Halo 2

SUMMARY:
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter. It has very large maps in the Campaign. It has a wide vary of weapons and vehicles to drive and use.

Halo 2 takes place primarily on Earth. The Covenant Alien Race has invaded and it is up to Master Chief to put a stop to them. At points in the story you are able to use the Arbiter, a Covenant Elite, who will help out the Master Chief while being in space aboard Covenant Alien spaceships.

The Campaign is very entertaining, as it has tasks that suit shooters, unlike some games with tedious tasks such as trying to protect hostages, etc., Halo 2 simply has tasks where you must kill enemies, and take residence in specific areas. The Campaign is long enough to have lasting fun, and the maps are very big, enabling you to have lots of exploration and secret items to find.

One of Halo 2's main points is the Online Multiplayer (or Multiplayer in General.) It has very large and detailed maps, each with it's own strong and weak points. Halo 2's Online games range from Rank-driven Matchmaking games, where you move up in the ranks in various game types, such as Team Snipers (everyone spawns with Snipers,) to objective based games, to Team Slayer (default slayer, with default weapon spawns, etc.)

I highly recomend you try this game out, as it is very entertaining, has a nice length in the campaign, and is a blast to play with friends.

THE BAD:
The story was too short and it shuns in Comparison to CE. The cinematics aren't as "artistic and creative" as the first. You kinda have to play Halo 1 to really fully understand the story too.

everything else floats the boat

SUMMARY:
Many new things sparked by love for this. I had good time creating avvys for my characters and I like the wider variety of weapons. I think it's nice you can now use Feul Rod cannon and Sword. Creating Gametypes is especially fun for you and your friends. This game seems more based on personalasation. X-box live is a must. I say beat Heroic and you should then get Live. Campaign doesn't have much a replay value except Skulls.

THE BAD:
in multi player there is no fuel cells on the banshee. plasma pistols only take down sheilds and are worthless otherwise. and say you're playing on legendary on co-operative mode, if one of either of you die you lose(go back to last checkpoint)

SUMMARY:
if you havent played any of the halos or are new to Xbox, id HIGHLY recommend getting classical Halo first before getting Halo 2.

go through the game on easy then work your way up to legendary(no co-op at your own risk on legendary).

THE BAD:
Pretty short single player with a less than satisfactory ending

SUMMARY:
The sequel to the game that saved the Xbox. You once again play as Master Chief but in a new introduction you also get to play as a covenant soldier, The Arbiter, who is held responsible for the destruction of the first Halo. The only difference between playing with either of these two is that while Master Chief has a flashlight, The Arbiter has temporary invisibility, everything else gameplay wise is pretty much the same. The storyline of this game is that there’s a new threat and more Halo rings. The Covenant believe the Halo rings to be something different to what they really are, which are powerful weapons. The higher ranks of the Covenant are keeping this information from the masses. As the game goes on the story unfolds and things are revealed.

The controls are pretty much the same as they were in Halo except for the introduction of the new dual wielding system. Any weapon, such as pistols and the Needler, that you can use one handed, you can now carry a second one and fire 2 at once, basically doubling your firepower. It doesn’t even need to be the same weapon, you can use a human pistol and a plasma pistol at the same time. While dual wielding you can’t throw any grenades because you don’t have a spare hand to do it with, the button to fire the second gun you’re carrying is the same as it is to normally throw a grenade. There are a whole bunch of new Human and Covenant weapons to use including a grenade launcher, Covenant sniper rifle, beam cannon and a fuel rod cannon. The range of weapons is far greater than in the first Halo and while you can still only technically carry two, tactics can come more into play. Taking 1 long range and 1 short range weapon is a good tactic or in 2 player, have 1 long range person with sniper rifles and rocket launchers while the second blazes in with shotguns and SMGs. The new range of weapons was one of the best things in the game for me, in the first game I stuck with the shotgun and assault rifle except when I came across a rocket launcher or sniper rifle, but in this game I often found myself spoilt for choice.

There are also more enemies in this game, Brutes are the main one that comes to mind. These hulking things are even harder to kill than Elites and because of the storyline later on you’ll see Elites and Brutes fighting each other. The one thing the first game had was a lack of different enemies yet the game was done so well it was rarely mentioned. Here there are more enemies, not loads more, but again enough so that you don’t really think “Damn, I wish there were more types of enemy”.

I’m not sure how necessary it was for Bungie to give us a Covenant part to the game. Sure it’s a change and shows us a different part to the story, while Master Chief is off doing one thing The Arbiter is off doing another and I guess it expanded the storyline giving you two different points of view, but I feel that while concentrating on that Bungie missed out other things. One hilarious thing about being able to play on the Covenant forces is that often I would see a Covenant soldier and immediately shoot as a reflex while totally forgetting that I’m on that side at that part of the game. Obviously in Halo you could only play as Master Chief so I was nearly always on the lookout for Covenant and I’m sure I can’t be the only one who did this. It did feel pretty good running along at one point knowing that I had 2 Hunters in front of me clearing out a path. But the game feels pretty short when you compare it to other games that are out at this point in time. The end of the game at the moment is pretty lame and is clearly geared for a Halo 3 (which we now know will be on the Xbox 360) but if there were no more Halo games then the ending would be pretty rubbish as endings go.

I’ve also not played on Xbox Live so I can’t say anything about that but I would say overall the game was fairly good, just not as good as it was hyped up to be which is a problem for so many sequels after the first game in a series blows everyone away.

THE BAD:
Sometimes there are glitches and imagery is sometimes pixelated (I only noticed this with some explosions). This game wasn't as good as expected, but that's just because I expected too much out of it.

SUMMARY:
The second Halo installment is just amazing. I was thrilled to play the game.

The storyline is great and keeps you wanting more. The gameplay is absolutely "fun" and the more popular reasons to play this is because of multiplayer, or Xbox Live. The music is quite well and it's a masterpiece for this video game. The graphics are very complex, like your environment. Not only the graphics and features of the game is superb, but also the artificial intelligence. You can have your enemies taunt you or even your allies (if you hurt them, that is ).

All I can say is that the game is very addictive and mind-blowing. The Xbox Live is a very good thing for Halo 2 because of the exciting multiplayer. I hope you will enjoy this game just as much as I did.

THE BAD:
1) Very poor story line

2)They warped many of the brilliant things that should have been carried over from Halo I
examples include: covenant weapon sounds effects, melee attacks, covenant voicing...

3) It seemed to me it seemed less realistic than the than the first Halo game (overall)

3) The elites speak english

4) Level Designs: seem to be much more lineal than the the vast open levels of Halo I

4) Poor ending

5) cut out promised features

6) Occasional glitches

SUMMARY:
This game is good but not perfect. I'm pretty nit-picky about my games and therefore halo II could not deliever the great performance its precursor gave.

If you're one of those gamers who gets into games seriously, then i'd rent this game before buying it. For example, the original Halo seemed much less sci-fi and could be construed as actually being reality within the future. However, HaloII lacks that important quality. It alienates the gamer so the he/she feels that they're just doing something that seems so fake; like it'd onlt happen in a video game. (this'll make sense to you only if you're one of the these types of gamers)

The weapons were ok. I didn't like the battle riffle replacing the pistol and the assault riffle from HaloI but it doesn't matter. Covenant weapon effects could be improved on. The plasma sword could have been visually improved with the white-fire glow it had from HaloI. Sound effects for those weapons weren't up to standard either. The plasma guns sounded like wimpy water guns going off.

Gameplay was so so. It lacked variation. You went from one area to the next killing any enemies you found. It got pretty repetitive. Their was no real variation. Its true you could duel wield which made for a nice change in combat. Your enemies and allies also have a boost in AI so that's a plus. The vehicles are pretty cool; allows you to hijack vehicles from enemies.

They also only put three Earth based levels in Halo2. Most people expected more because of the 2003 trailer.

The ending was put together rather abruptly. It seemed to anger almost all Halo players.

However, this game is still very fun to play, despite the addictiveness it seems to lack in single player mode. It has repeatability up to a limit upon which its glory comes to an end. Overall halo2 was a good game, but lacked a lot and had so much more potenial. Better luck with halo3

THE BAD:
-sometimes there are graphic glitches
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SUMMARY:
When i first got this game I thought it was going to be over hyped and not that good.I was wrong. Everything in this game is an improvment from the original, hijacking vehicals,music,duel wielding, graphics, variety of weapens, multiplayer, and the story. This is one of the greatest first person shooters i have ever played and I highly recommend it to anyone ---- --- ------ ----- ---- ---- ------- -------- ------ --------- -------- ------ ----- --- ----- -- --- --- ----- ------------- --------- -------- ------------- --------------

THE BAD:
1. The Campaign ending - (Cliffhanger)
2. Cheaters on Xbox Live

SUMMARY:
Halo 2 is the greatest game to come to the Xbox since Halo:CE was released. Bungie remade the whole physics engine from Halo:CE so you get a better feeling while playing. The campaign does lack a little, the ending isn't the greatest. But most Halo players play it for the multiplayer, And Halo 2 delivers the best multiplayer experience you will get with any FPS out on any console. As long as you have Xbox Live. You can play matchmaking games, for ranks, or you can simply play custom games with friends. The downfall to Xbox Live is the cheaters who just want to get a higher rank.

Halo 2 is a must buy for all Xbox owners, and especially for people who liked Halo:CE.