Halo 2
Blasting his way back from the ruins of Halo Installation 04, the Master Chief
returns in the epic continuation of the last Spartan’s story. After defeating
legions of the Covenant, mankinds sworn enemy, and surviving unending waves
of the Flood, John 117 and the Sarge have made there way back to Earth.
If you have read the Halo novels, you know that Sarge and the MC fought there
way back to Earth on a captured Covenant capitol ship, bringing Cortana with
them, and a wealth of knowledge about the Covenants advanced combat technology.
With this information the Spartan armor has been upgraded.
A ceremony to reward there bravery and heroic deeds is cut short, as the Covenant
arrive at Earth. The Sarge and MC jump into gear, and the epic battle against
the Covenant continues. With new weapons and the ability to dual wield single
handed weapons, John sets out to take care of unfinished business.
With the addition of Xbox Live play, Halo 2 finally brings to the throngs of
Halo players the ability to play 16 player online matches without using the
old Gamespy and Xboxconnect tunneling services. Single player allows you to
continue the Chief’s fight against the Covenant with the ability to play co
op as in the original (to many gamer’s dismay however, there is no online co
op).
After 2 years of hype, the game was finally released on November 9th, 2004.
After playing the game heavily for 3 months, I bring my take and opinions of
it to the gaming community. Did it live up to the hype? Was it the second coming?
Did it flop? Does everyone love/hate it? Read on for Gronar’s take on Halo 2.
Gameplay is very similiar to the original Halo: Combat Evolved, so players
of the original can jump right in where they left off. There is a minor tutorial
level at the beginning for those of you new to the Halo universe. Action is
fast and furious, with mass’s of Covenant Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Hunters,
and the addition of the new Brutes attacking you in endless waves depending
on the difficulty setting you start the game on.
The addition of some new weapons such as the SMG and battlerifle have been
added to the game, along with dual wielding. Dual wielding weapons is an amazing
new feature to the game that allows you to combine different single handed weapons
to use and come up with your favorite combos.
The assault rifle has been replaced by the new battlerifle which has a zoom
function like the sniper rifle. The pistol has been replaced by the magnum,
which no longer zooms and has been toned down in power. People have bitched
and moaned about this downgrade, but I find it refreshing that you don’t have
to worry about all the pistol whores from the original game. The pistol from
the original game was grossly overpowered.
New Covenant weapons include the long sought after plasma swords those nasty
Elites used to cut you down with in the first game, and the fuel rod gun the
Hunters used is available later in the single player game, but not available
in multiplayer.
There is no longer a health meter, you simply have shields and when they are
depleted, you can withstand maybe 2 shots before you are dead. Once again fans
of the original have cried foul at Bungie for this move, but I think it’s an
added pleasure. You are no longer back tracking for miles looking for health
power ups.
An interesting twist to the single player story is after a few levels of the
game you start to play from the Covenants point of view. I found this extremely
interesting to see the point of view of Earth’s mortal enemy. I think the game
has been out long enough that no one will think this as a spoiler to the story,
everyone should know by now. You play as an Elite, with the nice ability to
cloak youself.
Controls in the game are the same as the original, veterans will not need to
learn anything new besides how to dual wield. To dual wield you simply stand
over the other weapon you want and hold the Y button down to pick it up. When
you have two weapons in hand, the left trigger is used to fire the left handed
weapon and you can not use grenades.
Control is smooth and feels just right, but in multiplayer you might think
of bumping up the turning speed of your x axis in order to keep up with the
more skilled frag masters out there on Xbox live.
Basic button layout:
- A-jump
- B-melee attack
- X-reload/action
- Y-switch weapons
Sticks are used as any typical FPS, and the right trigger fires you weapon,
left throws grenades unless dual wielding.
Live play is where Halo 2 raises the bar for online play. Bungie has implemented
a match making system that pits you against players of close to/or the same
skill level. There is no optimatch or quick match options. You can create a
clan with up to 100 members, and even select clan match ups with the match making
function. Fragging your friends on the internet has never been more fun with
the use of vehicles and dual wielding. Maps range from small and tight, all
the way to huge for 16 player matches.
The graphics in this game are mind numbing! The use of normal mapping along
with bump mapping really makes it shine. There is a small graphical anomaly
with these textures seeming to “appear” as you get closer to some
objects, and is highly noticeable in cutscenes, but it is just a minor annoyance.
Bungie says this was implemented to keep load times down. 480P HDTV support,
as well as widescreen has been added.
See All
Halo 2 Screenshots in the Gallery
The use of 5.1 digital audio really brings the battlefront to the living room
if you have a 5.1 surround sound system. You can tell what direction shots are
being fired from at you, as well as team mate and enemy positions while they
are talking. The addition of proximity voice has been added in Xbox Live that
allows you to hear people close to you over your speakers. This includes your
opponents that are within earshot. On live play tapping the White button will
activate the mic, once you stop talking the mic will automatically turn off.
The soundtrack is once again heart pounding with the monk chanting, and the
addition of awesome guitar tracks played by the great Steve Vai.
If you don’t have Xbox Live, the replay value of the game might disappoint
you, due to the short length of the single player campaign. You can always bump
up the difficulty level though and impress all your friends by completing the
game on the Legendary setting, no small feat.
Overall Score: 9.7/10 [not an average]
Lots of people out there were dissapointed with Halo 2, from the short length
of the single player game, to the ending (that leaves the door wide open for
Halo 3), to the minor graphical anomalys. This is where people eat up the hype
for a game so long in development. Bungie could not produce all that was promised,
simply to get the game out before the release of Xbox 2. Myself, I love the
game and think it was brilliantly designed, I give kudos to Bungie for releasing
what I consider a masterpiece of an Xbox game. Their hard work and dedication
has brought new direction to how Xbox Live games will be developed in the future
with their innovative new matchmaking process. The reason it took me so long
to come out with this review is the simple fact that I couldn’t stop playing
it long enough to write this!
Recommended Companion Product: Plantronics
Halo 2 Headset (review link)
Filed under: Reviews
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