Halo 2

 Halo 2 picks up right from where Combat Evolved left us, with Master Chief making his return to Earth as a hero. The Chief receives a warm welcome when he reached the military command defences around earth, especially from Admiral Lord Hood who is a new character voiced by Ron Pearlman. Having received your commendations you travel through the station to the armoury. As you begin to relax after a job well done, a Covenant fleet jumps into orbit and attacks, throwing you back into the fray. The story of Halo 2 is more complex, and more expansive. There are more cutscenes which provides a more clear narrative than its predecessor. The structure really surprised me, as you control 2 characters in Halo 2. The genetically engineered Master Chief that we all know and love, but also the Arbiter, an elite Covenant warrior serving the theocratic rulers of the Covenant. This really surprised me, almost to the scale of the Metal Gear Solid 2 character change. While this greatly increases the scope of the story, it also makes the tale a bit more disjointed as we have to follow 2 very different arcs. Despite this, the Arbiter is integrated into the story in an excellent way, and the player can easily and quickly warm up to him. Halo 2 takes place in numerous locations, with 15 levels in total. A true villain is introduced into the story, and there are twists that do not quite match its predecessor but they are still effective and help to drive the game. The entire story is told with balanced restraint and story elements have impact while never going on too long and getting in the way of the shooting. The dialogue is all delivered perfectly and the story pervades an atmosphere well. The only exception is that the ending is a painful cliffhanger, but this is the middle chapter of a trilogy so I can understand why it ends in the way it does, despite the bad taste this left in my mouth.

The graphics of Halo 2 are outstanding, and hold up extremely well against modern games. Character models look great, especially the small details on armour and weapons. The environments look great and are varied. The first level which takes place in orbit around the Earth really shows off the graphical enhancements of the game since Halo Combat Evolved. You can see the Earth in the distance, even being able to make out the continents and cities. You can see the other stations orbiting the planet in the distance. There is plenty of activity which gives life to the environment: mechanics repairing areas, soldiers training and officers running the station. Throughout the whole game this level of detail remains true, with varied environments all given the same level of attention to improve their ambiance. Backgrounds like the sky, clouds and dust as well as indoor bases all look great, especially considering that Halo 2 is a 2004 game.

The sound track of Halo 2 is incredible, improving upon its stellar predecessors music. Monk hyms are back in force, but the timing of the music matches perfectly with events on screen at that time. Emotional resonance is strong at points in this game courtesy of the beautiful and haunting music. There are action moments which are truly heart pounding, and the music makes a major contribution towards this. There is even a point where “Blow me Away” is plated, and its implementation is completely perfect in its timing and suitability. The music can at times overpower the gameplay, taking over the scene, but this is rare and does not amount to ruining the positive aspects of the sound track.  The voice acting is also fantastic, with all the characters voiced by well chosen actors and the major roles reprised. Master Chief is still mostly silent, but he says what he needs to and I liked him even more at the end of this game than I did at the end of the last game. Cortana is excellent again, and the Covenant characters are all surprisingly brilliant. The sounds of the enemies in battle all sound right, with enemies roaring or screaming in well suited voices. Friendly soldiers will tell jokes to each other as you move through areas, and you will hear the Covenant speaking to each other as you approach them. Its the same attention to detail paid by Bungie to the graphical details, and it really inproves the experience.

Halo 2 makes huge improvements and refinements to the gameplay of the series. Halo 2 adds new weapons to the game, including the energy sword which was the players bane in Halo 1. The vehicle controls have been massively improved and made much more fluid and natural. There is now dual-wielding, which provides more tactical options to the players. The enemy AI is excellent, as they dive behind cover, flank you and use tactics, throw grenades and melee you in close range. The fights can be large, with multiple groups taking part and AI controlled characters fighting each other. The Covenant behave completely differently than the parasitic Flood, but they are both threats and fight each other upon contact. It makes the scenarios feel much more realistic and enhances the story elements of the game. You can now jack enemy vehicles, adding even more tactics to the battles. The interface has been improved, providing more information than before and is just easier to use.

Halo 2 maintains the free roaming battle tactics that the first one had, and even improved upon them. You can decide how to approach each battle, the game is not scripted ala Call of Duty. You can charge in guns blazing if you want to, or you can be more stealthy and use sniper weapons or bypass fights altogether. The game is linear, but levels are huge and wide, preventing it feeling like a corridor crawl while allowing opportunity to view all the vistas and environments. There are 4 difficulty levels, and they all feel like they capture what they are aiming for, providing very different experiences to each other. Halo 2 runs much more smoothly that Halo 2, and the game is a much more polished and shiny experience. It has improved frame rate and load times. However, I did experience images from the environment burning into the screen, and their shadows remained on the screen long after the image they were from was gone. This was a major annoyance, but I assume it has something to do with playing the game on a 360.

Halo 2 had the most extraordinary multiplayer component, one which started online console gaming that we all know and love. The game has some brilliantly designed multiplayer levels and weapons are all well balanced to enrich this experience even more. However, live support for Halo 2 has been removed so there is no online component in Halo 2 anymore. The game is still great for local multiplayer, but the online has been removed taking away a huge part of the Halo 2 experience.Halo 2 is a shooter through and through, but it is an incredible shooter. It has an immersive and interesting story which is told at an excellent pace. The addition of a second controllable character was divisive and perhaps a bit disjointing but it is actually very effective at showing the inner-workings of the Covenant, thereby expanding the scope of the story. The audio is perfect, with incredible music and great voice work. The music can be over powering at times, but its a mood setter. The new weapons are all great additions, and dual wielding is a God send. Vehicle jacking and improved vehicle controls add a whole new dimension to the game, and the balance between the weapons is still strong despite all the new additions. The level design in Halo 2 is excellent, being linear yet expansive. I love the free flowing and tactically versatile combat, and the addition of new enemy types. Halo 2 is an exciting game which holds up really well against modern shooters. It does have some technical issues and pop in of textures, and the ending of the campaign leaves fans in the lurch. The removal of online support is a major blow to the games content package, but Halo 2 is still a brilliant game. 

Pros:

• Fantastic and meaningful improvements to the controls
• Dual wielding of weapons
• Amazing and emotive sound track
• Excellent pacing and story
• Set pieces that are fun 
• Boss fights
• Large open battles which are not bound by scripting
• More varied environments
• Good level design and weapon balance
• Improved interface
• Attention to detail

• Online multiplayer is gone
• Some texture pop in and image burn
• Some jagged shadows and strange lighting
• An ending which leaves a bad taste in the mouth

• Out of nowhere we play half the game as a Covenant character

• 8/10