I chose to finish this, my Halo 2 review, even though I havn’t actually finished the game yet. Unorthodox, I know, but also I might add, very telling of the game.
You see, when I played Halo, the first Halo that is, I really really liked it. Bungie had crafted exactly the kind of sci-fi story that boys like me used to dream of when the lights went out and we were tugged in our beds (this was before puberty). Lumbering spaceships, alien civilizations, fullscale warfare on a distant planet (or better yet, a ring), mysterious structures and gameplay that would knock your teeth clean out of your mouth. On top of that, they even threw in some nice AI and vehicles that kicked every other first person shooters ass up and down.
So to call me psyched about Halo 2 would be an understatement. And yet I haven’t played it for a few weeks now, but I would wager that I was about 85 – 90% done, when I last threw down my controller in frustration.
This is what Halo 2 promised, from its very first showing at E3: You’re the Master Chief and you’re going to defend Earth from an alien invasion by kicking some serious bee-hind. And this is exactly what Halo 2 doesn’t deliver!
From here on in, this review is full of spoilers.
Not only do you not play as the Master Chief half the game, instead treading the shoes of an elite, the alien bastards you were killing in the first game, but there’s hardly any Earth to be spotted in the game! I was so disappointed! It’s as if Bungie ignored any lessons they might’ve learned from the first game, and instead went on to make the very same mistakes yet again.
In Gamespy’s Halo 2 review, they note that:
“Fantastic, immersive storyline; gorgeous graphics” #
Now first of all, what I’ve seen of the storyline, and remember, I haven’t seen it all, it is anything but fantastic or immersive. And I’ve heard pretty much everyone and their mother complain about it ending in mid-sentence, with no real climax. And as for the graphics, well I personally thought they were less impressive than the first Halo! Often the texture work look somewhat rushed and muddy (especially just as you set down in that stone temple on the Halo), many environments are plainly uninspired (the back alley’s of the African city for instance) and where the first Halo was an injection of science fiction inspiration, this second chapter really doesn’t ever add much to the concept…
Don’t misunderstand me, there’s a lot of very very cool stuff going on in this game. The vehicles are now destructible for instance, which is very nice, when during a prolonged battle, your warthog gets taken apart piece by piece. And hey, the AI can drive now, which opens up for some nice opportunities, though I personally prefer to drive when I play. The characters are much better this time around, and you can wield two weapons at once, with either trigger on the controller controlling a weapon.
And speaking of weapons is it just me, or is Halo one of the games that really gets grenades right? You can bullseye a grenade like nobody’s business in this game!
And finally, I think an honorable mention should go out to your fellow marines. They spew out one liners and general nasties left and right, bordering on cliché, but ending up somewhere north of too cool. That however, is pretty much where the good stuff ends.
But even with this praise, it’s worth noting that Bungie decided to change the feel and sounds of their weapons and vehicles, and it was in this bloggers opinion not a good idea. It might’ve, if they’d done a good job of it, but to me the weapons came off pretty flat and so did the vehicles (could you slow the Ghost down any more?). The saddest thing however, is that as far as I can tell, these sacrifices were made in the name of Xbox Live…
To me, it feels as if the entire single player campaign was modelled in such a way as to make new players feel at ease with stepping into the much lauded multiplayer component. Why? Well let’s see: You play as both sides. Every weapon in either arsenal has an almost exact replica in the other side’s arsenal. And a lot of the levels seriously feel way unpolished. Compared to the look and feel of the first Halo, it is clearly a step down.
Also I don’t think it’s any secret that where the first Halo was the killer app for the launch of the Xbox (and still is), Halo 2 is the killer app for Xbox Live.
Which is a problem, when you – like me – have absolutely no interest of playing it online…
So all in all, I’m pretty underwhelmed with its single player, and utterly not interested in its multiplayer, which leaves me hovering south of ‘not pleased’. And that’s when I remember that Gamespot generously gave this game a 9.4!
Which is just… Pardon me while I put on my hat of subjectiveness +20, and bear with me. But fuck off. The storyline is fragmented, lacks any kind of followthrough to the premise, and combined with the gameplay problems, you’d almost think they wanted to make a game that was destined to redo all the bad things about the first Halo.
Then again, Gamespy also decided in their review that…
“[…] what might be the most highly anticipated game of all time.
Which sounds a bit like them having not been paying attention to this other thing that came out last week, I believe it’s called Half-Life 2… Of course, they decided that Half-Life 2 was worth ‘only’ 9.2, but I won’t get into that just now, except say: “Somebody’s been buying themselves a new car…”
Only thing is, great games do not come from twisted and turned storylines, they come from fantastic gameplay and great immersion. And Halo 2 just doesn’t deliver. It has its moments, but overall it is at best, mediocre.
erm, being tugged in your bed is a whole different thing than being tucked in, Michael :)
Hm… Try Half-Life 2 then :D
I certainly agree with your evaluation, especially when paired with the miserable ending. The Xbox Live portion of the game seems to be where the emphasis was placed, and the campaign portion suffered as a result.
But can you tell me something? I don’t own an XBox or any other console. Is it comfortable to play a First Person Shooter witha game controller? Without a mouse?
Halo – loved it. Halo 2 – want to love it but it’s too short & too easy (single player – i finished it the day after i got it). Luckily i love playing online. so, in the end, it’s all good.
Thanks for the review. I already thought I have to leave my beloved GameCube behind for the sake of being able to play Halo 2.
But then, the Mario Kart: Double Dash Review on Gamespot (7.9) tells me that it might be better than my reference game…
About the GameSpot review, it is just Microsoft doing its general thing… screwing the industry with their money. It’s just so obvious that GameSpot got a lot of money to give Halo 2 a 9.4 and Half Life 2 a 9.2. Pathetic.
I’ll wait for the PC version before forming an opinion. I’ve read so many diametrically opposed reviews to know better than go by them.
I’m also awaiting the PC version to form an opinion.
I dont have an xbox – or therefore obviously Halo or Halo2 – that said the quick bash I had in the game shop didnt grab me the same way GTA3 did the first time I played it or for that matter Unreal or my fave FPS of all time: Deus Ex.
I blame the evil M$ buying up Bungie before they were due to release Halo for both Mac and PC and ruining Halo for us all.
I just finished Halo 2 a couple of hours ago, and I couldn’t agree with you more.
I loved the original to bits and I really looked forward to playing the follow-up. But now that I’ve played through it I’m left somewhat disappointed. It was nice and all, but it felt like something was missing. The game left earth way to early and at times things was a bit to repetitive. It’s funny, the repetitiveness was one of the few complaints that could be leveled at the original, so I thought for sure they would have that part sorted this time around. But no, instead they seem to have put most of their energy into fleshing out the confusing storyline.
Oh, and where the heck was that bombastic sequence they showed off at E3 two years ago? I wanted to play that. Bah. I feel cheated.
As for the ending, well, it has to be one of the worst endings in a videogame ever. “Wha…? No, you’re kidding me right? You bastards!”, was basically my reaction to it.
It’s like you say, Halo 2 has really been tailored for Xbox Live. Love it or loathe it.
Still, it’s a good game. But not quite as good as I’d hoped.
I am about 80% of the way through the game myself – whilst it has been a good gaming experience thusfar, it hasn’t been a great one. The constant switiching of playing as Master Chief and then the Alien Arbiter is just too frustrating and annoying.
re: the abrupt ending… I’ve heard there will be a sequel released in Feb 2005. Apparently the release date is mentioned in the end credits.
They do seem to have spent an awful lot of time on the XBox live component though again, this is not without its problems as it often proves to be a chore to get online to actually play the darn thing.
Most of the pro game reviews have been far too high for this game. I’d rate it a solid 7/10.
I’d definitely have to agree with you on your post there. But I have to admit that I really enjoy Halo 2 simply because of the multiplayer aspect of the game. It’s a great party game, in my opinion.
I’m a hardcore Halo addict. I am a little let down by Halo 2’s campaign (I’m about 2/3 of the way through it, or so I’ve been told). But, once I got Xbox Live, Halo 2 redeemed itself in a major way. Even if the story isn’t the greatest, the new arsenal of weapons is just downright wicked. And all the improvements to the ones we know and love from Halo, they rock hard. Bungie did spend a lot of time on polishing the weapons at least. And when it comes to the vehicles, I think almost all the improvements are better, sure the ghost is slower, but you have a turbo button for a reason ;-). If you just wanted Halo 2 for the campaign, then yeah I would say it would be about a 7/10, but if you give it a shot online, it would be well in the 9/10 range.
can’t believe you haven’t finished it yet. It’s not all that BIG. I was actually kinda disappointed in how short it was..
Says something about how boring I found it :)
Wow, that seriously sucks. I was hoping that this would hold up, games are so dissapointing today.
sigh
Guess I need to check out the Hitman games, huh? Oh and not to tit-for-tat with you Michael, but your comment feed links are borked for me.
I am getting this:
/archives/2004/11/25/halo-2//feed/
which returns a 404.
Chris, hah, serves me right after telling you that your feed was broken ;)
Wow, you all hated this game that much? I beat the game on normal in two days and am about half way thorugh on heroic now. As for the ending…did you also hate the Lord of the Rings movies? My guess would be that they might release another level or two via XBox Live downloads for the campaign. Could be interesting. As for the multiplayer…if you don’t play online, you’re missing out on what made the first one so great! I’ve loved this game and will be playing it until the next one is released. To each his own I guess.
I have to agree for the most of what you say.
Halo 2, despite being a decent game, has some SERIOUS shortcomings. I actually got to meet some of the developers and play the game a week before the release and initially I was beyond stoked to play the single player campaign. Most especially, given the praise some of the team was giving to the storyline and the quality of the multiplayer fragfest we got to enjoy for 3 hours.
That being said, I personally think the weapon systems are great, as you say. Vehicles as well. BUT the twist of watching the Arbiter and all that in the beginning was poorly thought out from a player perspective. I actually liked the idea, just not the timing. All I wanted to do at startup was go through the MC “welcome back to basecamp” part and start kicking some ass on that level from E3, and while I felt I was revving up to that, I never really was satiated.
OK, so then players complained about reduntant level design and YET AGAIN, they design a level for the early part of the game, and then redesign/enhance it after the Flood have had their way with it – someone needs to be shot for making this decision. In addition, I absolutely agree with you on the back alleys of Africa – it seems like all shooter games have to make some artistic or blatant reference to Black Hawk Down or the real life events there of. Credit is deserved for that great level where the ship falls from the sky, they could have done some interesting things with that (though I do think the dogfight was particularly fun). The end of that level where we jump through all those cylinders really pissed me off with its repetition (I actually chose sleep over playing the rest of that level – nuff said)
You SHOULD seriously check out the multiplayer component as they did do some very impressive things and the game holds up well.
BUT, let us not forget the INFURIATING ending that juices you up enough, after fighting a hard-ass battle (I’m still trying to pull it off on Legendary, almost there….….…), you get revved up by the MC, saying he’s REALLY ready to bring the fight on… oh, but wait kids, that’s all the time we have today, come back three years from now after we goose you up to drop money on XBOX 2 for Halo 3… grrrrrrrr – it reminded me of that moment you realized you had to wait for Back To The Future 2 or Superman 2 – 3 for that matter, after 2 – 3 years of biting your nails.
Last gripe, I promise – I was all psyched to play a snowmobile Warthog as Bungie had obviously (only) toyed with the idea as they did some renders of a warthog with snowtreads. All on Bungie.com and they seemed to be fairly honest about it as they gave it to EVERY game magazine as fodder for press. Which ultimately is why Gamespot, cognizant or not, gave a good score. ‘They’re good guys, making a great game, and they let us have an inside peak before it came out’ – you don’t bite the hand that feeds. Though, I do doubt that they intentionaly skewed the ratings upwards. Game Informer gave it a 10… ugh.
OK, I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me just tell you that the Master Chief dies at the end.
Just kidding.
If you play computer first person shooters, there is no way you’ll ever like HALO – computer gaming is the best when it comes to first person shooters. I still think Counter-Strike is one of the best first person shooters on the market, needless to say I’m very excited for the new half-life 2 CS Mod.
I was never all that impressed with HALO, but then again I’m a big computer gamer. I use my XBOX strictly for EA SPORTS.
Michael,
A very thorough and thought-provoking review. Your perspective as one in the gaming industry is very interesting.
Halo – never played it. Why? Well, I have two sons, and I could never get close enough to the console to get my hands on it. As well, trying to figure out the look/move coordination with two thumbsticks is ridiculous. After owning our Xbox for over three years, I’ve still not mastered it. I miss the keyboard and mouse combination of moving and looking. My own take on Halo was that my kids loved it, and still do.
The initial shock of spending around CAD$70 for the game has since become a non-issue, as the hours of enjoyment to cost ratio is not even worth calculating.
That said, my guys have been salivating about the release of Halo 2 for months. I entered every context I could find to see if I could win some prizes, the most coveted being a trip to Bungie itself, and wound up winning a copy of the Collector’s Edition.
For my kids, they don’t notice things the same way we “adults” :) do…and I have to say that right now, they have given me every indication that Halo 2 does not disappoint. As grown-ups, I believe that we over-analyze games, and the fact that Halo 2 is as playable as it is, and the fact that I can’t get access to the Xbox to play Colin McRae 04 or NHL Hockey is testament to how my guys are loving the game.
I especially love watching my 8 year-old playing on Xbox Live. The kid is amazing at this game, and consistently 0wnz most of his opponents. So, while I can only really watch Halo and Halo 2 from afar, my jury of two avid gamers spend their Xbox time together having a blast and there is much laughing and shouting and trash-talk going on. In 20 years, when my sons are spending a holiday together with their own families, I know that they will talk about those times together when they enjoyed the current Halo series and how having all that fun was one part of their bonding as brothers.
Making fun and happy memories is ultimately the best review for any game or activity, and so in this respect, I give Halo 2 9.5/10.
CNN Review of Halo 2
Why do they LIE!? You game-heavys’ should send this back to the makers with a note… I’ll leave the text to you but my feelings are; I’ve been cheated out of something billed as “A Masterpiece”. I don’t know where to turn– maybe a few hours of Riven or some more Half-Life 2-ing will sort me out. I’m mad, i’m angry–
I agree that H2 was not up to par – the single player game does not have the intense battles that the first game had. And who wants to play as a ELITE ? I just wanted to kick there butts.
Halo 2 is indeed ridiculously bad for what it’s worth, but bees are pretty cool…
Also, there will be no PC version of Halo 2 for my knowledge. It’s a moot point anyway because I bought the PC port of the original Halo and it barely runs – leading me to think that the back-end code wasn’t optimized at all for a system without shitloads of dedicated graphics hardware. I have a 3.2 GHz P4 with 2GB of RAM and a 128MB Radeon 9800 PRO and I still can’t look at more than five Grunts at a time without dropping below 10 fps.
I get 60 fps in Half-Life 2, btw, which is really the best game ever made :-)
You can’t really “review” this game unless you play it online. Sure I agree the campaign was slightly dissappointin(only because of the lame ending), but once you get this beast online is when you truly experience Halo 2.
I used to stay away from on-line games too, thinking up whatever excuse at the moment worked for the situation i was is.
I was scared, plain and simple.
I’m not saying your scared, I’m saying I was. I didn’t want somebody else to beat me. I wanted to loose in the comfort of my home, with nobody around me to watch.
Besides, most of the games are objective team-based (CTF, Territories, Assault, et cetera), so I can blame them if I lose.
But Halo 2 is fun, and to me that’s all that matters. I get together with a group of people, and have a blast for hours at a time.
If you buy games for the single-player mode it’s a waste of money. How many times can you play the exact same level with the exact same enemies, in the exact same locations.
Yeah, AI has imporved, but AI will never compete with a real-life person.
The GTA series would be my only exception to the rule: Rent Single-Player, Buy Multi-Player.
So, give it a try, it’s why more than around 400,000 fellow Haloers log on each and every 24-hour period.
Oh I’ve played my fair share of multiplayer games. I just don’t have any interest in it.
Well, why not?
as i mentioned to my brother about games this year, and the industry’s history in general:
<rant></rant>It appears that more companies are driving profits with a game that actually has a so-so, if not ‘not bad’, single player mode, made for those people that appreciate that aspect most. But then develop way more the online aspect, because if they do, online gameplay will create a virus of activity really fast, users encouraging their friends to buy the game (login with unique serial usually necessary) thus driving sales of the game right out of the gate.
Then there’s the whole ‘subscribe to the monthly fee of online gaming’ scenario which drives profits monthly.
Then there’s the angle that, if we design our game engine good enough, with perhaps more energy put towards that, we can really even forget about how good our own game is in the end, because we can license the engine to other game developers for even more profit.
I’m not saying that profit is bad. It just seems to be the one angle that upsets all others.