This review of Halo 2 delves into the online play rather than the overall experience of the game.
Now I'm sure that you all know that new features of Halo 2. New campaign, new weapons, new vehicles (vehicle jacking), and of course X-Box Live capabilities, which is the main thing I will be talking about. I am not going to bore you with the same stuff you've heard from every other review you've read, like how the story is short, and ends on a confusing and disappointing tone. I am going to talk about Halo 2: X-Box Live Edition.
This game may be worth less than tightly coiled piles of poodle sh** without being able to bring it online, or play with other people. There are many different types of gameplay options. Assault, CTF, Oddball, Juggernaut, Territories, and of course the ol' favorite, Slayer. You can also choose what kind of match made game you wish to play. Such as Team Slyer, Team Skirmish, and Big Team Battle, among other types. All of these match made types give you a rank witch you can raise and unfortunately lower with wins and losses. The opportunity to match wits with another living player is quite fun and challenging and almost no match seems to be the same, though strategies may be much alike, all people are different. Speaking of strategies...oh, there are so many. So many different options you have to change the outcome of a game. But no strategy is perfect. All strategies can be beaten once learned.
Playing against human opponents provides a much more satisfying rush and challenge than facing A.I. controlled morons that the campaign offers. Playing with others is fun but sometimes can become an annoyance. For example there are **** who play a game against you and, weather they win or lose, they seem to have some nasty comments for you after a well played match. Such comments include, "You're ******* losers! Eat S***!” and so on and so fourth. Simply simply pressing B and returning to a more private screen can easily avoid these comments.
And then there are clans. Up to 100 players can join together and kick the s*** out of other clans through minor and major clan matches. You can raise your rank in your clan, if other members who are higher in the ranks see fit.
This game has much more to offer online such as custom games and so on. All in all this game is worth nothing without X-Box Live. I am so happy to be online, playing with people around the world, and people who live not more than half a mile away. This has to be the best X-Box Live game to date and I am glad to have played online with this game before I played an other X-Box Live enabled game. So far no game has been able to match Halo 2's spectacular online gameplay...that’s' if you don't mention…modding.