"Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too." That quote from Bungie Studios head Jason Jones epitomizes the hype machine that has been rolling full steam since the sequel to Xbox's biggest hit game
Halo: Combat Evolved was announced. Now
Halo 2 is finally here – does it live up to the hype?
Gameplay If you've played the original
Halo, then you should know what to expect with
Halo 2. Again you assume the role of invincible Marine cyborg Master Chief (and a secondary character as well later on) on his continuing mission to protect the planet Earth from the invading Covenant forces. Set on Earth shortly after the destruction of the first Halo installation, we rejoin MC and Earth's forces as they prepare for a massive assault against humanity's mother planet. To repel the Covies, you'll have an assortment of cool new weapons, new vehicles, and personnel at your disposal.
Master Chief fans will be ecstatic to know that he controls as well as ever. The dual analog stick controls remain unchanged, so the Chief can still run, jump, crouch walk, and fire as easily and intuitively. Vehicle controls are better than ever; adding a power slide button to the Warthog makes it even more fun to drive. The most noticeable change from the original game to this new one is that the artificial intelligence has generally been improved. Friends and enemies now duck for cover in firefights, and your Marine counterparts can actually drive the Warthogs by themselves. Although, after seeing their driving skills first hand you'll probably want to pull Sgt. Tipsy McHammered out from behind the wheel at your earliest convenience.
One cool gameplay mechanic introduced in
Halo 2 is the ability to go all
Grand Theft Auto on opponents and jack their vehicles. Called "boarding," players can now approach a slow-moving vehicle from the sides, behind, or above and snatch the driver out of his ride and proceed to mow him down with it. How do you say "break yo' self, fool" in Covenant?
The most significant change from the original to this new incarnation is the ability to
dual wield the smaller handguns. The personalities (refire rate, power, distance) of each gun have been tweaked to accommodate the new balance of power tat duel wielding presents. Though not exactly a new gameplay mechanic to the FPS universe, dual wielding does introduce a great deal of strategic thinking into
Halo 2 that did not exist before. For example, if you find yourself up against an enemy with heavy shielding and you've only got the battle rifle equipped, he'll probably be able to kill you before your gun can cut down his shields. Instead try dual wielding a needler or an overloading plasma pistol in one hand and a submachine gun in the other. The energy weapons will knock the shields out fairly quickly, allowing you to hit your opponent with a lethal dose of lead poisoning from the SMG.
Sound Honestly, the sound in
Halo 2 is a mixed bag. The composers do an excellent job of putting together complex arrangements that flawlessly set the mood for the corresponding missions. The in-game voice talent turns in top-quality performances as well. Stars Laura Prepon, Orlando Jones, Miguel Ferrer, Michelle Rodriguez, and a truly
hilarious David Cross are just a few of the names that add character to your typically one-dimensional squadmates and enemies. Your team's riotous trash talking will give you extra incentive to try to keep them around just a little bit longer.
However, it should be noted that the sound effects themselves are a bit lacking. For some reason Bungie's sound team failed to flesh out the majority of their effects with tones in the lower registers, so many sounds are too thin and too weak. Weapons effects in particular are anemic -- Magnum shots, submachine guns, and shotgun sfx should be much deeper and more throaty when discharged.
Graphics PC gamers with high-end video cards and processors most likely will not be awestruck with
Halo 2's graphics, but they are most definitely a step up from its predecessor. Everything is exponentially smoother and detailed, from the character and vehicle animation, to the environments and backgrounds, to the weapons effects. That being said, Bungie still has a considerable ways to go with most of those objects, the most obvious being the character modeling. At a distance and under fire your fellow Marines look fine, but up close and in the cut scenes characters' faces look fairly ghastly. The black marines look like they're late for their Amos & Andy 2004 auditions. Bungie will need to step this up considerably for any future installments.
Multiplayer Truth be told, the prospect of
Halo 2's multiplayer capabilities is where the majority if the hype surrounding the game originated from. Whereas
Halo players could only share their gaming experience through LAN parties via the System Link, this sequel allows you to pit your Master Chief skills against other combatants from around the world through the preexisting XBox Live network. Sign into Live (a two-month subscription card is included, though you will
need a credit card to sign up) and be greeted by a cool blue
Halo 2 lobby ready to whisk you away to a multiplayer match of your choosing.
While the developers tried to make the lobby design fairly simple, the sheer number of options there makes it somewhat overwhelming to navigate initially. Players can choose to join a QuickMatch, an OptiMatch where opponents are chosen based on skill level, create Custom Matches or a Party (to engage in matches as a group), check stats, download new content, and look for friends through the always available Friends menu. Once you've actually begun the process of jumping into a game the usual assortment of game types will be there to welcome you: Slayer (deathmatch), Capture the Flag, Assault, King of the Hill, Oddball (keep away), Juggernaut (one player amped up), and Territories (area control). Most game types are available for team play, and are even highly customizable from the Game Variants menus.
Of course when a game's success rests heavily on the online experience, said experience had better be near flawless. Unfortunately, the developers unquestionably have some room to improve on this point. Playing online requires something approaching the
patience of Job as matches typically take three minutes or
more for the servers to set up. Signing onto Live with this game is a commitment to spend almost half your time online
waiting to play, and not too many gamers will be willing to put up with that. Nor should they. Also, many online users have discovered the glitch that causes a "map not found error" appear while a matches are loading, effectively blocking scores of players from participating in online play. Bungie and Microsoft need to address these and a few more issues as soon as humanly possible or seriously risk losing subscribers.
Still, once you're actually engaging in multiplayer combat with Live, the experience is tough to beat. Lag is presumably factored in when Live searches for your matches, so you wont experience nearly as many "lag frags" or other ping-related troubles that have become synonymous with online PC FPS gaming. Moreover, having a Communicator headset for online multiplayer is simply a must; it adds a whole new dimension to objective-based team games in terms of coordinating movement. At the very least, it gives you the ability to toss out a "get outta my ride, b*tch" when jacking someone's Warthog.
Replayability Once a player has discovered every secret and every alternate path on the Legendary difficulty level (which will take a while even for grizzled vets), that player's affection for the Single Player campaign will understandably wane more than a bit. However, Live multiplayer is guaranteed to keep the spark alive for the vast majority of Master Chief's following. Besides the myriad styles and types of play enter into the equation with live opponents online, its assured that Bungie will keep the game fresh through Live's Content Download system that allows the user to download, new maps, weapons, vehicles and who knows what else… perhaps even those flaming ninjas.
So does
Halo 2 live up to the hype? Of course not. No game possibly could have lived up to the gargantuan buildup that propelled this game to record breaking sales numbers. Even so, the Bungie squad has beyond doubt created a more than suitable sequel to arguably the best console-originated first person shooter of all time. Suit up, soldier!
For your added benefit, below I have compiled the only three comments that would have hyped Halo 2 up more than Jones' flaming ninja blurb:
3.
Halo 2 -- College coeds and binge drinking just don't seem all that "wild" anymore.
2. The armor that the troops in Iraq were fussing about? You guessed it – MJOLNIR.
1.
Grand Theft Auto 3: San Andreas -- Its
Halo 2, only dressed in a cute red gingham dress, a matching bonnet, and shiny patent leather shoes, writing free-verse poems about unicorns and flowers while skipping its way to Grandma's house.
