The Bungie Halo games I've played are pretty even in terms of quality, but this is the one that's both the closest and farthest from achieving excellence. The first half had me giddy as it bounced from a bombastic defense of Earth as the Chief and pseudo-stealth Elite special ops team mission, which provided the pacing a solid sense of flow and variety. However, when the plotlines converged they became indistinct and I finally disconnected from the convoluted story of these games entirely. So it winds up being average in the end.

Completed on August 5th, 2020
Score: 3/5

Halo 2 é sem dúvidas um salto de qualidade gritante partindo de Halo CE, ainda mais em relação à qualidade de seus remakes (Halo 2 deve ser o jogo mais bonito da franquia agora). Os mapas ficaram maiores, mais corajosos; a história toma uma rota bem mais interessante e engajada, especialmente com a introdução do Árbitro e um olhar mais detalhado sobre quem são os inimigos da humanidade nessa guerra. Sinto que a inteligência artificial ficou um pouco menos interessante de se jogar contra, com os Brutes não oferecendo alternativa tão engajante quanto os Elites do CE. Além disso, a história termina em um ponto muito baixo, coisa que não fere tanto agora que se pode imediatamente jogar Halo 3 logo após este - ainda assim, se julgado em uma bolha, é no mínimo uma escolha bem esquisita de ritmo narrativo.

Sentimentos mistos. Superficialmente, é mais polido, variado e com melhor ritmo que o primeiro Halo, mantendo e melhorando seus pontos fortes — personagens carismáticos, direção de arte deslumbrante, gunplay fenomenal, etc. O único "regresso" fica por conta do world design. Combat Evolved dava ao jogador pelo menos um módico de tiquinho de liberdade, com mapas relativamente abertos ligando suas missões. Halo 2 é bem mais linear nesse quesito.

Só um detalhe assim pequeno não faz tanta diferença, certo? Exceto que a fórmula de Halo era coesa e amarradinha o suficiente para que a remoção de qualquer um de seus elementos afeta vários outros. Sem essa módica liberdade de movimentação, o papel e o impacto dos veículos fica completamente reduzido. Eles deixam de ser ferramentas úteis para travessia do terreno e exploração e viram simples armas grandes que você usa em determinados momentos para explodir inimigos. O level design também é afetado um pouco. Eu senti que os níveis estavam um tanto desconectados do mundo, e a arquitetura dos lugares nem sempre faz muito sentido.

Em compensação, Halo 2 é mais "cinemático". Tanto sua estrutura narrativa quanto os setpieces em que você joga evocam e fazem uso explícito de vários tropos de ficção científica e militar, de uma forma bem mais contundente que seu antecessor. Tudo parece mais "épico", digamos assim, o que cria uma campanha singleplayer bem divertida do início ao fim.

No geral é uma experiência melhor que o primeiro Halo, com qualidade consistente do início ao fim, mas ainda acho a primeira metade de Combat Evolved a melhor performance da série. Vejamos o que o resto da franquia me reserva.

Honestly when I first heard about MCC I was just hyped to finally be able to play the rest of the games in the series, since I was only ever able to play Halo CE. What I didn't know was that this game was remastered and was part of the collection. Playing Halo 2's story for the first time ever with these remastered graphics and cutscenes was the best experience I've ever had and I will never forget my first playthrough of this game. Beautiful game with great soundtrack and great story improving upon everything that was good about Halo CE

I mean come on... It's Halo 2. Of course it's great.

That being said, I do have some misgivings about some of the new stuff. I'm still on the fence about some aspects of the redone cutscenes as well as some rather bizarre choices with re-recorded tracks. But you can always just play with the original graphics/sounds anyways... so It's not a big deal.

Really the biggest problem is the PC port is still pretty glitchy.

Total side note, but I still hate how this series balances for higher difficulties.

I have to assume all the glowing reviews are for the multiplayer because the campaign is just short of abysmal. Repetitive environments to the point where I once actually returned to the beginning of a level because I couldn't tell which way was forward,

both the Flood and Covenant get a new late-game enemy in the form of a hyper-agile bullet sponge which is just no fun to fight,

as a result of that grenades are no longer for clearing out infantry but instead for easily one-shotting heavy enemies,

and a final boss that I beat by complete accident. Still don't know how the fight was meant to go. The campaign has problems communicating with the player the whole way through. Like the time you enter a room where you have to kill all the enemies and Cortana says "let's sit this fight out."

Anyway, the story. I think there's a really interesting comparison to be made between Halo 2 (2004) and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002). I mean that in both the positive and negative ways. They both go for a dual-protagonist structure juxtaposing two aspects of the story (interesting! good!), and they both get mired down in the politics of their factions (not inherently bad but poorly executed on both fronts!). I think I would rather take Lucas's hokey dialogue than the grandoise nothingness the Covenant leaders spout.

And speaking of the early 2000s, how about those marines? How about Johnson? I said "factions" in the plural earlier but the humans seem to be pretty unified on everything. How about the Aliens, waging a holy war with their... weapons of mass destruction? Is this a stretch? I don't think it's much of a stretch.

I want to keep going but honestly, the comparison to the Star Wars prequels says enough. About the game sure, but mostly about me.

Played via PC MCC.
It's alright. My nostalgia for this game wanted t o carry it but it's not that great. There's wayyyyy too many vehicles segments, like I swear 70% of this game is vehicles. I'm convinced this game was balanced around multipalyer, and doesn't scale for single player, cuz the guns feel super whimpy and enemies are oh so tanky.
I love Halo lore and this game does have the best lore/story in the franchise imo, and unlike Halo CE anniversary the updated graphics look phenomenal, but I walked away feeling pretty whatever.

I think what surprised me most about revisiting Halo 2 was how, out of everything, the thing that held up the best was the narrative and world building. Which isn't to say that the moment to moment gameplay hasn't been improved from the first game, but the writing really does deserve a huge amount of credit for managing to take the handful of lore pieces from the first game and constructing what feels like a true epic. Not just and epic in the sense of "the explosions were very big and cool" but in the sense of this feeling like an ever expanding and grand tale of two warring factions and an ancient race that's caused it all.

But while the story is a definite improvement the gameplay still occasionally falls into the same traps of the previous game. Nothing as bad as the second half of Halo, but fighting the flood is still kind of annoying, and the streamlined level design can make certain fights feel claustrophobic. But still, generally, Halo 2 does a better job at balancing the difficulty than it's predecessor.

If you've been thinking about revisiting this (or hell, even if you've never played it) than I can safely say that Halo 2 is still a good game without the need for rose tinted glasses, just don't be surprised if it's something other than the gameplay that hooks you this time.

outside of the ABHORRENT legendary difficulty balancing and dumb and unfun boss fights (and that FUCKING elevator sequence in one of the flood missions holy fuck why is it so LONG), this game is a true sequel to halo ce and expands upon everything in such a beautiful way that it makes a grown ass man want to cry.

i guess the ending kinda sucked lol but it's not an actual issue in 2020 since it only sucked due to it being a cliffhanger and halo 3 is right there available on multiple platforms now

Halo 2 was a huge improvement. It has better graphics, soundtrack, presentation, multiplayer, and campaign. Lots of my issues with CE have fixed with this one. New enemy types finally make the game more strategic, playing as two different sides of war makes the game's story more thoughtful and increases weapon variety. Dual-wielding makes shitty small weapons somewhat useful. Levels are not recycled and landscapes are more diverse. Anniversary edition is gorgeous. CE also has anniversary edition but it doesn't look this good. Amazingly well-done PC remaster.

I hate one thing about this game and that is, it's way too linear. It's linear in a boring way. I love lots of linear FPS games but this just so closed down and uninteresting. Where are all the big and open levels from the first game go? Delta Halo and Regret have some kind of sandbox elements but damn half of the campaign levels have that long as fuck hold-out levels that you wait in a room or elevator and kill every enemy coming your way.

Overall its a better and more linear version of CE. Besides its design flaws, it is a very good game. Multiplayer was also fun from what I've remembered.

Campaign: 7.5/10
Multiplayer: 6/10

this game improves the campaign that makes it even more playable. sure the major flaws are still there, and the brutes are still trash, but the amazing look makes it so much more worth it.

i haven't tried the multiplayer enough to give it major thoughts, but i remember it not being as fun as original halo 2 multiplayer.

the pre rendered cutscenes can be jarring, but they look so amazing that i don't mind them being out of place.

gameplay gets a 3.
story gets a 5.

Halo 2 is a bigger, better and more varied and interesting Halo 1. It evolves the sandbox with amazing new weapons like the Energy Sword, there are a lot more sprawling levels like the first maps of CE, and ones that are a bit more tighter feel tense and immersing. The whole Arbitre story line is a brilliant and unexpected addition that fleshes out the world and adds more interest to Halo 2's antagonists. The game is pretty as it is, but the Anniversary edition, unlike the first game's remaster treatment, improves the visuals tenfold. It's issues like the presistant hitscans or annoying boss battles are frustrating, but the whole of Halo 2 is definitely bigger than the sum of it's parts