Halo 2

Halo 2

Features:

• Master Chief can now wield two weapons at once, board Covenant vehicles and steal Covenant weapons like the incredible double energy sword
• Lead an all-new unit of super-soldiers, the ODST -- tougher, badder and deadlier versions of your old comrades
• New enemies, allies and surprises around every corner - intense combat action with enhanced AI and real-time lighting
• Immense single-player action with maassive landscapes and huge cities to explore and defend - destructible and interactive environments
• Take the action online with your Xbox Live and switch sides, to become a Covenant Elite!

Product Description
Halo 2 continues the story of Master Chief, the heroic super-soldier who defied the invading alien Covenant and survived. The Covenant leaders within Halo are angry at this unheard of event. To save face, they launch an invasion of our planet. Earth's defenses are breached, and we're all in danger -- unless Master Chief can lead a small military squad to victory against Covenant forces, in all-out guerilla warfare!
Amazon.com
Halo 2 is one of those rare video games that garnishes attention from regular folk who wouldn't know which direction to point a game controller. With more than 1.5 million pre-orders and a massive release party in Times Square, the game enjoys the sort of buzz, and sales, generally reserved for boy wizards. But does it merit the hype?

Opening Scene

Halo 2 opens with a cut scene in the Covenant Holy City of High Charity. Much has happened since Master Chief (that's you) created so much havoc for the Covenant in the first Halo, and the Arbiter has much atoning to do for his failures. This first cut scene is long, but the lush graphics, orchestral sound, and polished voice talent for both this and other cut scenes as well as the game itself put most animated television shows to shame.

Much has happened since Master Chief created so much havoc for the Covenant in the first Halo, and the Arbiter has much atoning to do.

In the end, though, Halo 2 is unabashedly a first-person shooter. It has a Mature rating and is not meant for kids. Gameplay is constant and intense. No sooner is one bunch of aliens taken care of than another descends. The controls are identical to the first game so those familiar with it will be up and blasting in no time. And the sound and graphics have been beefed up so that Halo 2 is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful console games available.

Opening Fire

Most of the weapons from the first game return, although strangely the MA5B Assault Rifle (the default weapon in the first game) is not available. There is a single melee weapon known as the Covenant Sword, but the controls for it are the same as that for all the shooter weapons, making it difficult to direct. Also, for a new twist, you can hold two of the smaller guns at the same time and shoot double-fisted.

As for vehicles, the old favorites are back and joined by a few new, mostly Covenant wheeled monsters. Some improvements have been made to the AI so that the nonplayer characters can drive without running into too many obstacles while you man the turret. This improved AI also has enemies ducking for cover, and the banter from both the Marines and the bad guys has undergone massive improvements so that it no longer sounds quite so repetitive.

On Your Own

The most significant change in the single-player game is with Master Chief's much-touted defensive suit. At the beginning of the game, he is told that the suit has been upgraded, but it's really undergone a severe downgrade. In Halo 2, the player has only one lifeline. Unlike in the first game, there is basically no defensive shield on the suit, making gameplay tougher. It can often take multiple--sometimes a maddening number--attempts to make it through thorny parts of the game.

Or with a Friend

Finally, no review of a Halo game is complete without mentioning multiplayer. One of the main reasons to buy Halo 2 is the ability to play through Xbox Live, a feature not included in the first game, which was among the original releases for the Xbox. Multiplayer for Halo 2 uses all of the same weapons and vehicles as in the single-player game, and the types of games available in Halo (King of the Hill, Slayer, Capture the Flag) return with a host of new maps. Multiplayer Halo 2 offers customizable profiles, control layout, and screens as well as a voice proximity feature, where you can talk with other players via an Xbox Communicator so that those closer to you sound louder than those farther away. Players can also create both permanent clans and temporary parties in the Xbox Live world. Undoubtedly, this multiplayer feature alone ensures that Halo 2 will remain a top-selling game for years to come. --David Morel

Pros:

• Lush graphics and orchestral sound
• Constant, thumping shoot-'em-up action
• Multiplayer available through Xbox live

Cons:

• Suit downgrade makes single-player often overly difficult
• Get ready for some bleary-eyed mornings

Customer Reviews

Halo 2 (2008-10-30)
Liked the game, however...had to return because of shadowy images in several areas which covered up part of the picture. Returned game and had replacement issued. Had same problem. Returned again and received refund.

Halo Forever! Continued (2008-10-24)
Halo 2 is perhaps one of the best games in history! At first I played it at a friend's house and then I decided to buy it. The Graphics are very realistic and it feels very intense. Plus you can play as Arbiter, an Elite! Your enemies such as, Grunts, Elites, Jackles, and Hunters can also be your allies! Halo 2 is just really fun! I can't wait til' I get Halo 3!

Not since Quake 2... (2008-10-23)
Not since Quake 2 has a science fiction shooter sucked me in. Halo 2 is the best in the series.

Halo 2 left me puzzled.... (2008-10-08)
I was one of the many that pre-ordered halo 2 because I enjoyed the first one so much. About me and seven of my friends bought it at the midnight release and went to my buddies house where we played it all night and my friend and I beat the co-op storyline around 8 or 9 the next morning. There were some things I liked and hated about the game.

Storyline: If you played the first one the storyline is lacking and really straightforward. You play the "hero", fight against aliens and save humanity/earth whatever. For the second one when they released video clips it made it sound as if the aliens found earth and are attacking it and you (master chief) were turning earth into a crazy urban war between humans and aliens. Its been a long time since I played the storyline, actually the night of its release was the last time, but you only end up fighting on earth for the first one or two levels (I use the term lightly as halo has no "real" levels). Then you end up going into one of the alien ships or something like that. You also get to play as one of the aliens, which I found to be rather fun but also a "played" story gimmick as this has happened in other games as well. The ending was very dissapointing as it just left you hanging and wanting more and hoping there was actually more to the story left. Bungie could have done a better job and made the story more developed and the game a bit longer.

Graphics: I've read a lot of reviews saying that the graphics are awesome but I didn't see a great deal of difference between halo and halo 2. However, I also didn't play either game with HD cables on an HDTV. They used the same engine and just added what seemed to me a polishing effect to the "levels" and characters.

Sound: I love the music to halo and I was happy to hear the music back in Halo 2. Also the human and alien voices are fun to hear. The multiplayer firefights and single player firefights are wonderfully done as it helps to make you feel like you're actually there in the game.

Weapons: I was dissapointed in the weapon selection as there seemed to be no imagination to what they did with them. Humans have a sniper rifle so lets give aliens a sniper rifle. Humans have rocket launchers (the rocket launcher now targets and follows enemy vehicles-nice!) so aliens need a rocket launcher. The plasma rifle was given an unneeded change as it no longer froze your enemies in place to circle around them and hit them in the back, which made the rifle now another useless weapon in your arsenal. I enjoyed the sword in single player but in multiplayer was a very frustrating weapon to fight against. In single player the sword ran out of charge after so many hits but in multiplayer it lasted the whole game which was a very annoying thing. If you've ever played halo 2 multiplayer you know what I'm talking about. The pistol was toned way down but with few updates they gave it some power back but was nowhere near the "horror" like the first. Grenades were the most and saddest thing they changed in the game. I loved grenades in the first one and ended up using them more than anything in the game. So when I played halo 2 the first time I couldn't wait to throw my first grenade and when I did I literally freaked out. Master Chief "dropped" the grenade right in front of me and when the explosion happened I was still alive??? They turned Master Chief's powerful throwing into a "toss" or "drop" and the explosion of the grenade......well lets just say I might as well have been throwing waterballoons at the aliens with the damage that one of those did. The last thing they did was duel-wield which was a nice feature but the balance of duel-wield and other weapons was crap. The duel thing could've been left out and was a much over-hyped feature.

Vehicles: Like I said with imagination- Bungie seemed to be lacking in that department. Humans have a tank and a warthog so lets give the covenant a tank and warthog. I know, I know the covenant tank was in the first one but could you drive it?? Nope. I liked the fact that vehicles now could be blown up and that you could kick people out of the vehicle and take it or if you were crazy like me you could jump in a warthog with an opposing team driving it, thats always fun. I do wish they would have given you the option to turn vehicle damage on or off. In multiplayer you would destroy the warthog and a few minutes later they would have a brand new one waiting for them, so that was annoying too. The last thing they changed that I didn't like was I couldn't run over people anymore, well you can but its a 1 in 6 shot that you'll actually do it.

Physics Engine: I hate the physics in halo 2, one thing that made the original halo so fun was playing "warthog basketball" in blood gulch or blowing up a ghost over the middle of sidewinder and watching it fly.

Multiplayer: Multiplayer is chaotic and can be fun but 70% of the time if you're not playing with a friend it is frustrating to hear people cussing you out, making really annoying background sounds etc. The addition of "team chat" only would've been really nice. Most of the upgrades they did to the multiplayer levels were nice and done really well, the name changes weren't really necessary though. I liked the setup for the xbl matching, I just wish that the players had more control over what levels, weapons, radar and such would go on during the game instead of the pre-made matches (that counted to your ranking) that you ended up playing over and over and over and over again. Also the hacking and modded xbox's that you would play sucked too, that was neither bungie's nor microsoft's fault, but did hinder the fun of the multiplayer experience.

Vision change: For the longes time I couldn't figure out why halo 2 seemed visually different than halo 1. One day, it hit me, I was playing multiplayer and was running around getting p'wned as I usually did in halo 2 and I realized the levels were closer to me than in the first one. I realized the developers went for a tunnel vision view instead of the periphial expanded look as in the previous one. In halo when I walked around, I had a periphial view and the levels looked so much larger and massive. In halo 2, however, they give you a more narrow view and make everything seem closer for a more "unreal" look, by unreal I mean like the unreal series.

Single player exploration: This is one of the things that made the original halo so awesome. My friends and I would spend countless hours in the single player mode going to areas we really weren't supposed to go and do things that were absolutely fun and crazy. You could actually get online and see things people would do and it made it all the more entertaining. In halo 2 they "controlled" the areas that you were not supposed to get to by putting skulls or I think in one level there was a huge ball or something. That made me lose the appeal to actually go and explore the level like I did in the first one. Now the developers want me to go find these "hidden" places that I wasn't supposed to......puh-lease!!

So to sum it all up, the cons seemed to outweigh the pros for me as an avid Halo 1 fan. The lack of vehicle and weapon imagination, physics engine change, tunnel vision with the short and dissapointing ending storyline made the rush of halo 2's release makes Halo 2 an average to below average first person shooter experience. Halo 2's multiplayer is fun with friends and the added detail in the levels makes it more tactical and visual treat. If you're looking for a game that has a good story and imagination this is NOT the game for you but if you just wanna play a fun shooter with some friends its not to bad of a game.

It only gets 2 stars from this dissapointed halo fan.....

Halo 2 Seduced Me (2008-10-06)
I'm not a gamer. The most game I'll dabble in are games based off of movies or shows that I loved. So I really don't know much about what makes a great game a great game. I've enjoyed Crash Bandicoot and Resident Evil 4 when I played, but only moderately. The story of how I got interested in HALO is very different than those. See, my friends love playing games, and when we'd chill and drink, the nights that we didn't go out would end in them playing against each other in HALO 3. Eventually, tired of being the odd man out, I picked up a controller and started playing... and naturally, got killed in each round. So I went home to practice, and since my dad loves games, all I had to do was ask him to borrow HALO 2. I started playing with the intention of ignoring the story and game play and just logging in some basic practice.

Well, turns out, the game rocks. The graphic were great, the story was enthralling and lacked the cheesy dialogue that even games hailed as the best of the best (the aforementioned Resident Evil 4) were rife with, and the gameplay was simply great. Each board is so interesting and throws you into such different, complex worlds that you sort of feel a mixture of triumph and regret every time you beat one level and move onto the next.

I had every intention of using HALO 2 to practice so I could whoop my buddies when we play HALO 3 together, but the game is just so good that I couldn't help but stick it out to the end and beat it. It's challenging but not overly hard and--most importantly--a very fun game.

9/10