Halo 2 is an flawed yet enjoyable shooter
In November of 2001, Bungie released a game called Halo. It became the selling point of the then fledgling Xbox and brought with it legions of followers who aptly awaited a sequel. In 2004, Bungie answered their prayers with the release of Halo 2. Continuing the epic tale of humanity's struggle against the alien alliance known as the Covenant, Halo 2 fine tunes Halo 1's already oiled gunplay to shining new heights. Sadly, the bar has been raised since 2001, and the formula which seemed so remarkable three years ago is a little shallow today.
The story of Halo 2 is a disappointment. Halo 2 merely follows the standard sci-fi conventions; it also lacks the special flare that kept the original game so fresh. Halo 2's story is told through a first person perspective. You play as two characters, Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier, and the Arbiter, an Elite who has been repurposed to save the Covenant from destruction. As the game begins, Master Chief is returning from the original Halo. He is warmly greeted by the admiral of a new space defense system, who shows the Chief around the station and it is here that you can really see the graphical enhancements that Halo 2 has made. The Earth is thousands of miles into the distance and other stations in the system are close by. Mechanics repairing, soldiers training, and officers running the station; it all gives the game a sense of consistency and detail. You soon arrive at a medical center, where you are given new armor and prepped for combat. But just as you are about to relax from a job well done, a Covenant fleet appears. You immediately are called upon to defend the station and save Earth from destruction. From here, the story goes through the normal routines of a besieged planet defended by the glorious hero, who then travels to distant worlds to rid humanity of the alien menace once and for all. The story is cliché. The actors deliver their lines perfectly, and the dialogue itself is well written. The problem lies in the situations. A besieged station, and ancient ruin, an alien city, a battle-torn metropolis; these locations seem ripped right out of an Orson Scott Card novel.
While the Chief is saving Earth, the Covenant is having its own problems. The Prophets who lead the alliance have sentenced a defeated Elite to be tortured. But the need for a hero of their own forces them to bestow this Elite with the armor of the Arbiter, giving him a second chance at life and of destroying the Master Chief. The Arbiter is an ancient honor, bestowed upon Elites at times of great need. The crisis at hand this time is none other than the Master Chief himself. This would be a great story, except it is told through short and confusing cutscenes. The conviction of the Arbiter is directed with quick snippets of dialogue and some sharp and hectic cuts of the council and prophets. It isn't until halfway through the scene that the player is informed that this Elite was the one responsible for the destruction of the first Halo. And I had to watch the scene five or six times just to understand that. Bungie, the game's developer, claimed that its it's story would better explain the rankings of the Covenant. Unfortunately, you end up, if anything, more confused at the end of Halo 2 than you did when it started. This is partially because of a poorly written ending and partly because of the equally poorly written and directed cutscenes. But the fun of a Halo game has always come from the combat not the story.
Virtually all you do in Halo 2 is shoot things. The gunplay, luckily, is excellent. The weapons are effective and powerful, but manage to stay balanced, especially in multiplayer. Its satisfying to fill a Grunt full of led with the SMG, or to blast a Brute off of a level with the rocket launcher. There are several more weapons in Halo 2 than in the first game. The basic human pistol has lost its scope and the assault rifle, now called the battle rifle, has gained one. A hard weapon to master, the battle rifle must be fired in short bursts and it doesn't do a lot of damage with a body hit. This balances the power of the weapon, as a well-placed headshot can take out almost any enemy without a shield. There are several new Covenant weapons, including the grenade launcher-like Brute Shot. The best new weapon, though, isn't new at all.
Remember that bridge sequence from the first Halo? The one with two levels, and on the lower level a yellow Elite stands waiting with a sword? Recall how you would clear all of the enemies off the bridge and then WHAM! You are insta-killed with the Elite's sword. Now you get to experience the sword rush yourself, as the sword is now a usable weapon. Lunging is wicked cool but difficult to master. You hold the reticule over an enemy until it turns red. When that happens, you pull the right trigger and kill them in one hit. This is especially satisfying in multiplayer, where you can quickly whip out a sword right as your opponent is about to shotgun you to Halo hell. Of course, a well-timed blast can still take out the lunger in mid lunge, and that is how Bungie balances the sword’s awesome power.
The vehicles in Halo 2, while fun to use, seem more of an afterthought than a major part of the game. This is especially true in multiplayer matches where they can unbalance levels in extreme ways. Vehicles are easy to drive though and have a good feel to them. Accelerating is as easy as pushing the right thumbstick forward. You turn with the left thumbstick, and fire with the right trigger. Some vehicles also have a boost ability which can come in handy when an opponent is trying to board you. Speaking of boarding, you can now board vehicles controlled by enemies by pressing a button when an indicator flashes on your screen. Unfortunately, the aftermath of this new boarding feature is that vehicles now seem underpowered. Whereas in the first game a player in a vehicle could take out the opposing team time and time again, the new boarding feature makes vehicles more dangerous for the driver than for the opponent.
The human vehicles are the same as in the first game; that is, the hummer-esque Warthog and the Scorpion tank. Bungie has claimed that the Warthog is now easier to use, but it controls the same as in the first game. It does have a pointless horn and can powerslide, although this feature is useless in the confined single player levels. The Covenant vehicles have been greatly revamped. The Ghost, which is a one-man hovercraft, now has a boost ability. You can use this to run over enemies in your way, or to escape from boarding. The Ghost is also the most effective vehhicle in single player levels, as it can move fastest and maneuver around the tight corners that several of the levels feature. The only real new vehicle in the game is the Specter which works like a two-man Ghost, just harder to control and less effective. In truth, the vehicles that are controlled just by a single person are much more effective than the ones controlled by multiple people. The AI in single player has trouble driving effectively and often crashes or drives in circles. Humans aren't much better, and when paired with a driver who just wants to mess around, you can lose precious time in close online matches.
On top of that, the vehicles in multiplayer tend to unbalance the maps they are placed on. Most of the popular levels, like Lockout, Warlock and Midship, don't feature vehicles and those levels that do are either to large or have gimmicky vehicle usage. Ascension is a prime target for players hoping to exploit poor vehicle placement. The level is a series of pathways leading up to a center monument with sniper towers on either side. This is great, except Bungie has included a random Banshee which ruins the balance and allows for some cheap glitching. To exploit this flaw, you fly the Banshee above one of the sniper towers. Normally a player stands on a platform below a roof. With the Banshee, though, a player can land on the roof and jump his way to the very tip of the tower. It is difficult to take an opponent out from this position, and in oddball the player can easily stay here until he wins the game. Although a well-positioned sniper can take a player in the tower out, an easier solution would have been to just not have the Banshee there at all.
Even with these flaws, Halo 2 is a blast to play. It's fun and easy to control. The difficulty comes almost entirely from the competence of your enemies. They will react intelligently to your actions, diving for cover, throwing grenades, acting as a team and even meleeing you when it comes to close range combat. The most enjoyment comes from watching your allies and enemies fight each other. The alliances in the game are very sketchy to say the least. Often the Covenant are fighting each other, and at the same time fighting the parasitic flood, who in turn are fighting the ancient robots designed to kill them, and you are attempting to kill all four of the groups. Allies are also intelligent and act how you want them to. It would have been nice, though, for them to act more as a team. At the beginning of one level, you are trying to fight off a Covenant landing party with the help of a special forces unit. Your allies tend to get slaughtered in the beginning of the fight though. While the AI is competent it would have been nice to see some of the team elements seen in Far Cry or the ruthlessness of the bots in Unreal tournament.
In addition, there are no real team commands, and this hurts the game's variation. It would have been impressive to see some basic command elements like those seen in Ghost Recon, where you could order your team to advance or stay close to you. Also, there are no puzzles or adventuring elements. In past games like Chronicles of Riddick the player could utilize a basic RPG system, move stealthily and even drive a mech. This type of variation would have been helpful in a game that is almost all run-and-gun style gameplay. In the first level you have to send a bomb back to a Covenant ship, after it has sent it to the space station to detonate. You don’t play this scene though, merely watch it in a cutscene. It would have been really cool to fly the bomb over to the enemy ship, as Bungie built it, you can only watch this epic sequence. As it is, Halo 2 is intense and exciting just don't expect a huge variation of gameplay throughout. The main reason many people want this game is the multiplayer. And in this mode the poorly written story and lack of variation don’t seem to matter quite as much.
The multiplayer game is Bungie’s true masterpiece. You can play with up to four people on the same TV or with up to fifteen other people over Xbox Live or a system link. You can also play cooperatively with two people, but there is sadly no online co-op. Multiplayer is surprisingly balanced, has a good helping of well built maps and dozens of different game types. The only problem here is the above stated vehicle placement. By far the most popular level is Lockout. This map is a floating station, with several tiers of walkways and a large platform in the center. The fun comes from the two sniper towers on either side of the center. The game tends to revolve around the control of the towers, as you can shoot any players who pass by below you. There is also a sick elevator, which is more like a booster that shoots you up to the center platform. Be careful though, as the elevator makes an unmistakable noise that will alert snipers to your position. The level also looks great, with snow swirling around the combat, and distant mountains in the background. The backgrounds are great in all of the outdoor levels and really add to the feeling of immersion that the game offers.
All the standard gamed types are included, such as a deathmatch mode called slayer, capture the flag, and oddball, which is a mode where you try and hold a skull for a set amount of time. There are also team variations of all modes. You can also create your own game type with the robust editor. You can choose from an immense variable of options, which allow for almost any combination of weapons, game types, or special settings. Of course this wouldn't matter if the multiplayer was buggy or not fun to play, but it is. There is very little lag, except when four players are playing over Live on the same TV. Multiplayer is superb all around, and it has one of the most active and loyal followings of any console game.
Halo 2 really looks stylish, with tons of detail throughout the levels. The level where you fight against the heretic is incredible. You go from spotless indoor levels to flying outdoors in a dust storm. The amount of variation that the engine throws at you in such a short time is staggering. The sky looks incredible, with gorgeous moving clouds and really wild color schemes. Later in the level you get to experience a falling base sequence. Here you cut loose the base holding the heretic and it falls through the dust storm. The feeling of free fall is created through swirling textures for the sky and a loss of gravity. Other levels also offer great variety. This is a great improvement from the first game, where many levels looked identical.
There are still issues, though, with some repeated textures. This can lead to some confusion as to where you’re supposed to go after losing your place in the heat of battle. An indicator on your HUD might have been helpful. Weapons are detailed, and characters look good from afar, although the poor face textures become more apparent in cutscenes. Lip-syncing is also a little off and this detracts from the amazing sense of immersion that the game offers. There are a few larger flaws though. For one, pop in, a technical flaw where objects seemingly appear out of nowhere, occurs at the start of each level. The high quality of the sky textures has some drawbacks as well. While the dust and snow that swirls through several levels is great, it does lead to some slight instability. There are also some framerate issues after a load and the cutscenes have major slowdown. For those players playing on the 360, most of these problems have been eliminated, but there are some software burn in issues, in which you'll still be able to see the outline of the previous level during the next level. The lighting and physics in the game are only mediocre. The shadowing is good but not very dynamic. Its humorous to see some of the static building shadows, especially in multiplayer. Although this was done to improve the framerate, the lighting is obviously not as advanced as in games such as Far Cry or Doom 3. The physics also seem a little off, such as how a box feels pretty weightless. The environments are also not that interactive, as some walls can be crushed by tank treads while other smaller walls will stop it dead in its tracks. This detracts from the organic feel that many of the levels possess.
The audio has always been the highlight of the Halo series and this one is no exception. The music is great and varies from epic choral pieces to heavy metal. Just in the High Charity level, the game moves from epic battle music, to hard rock during one especially intense fight, to the devastating ending piece where Master Chief says goodbye to Cortana, maybe for the last time. The voice-overs are great. Master Chief is voiced as grizzly as ever and the actress who plays Cortana is a perfect balance between vulnerable and powerful. The voices of the Covenant are not as effective but are still a cut above the rest of the industry. The Grunts are as amusing as ever, with their irreverent comments and high squeaky voices. The weapon effects and ambient noises are also great and really add to the believability of the game. One cool aspect of the sound is the birds that are in several levels. You hear them calling in the sky, and when you look over they are actually drawn in full 3D. You can even shoot them down if you choose.
Halo 2 will last you for years as anyone who bought the game over a year and a half ago can attest. (In fact Bungie just announced that there have been 500 million games of Halo 2 played over Xbox Live) Its still the most played game on Xbox Live and with the shiny new coat that the 360 offers there is little doubt that the game will last long into the future. Again, though, this game is a shooter through and through. There are no team elements, puzzle solving, adventuring or platforming to speak of. With all of the advancements that shooters have made since the release of Halo 1, its kind of hard to swallow the shallow gameplay that Halo 2 offers. All in all, Halo 2 sticks with what it does best and that is some excellent gunplay and visceral action.
The story of Halo 2 is a disappointment. Halo 2 merely follows the standard sci-fi conventions; it also lacks the special flare that kept the original game so fresh. Halo 2's story is told through a first person perspective. You play as two characters, Master Chief, a genetically enhanced super soldier, and the Arbiter, an Elite who has been repurposed to save the Covenant from destruction. As the game begins, Master Chief is returning from the original Halo. He is warmly greeted by the admiral of a new space defense system, who shows the Chief around the station and it is here that you can really see the graphical enhancements that Halo 2 has made. The Earth is thousands of miles into the distance and other stations in the system are close by. Mechanics repairing, soldiers training, and officers running the station; it all gives the game a sense of consistency and detail. You soon arrive at a medical center, where you are given new armor and prepped for combat. But just as you are about to relax from a job well done, a Covenant fleet appears. You immediately are called upon to defend the station and save Earth from destruction. From here, the story goes through the normal routines of a besieged planet defended by the glorious hero, who then travels to distant worlds to rid humanity of the alien menace once and for all. The story is cliché. The actors deliver their lines perfectly, and the dialogue itself is well written. The problem lies in the situations. A besieged station, and ancient ruin, an alien city, a battle-torn metropolis; these locations seem ripped right out of an Orson Scott Card novel.
While the Chief is saving Earth, the Covenant is having its own problems. The Prophets who lead the alliance have sentenced a defeated Elite to be tortured. But the need for a hero of their own forces them to bestow this Elite with the armor of the Arbiter, giving him a second chance at life and of destroying the Master Chief. The Arbiter is an ancient honor, bestowed upon Elites at times of great need. The crisis at hand this time is none other than the Master Chief himself. This would be a great story, except it is told through short and confusing cutscenes. The conviction of the Arbiter is directed with quick snippets of dialogue and some sharp and hectic cuts of the council and prophets. It isn't until halfway through the scene that the player is informed that this Elite was the one responsible for the destruction of the first Halo. And I had to watch the scene five or six times just to understand that. Bungie, the game's developer, claimed that its it's story would better explain the rankings of the Covenant. Unfortunately, you end up, if anything, more confused at the end of Halo 2 than you did when it started. This is partially because of a poorly written ending and partly because of the equally poorly written and directed cutscenes. But the fun of a Halo game has always come from the combat not the story.
Virtually all you do in Halo 2 is shoot things. The gunplay, luckily, is excellent. The weapons are effective and powerful, but manage to stay balanced, especially in multiplayer. Its satisfying to fill a Grunt full of led with the SMG, or to blast a Brute off of a level with the rocket launcher. There are several more weapons in Halo 2 than in the first game. The basic human pistol has lost its scope and the assault rifle, now called the battle rifle, has gained one. A hard weapon to master, the battle rifle must be fired in short bursts and it doesn't do a lot of damage with a body hit. This balances the power of the weapon, as a well-placed headshot can take out almost any enemy without a shield. There are several new Covenant weapons, including the grenade launcher-like Brute Shot. The best new weapon, though, isn't new at all.
Remember that bridge sequence from the first Halo? The one with two levels, and on the lower level a yellow Elite stands waiting with a sword? Recall how you would clear all of the enemies off the bridge and then WHAM! You are insta-killed with the Elite's sword. Now you get to experience the sword rush yourself, as the sword is now a usable weapon. Lunging is wicked cool but difficult to master. You hold the reticule over an enemy until it turns red. When that happens, you pull the right trigger and kill them in one hit. This is especially satisfying in multiplayer, where you can quickly whip out a sword right as your opponent is about to shotgun you to Halo hell. Of course, a well-timed blast can still take out the lunger in mid lunge, and that is how Bungie balances the sword’s awesome power.
The vehicles in Halo 2, while fun to use, seem more of an afterthought than a major part of the game. This is especially true in multiplayer matches where they can unbalance levels in extreme ways. Vehicles are easy to drive though and have a good feel to them. Accelerating is as easy as pushing the right thumbstick forward. You turn with the left thumbstick, and fire with the right trigger. Some vehicles also have a boost ability which can come in handy when an opponent is trying to board you. Speaking of boarding, you can now board vehicles controlled by enemies by pressing a button when an indicator flashes on your screen. Unfortunately, the aftermath of this new boarding feature is that vehicles now seem underpowered. Whereas in the first game a player in a vehicle could take out the opposing team time and time again, the new boarding feature makes vehicles more dangerous for the driver than for the opponent.
The human vehicles are the same as in the first game; that is, the hummer-esque Warthog and the Scorpion tank. Bungie has claimed that the Warthog is now easier to use, but it controls the same as in the first game. It does have a pointless horn and can powerslide, although this feature is useless in the confined single player levels. The Covenant vehicles have been greatly revamped. The Ghost, which is a one-man hovercraft, now has a boost ability. You can use this to run over enemies in your way, or to escape from boarding. The Ghost is also the most effective vehhicle in single player levels, as it can move fastest and maneuver around the tight corners that several of the levels feature. The only real new vehicle in the game is the Specter which works like a two-man Ghost, just harder to control and less effective. In truth, the vehicles that are controlled just by a single person are much more effective than the ones controlled by multiple people. The AI in single player has trouble driving effectively and often crashes or drives in circles. Humans aren't much better, and when paired with a driver who just wants to mess around, you can lose precious time in close online matches.
On top of that, the vehicles in multiplayer tend to unbalance the maps they are placed on. Most of the popular levels, like Lockout, Warlock and Midship, don't feature vehicles and those levels that do are either to large or have gimmicky vehicle usage. Ascension is a prime target for players hoping to exploit poor vehicle placement. The level is a series of pathways leading up to a center monument with sniper towers on either side. This is great, except Bungie has included a random Banshee which ruins the balance and allows for some cheap glitching. To exploit this flaw, you fly the Banshee above one of the sniper towers. Normally a player stands on a platform below a roof. With the Banshee, though, a player can land on the roof and jump his way to the very tip of the tower. It is difficult to take an opponent out from this position, and in oddball the player can easily stay here until he wins the game. Although a well-positioned sniper can take a player in the tower out, an easier solution would have been to just not have the Banshee there at all.
Even with these flaws, Halo 2 is a blast to play. It's fun and easy to control. The difficulty comes almost entirely from the competence of your enemies. They will react intelligently to your actions, diving for cover, throwing grenades, acting as a team and even meleeing you when it comes to close range combat. The most enjoyment comes from watching your allies and enemies fight each other. The alliances in the game are very sketchy to say the least. Often the Covenant are fighting each other, and at the same time fighting the parasitic flood, who in turn are fighting the ancient robots designed to kill them, and you are attempting to kill all four of the groups. Allies are also intelligent and act how you want them to. It would have been nice, though, for them to act more as a team. At the beginning of one level, you are trying to fight off a Covenant landing party with the help of a special forces unit. Your allies tend to get slaughtered in the beginning of the fight though. While the AI is competent it would have been nice to see some of the team elements seen in Far Cry or the ruthlessness of the bots in Unreal tournament.
In addition, there are no real team commands, and this hurts the game's variation. It would have been impressive to see some basic command elements like those seen in Ghost Recon, where you could order your team to advance or stay close to you. Also, there are no puzzles or adventuring elements. In past games like Chronicles of Riddick the player could utilize a basic RPG system, move stealthily and even drive a mech. This type of variation would have been helpful in a game that is almost all run-and-gun style gameplay. In the first level you have to send a bomb back to a Covenant ship, after it has sent it to the space station to detonate. You don’t play this scene though, merely watch it in a cutscene. It would have been really cool to fly the bomb over to the enemy ship, as Bungie built it, you can only watch this epic sequence. As it is, Halo 2 is intense and exciting just don't expect a huge variation of gameplay throughout. The main reason many people want this game is the multiplayer. And in this mode the poorly written story and lack of variation don’t seem to matter quite as much.
The multiplayer game is Bungie’s true masterpiece. You can play with up to four people on the same TV or with up to fifteen other people over Xbox Live or a system link. You can also play cooperatively with two people, but there is sadly no online co-op. Multiplayer is surprisingly balanced, has a good helping of well built maps and dozens of different game types. The only problem here is the above stated vehicle placement. By far the most popular level is Lockout. This map is a floating station, with several tiers of walkways and a large platform in the center. The fun comes from the two sniper towers on either side of the center. The game tends to revolve around the control of the towers, as you can shoot any players who pass by below you. There is also a sick elevator, which is more like a booster that shoots you up to the center platform. Be careful though, as the elevator makes an unmistakable noise that will alert snipers to your position. The level also looks great, with snow swirling around the combat, and distant mountains in the background. The backgrounds are great in all of the outdoor levels and really add to the feeling of immersion that the game offers.
All the standard gamed types are included, such as a deathmatch mode called slayer, capture the flag, and oddball, which is a mode where you try and hold a skull for a set amount of time. There are also team variations of all modes. You can also create your own game type with the robust editor. You can choose from an immense variable of options, which allow for almost any combination of weapons, game types, or special settings. Of course this wouldn't matter if the multiplayer was buggy or not fun to play, but it is. There is very little lag, except when four players are playing over Live on the same TV. Multiplayer is superb all around, and it has one of the most active and loyal followings of any console game.
Halo 2 really looks stylish, with tons of detail throughout the levels. The level where you fight against the heretic is incredible. You go from spotless indoor levels to flying outdoors in a dust storm. The amount of variation that the engine throws at you in such a short time is staggering. The sky looks incredible, with gorgeous moving clouds and really wild color schemes. Later in the level you get to experience a falling base sequence. Here you cut loose the base holding the heretic and it falls through the dust storm. The feeling of free fall is created through swirling textures for the sky and a loss of gravity. Other levels also offer great variety. This is a great improvement from the first game, where many levels looked identical.
There are still issues, though, with some repeated textures. This can lead to some confusion as to where you’re supposed to go after losing your place in the heat of battle. An indicator on your HUD might have been helpful. Weapons are detailed, and characters look good from afar, although the poor face textures become more apparent in cutscenes. Lip-syncing is also a little off and this detracts from the amazing sense of immersion that the game offers. There are a few larger flaws though. For one, pop in, a technical flaw where objects seemingly appear out of nowhere, occurs at the start of each level. The high quality of the sky textures has some drawbacks as well. While the dust and snow that swirls through several levels is great, it does lead to some slight instability. There are also some framerate issues after a load and the cutscenes have major slowdown. For those players playing on the 360, most of these problems have been eliminated, but there are some software burn in issues, in which you'll still be able to see the outline of the previous level during the next level. The lighting and physics in the game are only mediocre. The shadowing is good but not very dynamic. Its humorous to see some of the static building shadows, especially in multiplayer. Although this was done to improve the framerate, the lighting is obviously not as advanced as in games such as Far Cry or Doom 3. The physics also seem a little off, such as how a box feels pretty weightless. The environments are also not that interactive, as some walls can be crushed by tank treads while other smaller walls will stop it dead in its tracks. This detracts from the organic feel that many of the levels possess.
The audio has always been the highlight of the Halo series and this one is no exception. The music is great and varies from epic choral pieces to heavy metal. Just in the High Charity level, the game moves from epic battle music, to hard rock during one especially intense fight, to the devastating ending piece where Master Chief says goodbye to Cortana, maybe for the last time. The voice-overs are great. Master Chief is voiced as grizzly as ever and the actress who plays Cortana is a perfect balance between vulnerable and powerful. The voices of the Covenant are not as effective but are still a cut above the rest of the industry. The Grunts are as amusing as ever, with their irreverent comments and high squeaky voices. The weapon effects and ambient noises are also great and really add to the believability of the game. One cool aspect of the sound is the birds that are in several levels. You hear them calling in the sky, and when you look over they are actually drawn in full 3D. You can even shoot them down if you choose.
Halo 2 will last you for years as anyone who bought the game over a year and a half ago can attest. (In fact Bungie just announced that there have been 500 million games of Halo 2 played over Xbox Live) Its still the most played game on Xbox Live and with the shiny new coat that the 360 offers there is little doubt that the game will last long into the future. Again, though, this game is a shooter through and through. There are no team elements, puzzle solving, adventuring or platforming to speak of. With all of the advancements that shooters have made since the release of Halo 1, its kind of hard to swallow the shallow gameplay that Halo 2 offers. All in all, Halo 2 sticks with what it does best and that is some excellent gunplay and visceral action.
