Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Bungie
Publisher: Microsoft
Released On: November 9, 2004
# of Players: 1-4/16 (mode specific)
ERSB: Mature
Supports: Xbox Live, 480p, Dolby 5.1
MSRP: $49.99
Also On: n/a
Website: www.bungie.net
Better Than: Killzone
The sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed, best selling games of all time is finally upon us. I first spied Halo 2 tucked in a dark corner of the Los Angeles Convention Center at the E3 expo in 2003. We all knew it was coming, but nothing could have prepared me for what was to be shown. All signs pointed to an incredible sequel; a battle for Earth against an army of invading Covenant. I could not wait to get my hands on it, but wait I would – and wait, and wait… for what would seem like an eternity – nearly 18 full months of agonizing torture as Bungie and Microsoft leaked one measly screenshot at a time, coupled with cryptic bits of information on a beekeeping website and a strict “no comment” policy that led to untold amounts of speculation on behalf of a massive internet following. This was hype redefined, on a grand scale like nothing I had witnessed before, not even for the most anticipated Hollywood blockbuster. And on November 9th, 2004, it would finally come to an end.
Coming off of Microsoft’s Fable, an ambitious action RPG that would ultimately disappoint due to the very hype that made it instantly famous, I approached Halo 2 with a certain amount of caution. There was a part of me that knew it would be the most amazing game I would every play, pulling off graphics that nobody knew the aging Xbox hardware were capable of, with a story that would force Hideo Kojima to change his pants. I knew this because Microsoft needed it to be all of that and more in order to secure the holiday shopping season for themselves. Then there was the part of me concerned that it hadn’t come together in time, worried that it would fall short of the incredible amount of hype surrounding the title. And with butterflies in my stomach, I turned it on for the first time.
Anyone familiar with the original Halo knows that the game is equal parts gameplay and story, and Halo 2’s story picks up exactly where the previous game left off, as if ten minutes ago you had destroyed the halo and flown away. It’s immediately obvious that much time was spent on the game’s real-time cinematic sequences, and they are just beautiful to watch. At the start of the game, Master Chief had retreated to a human space station orbiting the Earth, receiving accolades from his comrades for destroying the halo. A few Covenant cruisers trailing the Master Chief back to Earth are detected and the game begins, exactly as Halo 1 had begun, with Covenant boarding parties making their way through the winding corridors of the human installation as you fight off their advance. It’s hard not to get an immediate sense of deja vu, and why Bungie couldn’t come up with a more original introductory level is beyond me. After securing the orbiting base from the invading army, Master Chief finds his way down to the Earth’s surface – the battle for Earth had begun. Or had it? Because after only two levels we find ourselves flying back into outer space. What’s going on here?
"...why Bungie couldn’t come up with a more original introductory level is beyond me."
|
Concurrently, the Covenant Elite responsible for the ring’s destruction is on trial for his failure. Labeled a “heretic” by his peers, he is pulled aside by the Covenant leader “Prophets", given a suicide mission and dubbed the title The Arbiter, one of many proud Covenant warrior heroes given similar missions throughout their troubled history. The Arbiter becomes Halo 2’s second playable character, causing the game’s story to split off into two separate interweaving storylines that for the remainder of the game will switch from one to the next and back again.
For a game with such an emphasis on story, and after so many punishing months of Bungie’s tight-lippedness and the ridiculous ilovebees.com fiasco that sent hundreds of Halo heads scurrying off to random pay phones in order to hear bits and pieces of whatever the hell it was in the hopes of a glimpse into Halo 2’s story, I have to say that I am a little let down by the final product. It’s not so much that I was let down by what actually took place throughout the game, as the final outcome is exactly what I was hoping would play out, but I think Bungie left a lot of room for improvement in terms of story pacing and storytelling. Despite the game’s fantastic real-time cinematics, which were often just spectacular, there were just too many times I felt lost in what was going on as simply too much time had passed since the last story sequence was shown, and it didn’t help much that the story kept switching characters so often. To further compound the feeling of being lost in the game’s campaign, the dialogue spoken during gameplay was often impossible to make out over the other atmospheric sound effects. Cortana, as in Halo 1, was especially hard to understand, which completely boggles my mind – why didn’t Bungie address this issue? Guilty Spark is another nearly impossible-to-understand character, and you’d think that more care would have been taken to ensure that two such important speaking roles in the game would have been made easier to hear. Oh well. And at the end of the game, just as it seemed that every loose thread of a storyline was coming together in an all-out orgy of action – an ending to end all endings – the game simply ends, just as abruptly as it began, with an ending that’s been dubbed a “cliffhanger”, while I could probably think of a few more colorful words to use. I suppose I can understand Bungie wanting to leave the door open for Halo 3, but come on, we waited so long for this game to have it simply end like that. In fact, I was so disgusted with the ending that I got up and walked out of the room entirely, nearly missing the final cinematic sequence that rolls immediately following the credits. I find that instead of being left with a great sense of accomplishment or jubilation I felt more a sense of “Bleh – what the hell just happened?”. I’m sure the story will begin to fall into place after subsequent replays of the game’s campaign should I choose to go back, but it’s a considerable design flaw in my opinion if you can’t convey it all in one go-round, and hopefully Joseph Staten and the rest of the crew will address that in time for Halo 3. The overall length of the game is quite respectable though, and at least as long as Halo 1.
Now where the story might have fallen short of my expectations, the gameplay makes up for it in spades. Players familiar with the original Halo will immediately be at home with most of the button commands, though your mobility has been upgraded to an extent including an increased jump height. The brilliance of Halo’s gameplay has always been about both its impeccable weapon balance as well as its close/mid/long range gameplay balance, and Halo 2 is no exception to the rule. New this time around is the ability to dual-wield weapons which fits neatly into the control scheme after only a short time spent learning the new not-too-complicated controller commands. Wielding two weapons at once lends its own unique strategy as well, as holding two weapons sacrifices a player’s ability to throw grenades. Dual-wielding also breathes new life into what would otherwise be worthless weapon choices like the plasma pistol and needler, both of which are just awesome when used in the right combinations with other weapons, combinations such as the new SMG and a charged plasma pistol which is simply devastating. Also new is the ability to use the Covenant plasma sword with its lunging one hit kills, and the ability to knock an opponent right out of their vehicle and take it from them, dubbed “jacking” a vehicle. Playing as Master Chief is largely identical to controlling Arbiter, except that Arbiter has limited use of his Covenant “active camouflage” cloaking system offsetting Master Chief’s flashlight. There are a few other new weapons and many returning favorites as well, and you’re going to need all of them to square off against new enemy faces such as the Covenant Honor Guards and the ape-like Brutes. The game serves up some brilliant enemy AI that is incredibly cunning (if not cheap) on the harder difficulty settings, with the ultimate difficulty setting “Legendary” taking the video game difficulty scale to new heights that can be best described in three words: bat shit insane. Without question the most hardened Halo 1 veterans will be scratching their heads in bewilderment as even Level 1 offers some of the most incredible difficulty ever seen in a video game, ever. It’s up there with Ninja Gaiden’s Hurricane Pack 2, that’s for sure.
One of the main attractions of Halo 1 was the incredibly awesome multiplayer experience that all but launched the popular Xbox tunneling application XBConnect,
"Halo 2 on Live is hands down the most incredible Live title to date..."
|
and since the release of Xbox Live in 2002 fans have been salivating at the thought of having Halo on Live. And while the PC version of Halo did offer typical online PC game functionality, most probably would have shelled out an additional 50 bucks for an online version of Halo 1 on Xbox. But Bungie really wanted to save the fully fleshed out Halo online experience for Halo 2, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait. Halo 2 on Live is hands down the most incredible Live title to date, offering virtually lag-free experiences for up to 16 players thanks to some genius coding that automatically selects the Xbox with the fastest connection to host, and should the host leave in the middle of the match, the next fastest will automatically take the task and the game resumes without a hitch – very nice. The gameplay effortlessly translates to the online experience, offering additional goodies such as the lock-on rocket that makes piloting vehicles a dangerous operation should all rocket launchers not be accounted for, and the “proximity voice” feature that I have been patiently waiting for a game to adopt. This means that every word you mutter over your headset can be heard by anyone standing close enough to intercept the transmission, sounding off through their home stereo and not the headset as if it were just another sound effect, giving players the ability to razz their opponents a bit. Inter-team headset communications are done via a quick press of the white button, though they too can be spied if you’re not careful. Also available is the option to allow for up to 3 guests to play split-screen while on the Xbox Live network, meaning fun for all of your friends and lots and lots of players online at any given moment, averaging in the tens of thousands at any given time. Xbox Live 3.0 features are also in full effect here, including text and voice messaging, clan support, and an incredibly intricate ranking system that automatically places you into rooms with players of a similar skill level, ensuring that every match is a nail biter. And each game can be reviewed online courtesy of Bungie’s incredibly detailed stats page that tracks every last kill right down to displaying a map showing where both players were standing at the time of the death. Another great new feature is the “party” system that allows you to form groups of friends and bounce around from game to game as a unit for as long as you want, which is ideal for keeping rooms together without having to add a ton of people to your friends list (you can even accept a game invite as a group). And if you should choose to play a lazy game with friends, you can set up your own custom rules, settings, choose a map and go – all unranked, however – no room for cheating here. Bungie went out of their way to keep players from padding their stats with easy victories. Well, at least that was the intent: many glitches have been discovered since the game’s release, all of which are possible to pull off in ranked games, sadly. Hopefully Bungie gets on the ball and releases a patch to fix those soon, and includes more maps in the process. The game only offers a somewhat dismal 11, nearly identical to Halo 1’s offering including two “upgraded” versions of existing Halo 1 maps. Short of the limited number of maps though, Halo 2 offers everything you could ever want and then some in an online game, and enough game-type variations to almost make you forget about the map situation entirely. The only real downsides of the online experience is that for one thing, you cannot search for a custom game – you can only create your own or join one through your friends list. The only functionality of the quick and optimatches are to find ranked games. Why is this? Who knows, but it sucks. There are also no in-game stat pages to browse, surprisingly.
On the visual side of things, Halo 2 has taken a big leap forward. Running on an entirely new graphics engine, some of the visuals in the game are simply stunning – especially the cutscenes, which need to be seen to be believed – while other times it’s hard to tell it apart from the original at all, a testament perhaps to the greatness of Halo 1’s often under appreciated graphical prowess.
"Running on an entirely new graphics engine, some of the visuals in the game are simply stunning..."
|
It’s really not until you get right up close to a character model that you begin to appreciate its advanced normal mapping technology that makes low poly models look like they were made out of ten times as many, something that simply doesn’t show up all too well at standard television resolutions. In all honesty though, aside from the rock solid engine that never misses a beat in even the most intense battles, I really wasn’t as impressed with Halo 2’s in-game graphics as I wanted to be. Riddick probably did more for console FPS graphics this year with its dynamic lighting and shadowing that sadly didn’t make it into the final version of Halo 2 (which, thanks to this screenshot and others like it on Bungie’s site, I was expecting to see). One aspect that has dramatically improved though is the level design, which was a sore spot with critics of Halo 1. The Earth levels are just great to look at and lots of fun, combining traditional corridor style play and vehicle turret shooting bliss thanks to the new AI drivers that feel like scripted events even though they are playing out in real time, however you decide to approach each new situation. Later in the game there is a lot more alien architecture, and even though there aren’t recycled pieces of level geometry at every turn this time, it does start to look the same after you have played a while. But where the graphics may or may not fail to impress, the music more than makes up the difference. It’s even more amazing the second time around, from the title screen to the credits, with guitar legend Steve Vai lending his talent as well as Breaking Benjamin, among other bands. There was concern prior to the launch of Halo 2 that Bungie had sold out when they disclosed that some licensed music would be used in the game, but rest assured it’s used sparingly and never sounds out of place next to Marty O’Donnell’s orchestrated greatness. Sound effects in the game exhibit simply the best the Xbox has to offer, including Hollywood voice talent from actors such as Keith David, Ron Perlman and Michael Wincott. It all adds up to some great atmosphere and intense moments.
So at the end of the day I would say that I am thoroughly impressed with what Bungie was able to accomplish with Halo 2. The single player experience really didn’t live up to all of my hopes and dreams (it probably never could have), and probably left me with more questions than answers, but the multiplayer side of Halo 2 is completely worth the price of admission in and of itself. It’s amazing really that in only two iterations Bungie and Microsoft have taken nothing and turned it into one of the most recognizable game series of all time, and for good reason – the Halo series is on fire, with ninjas and ambulances and all that – and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Oh God, not more waiting.
The Good
+ The wait is finally over.
+ Amazing online experience.
+ Proximity voice!The Bad
- Difficult to hear character speech.
- Ending sucks.
- Needs more multiplayer maps.
The Stupid
? Inability to search for custom game lobbies.
*GamersMark.com reviewed this game with a copy of the title purchased from retail.
