While not bad at all, the game is made far weaker by it's copout cliffhanger ending and a boring and washed out multiplayer.
The story is excellent, giving more character to the covenant gives the player a entirely new cast of interesting characters, good as the first game killed most of the few characters it had. The levels are alright, but far too many of them have you stand in a big room fighting waves of enemies like it's firefight for ten minutes, the level where you fly a banshee and chase the heretic is a great example as you have about ten seconds of excitement followed by twenty life-draining minutes of flying around and killing the same three enemies forever.
The multiplayer is a step down from Combat Evolved, but by no means is it a disaster. The battle rifle sadly overshadows almost every weapon as instead of making everything strong like in the original, everything shoots pool noodles except the BR and power weapons. The levels have begun to lose all the gimmicky, party-game charm already, and are now just boring octagons of nothingness outside of the big-team battle maps. And I know people love their high-skill buggy game mechanics because it makes them feel just another step above everyone else, but things like BXR end up making the strong weapons stronger, and do next to nothing for the weaker weapons that actually would need such a boon.
The big new feature for multiplayer is dual wielding, and I am sorry to say that this only further weakens the already pathetic pool of weapons. Weapons like the smg and pistol are weak enough at their ""full-potential" when dual-wielded, and neigh-unusable when held alone, meaning to stand any semblance of a chance against the weapon everyone starts with in most modes, you must handicap yourself by being unable to use grenades/equipment without dropping your other weapon.
This may be the second ugliest Halo game, though still miles above Halo 5. Unlike the original, which played the weaknesses of the original xbox to it's strength with a more cartooney and shiny aesthetic, Halo 2 just looks like they found stretched stock art textures over everything and it ends up looking muddy and ugly all throughout.
I see no reason why they should not have just waited for the Xbox 360 to release a full, unbroken, balanced, and high-fidelity game. And so, for me, while it is not terrible by any means, there is little to no reason to play Halo 2 over most other Halo games.
The story is excellent, giving more character to the covenant gives the player a entirely new cast of interesting characters, good as the first game killed most of the few characters it had. The levels are alright, but far too many of them have you stand in a big room fighting waves of enemies like it's firefight for ten minutes, the level where you fly a banshee and chase the heretic is a great example as you have about ten seconds of excitement followed by twenty life-draining minutes of flying around and killing the same three enemies forever.
The multiplayer is a step down from Combat Evolved, but by no means is it a disaster. The battle rifle sadly overshadows almost every weapon as instead of making everything strong like in the original, everything shoots pool noodles except the BR and power weapons. The levels have begun to lose all the gimmicky, party-game charm already, and are now just boring octagons of nothingness outside of the big-team battle maps. And I know people love their high-skill buggy game mechanics because it makes them feel just another step above everyone else, but things like BXR end up making the strong weapons stronger, and do next to nothing for the weaker weapons that actually would need such a boon.
The big new feature for multiplayer is dual wielding, and I am sorry to say that this only further weakens the already pathetic pool of weapons. Weapons like the smg and pistol are weak enough at their ""full-potential" when dual-wielded, and neigh-unusable when held alone, meaning to stand any semblance of a chance against the weapon everyone starts with in most modes, you must handicap yourself by being unable to use grenades/equipment without dropping your other weapon.
This may be the second ugliest Halo game, though still miles above Halo 5. Unlike the original, which played the weaknesses of the original xbox to it's strength with a more cartooney and shiny aesthetic, Halo 2 just looks like they found stretched stock art textures over everything and it ends up looking muddy and ugly all throughout.
I see no reason why they should not have just waited for the Xbox 360 to release a full, unbroken, balanced, and high-fidelity game. And so, for me, while it is not terrible by any means, there is little to no reason to play Halo 2 over most other Halo games.
Halo 2 improves on every single thing that the last game did. It expands the sandbox and the lore, has much deeper character writing and worldbuilding, and has one of the most tech-heavy multiplayer experiences on the console side of gaming.
You take the role again as the Master Chief as he storms his way across Earth and a new Halo ring to stop the Covenant once again. In the midst of all of this, a disavowed Elite named Thel 'Vadam is cast into the role as Arbiter of the Covenant for failing to top Chief's destruction of the first Halo. The Arbiter and Chief must learn more about The Covenant's Great Journey and stop it before it leads to the destruction of the universe.
I can't begin to say how much the game has improved in it's sense of scale. You need to really balance your usage of combined arms in a way not many single player games get right still. Even out of vehicles, the infantry combat is even more deadlier when you add enemy snipers and impatient rushing into the mix. Not to worry, because almost every weapon the Covenant drops now can be equipped for use back at them. It makes for a compelling (albeit sometimes unfair) campaign.
The multiplayer is so much better in this game because of the high skill ceiling. You can play it like Halo 1 still, or you can use the new sandbox elements like Dual Wielding to get an edge. Want to fly off that edge, well Energy Sword Flings have you covered. There isn't much depth like this in most military shooters, you normally have to look toward different fps game subgenres to find it (i.e movement shooters, hero shooters), but Halo 2 finds a way to make it all work together.
Halo 2 is still the finest FPS the original Xbox had to offer, and it only gets better from here for a short time.
You take the role again as the Master Chief as he storms his way across Earth and a new Halo ring to stop the Covenant once again. In the midst of all of this, a disavowed Elite named Thel 'Vadam is cast into the role as Arbiter of the Covenant for failing to top Chief's destruction of the first Halo. The Arbiter and Chief must learn more about The Covenant's Great Journey and stop it before it leads to the destruction of the universe.
I can't begin to say how much the game has improved in it's sense of scale. You need to really balance your usage of combined arms in a way not many single player games get right still. Even out of vehicles, the infantry combat is even more deadlier when you add enemy snipers and impatient rushing into the mix. Not to worry, because almost every weapon the Covenant drops now can be equipped for use back at them. It makes for a compelling (albeit sometimes unfair) campaign.
The multiplayer is so much better in this game because of the high skill ceiling. You can play it like Halo 1 still, or you can use the new sandbox elements like Dual Wielding to get an edge. Want to fly off that edge, well Energy Sword Flings have you covered. There isn't much depth like this in most military shooters, you normally have to look toward different fps game subgenres to find it (i.e movement shooters, hero shooters), but Halo 2 finds a way to make it all work together.
Halo 2 is still the finest FPS the original Xbox had to offer, and it only gets better from here for a short time.
Now this is what a sequel should look like. Halo 2 takes what was good and fun about Halo CE and builds upon it with a bigger pool of guns and vehicles to choose from. The dual-wielding is so much fun; driving the tank and using it felt way less clunky and annoying. Halo 2 is levels ahead of Halo CE. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Unfortunately suffers due to aging, but the story was super cool on my first playthrough
THEY TOOK MY ASSAULT RIFLE NO WHYYYYYYY
My favorite of the original trilogy. The improvements in gameplay and presentation are wonderful, and hindsight has shown how great the Arbiter's story can really be taken on it's own merits.
second best halo game. best multiplayer for sure, the campaign is a little dookie but we love it for that
Improves upon its predecessor in impressive ways, with a stronger story and adrenaline-fueled gameplay. Love it!
The best Halo game. Countless hours spent with this one.
Duel wielding kicks A$$ but the elite missions started getting stale.
Fena değil.
Probably has the 2nd best theme.
The first halo with halo multiplayer. Banger campaign as well.
Kind of frustraiting at parts
Sniper Jackals
pls take me back i dont want no valorant no more
Melhora absurdamente em relação ao primeiro, o único problema que eu vejo nele é sua reta final ser horrível e suas últimas missões serem insuportáveis, mesma coisa que eu senti no 1. O 3 parece peak, animado.
People really weren't joking when they said this game improves upon the original in every way. Gameplay-wise master chief’s movement feels significantly better, vehicles are actually controllable, and levels now consist of more than one repeated room. Aside from being super fun, Dual wielding weapons also brings in significantly more strategy to your gameplan for every level. You have to pay far more attention to your ammo levels, and making calls on what weapon to use when ends up being pretty important. Now that levels consist of more than one room, finding where you need to go has been made much easier, meaning nearly all frustrations I had with the first game have been dealt with in this one. Story-wise Halo 2 is also better in every conceivable way, which made me much more interested in the game during my playthrough. The original Halo’s story definitely had some interesting aspects to it, but I felt it wasn't particularly well told. Cutscenes were basic as well as few and far between, there was only a very small number of speaking characters, and the dialogue was often pretty cheesy. Halo 2 definitely does have its fair share of cheesy dialogue, but now there are real cutscenes all over the place, some real characters with actual depth, and even more crazy and cool scifi concepts explored. The cinematography in this game has also been massively improved over the original. I still get chills from watching that opening cutscene of master chief planting the covenant bomb. It also helps that the graphics are significantly better than the original, and fairly impressive for the Xbox. It's really hard for me to believe sometimes that Halo and Halo 2 even came out on the same system. My two complaints with this game is that, one, I don't particularly enjoy running through narrow, dark, crowded corridors filled with enemies that run straight at me and can 2 shot me (especially when one of the playable characters doesn't have a flashlight), and i'd say this game features a few too many levels with that structure. Two, the story ends really abruptly and out of nowhere on a fairly major cliffhanger. All said and done however, I think halo 2 is easily one of the best first person shooters ever made. It did everything the first game wasn't capable of, and I believe it's taught me why this series is so widely loved.
[Vista port]
Yeah, it barely works lol
Yeah, it barely works lol
While still good in its own right, it does suffer from far less interesting level-design and an unfinished campaign.
This is a great example of what a sequel should be.
Everything from the story, to the gameplay, and the level design is improved from Combat Evolved.
Allowing the player to dual wield weapons along with a whole new variety of them kept the gunplay much more fresh than the previous game.
The music is, once again, incredible and adds such a badass feel to even just driving around in a Warthog.
My only real complaints are that:
1. the bosses were a bit spongey. Maybe that's because I played on Heroic difficulty but it still felt like a little bit too much.
2. Having no compass or map or even proper context clues on where to go really dragged down the pacing. Having less level repeats is good, but at least I would know where to go the second time through for those.
Realistically those are super super small complaints, this game is really that good and it's only kept my hype going for the third one.
Everything from the story, to the gameplay, and the level design is improved from Combat Evolved.
Allowing the player to dual wield weapons along with a whole new variety of them kept the gunplay much more fresh than the previous game.
The music is, once again, incredible and adds such a badass feel to even just driving around in a Warthog.
My only real complaints are that:
1. the bosses were a bit spongey. Maybe that's because I played on Heroic difficulty but it still felt like a little bit too much.
2. Having no compass or map or even proper context clues on where to go really dragged down the pacing. Having less level repeats is good, but at least I would know where to go the second time through for those.
Realistically those are super super small complaints, this game is really that good and it's only kept my hype going for the third one.
My favorite Halo. Best multiplayer in the series, and I love the campaign. Even the bad levels. It's not the best Halo. But it is in my heart.
A complete improvement over halo 1 in every way
From the iconic soundtrack, the incredibly fun campaign, and the trailblazing multiplayer. This game is a juggernaut. Anytime I want to revisit the days when Halo ruled the world, I look up the launch day video where people created lines as long as continents to get their copy. I still have the exact copy my mom got me in 2006 sitting on my shelf. Sure, the campaign ends of a cliffhanger and the game was rushed. But did my 10 year old dumb brain care? No. I was too busy hearing racial slurs on Xbox Live to notice.
Absolute Masterpiece, very fun game to play with a great campaign.
Halo 2 takes just about everything that worked about Halo: Combat Evolved and expands on it, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, creating something that's... weird.
Jumping into the very first level, I immediately noticed a slight graphical bump, textures are more detailed while polygon counts remained fairly similar, if a bit higher in places. The new HUD is a generally welcome change, removing the health indicator and moving the shield indicator to the radar in the bottom left does put two pieces of essential together, but removes a critical piece of information about your current health. For that matter, it seems like you officially have regenerating health, as opposed to just a regenerating shield and health packs around.
Because of this change, it's easy to see Master Chief's advanced shield systems as paper-thin and easy to break, with an extra (much better against energy shields) health bar that's invisible, which can be pretty dang frustrating in gauging 'when' I should be dead.
The new weapons are very fun though, the Battle Rifle, Submachine Gun, Covenant Carbine, and Brute Shot are a great joy to use, but the enemy factions you use them against can suck out a lot of the crazy fun this game has. The Flood (again) and Brutes are particularly bad offenders, having pretty limited tactics and just shoving tanky high-damage enemies in your face.
But the places you fight them! Halo 2 looks at the gorgeous 3D rendered vistas of Combat Evolved and says "hold my beer." The sheer variety and depth of it all is incredible, and it truly feels like a galaxy-spanning adventure. The enormous set-pieces (particularly anything involving the all-new Scarabs) are absolutely show-stealing, really pushing Halo 2's more cinematic narrative.
And oh my God that narrative, a huge step-up over Combat Evolved, 2 features fully fledged in-engine cutscenes with characters and worldbuilding that go much further than the events of each level. Although character development and writing quality isn't quite perfect, it's cheesy, badass fun when it needs to be, and plays the more deathly serious parts well.
Overall, had a wonderful time playing on Heroic, very excited to Finish the Fight in Halo 3 !
9/10 - "When you first saw Halo [2], were you blinded by its majesty?"
Jumping into the very first level, I immediately noticed a slight graphical bump, textures are more detailed while polygon counts remained fairly similar, if a bit higher in places. The new HUD is a generally welcome change, removing the health indicator and moving the shield indicator to the radar in the bottom left does put two pieces of essential together, but removes a critical piece of information about your current health. For that matter, it seems like you officially have regenerating health, as opposed to just a regenerating shield and health packs around.
Because of this change, it's easy to see Master Chief's advanced shield systems as paper-thin and easy to break, with an extra (much better against energy shields) health bar that's invisible, which can be pretty dang frustrating in gauging 'when' I should be dead.
The new weapons are very fun though, the Battle Rifle, Submachine Gun, Covenant Carbine, and Brute Shot are a great joy to use, but the enemy factions you use them against can suck out a lot of the crazy fun this game has. The Flood (again) and Brutes are particularly bad offenders, having pretty limited tactics and just shoving tanky high-damage enemies in your face.
But the places you fight them! Halo 2 looks at the gorgeous 3D rendered vistas of Combat Evolved and says "hold my beer." The sheer variety and depth of it all is incredible, and it truly feels like a galaxy-spanning adventure. The enormous set-pieces (particularly anything involving the all-new Scarabs) are absolutely show-stealing, really pushing Halo 2's more cinematic narrative.
And oh my God that narrative, a huge step-up over Combat Evolved, 2 features fully fledged in-engine cutscenes with characters and worldbuilding that go much further than the events of each level. Although character development and writing quality isn't quite perfect, it's cheesy, badass fun when it needs to be, and plays the more deathly serious parts well.
Overall, had a wonderful time playing on Heroic, very excited to Finish the Fight in Halo 3 !
9/10 - "When you first saw Halo [2], were you blinded by its majesty?"
Desearía haber experimentado este juego en su tiempo pero no fue así, no viví el multijugador como debería, aún así la campaña me parece mejor que la primera.
Thinking about Halo makes me emotional. Halo 2 in particular was my shit. Getting owned online, enjoying the amazing story and world building of the campaign. They don't miss with these games.
best halo
They fall in line, one at a time, ready to play
(I can't see them anyway)
No time to lose, we've got to move, steady your hand
(I am losing sight again)
Fire your guns, it's time to run, blow me away
(I will stay in the mess I made)
After the fall, we'll shake it off, show me the way
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
There's nothing left, so save your breath, lying in wait
(Caught inside this tidal wave)
Your cover's blown, nowhere to go, holding your fate
(Lonely, I will walk alone)
Fire your guns, it's time to run, blow me away
(I will stay in the mess I made)
After the fall, we'll shake it off, show me the way
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
Wanted it back
Don't fight me now
Here it comes
Die
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
Save us all
(I can't see them anyway)
No time to lose, we've got to move, steady your hand
(I am losing sight again)
Fire your guns, it's time to run, blow me away
(I will stay in the mess I made)
After the fall, we'll shake it off, show me the way
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
There's nothing left, so save your breath, lying in wait
(Caught inside this tidal wave)
Your cover's blown, nowhere to go, holding your fate
(Lonely, I will walk alone)
Fire your guns, it's time to run, blow me away
(I will stay in the mess I made)
After the fall, we'll shake it off, show me the way
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
Wanted it back
Don't fight me now
Here it comes
Die
Only the strongest will survive
Lead me to heaven when we die
I am a shadow on the wall
I'll be the one to save us all
Save us all