I have done a review for Halo CE i have done a review for Halo 3. It is now time to jump into the middle of it all.
Right here we go notes are sorted and its time to dive into the sequel of super mario brothers....Wait thats not even the right system....Hang on here we go found the game it was sequel to and it is Halo: Combat Evolved how i mixed that up i have no idea at all. Anyway Halo 2 sets the pace and came out Three years after its older brother Halo: Combat Evolved. Much of this game is alot like the past game players use a combination of human and alien weaponry and vehicles to progress through the game's levels. The player's health bar is not visible, but are instead equipped with a damage-absorbing shield that regenerates when not taking fire. Some weapons can be dual-wielded, allowing the player to trade accuracy, the use of grenades and melee attacks for raw firepower. Which to be fair is not always a good idea as you never know when you might need your melee or grenade fix. The player can carry two weapons at a time with each weapon having advantages and disadvantages in different combat situations. For example, most Covenant weapons eschew disposable ammo clips for a contained battery, which cannot be replaced if depleted. However, these weapons can overheat if fired continuously for prolonged periods. Human weapons are less effective at penetrating shields and require reloading, but cannot overheat due to prolonged fire. The player can carry a total of eight grenades to dislodge and disrupt enemies. New in Halo 2 is the ability to board enemy vehicles that are near the player and traveling at low speeds. The player or AI latches onto the vehicle and forcibly ejects the other driver from the vehicle. Which is always fun to see in the middle of battle.
Halo 2 has two main modes they are the Campaign and Multiplayer. I will first look at the Campaign and then take a quick look at Multiplayer. Campaign mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between the Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that disappears when the player attacks or takes damage. In Halo 2 there are four levels of difficulty in campaign mode: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the number, rank, health, damage, and accuracy of enemies; a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage; a decrease in the player's health and shields; and occasional changes in dialogue.
In Multiplayer Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via Xbox Live, in addition to support for split-screen and system link multiplayer mode. The multiplayer mode offers changes from earlier online console first-person shooters. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server or host, specifying the game type and map, and configuring other settings. The game software then uses a service such as GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering, as well as the ping times they are able to receive. In Halo 2, however, Xbox Live players do not host public games or specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, they select playlists that are geared to different styles of play. For fairness and balance reasons, certain gameplay aspects of the campaign mode are disabled or missing in multiplayer mode; for example, the Fuel Rod weapon is missing from vehicles and maps.
Now with the gamplay looked at it is time to see what the plot may well throw at us in Halo 2. In the 26th century. Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC, have developed faster-than-light slipspace travel and colonized numerous worlds. outer colony world of Harvest was decimated by a collective of alien races known as the Covenant in 2525. Declaring humanity an affront to their gods, the Forerunners, the Covenant begin to systemically obliterate the humans with their superior numbers and technology. After the human bastion at the planet Reach is destroyed (i wonder if they will turn that into a game at all), a single ship, The Pillar of Autumn, follows protocol and initiates a random slipspace jump to lead the Covenant away from Earth. The crew discovers a Forerunner ringworld called Halo, which the Covenant wants to activate because of their religious belief that the activation of the ring will bring about a "Great Journey", sweeping loyal Covenant to salvation.
Halo 2 takes place shortly after the events of the novel Halo: First Strike. We open with the trial of a Covenant Elite commander aboard the Covenant's mobile capital city of High Charity. The Elite is stripped of his rank, branded a heretic for failing to stop the humans from destroying Halo, and is tortured by Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Covenant Brutes. On Earth, the Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson are commended for their actions at Halo. Lord Terrence Hood awards the soldiers alongside Commander Miranda Keyes, who accepts a medal on behalf of her deceased father, Captain Jacob Keyes. A Covenant fleet appears outside Earth's defensive perimeter and begins an invasion of the planet. While the UNSC repels most of the fleet, a single Covenant cruiser carrying an important member of the Covenant hierarchy, the High Prophet of Regret, assaults the city of New Mombasa, Kenya. The Master Chief assists in clearing the city of Covenant; with his fleet destroyed, Regret makes a hasty slipspace jump, and Keyes, Johnson, Cortana and the Master Chief follow aboard the UNSC ship In Amber Clad. The crew discover another Halo installation; realizing the danger the ring presents, Keyes sends the Master Chief to kill Regret while she and Johnson find Halo's key to activation, the Index. Meanwhile, the disgraced Covenant commander is presented before the Prophet Hierarchs, who acknowledge that though the destruction of Halo was his fault, he is no heretic. They offer him the honored position of Arbiter so that he can continue to fight for the Covenant. On his first mission to kill a heretic, the Arbiter discovers 343 Guilty Spark, who the Covenant calls an "oracle", and brings him back to High Charity. Responding to Regret's distress call, High Charity and the Covenant fleet arrive at the new Halo, Installation 05, just before the Master Chief kills Regret. Bombarded from space, the Chief falls into a lake and is rescued by a mysterious tentacled creature...
And that is where i stop the story part of the review...to find out more your just going to have to play the game yourself.
Halo 2 came out for the Xbox on November 9, 2004.
This is what i would call a mixed bag of a game. Its takes alot from what the first halo did and ran with it but it was far from being the perfect game. But realy when you think about it there never has and there never realy will be the perfect game because someone will find fault...someoe will not like a game and realy thats ok as it means there is room to grow and improve over time.
So if you have not yet played this game yet why not look it up you never know what may happen.