review
Halo
2
Review By: Travis Mcfarland
Version: US
Company: Bungie Software
Rated: PG (Violence against aliens and Warthog jeeps)
System: X-Box
Players: 1-2 (Cooperative and Multiplayer enabled)
SHORT VIEW
The destruction of Halo was only the beginning. Master Chief and
Cortana must race back to Earth to stop the onslaught of the
Covenant, an aggressive alien species bent on the conquest of all
those who oppose them. However, the Covenant has discovered another
Halo and Master Chief will soon discover that the fate of Earth is
the least of his worries.
THE LONG VIEW
THE
HOOK: The Gamecube has Mario, Playstation has...well, a wealth of
mascots such as Jak & Daxter, and the Xbox has Master Chief. To
Xbox diehards, Halo 2 represents the second coming of the biggest
game their system has to offer. Following a three year onslaught of
hype, advertising, internet buzz and even its own alternate reality
game; Halo 2 has finally arrived. But does it live up to the hype?
HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS: Time has
served the Master Chief well as Halo 2 is significantly better
looking then its predecessor. Textures are crisp, detailed and
surprisingly colorful and vibrant in spots. Other then a few notably
dreary spaceship interiors, you'll be hard pressed not to find a
splash of color here and there. There seems to be a nice little glow
effect present in much of the game, giving areas a softer feel and
enhancing some already stunning outdoor vistas.
Don't expect to spend all your
time gallivanting around the surface of Halo. Master Chief makes the
rounds this time; hopping from spaceships to Earth to Halo and even
a few places you might not suspect. Levels are much more varied then
they were in the original game. Most notable are the outdoor areas,
which definitely must be seen to be believed. Vast open backgrounds
lend a sense of space and openness to a fairly linear path of
progression. The spaceship and Halo interior levels however still
suffer from that feeling of sameness. Tight hallways leading to an
open area full of enemies followed by more tight hallways. They have
improved from the overtly monotonous interiors from the original
Halo (remember The Library anyone?) but only slightly.
I'm somewhat split on the actual
character models however. While they have received a very nice
upgrade in polygon count and overall appearance, they just don't
look right. Everyone is very shiny, as if they're made of plastic.
It's frightening watching your commanding officer in the first few
opening cinematics. He resembles something like a melting Madame
Tussaud wax dummy of Gerald Ford. Covenant enemies suffer from the
plastic looking skin as well, however it's not as distracting on a
Brute as it is on a human.
The controls are pretty much the
same as they were in the original Halo. The new duel wielding of
weapons can take some time to get used to. The left trigger fires
the left weapon and the right trigger fires the right weapon. In a
heated battle, it takes a bit of concentration (and fancy thumb
work) to manipulate both joysticks and both triggers at the same
time. Give it about 15 minutes though and it will feel like second
nature.
HOW
IT SOUNDS: I'm to preface this by saying that I have the Halo 2
soundtrack blaring over Winamp as I write this review. That in
itself should be enough to gauge the awesomeness of the soundtrack.
Composer Marty O'Donnell has really taken the groundwork laid in the
original Halo and bumped it up to Hollywood levels. Some gorgeous
instrumental music is mixed in between the dark ambience that
signifies the flood and the pulsing techno of heated battle
sequences. The requisite monk like chanting of the original Halo
theme seems to creep into a lot of the music, but it works very well
given the sci-fi opera feel the game presents. People might not be
to keen on the inclusion of some fairly heavy rock music (including
an updated Halo theme) but I kind of enjoy it. It fits well within
the Halo 2 setting and can really draw you in at times.
Sound effects are brought over
from the first Halo and tweaked here and there, but you won't notice
much difference. I'm quite impressed with a lot of the ambient
background noise that can be heard in areas of the game. For
example; there are a few levels featuring The Flood that exhibit an
eerie feeling of dread and gloom. Very mood inducing.
There is a definite increase in
voice acting and just as much attention was paid to the characters
as it was to the soundtrack. Master Chief utters a few throwaway
lines here and there but you don't expect the stoic Spartan to be
talkative anyway. The real shining stars are Cortana (played by Jen
Taylor) and The Arbiter (played by Keith David). Cortana is the
ever-present A.I. who always seems to help Master Chief out of a
tough spot. She's got some serious sarcasm here and delivers some
great lines throughout. The Arbiter is an Elite blamed for the
destruction of the original Halo. Keith David seems to really take
the role seriously and it shows. Along with those two mentions,
there are a wealth of cameos from people who just seem to want their
voices in the game. See if you can spot the likes of Orlando Jones,
Ron Perlman, John Michael Higgins, David Cross, Laura Prepon or
Michelle Rodriguez.
EXTRAS: Halo 2 isn't exactly
brimming with extra content, not unless you buy the collector's
edition. If you do opt for the shiny silver collector's box you'll
get a second DVD with stuff like a Making of Halo 2 documentary,
deleted scenes and outtakes, and developer commentaries. I, being
the poor reviewer that I am, stuck with the plain old vanilla
version and thus I can't really comment on the worth of these extra.
Though feel free to use the fancy box to hold loose change, cookies
or that photo of you standing in front of a mirror wearing nothing
but a Master Chief helmet while clutching a Halo 2 action figure.
CINEMATIC
EXPERIENCE: Cut scenes galore! The story of Halo 2 is presented
through in-game rendered cut scenes that are fairly professional in
their direction. Some of the character movement can be a bit stiff
but it shouldn't be all that distracting. Most of the main
transitions from level to level are punctuated by cut scenes that
move the story forward.
BEST PLAYER: It shouldn't be a
surprise to anyone by now that you play as both Master Chief and The
Arbiter (the Elite Covenant mentioned above). Problem is, they both
play exactly the same. There is absolutely no difference between
either character in terms of health amount, agility or weapon
possibilities. The Arbiter does have a handy temporary cloaking
device that allows you to sneak up on enemies for stealth kills from
behind. It's a moot point however as you can't just freely choose
who you want to play as.
CHEAT CODE YOU NEED: Sadly,
there aren't any traditional cheat codes for Halo 2. I can't just
leave you empty handed though, that would be bad manners on my part.
How about this; did you know that you can trade weapons with your
squad mates? Just face them and hold the "Y" button to
trade what you’re carrying for what they have. You can use this to
your advantage by picking up leftover heavy weapons (like rocket
launchers or beam rifles) and giving them to your squad mates before
a big battle. The computer controlled squad members have infinite
ammo and a regiment of rocket launcher packing marines will make
short work of anyone they come across. If you're feeling sadistic,
you could always just take that marine's shotgun in exchange for
your piddly little pistol.
CHEAT CODE YOU WANT: Infinite
grenades. The physics engine in Halo 2 just screams to be messed
with and nothing is more entertaining then launching corpses in the
air with a few well placed grenades. Is that wrong of me? The whole
'launching corpses' part?
OH MAN! MOMENT: One of the areas
that Halo 2 really shines is difficulty progression. You never feel
that overwhelmed or frustrated. That being said, the Legendary
difficulty setting will challenge even the most diehard of Halo
fanboys and girls. Trust me; you will learn to despise rampaging
Brutes on higher difficulty levels. They will haunt your nightmares
and invade your waking dreams. Stupid apes....
GLITCH
ITCH: (Physics engine + Explosive weapons) x Vehicles = Mayhem. I'm
still trying to explain how my Warthog got high centered on a crate
then started violently lurching back and forth before being
catapulted into the air in an explosion of metal, marines and tiny
bits of Master Chief. Halo 2 doesn't feature any show stopping
glitches, but just randomly being killed by a wayward chunk of scrap
metal can be a fair annoyance.
FAN SERVICE: The amount of fan
service you'll get from Halo 2 is relative to how much homework
you've already done. Bungie is notorious for inside jokes and hidden
meanings in all their games. An example being their obsession with
the number 7 (I'm partial to the number 8......bit I digress). If
you are one of the people who has read the Halo novels, scoured the
internet for information on back story or even participated in the
online alternate reality game (check out the archives of what went
on at www.ilovebees.com
), then you'll definitely be in the loop. For anyone else, you may
feel a bit left out.
THE 2 VIEW
Halo
2 is a frustrating game to review. It consists of so many extremely
professional and entertaining aspects (the music, graphics, new
weapons, multiplayer and vehicles) that get wrapped over a dull
single player game and a convoluted story. If you weren't very
impressed with the original Halo there is little doubt that you
won't find much to change your mind in Halo 2. Maybe it's me. Maybe
I "just don't get it." Halo 2 doesn't bother to explain
itself or fix the problems carried over from the original game.
The biggest flaw
is just how dull the single player campaign can get at times. It
suffers from the same deja vu formula whereby you move from one
identical area to another battling an endless amount of enemies. The
only real breaks in the doldrums arise from vehicle based areas that
pass by far too quickly. One area has you commandeering a Tank to
blast your way through the enemy, but it's over before you can even
really get into it. And the Flood....ugh, they once again make their
annoying as hell return! After killing my 3,000th Flood converted
marine, I said to myself "could they please do something other
then just run straight at me?" I get that they're brain-dead
zombies; they just aren't that fun to fight against.
Then we have the
story. Have you ever had to leave in the middle of a movie to go to
the bathroom, and then when you return you realize that you've
obviously missed something important as nothing makes any sense?
That's pretty much how I felt all through Halo 2. There is this
prevalent feeling that I'm missing out on what is going on. I've
never read the Halo novels nor do I know how the ilovebees
ARG fits into the game. I don't want to have to research a story
before I even play the game! It's a shame that the storytelling
style couldn't be tightened up in Halo 2 as there really is the
groundwork for some amazing depth. Instead, all I am left with is
questions. Who are all these prophets? Who are the Forerunners? What
in God's name is friggin Gravemind?! Gah!
Then
you have the new character, the Arbiter. It really would have been
nice to have him feel, or at the very least control different, then
Master Chief. Instead, he's a carbon copy of Master Chief with Elite
legs and a cloaking device. What's even worse is that the storyline
behind the Arbiter is far more interesting then anything that the
Master Chief is involved in. What this does is sort of disconnect
you from the main lead in the story. There is a sort of rift between
the two characters that tears the game in two. You could care less
about either one of these characters.
Now for a bit of
spoiler territory. If you're keeping yourself fresh on the
storyline, feel free to skip this paragraph. Okay, still with me?
Let's take a little moment to discuss the frustrating, idiotic,
chopped off ending. It is probably one of the most blunt and
horribly executed cliffhanger endings I've seen in a game. Just as
it's getting interesting; just as we start to get some answers to
all the new questions, it just ends. Pop! I can't help but compare
the endings of Halo 2 to Half-Life 2. While both games feature
cliffhangers, Half-Life 2's ending still wraps up quite a lot of
loose ends. It feels like a strong lead-in to a sequel game. Halo
2's ending on the other hand feels more like a "to be
continued..." text crawl at the end of a too long television
show.
So what's the
saving grace? Multiplayer. Plain and simple, Halo 2 is going to be
the single most played Xbox Live game out there. It adds so much
that works in multiplayer that seems insignificant in the single
player campaign. Vehicles are now extremely destructible (by
"extremely destructible" I mean that they 'splode real
purdy like). The dual wielding makes from some good strategic
options during team play and I'm quite fond of the new maps. Halo 2
is great fun in multiplayer battles and the new weapons, vehicles
and game modes simply add to the enjoyment. If you're an Xbox Live
user, you owe it to yourself to pick up Halo 2.
I
just feel conflicted about this game. I had fun with it in sporadic
chunks. Yet I still can't help but focus on the inane hallway crawls
that just never end. Really, you're going to pick the game up no
matter what I say about it and truthfully I'd encourage you to do
so. There is always the chance Halo 3 will help answer some of the
questions. You may have more fun with it than I did. However as a
flagship game for the Xbox, I can't help but feel a little short
changed this year.
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