[The Good]
There are lots of ammo consuming enemies to kill and plenty of checkpoints along the way.
[The Bad]
Halo 2 is disappointing compared to its predecessor. It is slow paced and can be very repetitive at times.
[Single-player Review]
STORY
Halo 2 continues the adventure started by Halo: CE (Halo: Combat Evolved). But this time, instead of focusing on just Master Chief, 50% of the game is played with the Arbiter from the Covenant. You alternate between them throughout a detailed, but unmotivating story. They eventually cross paths and find out that they have a common enemy: religious politics. And to many players, it ends abruptly. The reason for this is that Halo 2 set up so much interesting material for Halo 3 that it became confusing in comparison to Halo 2?s material.
One of the things that really bothered me was how small the battle on earth was. I was looking forward to a massive, open ended battle; as what it looked like in some of the videos released on the internet. Outside earth, sure looked mean, I would?ve imagined the inside to look worse, but it wasn?t so. The level also didn?t feel like earth. The design was too bulky and simple, a common occurrence in the outdoor levels of Halo 2.
GAMEPLAY
One of the things that made Halo: CE so great was the big, outdoor environments and freedom to walk around, practically anywhere. Bungie doesn?t bring this to Halo 2. Instead, most levels are enclosed, linear. Bungie makes things worse by having impractically elaborated, and repetitive interior level designs. And the outdoor levels are scarcely decorated, having just simple shapes. The earth level is an example of this. It doesn't even look earthly, except for the palm trees. Because of these, the game becomes tedious often. And levels sometimes have objectives like: Get through the flood Infested Wall. It?s basically telling me that I'm only going through here just to shoot stuff. Objectives like that are boring. And there are a few of them like that, showcasing the repetitiveness of the game.
The combat is the most fun part of the game. You get to play with various fun weapons, both earthy and alien. And now you can dual-wield weapons, which is awsome, especially with the SMG. The only problem with this is that some weapons take up quite a big portion of the screen. But generally it?s fun.
The vehicles however are disappointing. You never get the freedom to use a vehicle the way its predecessor allowed. Halo: CE had vehicles laying around for you to use if you wanted to. Halo 2 expects you to use them and creates sections in the game specifically for their use. If you don?t use them, those sections either become boring or impossible to finish.
A lot of the old enemies return, as expected, but some new ones are introduced: hairy, big-foot creatures and annoying fly things. The fly things appear once in a while. They don?t cause too much damage and don?t take too many hits to kill, but they do move around a lot. The big-foot dudes, called Brutes, on the other hand, take so long to kill and consume a lot of ammo. During the second half of the game, you fight the Brutes so often that it becomes tiresome. At times it seems to slow down the pace of the game. And the fact that they all look alike kills the variety of the game.
?which brings me to the AI. It doesn?t seem as smart in this sequel, if you hide, it won?t come and find you, in fact, the enemy is probably hiding himself and will stay that way until you come at them. They stand around doing nothing and never surprise you. It?s like the AI is only activated, with delay, once it sees you. I don?t remember it being like this in Halo: CE.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are a little disappointing. The shaders are updated, as you can see with the water effects. But some things just aren?t up to par with its predecessor. I remember approaching a rock in Halo: CE and noticing that it was sharply detailed. You could see every nook and cranny. It?s not the same in Halo 2 however. Some textures, such as in the earth level, look plain, as if a wall were only a solid color. I also fail to see bump mapping in many of the levels containing designs imprinted on metal walls. This is very disappointing considering the smaller level designs in Halo 2.
One thing that didn?t change, the cut-scenes are just horrible to look at sometimes, sporting low res. textures and poly counts that look years behind their time.
[Verdict]
2/4 Poor Value (7.0 ? 7.9) The Halo 2 single-player campaign is a poor value to be purchased at premium price and possibly even to waste your time with. It?s too tedious to play through the disappointing campaign. I would recommend this game only for fans of the series so that they could follow the story. They might also have some fun with all the killing. But new players to the series should check out Halo: CE, if they want a good Halo experience.
There are lots of ammo consuming enemies to kill and plenty of checkpoints along the way.
[The Bad]
Halo 2 is disappointing compared to its predecessor. It is slow paced and can be very repetitive at times.
[Single-player Review]
STORY
Halo 2 continues the adventure started by Halo: CE (Halo: Combat Evolved). But this time, instead of focusing on just Master Chief, 50% of the game is played with the Arbiter from the Covenant. You alternate between them throughout a detailed, but unmotivating story. They eventually cross paths and find out that they have a common enemy: religious politics. And to many players, it ends abruptly. The reason for this is that Halo 2 set up so much interesting material for Halo 3 that it became confusing in comparison to Halo 2?s material.
One of the things that really bothered me was how small the battle on earth was. I was looking forward to a massive, open ended battle; as what it looked like in some of the videos released on the internet. Outside earth, sure looked mean, I would?ve imagined the inside to look worse, but it wasn?t so. The level also didn?t feel like earth. The design was too bulky and simple, a common occurrence in the outdoor levels of Halo 2.
GAMEPLAY
One of the things that made Halo: CE so great was the big, outdoor environments and freedom to walk around, practically anywhere. Bungie doesn?t bring this to Halo 2. Instead, most levels are enclosed, linear. Bungie makes things worse by having impractically elaborated, and repetitive interior level designs. And the outdoor levels are scarcely decorated, having just simple shapes. The earth level is an example of this. It doesn't even look earthly, except for the palm trees. Because of these, the game becomes tedious often. And levels sometimes have objectives like: Get through the flood Infested Wall. It?s basically telling me that I'm only going through here just to shoot stuff. Objectives like that are boring. And there are a few of them like that, showcasing the repetitiveness of the game.
The combat is the most fun part of the game. You get to play with various fun weapons, both earthy and alien. And now you can dual-wield weapons, which is awsome, especially with the SMG. The only problem with this is that some weapons take up quite a big portion of the screen. But generally it?s fun.
The vehicles however are disappointing. You never get the freedom to use a vehicle the way its predecessor allowed. Halo: CE had vehicles laying around for you to use if you wanted to. Halo 2 expects you to use them and creates sections in the game specifically for their use. If you don?t use them, those sections either become boring or impossible to finish.
A lot of the old enemies return, as expected, but some new ones are introduced: hairy, big-foot creatures and annoying fly things. The fly things appear once in a while. They don?t cause too much damage and don?t take too many hits to kill, but they do move around a lot. The big-foot dudes, called Brutes, on the other hand, take so long to kill and consume a lot of ammo. During the second half of the game, you fight the Brutes so often that it becomes tiresome. At times it seems to slow down the pace of the game. And the fact that they all look alike kills the variety of the game.
?which brings me to the AI. It doesn?t seem as smart in this sequel, if you hide, it won?t come and find you, in fact, the enemy is probably hiding himself and will stay that way until you come at them. They stand around doing nothing and never surprise you. It?s like the AI is only activated, with delay, once it sees you. I don?t remember it being like this in Halo: CE.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are a little disappointing. The shaders are updated, as you can see with the water effects. But some things just aren?t up to par with its predecessor. I remember approaching a rock in Halo: CE and noticing that it was sharply detailed. You could see every nook and cranny. It?s not the same in Halo 2 however. Some textures, such as in the earth level, look plain, as if a wall were only a solid color. I also fail to see bump mapping in many of the levels containing designs imprinted on metal walls. This is very disappointing considering the smaller level designs in Halo 2.
One thing that didn?t change, the cut-scenes are just horrible to look at sometimes, sporting low res. textures and poly counts that look years behind their time.
[Verdict]
2/4 Poor Value (7.0 ? 7.9) The Halo 2 single-player campaign is a poor value to be purchased at premium price and possibly even to waste your time with. It?s too tedious to play through the disappointing campaign. I would recommend this game only for fans of the series so that they could follow the story. They might also have some fun with all the killing. But new players to the series should check out Halo: CE, if they want a good Halo experience.
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