Halo 2
Binding : Video Game
ProductGroup : Video Games
Manufacturer : Microsoft
Brand : Microsoft
Label : Microsoft
Publisher : Microsoft
Model : XBMSFT 805529792234
Platform : Xbox
Studio : Microsoft
ReleaseDate : 2004-11-09
Lowest Used Price: USD $6.50
Lowest New Price: USD $15.88
- 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!
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.
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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.
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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
Kids enjoy the game (2007-11-07)
The kids say the Marines' language is a little stronger in Halo 2 than the original Halo. Quick shipping - good price.
Halo 2 - fabulous fun (2007-10-28)
Great fun, only wish Halo 3 were available for X-Box2. Always have fast, super service from Amazon.
Halo 2 Review (2007-10-28)
I purchased Halo 2 following all the hype over Halo 3. I beat Halo 1 a few years back and wanted to beat Halo 2 to get myself up to date. I currently only have a regular Xbox and am planning to purchase an Xbox 360 in order to play Halo 3. Overall, I would rate Halo 2 an excellent game and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes playing first-person games.
Not as good as the original. (2007-10-22)
That's not to say it's a bad game. It just seemed to me that there were a few elements in the game that the developers relied on to carry it, and instead of beefing up every level, every character, every little bite of programming... they left a lot of it so-so because you could now DUAL WEILD! And you had MORE VEHICLES! And, uh, was there anything else?
In most of my reviews, I just cover the negatives. But I still gave this game four stars. So keep that in mind if you think I hated this game. I didn't. I just point out things that I think will make you throw your controller through the screen, in case you're prone to doing that and you don't want to break another tv.
First off, the AI is NOT better than the original. Yes, they'll hop into a vehicle and ride alongside you, which is cool at first... until they run you down, crash into you, or oh-so commonly go flying over a cliff to their impending doom. What a waste. And if you're manning a turret on the back of a vehicle with the AI driving, for the most part it "works." It's a fun twist on the gameplay, which I so desired after not being able to get my AI teammates to drive for me in the original. But they'll also stop at inopportune times, as if they didn't *see* that missile or plasma shot coming at us, resulting in a painful, fiery death.
The friendly AI is about the same as the first game when they're on foot. Not shabby. If you don't know where to go next, just look for your team and chances are they'll be en route already. But they also have a penchant for diving for cover in FRONT of your moving vehicle, which is just silly.
Now, I wonder if it's because of the arrangement of the levels or WHAT, but the enemy AI didn't seem as interested in taking cover or flanking me this time around. They only flank if they're cloaked. So despite the new Brutes charging at me all the time, I kinda felt like I was shooting alien fish in a barrel.
And the Brutes bring up another big topic: The AI is cheap. This isn't to say I think they're more sophisticated, since they kill me a lot. It's just how they DO it that irks me. In the original Halo, everyone killed me plenty, but they did it with skill. I had to die a bunch of times to learn the lay of the land, where the enemies were, and what my best plan of attack was. It...was...FUN. This time around, I died waaay too many times because a Brute was charging at me faster than I could retreat / take cover, and when it caught up to me, it would hit me twice with the same shoulder charge, effectively killing me almost every time. It was just frustrating, because it wasn't a learning experience. And good luck if you respawn two feet away from the guy on the next try.
Brutes were nasty, but Elites would pull this same kind of thing on me by sideswiping me with their energy swords while cloaked. Always a matter of not being able to move out of the way in time, even if I *knew* they were there.
Next topic: LEVELS AND DEBRIS. I don't know about you, but there sure was a lot of junk in the way on these levels. Much more than in the previous game. And when you're backing away from a charging Brute, or sidestepping to avoid a raptor-like attack from an Elite, you'll probably run into a pile of crates, shrapnel, or Covenant weapons cases on more than one occasion, leading to your impending death. This is definitely one of the most frustrating elements in this game. What happened to open landscapes, or even large rooms on ships? Why is everything so cramped, 99% of the time? You have a super-cyborg at your command, and he'll be bumpin' around like a drunk Pacman.
The game graphically kicked my butt thoroughly when I first fired it up. The first few levels offered SO MUCH. The cinematics drew me in, and some of the stuff I encountered in the gameplay was just ridiculously cool. But then... ugh... then it slumped. The levels got 'dreary.' A note to Bungie, if you're going to make a very dark, dank level, MAKE SURE THE CHARACTER HAS A FLASHLIGHT! Even the levels that didn't require a flashlight were kinda 'blah' after five minutes.
Last gripe on that topic - I KNOW I'm a super cool alien or cyborg who can jump about 15 feet in the air (higher than the last game even), but do I really NEED to jump to get up on a 2 foot ledge? If only I had flashing red lights on my sneakers to help the enemies see me even MORE clearly.... Why not make the jump button `sensitive?' Even in the days of the first Mario games, we could jump a *little* or jump a *lot* depending on if we tapped the button or held it. I felt like I was playing Master Jordon, not Master Chief.
But wait, there's MORE! The game was abrupt. There *wasn't* more. The storyline was really good, kind of what I expected after the last game, but with a few extra twists and innovations. And there were multiple 'boss' fights that I really didn't expect, but was very excited about. But the last one was just, well... it made sense on a story-telling level, but the gameplay part of it wasn't working for me. I really didn't 'get' how I finished the boss off after trying to figure out his weakness for 15 minutes and over so many retries. The ending itself didn't bother me a lot. And there's a little extra after the credits, worth seeing.
Sort-of-Pros:
LOTS of people complained about playing as the Arbiter for over half of the game, including Bungie stating that "it didn't work." I hate these complaints. Probably because of these whiny Master Chief Fanboys, Halo 3 didn't include any Arbiter-played levels. I think it'll still be good, since he's a major part of the story still, but I just don't get how everyone could hate his levels so much. The worst part of it in Halo 2 is that he's going through the same missions that Master Chief followed in the first game, which sometimes felt rehashed. But I still liked it, because they kept it fresh with his VERY different perspective on what he was doing. --from a fanatical religious aspect, rather than saving the galaxy. Plus, he feels betrayed by his OWN world, whereas in the first game the betrayers were always the alien race that you were fighting anyway.
And he doesn't have a flashlight, but rather a short-term cloaking ability. This made sneaking up on my enemies a lot of fun, especially with the energy sword one-hit-kill melee weapon. So now you can control when you go invisible (on Arbiter levels), but I noticed that there weren't any invisibility shields just lying around like last time. So don't expect Master Chief to pull the same move.
The Problem With Guns Is...
I didn't like all the new weapons. There's a grenade launcher called the Brute Shot (?), and it seems cool at first because it launches grenades hard and fast, but when I realized I had to fire it 3 or 4 times to drop a Brute, and then the reload time was long enough for that brute's friend to run across a football field and kill me, I gave up on it. Fun, pointless weapon. There are two semi-auto earth rifles, neither being the original from the first game, and neither being that good, either. Dual weilding the smaller one is a pain, because the sight picture jumps around a lot, making it hard to hit anything. And the other one shoots in 3-round bursts, and has a weak ammo capacity. It's stronger, but neither compares to the original. The original wasn't exceptional, but you'll demand its return after playing with these. Halo 2 made me miss it. The Covenant have regular Plasma Rifles, and Brute Plasma Rifles now. I'm going to go ahead and assume that the Brute's version is more powerful. I have to assume so, because it gets hot and overheats in half the time it takes a regular one to overheat, so its functionality was null to me. The Covenant's version of a sniper rifle is handy in THEIR hands, but not in yours. It just doesn't drop anything but the grunts. I never really needed the earth sniper rifle, either, whereas I always loved getting my hands on one in the first game. There just weren't any real tactical uses for it because of the level designs in this game (cluttered levels). If you could get your hands on one, it probably wasn't in a real sniper-friendly level. The shotgun was pivotal in the first game when facing the Flood, but it didn't really seem that effective this time around. I stopped using it right away, because it didn't have the 'oomph' it had the first time around. Very weak. The little handheld plasma gun still homes when charged, but again, it isn't that effective. Now, there's a 'laser beam' gun - the Sentinel's primary weapon - and this is pretty good for mowing down most enemies... ESPECIALLY anything mechanical. And most weapons (I noticed the covenant weapons especially) were VERY effective at taking out enemy vehicles.
Vehicles are so easy to destroy this time around. It's probably because they threw in so many of them. There are never just one or two inbound vehicles. There are dozens. So to balance it out, they made them easy to blow up. Most notably, Ghosts and Banshees.
But don't worry - it's not so bad when you're piloting one. They seem a bit more durable when you're behind the wheel. And for the most part, driving them is more fun, too. The Ghosts, Banshees, and formerly non-commandeer-able Wraiths all have a new turbo ability, where you can dart ahead quickly. You sacrifice your ability to fire until you return to regular speed, but it's not that bad. While the Ghosts are a little more fun, and most of the other vehicles remained relatively the same as their last iteration, I guess the only complaints here are in regards to the Banshee. It has new "tricks" you can perform. (Think Starfox 64). Loops, barrel-rolls... all very smooth and easy to perform, but not very useful. In exchange, we lose the Banshee's cannon. Only itty-bitty rapid fire plasma blasts now. None of the big, crowd-clearing bombs. That, my friends, was turned into a handheld weapon that takes up half the screen and merely compensates the Covenant with their own version of a Rocket Launcher. (But it's really no compensation for the Rocket Launcher. It launches a fart cloud, from what I can tell.)
Now, being able to board just about any vehicle by hopping on top of it and pulling out the driver is WAY cool. Especially when you're up in the air and a painful stop at the bottom of a ravine awaits the poor sap piloting the vehicle.
Lastly, their storytelling in this game is at an all-time high. Granted, it's not always the most original stuff (it's sci-fi, and you know the universe has just GOT to be in trouble), but it was the best you can get for the HALO story. They never dropped the ball, and they took the story in the best possible direction it could've gone. In a way, I want to argue that Master Chief probably had TOO MUCH spotlight time in this game, since it's really not that central to his character. It's all about the Covenant, and I'm glad we got to see sooo much of its inner workings this time.
So even if they cleaned up all of the gameplay mechanics that I had issue with, I don't know if they can write as intricate of a STORY for Halo 3. Here's hoping. I figure it'll probably be more about explosions and massive attacks, which is FINE for gameplay, but not storyline. I like me a plot twist!
For instance, I didn't think "Little House of Horrors" could've made its way into a Halo game, but it did, and it was AWESOME.
And why do I feel like I'm shooting at Chewbacca every time I kill a Brute? I hope they're not brown and hairy next time around. This game already has enough star wars copyright infringement to dodge....
Oh yeah, and I didn't review multiplayer. Didn't review it for the first game either, so it's not biased either way. I'm sure it's fun, considering one of my biggest gripes was with stupid AI.
Really fun, but a high price for an original X-Box game (2007-10-21)
Halo 2 is light years ahead of Halo 1 and has the look and feel of an X-Box 360 game. With that being said, it really should be more like $20 instead of the hefty $30 price tag it now carries. I mean, it's an original X-Box game -- I think that Microsoft is being a bit too greedy and taking advantage of the Halo frenzy that #3 is causing right now. Still, it was very fun to play. The story is incoherent, and the game ends on a very abrupt and unsatisfying note. Great music.
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