Halo 2

""This battle doesn't call for a hero.. it calls for a savior.""

Halo 2, the sequel to one of X-box's most successful and most popular game, Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 2 is an exceptional First Person Shooter developed by Bung-ie Studious. It not only delivers great game-play, but great graphics, sound, single player, and even multi-player. Halo 2 raises the bars for first persons shooting games in almost every category..

As you know doubt of guessed, in Halo 2 the Covenant find Earth, and it is up to you to stop their assault and save mankind as well as the beloved blue planet, Earth. Halo 2 takes place after the events in Halo: Combat Evolved. You find yourself in space on a MAC station right above Earth. You'll be visiting a wide variety of locations, like Earth for example.

You now have brand new armor, the Mark VI battle armor. Unlike in Halo: Combat Evolved the Mark VI doesn't have fall damage, so you can fall out of a Banshee that's a good amount of feet into the air and hit the ground without a scratch *gasp*. The health meter that was in Halo: Combat Evolved is gone, but don't worry, your shield system is much stronger. Now, meaning that the health system is gone, if your shields go completely down, you are only able take a few shots, and then after that, you're dead. You can jump even higher this time. Making it easier to get too higher objects.

Halo 2s game-play has greatly improved since Halo: Combat Evolved. Everything now feels more easy going, it doesn't feel as "sluggish" as Halo: Combat Evolved felt, but none the less, Halo: Combat Evolved is still an excellent game. Everything has been improved; from the way you pilot your Warthog or Banshee all the way to walking into a room full of Covenant. Speaking of which, the vehicles in Halo 2 have gotten a very nice up-grade. The ghost now has a boost feature, same with the Banshee, but the Banshee can also do back-flips and barrel rolls, which make it easier to evade enemy fire. The Warthog now has a horn, the Scorpion Tank is deadlier than ever. It sacrifices speed for power, making it possibly the most powerful vehicle currently in Halo 2. Bung-ie has also made the Wraith tank pilot-able. It too, is a deadly vehicle. Bung-ie has also added a new vehicle called the Spectre, which can carry up to three people, and that's not including the driver. Two people can sit on the side seats while the gunman operates the torrent..

A brand new in feature in Halo 2, is the ability to board slowly moving vehicles. Every pilot-able vehicle in Halo 2 can indeed, be boarded. You can kick the driver out of his seat on a Ghost, bash the hatch open on a tank and then chuck a frag or plasma grenade into the drivers seat, and presto, the tank be yours. You can also throw enemies out of their vehicles (Banshee, Warthog, Spectre) thus giving you the opportunity to kill the driver/gunner/passenger and claim your prize, the vehicle..

Bung-ie has also added some new weapons, for example, the Covenant Carbine, which basically is the Covenant counter part to the human battle rifle. The Battle Rifle has a scope that can zoom in, and it fires a three-shoot burst. They've also added a new Sub-Machine gun, the Covenant sniper rifle, which, like I said, is the Covenant counter part to the human sniper rifle. Now, many Halo: Combat Evolved fans who loved the M6D pistol like a son, will be saddened to find it has been replaced with the M6C pistol, which has been de-graded some, but it still is very powerful if used correctly. The Energy Sword *gasp* is now use able in both the single player and multi-player, but in Single Player, it has a battery limit. Which means, once that battery has been depleted, it's basically worthless, but don't worry, that's only in the single player portion of Halo 2...

The weapons have gotten both a downgrade and an upgrade. Lets take the Plasma Pistol, for example. When you fire the plasma pistol, it has a slower firing rate, and its charged shot moves slower, *but* it's a lot harder to dodge. The needlers' needles fire much slower this time, making them twice as easy to dodge, but it appears to take less time to kill an enemy with. It also has a much larger clip then it did in Halo: Combat Evolved. The Rocket Launcher now has a target-tracking feature, but it only works on vehicles.

In Halo 2 you have the ability to dual wield two weapons at a time, but not every weapon in the game is dual wield-able. For example, you can't dual wield items that require you to hold it with two hands, like the rocket launcher or sniper rifle, but the weapons that you're able to hold in one hand (sub-machine gun, plasma pistol, needler etc) are very much, dual wield-able. When dual wielding, you can still reload, but it takes an extended amount of time. But on the downside of dual wielding, you cannot throw grenades, or you can't melee anything or anyone unless you drop one of your weapons.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been greatly improved. Marines now work together to over come obstacles, they now know how to throw grenades, and I'm not saying that they didn't know how to in Halo: Combat Evolved. It's just that they don't chuck grenades where you're standing or fighting. So they can drive vehicles, they take cover behind objects, hell, they do almost everything to guarantee theirs and your survival. The enemy AI is frightening, and I mean that in a good way. They now ambush you, they can even dual wield, well, at least elites can, and they can and will board your vehicles. Elites can practically do anything you are able to do in Halo 2. Grunts now can drive vehicles, jackals use their shield more effectively. And that's pretty much it..

The graphics in Halo 2 are excellent. The environments look absolutely stunning, character models look very well done and realistic. Muzzle flashes from guns look sweet, vehicles look excellent. But there is a flaw in the graphics, and that is every now and then, textures "disappear" for about a half second sometimes more. The cause of this is Bung-ie wanted the levels to be loading during cut-scenes, so between levels you won't have any load time, a small price to make just to make the single player feel more "non-stop" too sort of say. So despite that, Halo 2 runs at a very steady frame rate, it keeps up to speed even as the battles become very intense. Which is very nice to have.

The sound in Halo 2 is beautiful. The sounds of guns blazing, grenades bouncing off objects and the threats of your fellow marines as you engage in an intense firefight that sounds brilliant and perfect. The sounds of enemy ghost swooshing by whilst you man the torrent of a hog sound excellent, everything in Halo 2 sounds excellent, perfect, beautiful..

Halo 2 not only does it have a very good single player, but it also has outstanding multi-player, both on and off-line. You can play split screen co-op with a friend as you try and tackle the single player campaign or if you wish, you can load up split screen and go head to head, or if you don't want to play split screen, you can play system link, where you can have up to sixteen people! In Halo 2 multi-player, you can play a number of different game-types, for example: Capture the flag or oddball and even the classic King of the Hill. If you have X-box live you can go too matchmaking and be pitted against or even with, many different players from around the world. Ok, if matchmaking doesn't "fill your need" you can go to custom games where you can decipher your favorite custom games and invite X-box live players too come join.

Sadly, Halo 2s campaign is over quite abruptly and quickly, but it still delivers many unique and memorable moments, as well as the multi-player. Halo 2 has very high amount of replay value. You'll want to keep coming back to single player and trying to beat legendary so you can earn bragging rights towards your friends. You will also keep loading up the multi-player portion of Halo 2 and take on friends and do all that crazy stuff.

Halo 2 overall adds up to be one hell of an experience in both single player and the multi-player. Halo 2 is not worth missing for future and current X-box owners. And of course, if you see Halo 2 sitting on the shelf, don't hesitate, buy it quickly so you can enjoy it for a life time or at least until the next Halo game arrives in stores, and who knows when that will be.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/05, Updated 05/04/05