Halo 2

aka: Halo 2 Vista
Moby ID: 15499

[ All ] [ Windows ] [ Xbox ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 89% (based on 120 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 164 ratings with 7 reviews)

Overblown follow up

The Good
Many of the things that were great about Halo are featured here again and some welcome new additions: Dual wielding is cool with lots of new strategic options, lots of new Covenent weapons, new vehicles, new baddies, some great set pieces (like the scarab assault) - and of course the amazing Xbox live multiplayer option

The Bad
I'm a big, big fan of the original and along with many was eagerly anticipating this release and I must overall I found it a disappointing experience. Many of the levels are too long and repetitive , and just don't have the replay factor and the weapons have been unnecessarily tinkered with. But really for me the games main problem is the single player story which was so great in the original has become an overblown and confusing "epic" that for me just ends up cliched and boring. For me this has kind of ruined the mystique the original game built up and dare I say it... it's become a bit nerdy!



The Bottom Line
If we think of Halo as "The Matrix" then Halo 2 is "Matrix Reloaded"....... technically better yes - but it ain't half as cool ;-)

Xbox · by kieran kelly (2) · 2005

And this is supposed to convince us to buy Vista?

The Good
Okay so Microsoft decides to release a game which was outdated since its release. Yes, outdated on release!

Halo 2 was released in 2004 for Xbox and that year the PC had titles like Half Life 2, Doom 3 and the outstanding debut of FarCry.

There are few good things about this game. It's A.I is pretty impressive even with current standards. Some of the weapons are fun like the battle sword. Not to forget the dual wield feature was integrated with the mouse controls perfectly(carry two different one handed weapons). The overall production quality is good & multiplayer is promising.

The Bad
The single player campaign could have been more interesting if it had more depth. The gameplay is equivalent to an old arcade game. Its basically run and gun everything, occasionally drive vehicles. Think Painkiller with vehicles but not as enjoyable, insane or good looking.

The movement and control is a disaster. Still the same slow paced gameplay. Not to mention the zoomed in field of view(FOV) is back, what i mean is you keep getting the feeling that your weapon is zoomed in a bit. This was just making my head pain.

The graphics are okay for 2004 standards, but for 2007 its horrible. Not to mention the bad porting which was done. While games like Half-life 2 and Bioshock run fine on my PC with everything turned up Halo 2 tends to stutter or even lag at times.

Last but not least this game is a Vista exclusive, that means it doesn't work on Windows XP. I find this decision pointless as the game doesn't even use DirectX 10 nor does it do anything to at least enhance the graphics a bit. It does utilize "Tray And Play" which is a new Vista feature where you can play the game as it installs and Windows Live.

The Bottom Line
Over hyped and Overrated is the only way to address the newer Halo games. The only reason Magazines and sites give this game a high rating is to avoid conflicts with the "fanboys". While this game is below average overall, i would still recommend it to a person who is new to gaming or First Person Shooters as its very basic, bland, easy to understand and got pretty good production.

And should you upgrade to Vista for this? I wouldn't recommend it if you're solely doing it for this game but hey its your choice.

Windows · by dreamstealer (126) · 2007

Fantastic but doesn't have the impact of Halo

The Good
Graphically this game is stunning. Back in 2003 when they showed the teaser I thought those were cinematics but they are actually the in game graphics. Its amazing. The duel wielding of the weapons and jacking cars is huge fun. The plot is probably the best ever for a First Person Shooter and the soundtrack is an extremely well done epic style of music. Master Chief has way more lines than before and now the Elites speak English. Speaking of Elites did I mention you PLAY AS ONE!?! Now lets talk multiplayer. I have many fond split screen and Xbox Tunnel Halo multiplayer memories for Halo and now with Halo 2 I can drop the split screen and Gamespy and play on Xbox Live!

The Bad
This game didn't have the impact of the first Halo. When I got Halo I was amazed and just didn't stop playing. With Halo 2 it does amaze me but my first time playing through the Halo campaign was much fun than I had playing through Halo 2 the first time. The levels in this game are insanely long and even on Normal they can be quite hard. One more little thing about Halo 2 is when you select a level you don't see the medal that tells which difficulty you have beaten the game on. That means no more showing off to friends. :(

The Bottom Line
Fantastic, Epic game. The essential for Xbox. If you havn't bought it yet get off your ass and go down to the store and Buy it, BUY IT!!!!

Xbox · by MegaMegaMan (2257) · 2005

The "Halo" part is extremely good; the "2" part is badly designed

The Good
(Review for the single player campaign, normal difficulty.)

The best Gamepad support ever in a computer game. It feels just like a console game. If you just wanna play Halo, there's no need to buy an Xbox anymore. (But you will wanna get an Xbox 360 after this, because Halo 2 is so good, you will wanna play Halo 3 and Halo Wars.) The length is just right, not too long. The final level is challenging, with a memorable final boss fight. Overall, the normal difficulty is entirely reasonable, and never frustrates you, and you never get stuck at one point for very long. You NEVER need to read/watch any walkthroughs. The paths and what you should do next are entirely clear to you.

Dual weapon wielding creates some frantic battles. The firepower is doubled, and enemies die so much faster. As a result, they throw more enemies at you, expecting you to use the dual wielding ability to fight them off. The dual-Needler is the most useful combination. The action is so intense and fun. When you are wielding two weapons, you can still reload your guns with just one button, and it's a lot of fun watching your character do that, even though it makes no sense at all. (You only have two hands, so how are you able to reload without dropping a weapon first?)

Halo 2 is actually shown on the HBO series The Wire (I think it was season 4). There's some poor black kid playing the game at the end of an episode. It's not such a bad neighborhood after all huh?

Two best moments: - Driving a tank across a bridge, with your team launching an epic attack on this giant, futuristic-looking building. After playing this, I won't need to travel anymore. I got the best view in the world right here on my computer screen. It felt like the end of the world.

  • Walking through a long tunnel. I walked for about two minutes with no enemies at all. It was a quiet, minimal, and mesmerizing experience. It's two minutes of peace during times of war. It changes you. I think everyone should experience two minutes of spiritual serenity everyday, as demonstrated in this particular level of Halo 2.

    The Bad
    Halo 1 didn't have any faults, and Halo 2 managed to introduce quite a few.

When you play as the Arbiter, some of the enemies (Covenant) in Halo 1 will become your allies. But it's not really easy/possible to tell which monsters are your allies. You'll end up shooting your own teammates a lot. This is the biggest problem in Halo 2. It feels horrible. I already killed a lot of those monsters in Halo 1, and now that they've become the good guys, I still keep shooting them. I can't forgive myself for this.

Too many weapons. The new weapons are mostly awkward to use. The balance is gone. In Halo 1 every weapon was necessary and useful. In Halo 2, some weapons are never useful. The best weapon from Halo 1 (Pistol) is gone, and replaced with a much inferior model. It's like your girlfriend who is a 9 is gone, and your current girlfriend is a 5. I want my 9 back. The fuel rod gun is the only new weapon that's good. It's a huge gun with a lot of destructive power.

The "health" bar is gone. You only have a shield bar. No more exciting moments when you discover "oh my god there's a med kit here! I can replenish my health!" Now, you can replenish your health at any time, as long as you're not being attacked. This really takes the thrill and anticipation away.

The "stealth" element is a bit lame and unbalanced. The Arbiter has the ability to cloak. Very cool and useful. During some levels, you can choose to kill all enemies, or you can just walk right past them and still able to get to the next checkpoint. Why put those enemies there at all then? Since first-person shooters are all about shooting, killing, explosions, I wanna kill my enemies. I don't wanna skip them and still be allowed to proceed. Halo 2 sometimes encourages you to skip the enemies, which is against the nature of FPS lovers.

The Bottom Line
If any game developer was wondering why their game didn't sell as many copies as Halo 2 did, I'll tell you why. It's almost certainly because Halo 2 was more fun to play.

Windows · by Pagen HD (146) · 2013

O.k, I lied, I love this game.

The Good
O.K., if you're not keeping up with current events here is what is going on. UnicornLynx hates Halo, I love Halo. I wanted to impress him, so I wrote a scathing review of Halo and Halo 2 after he posted his. It was silly, sycophantic nonsense and a complete denial of my philosophy of playing what you like, not what others like.

Halo 2 is an excellent follow up to the original classic released in 2001. The idea behind the game is that Master Chief made it back to Cairo Station, which is basically a big gun orbiting Earth, after the destruction of the Halo ring and the decimation of the Covenant forces who tried to cleanse the human (and flood) infestation on it. Unfortunately, they find Earth, destroy the gun platforms and begin invading...one place. No one knows why, they just are. As Master Chief, it is up to you to defend Earth, after all, she's all we've got. But it's not just humanity that is fighting tooth and nail in this instalment you have the added benefit of seeing the events of the game also unfolding from the perspective of the Covenant through the eyes of a scapegoat Elite dubbed the "Arbiter." The Arbiter levels are some of the best in the game and include the plasma sword for the first time as a usable weapon.

The first thing you notice upon beginning the Halo 2 campaign is how much Bungie overhauled the engine in anticipation of the game's release. The texture resolution has improved, the general scale of everything is three times what is was in the original Halo and the combat has been super refined. Your jumping is less floaty, your melee attacks are quicker and more precise and you can dual wield certain weapons to form devastating combinations.

The flow of the game is a lot different to the original Halo. You begin on Cairo station, moving to Earth and finally to the Delta Halo ring that you end up travelling to along with a Covenant Battle cruiser. There is great variation in the level design of Halo 2, the meandering through identical corridors has been eliminated and back tracking is non-existent. It's a constant push forward through the Covenant forces.

There is a lot to like about Halo 2, like the increased vehicle presence, the ability to hijack vehicles and the additional weapons like the SMG's (two of these things become handheld lawnmowers) while the pistol has been replaced by a more balanced "Magnum" which is more of a sidearm than anything. Vehicles play a bigger role in the game, so to does finding alternate routes through levels (such as jumping across rooftops in New Mombasa.) Basically the way you travel through levels has had a lot more thought put into it, making the trips far more interesting than the original Halo.

Graphically a lot of new things can be found in Halo. Sun glare was present in Halo but it is far more pronounced in Halo 2, the resolution of textures is vastly increased and bump mapping has been incorporated to great effect in the engine. Building architecture is far more complicated and interested and while it provides some great eye candy it also provides players with lots of tactical options when it comes to approaching combat situations.

The soundtrack is as fantastic as ever. Martin O'Donnell knows how to produce some amazingly cinematic pieces, blending them with electronic beats and the occasional roar of a guitar to mix things up. It's great stuff. Additionally the actual characterisation of the Covenant and the inclusion of spoken lines for them means some excellent voice actors join the mix and lend credibility to their race beyond a bunch of moving targets.

The Bad
While I appreciate the lengths Bungie went to creating more complicated, interesting levels it is easy to lose track of where you are supposed to be going and occasionally get turned around. It doesn't happen very often but it's irritating when it does.

When using AI team mates on your mounted guns they tend to never hit anything, meaning you have to trust them to drive your vehicle, which is an even more hazardous prospect.

The story peters out in the end to a sort of whimpered finale that leads into a sequel. It's not a definite ending, not a huge deal, but if you don't have an Xbox 360 being able to see the conclusion is not an option for you.

The Bottom Line
Halo 2 is a fantastic game that will take you around 12-15 hours (depending on your skill level) to finish. Honest refinements to the formula such as dual wielding, the ability to hijack vehicles, the refinement of combat specifics like melee attacks, the addition of weapons like the SMG's and Plasma Sword lend to some variation in your technique and emphasis on multiple routes and exploration is refreshing.

There are few things to fault in this game and the things that I do fault are minor and niggling.

Halo 2 isn't perfect, nor is it the best game ever made. I wouldn't even class it amongst the best games ever made. It is however a good, honest sequel with great refinements to an already engaging formula.

Xbox · by AkibaTechno (238) · 2010

The most anticipated game of all time!

The Good
Since this is Halo 2 the game is very, very, well made, such as the graphics engine and will get you well immersed. I like how the soundtrack is done, a very, symphonic music, mostly in a rock kind of way. also the design and game plot is well planned out, their are many features in the game like hijacking vehicles or duel-wielding making you addict on the game for hours. But their is to much stuff in the game for me to explain, overall you NEED TO BUY THIS GAME!!! IT IS THE BEST!!! Oh, and character design can't be ignored, the Master Chief talks more, and even Elites talk! which puts you more in depth, I am finished with the positive side of the game because I don't want to spoil anything for the newbies.

The Bad
The End. End of the Halo story, which is kinda disappointing because their will be no other halo games going to be made! Sorry if I broke your heart. Sorry peeps.

The Bottom Line
Bottom line is the game going to be a big-time award winner, the game is good for new players too because if you play it on easy, it's easy, Overall the best game, graphics, sound, design, the works, this is a must for everyone, especially for the ones who have Xbox Live because Live support is awesome, now this is a mighty game so buy it, gear up Master Chief!

Xbox · by Chase Bowen (35) · 2004

Everything you could want and then some

The Good
After waiting for so long being carried along by the hype I started to wonder if I'd be disappointed by the real thing. Well I wasn't, in fact all the hype didn't do the game justice. Playing as Master Chief and as an Elite all in one game means you play two story lines at once running parallel to each other. More enemies, vehicles and weapons make Halo 2 a manic battle from start to end. The multiplayer is amazing, with stats being kept and displayed on the Bungie website for everyone who plays the game online.

The Bad
The lack of Xbox Live! or LAN Co-Op play which was rumoured, but never confirmed didn't appear in the game which would have finished the game off just right.

The Bottom Line
Think of Halo : Combat Evolved. Now think of what was missing from Halo that would have made it even better. That's what Halo 2 is like.

Xbox · by Baza (1877) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Big John WV, nullnullnull, Patrick Bregger, jumpropeman, Yearman, Wizo, lights out party, Flu, Cavalary, Jeanne, firefang9212, Sciere, yenruoj_tsegnol_eht (!!ihsoy), Cantillon, Alsy, CalaisianMindthief, Tim Janssen, Jacob Gens, Tracy Poff, Picard, Spindash, Jess T, Alaka, katarn_88, arcademan10, Xoleras, Venator, RhYnoECfnW, Bjorn Holine, Kabushi.