Halo, but only adds a few new features leaving the game
Graphics - I have never seen such low resolution textures and pop ups in a game. Unless you are three feet away from an enemy or object 70% of everything in the game looks like trash. While walking you can see parts of the enemies armor pop in and out of view. This looks horrible and last throughout the campaign mode which lacks any type of finishing polish and is totally unacceptable. However, the Multi player areas look fine. Other games like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker on the Game Cube, Metal Gear Solid 3 for the PlayStation 2, and Ninja Gaiden also on the Xbox do not have issues like. In fact no game should. And defiantly not the poster games for a system like Halo 2. While there are ways to clear the cash of your Xbox hard drive to help this issue it’s never fully fixed, and has to be done again after a short time.
Sound - For the most part the guns and weapons sound great. The voice actors also did a good job with the script they had to work with. The real stopping part in sound was most of the music is just a remake of the theme song in the original Halo. Also, the music only plays occasionally during battles in the campaign mode. While walking around your left with nothing but the sound of your own footsteps, and if you happen to get lost things can seem way to quiet. In the multiplayer mode there is only some quit music playing wile you set up the match. Once inside however that is shut off. Being able to talk over Xbox live does help with the lack of music though.
Value - The single player campaign is very short and can be finished in less than 15 hours easily. Most would say Xbox live is the saving part to the game, however for someone without Xbox live or who dislikes it should be able to get their fill of Halo 2 in a rental. There are some great multi player maps and split screen can be fun but it would have been nice to see bots available to play against. The solo player does not warrant the $50 Halo 2 ask for. With the multiplayer the game makes up for that in a lifetime value, but you’ll also be playing the Xbox live yearly fee to get that.
Tilt - Again the horrible pop ups and low textures in solo campaign stopped Halo 2 from getting a higher score, because when everything is working right the game is nice to look at. Multi player modes look fine and if that extra polish had been there the graphics in Halo 2 would have been the best looking game for the Xbox. The game play gets stale and repetitive quickly. Sound really would have hit it off with a few newer songs and not just small changes to the original, also had some music been playing all the time but it's just too quiet at points. Also, the lack of music in multi player is a letdown. Value will be higher for users of Xbox live, but with a 15 hour single player and no bots in multi player lower the overall value of the game. 8.0/10