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Just As Promised

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: November 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is what FPS games are supposed to be. Its Halo and more. More action, more weapons and the Covenant is in full force. If you like first person shooters, you will love Halo 2.

Rehashed Garbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 22
Date: November 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I was seriousally let down by this release. I manage a gaming cafe, and we held a release party for the title. We played for six hours straight, exploring most every game type available, and I was totally not impressed.

The weapons are unbalanced and awkard. Whomever mentioned the star wars syndrome of dozens of useless weapons was right on target. Duel weilding is amusing, but it's nothing uniquie. The graphics are substandard, and this defintally shows that the hardware of the xbox is offically outdated and too limited for a game of this type. Maps all feel rushed, weapon placement is very very poor, and i'm just very happy I dind't buy a copy for myself personally.

It's just like Halo. Graphics look a bit sharper, but nothing compared to UT2K4. Gameplay modes are amusing, but nothing compared to UT2K4. The whole thing feels like a tired rehash of the original halo engine.

Ever wanted to waste countless hours of your life?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 22
Date: March 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Not me...
Geeks and dorks unite, for man has created the ultimate way to waste hours and hours of your life...
Sure, Bungee is getting rich off all these fat teenagers who skip school to play Halo, but wouldn't you rather play something that actually makes you think? Why go online and play against fat nerds who are going to massacre you as soon as you spawn when you can buy "Goldeneye" or "Perfect Dark" and have much more fun...? Now THOSE games were classic shooters, and made for wonderful multiplayer experiences. I just find it sad that people actually went to the stores at midnight to pick up Halo, I mean come on here people. There is a difference between Halo and most other video games: Halo is mindless. Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft:Auto Vice City, now THOSE are games which are worthwhile. Trade in your headsets which you use to cuss out people over the internet, and sell Halo to some dork at school and buy yourselfs one of the titles listed above. To me, Halo is the same thing as Everquest, Counter Strike, Half Life, FF11, and any other lame mass multiplayer games. Since when does sitting on your butt, shooting people you dont even know, cussing at them through a headphone set qualify as social interraction. Some may say Halo uses logic, but I disagree, it is a waste of time. I have seen people who are totally deteriorated because of this game, throwing their lives away just to blow away other nerds. Seriously, steer clear of this time-waster. Like I said, unless you want to waste countless hours of your life, this game isn't worth it.

Good Sequel

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

For all you Halo fans there WILL be a Halo 3. A Trilogy for Halo, excellent... The weapons are great. Especially the fuel rod cannon. I have been waiting for this game since Halo I and this one didn't dissapoint me. However, as with too many games these days...they are too short. I already finished the game. For those playing don't turn it off after the credits, there is an ending scene after them. However the good outweighs the bad. The vehicles are destructible which is alot of fun, and the banshees have alittle bit better maneuverability than they did before. Rent it or buy it it is a great game.

Halo 2 falls short of expectations, but still is strong

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I heard that Halo 2 was coming out on November 9th , I was full of anticipation. Was it finally time for the much-anticipated sequel of the renowned "Halo" finally going to come out? From the get-go everything about this game looked amazing: the graphics, the E3 video, the pictures, but the anticipation for this game was its ultimate downfall.
The GOOD:
- very solid graphics with better frame rate, more detailed scenery, and detailed enemies and marines.
- new vehicles and the ability of marines to drive is a nice touch
- better variation of weapons than the last Halo
- intense action sequences (I like being able to steal vehicles, like in GTA)
- ** Best multiplayer I have ever seen for any console game. If you own this, title, you'll want to condsider taking advantage of its online capabilities, since multiplayer is probably Halo 2's greatest strength.

The BAD:
- Repetitive level designs; if you hated this in the first Halo, it doesn't change.
- Guns too big for the scree: enough said
- Unsatisfactory ending: I wont spoil this but it could have been much better. Bungie was trying to leave it opened ended for Halo 3 but in the process, created a catastrophic plot that makes no sense.
- Its a nuissance to have marines drive you around because they always crash or get stuck.
- The cut scenes are sloppy and could have been much better in terms of graphics.
- Some of the levels are just two long and get to be more of a job than fun.

Overall, Halo is saved by its multiplayer experience. It is a good game, but its downfall is that it was not able to meet the anticipation. I would recommend that multiplayer fans buy this one, but not based soley on single player.

Nearly Perfect

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I won't tiptoe around the issue. This game is good. This game is very good. Is it something that's going to force me into changing religions, asking my fiancee to paint herself Cortana purple, or naming my firstborn children "Master" and "Chief"? Uh, no. And because it's not the life-shaping experience a lot of people were looking for, it's naturally going to be called a slight disappointment. Which is a shame, because... like I said, this is an outstanding game.

If you didn't like the way the first Halo played, you won't like the direction the sequel's gone, either. It's a natural progression from its predecessor, familiar enough to enable returning players to launch themselves right into the melee without missing more than a beat or two, but giving enough to appeal to gamers who didn't get a chance to try out the original. Throughout the first level, instructions and button assignments flash onto the screen from time to time if it looks like you're lost or out of sorts, and you're almost immediately given a chance to test out the new "dual wielding" weapon configuration, one of the game's biggest selling points. The longer you play, the more you'll start to understand which firearm combinations produce the best results and which are all but useless.

Unlike the original, where most of your adventures were one-man assaults against insurmountable odds, a good portion of Halo 2's action takes place alongside friendly troops who surprised me by actually serving a purpose beyond "human shield." These guys honestly know how to fight with the enemy and steer the game's various vehicles without abandoning you in a firefight, and while they still aren't quite on the same level as the Master Chief, it's nice to have a little intelligence by your side all the same. They'll tug at your conscience, screaming for help when they realize they're alone and outnumbered, boost your morale by immediately recognizing you and treating you as a celebrity, and lighten the mood by telling an off-color joke or two.

One thing that especially caught me off-guard with this release was the story of the single-player "campaign" mode, and the great strides it had taken from its forefather. I remember reading somewhere during the game's development that Bungie was taking every measure possible to ensure that this "top secret" story wouldn't be leaked to the public... and truthfully I scoffed, recalling the passable at best storytelling of the original. I liked a lot of things about the first part of this story, (I thought the Halo ring itself was an outstanding idea, as was the revelation that it was, in actuality, an enormous weapon) but a vast majority of it was fightin' for fightin's sake with no real motivations tossed your way beyond "Hey, those freaky alien guys are shooting at you. Go get 'em." In the sequel, not only has the storytelling been vastly improved, but the backstory has been fleshed out beyond anything I ever could've expected. While the first Halo embraced a sort of black or white, us vs. them theme of good and evil, the second moves dramatically into a world populated with shades of grey, of uncertainty and of realism.

The subjects that this game covers from start to finish are staggering; the frequency of political corruption, the basis and fallibility of religion, the necessity and motivations of war, the existence of sentient life elsewhere in the universe... it seems like the writers were almost inviting a lot of heavy-handed, boring, long-winded monologues, but really the story's pace is quite manageable and no event seems out of place or forced. The characters deal with the situations as they present themselves, adjust their position as new facts come to light and begin to question their own motivations and beliefs when something staggeringly important goes down. Basically, Halo 2 is on par with a really, really good action / adventure / sci-fi movie. The big explosions and fight scenes happen at just the right moments, the weighty conversations don't take the player out of the story, and the cutscenes only serve to motivate you in the hours of gameplay that immediately follow. To overuse a cliched phrase, Halo 2's story blew me away. My only major complaint was the brutal cliffhanger the game chose to end on, which leaves players without the slightest sense of accomplishment and feeling a bit ripped off. It was so strangely placed, caught me so off guard that I was still clutching my controller, waiting for the cutscene to end and the action to resume, when the credits began to roll.

The visual aspect of this game is a great triumph for the most part, really emphasizing the Xbox's strengths as a graphical powerhouse and delivering a product that would be technically impossible on the PS2. The creatively dynamic lighting isn't quite as impressive as it was in Splinter Cell, but the way that lighting affects the various textures in and around the field of battle more than make up for it. The Master Chief, all of his comrades, Cortana, the commanders, they all look worlds better than in the first Halo, even in its visually-tightened PC incarnation, and the dramatic improvements that have been made in the environments, objects and surrounding textures raise the bar even further. Warthogs and Ghosts are no longer impervious to gunfire, and slowly begin to show the signs of continued use before bursting into flames or sparks of electricity.

My sole qualm with the graphics department is the decision that was made to live-render every single cutscene, from start to finish. I understand the motivations behind this decision, to deliver the knockout blow that would settle any questions about the Box's visual superiority once and for all, but the end result is more like a weak jab to the solar plexus. The Xbox has notable difficulty with these scenes at times, especially at their very beginnings, as textures will drop out entirely for a few moments before blinking back on again.

I never had a problem with the audio in the first title, and actually considered it to be among the best at the time of its release, but the sequel managed to find areas for improvement even in that department. While Dolby Digital surround sound was available in the original, it pales in comparison to the completely immersive audio experience of its sequel. You can still hear which direction a rocket's coming from with your back turned, for all the good it'll do, but you can also pinpoint the location of a sniper based on the noise his scope makes and the crunches of his feet against the rocky terrain. The voice acting has been taken to the next level, even including a few celebrity guest-appearances, and the influx of talent seems to have inspired everyone from the culture-manipulating prophets to the meaningless grunts who seem to serve no purpose beyond dying a grisly death. I've really only experienced one game with voice acting that even came close to what you get with Halo 2... and that was in my favorite title of all time, the original Metal Gear Solid. And, keeping that comparison in mind, the symphonic score of the new Halo wipes the floor with that of MGS. The composition, effectively pairing a full orchestra with a hard rock / metal lead guitar, seems awkward in print but is a baffling success in context. It retains the credibility and drama of an epic war drama, while also introducing the futuristic, almost mechanical setting of the game itself, not to mention its target market. I've never even contemplated purchasing the full score to a video game in CD format, but Halo 2 changed my way of thinking.

And, finally, there's the multiplayer mode(s), the real deal-breaker for many players, myself included. If it's any indication as to the game's addictive online quality, I haven't had a chance to finish a review in months thanks to the amount of time I've spent playing this thing over the internet. Easily one of the greatest strengths of the first game was its unbelievable multiplayer modes, and their uncanny ability to bring people together for hours and hours at a time, huddled around the same TV with the common goal of unloading on one another. Surprisingly, the sense of community that made the original so special has been effectively transferred to the online mode of its sequel, thanks to the use of Xbox Live's headsets, an easy, effective clan-building utility, an unheralded level-based matchmaking system and the understatedly simple means of inviting friends to join you in-game.

In my review of the original Halo, I claimed it was "worth buying an Xbox over," and it remains to this day one of the two highest-rated games I've ever scored... it, along with Goldeneye on the N64, scored a near-perfect 9.8. If the first was worth buying an Xbox all by its lonesome, its successor is worth buying both an Xbox and a subscription to Xbox Live over. It's improved upon nearly every single area I had issues with in the original, it's taken the existing storyline and expanded upon it to undeniable success and it's delivered one of the deepest, most life-altering online multiplayer modes I've ever seen. Halo 2 is the sequel all games should strive to deliver, retaining the best aspects of its predecessor while giving fans a whole new set of possibilities to master in the wait for the next chapter. The only things holding this back from a perfect score are the abrupt ending and a few rough patches in the graphical terrain. As is, this is still the best game I've reviewed to date. If you own an Xbox and haven't picked it up yet, you must be punishing yourself for something.

Better Than the Original

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Halo 2 took the original Halo and made it better. The entire game is extremely polished and all of the levels are jaw-dropping. The addition of Xbox Live multiplayer is great and Bungie did an unvbelievable job with the Xbox Live interface. The Halo 2 interface for Xbox Live is a model for all other game developers to look at. Bungie has raised the bar again. Beware... if you buy this game make sure yoy get a Live subscription. And then beware because you will be addicted.

more than a little disappointing.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: November 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After officially playing this game, I can say that it was a little more disappointing than anyhting. I haven't actually played the Live multiplayer, since my friend doesn't have a Live connection, but the single player was only 'alright'. I played the original on co-op with my friend when X-Box first hit the streets and at the time I thought the game was pretty cool. I didn't think it was groundbreaking or revolutionary or anything, but it was kinda fun nonetheless. This time around, it' pretty much more of the same thing. Enter hallway A and fight bad-guys. Proceed to room B and do the same. It gets REALLY repetetive REALLY fast. Do I really need a room with eight doors when you can only really go through one of them? Do I need the smae bland textures over and over for three hours straight. I guess there's not a lot more to expect from a FPS, but other games have done it way better in the past, even if not as flashy. I must admit that the graphics are superb and the enemies are kind of neat, but even the new weapons were uninspiring. Basically you get the 'bad-guys' version of sniper rifles and a few others to round out the selection, but they're nothing to drop your jaw at. I think my biggest qualm with the game is that, despite all of their focus and attention supposedly going into the single player campaign, Bungie seemed to skip everything which has made past games good. Shorter, more varied levels would have been welcomed, but instead I'm forced to tread through room after room of extremely similar surroundings and extremely similar enemies and firefights. The A.I. was always a cut above your run-of-the-mill fps', but it is still flaky at times. Enemies, while having more options and more strategies, still run into the same patterns and reactions most of the time. You'd expect a big berzerker guy (those big guys who have the alien version of the plasma rifle - essentially the same thing, only red...whoopdee doo.) who's running top speed at you to at least stop once a plasma grenade it thrown and sticks to his head, but apparently not. Don't even bother trying, because he'll just run after you full-speed without a flinch and you'll both end up dying. Since there is no such thing as 'true' A.I., this is to be expected, but you'd assume a game being toted as the 'ultimate' in A.I. and battle tactics to fare better than that. Another point that was a little frustrating was more often than not, me and my friend were in situations where we had no idea what to do next. With no mission objectives or goals, there were too many times where gameplay would halt to a stop simply because we had no clue where to go next. Now, we're not the smartest lot around, but when the entire game literally consists of shooting enemies, they could have tried harder to at least make it a bit more obvious as to where the next batch of enemies were. The story is weak, but so are all stories found in games such as these.
Overall, it's a good game, but I was more than dissappointed in it, mostly due to the fact that it was hyped up to ridiculous proportions.

fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

everyone knows this game by now. if u liked the first one for the single player game, u might hate this one. if ur looken for multi player awsomenes, than this is the one for u.

BEST GAME EVER!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is the best game ever!!!! I really recommend buying it.The multiplayer ROCKS!So does the single player.
I like it much more than the first one BUY IT TODAY!!!

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