HALO 2: Continue the Carnage

Well.. as November 9th hit, people called in sick from work, students came down with "severe headaches", and Halo 2 hit the streets. I pre-ordered my Limited Edition copy in May and picked it up when I got home from school. I was amazed with the game!!!!! Then I finished it and I was a bit confused. So here starts my review.

Note: If you do not know what Halo is or do not want the Halo 2 story concept revealed, don't read my Campaign section.

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Main Menu
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Well we are introduced to a beautiful menu where you are first required to create an account or player profile. You can adjust your appearance greatly compared to the first Halo. I'll explain this later.

You then have a choice or five. Campaign, XBOX Live, System Link, Split Screen, or Settings.

Campaign is the Halo story (1 player game, unless you are playing 2-player co-op). To start, select the Campaign option, new campaign, and a difficulty (I suggest Normal).

XBOX Live is where you go to start an online HALO 2 session on the XBOX Live online gaming network. Since I do not have Live, I cannot tell you too much about it other than I hear it is totally awesome.

System Link is when you connect two or more XBOX consoles together to play Halo 2. You must select this and then either create your own game or select another XBOX to join their game.

Split Screen is when you are playing with up to four people on one XBOX console. Each player needs a profile for this. I think Split Screen is some good fun. I will explain Multiplayer more later.

Settings is 110% more flexible than in Halo 1. You can alter many things. You can select if you want to play the SPARTAN (Master-Cheif) or an Elite (Covenant). You can then go on to choose your player's body color and emblem. Your emblem distinguishes you to other players in games. You can choose very many including a grunt, a brute, a happy face, and much more (this is a very cool option). You can also choose your controller layout, wether or not you want your voice masked (sounding different) when playing with an XBOX Communicator headset, and much more!

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Campaign
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Well we start with the campaign. We start with two levels that are not really levels. One is a movie and the other is just some configuration for your controller and getting used to the game. I did not like that. One bad thing about the campaign is that levels are short. I think Bungie should have condensed the levels to make them longer. It seems that most MISSIONS are split into two levels.

Anyway.... we are introduced to dual-weilding (two guns at once) and some new enemies in this game (drones, brutes, prophets). The campaign is extremely good and well written. I think that it covers the story really well and puts much action into it while doing so. You get to play two people in this game, Master Cheif and the Arbit--- well I'll let you see for yourself. It is very cool but if you like the Master Cheif, you may not like playing the other character.

The campaign is roughly 20 hours if played straight. I got mine on a Tuesday and finished that Friday (I played after school). This is a good thing because it is long but not too long if you are not used to the game.

The ending to the campaign is a REAL BIG CLIFFHANGER!!! I think that Bungie should have completed it because I like to feel that I completed a whole mission (i.e the ending to Halo: CE). But, I think the ending was good as well. We have to see what will happen!!! :)

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Audio
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The audio in this game is ABSOLUTLEY AWESOME!!!! From the sounds of the ballistic weapons, to the overheated plasma, to the grunts screaming in pain, this game has wonderful audio. I think that Bungie really utilized Xbox's full power for audio on this one. The combat dialog is 10x more in depth and in quanity than the first game. I love some of the sayings of the grunts and the marines :) The quality of the audio is very good as well.

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Soundtrack
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The soundtrack on this one was almost wonderful, just a bit under wonderful. I loved the music but most of it was remixes of the first soundtrack. But, having said that, it is the best music I had ever heard in a video game. It sounds like it should be in a motion picture.

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Video/Graphics/Cinematics
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Well... one word: UNBEATABLE. The graphics that have been utilized for Halo 2 are unbeatable. The color pallets have been expanded, animation has undergone a total revamp from the first game, and it is for the better. I love some of the backgrounds in High Charity (the Covenant homeworld) the purples and whites are breathtaking.

The cinematic detail is alot better too. The cinematics utilize the in-game engine to provide the highest quality. While you watch the cinematic, the next level loads. This can lead to some noticable spikes in the cinematic but nothing too bad. I LOVE THE GRAPHICS!!

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User Interface
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The UI in this game is a bit different from the first game. For starters, the radar is the same but you no longer have a health meter (and no more health packs) you just have a sheild meter. When your sheilds are depleted, find some cover and let them recharge. It happens really fast.

Since you can dual weild weapons, your HUD (Heads Up Display) will change when you have a weapon in your left hand. Your grenade counter on the top left will change to an ammunition counter. Some helpful advice: you may want to not fire both weapons at the exact same time, because if you run out of ammo in both guns, you shooting nothing at your enemy. I think it is an improved UI.

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Multiplayer
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This game has the best multiplayer, bar none. It has so many levels and so many options. When you want to play you have three options: Xbox Live, System Link, and Split Screen.

XBOX LIVE: This is where you can connect to the internet and play Halo 2 with players from around the world. I do not have Live so I cannot really tell you alot about it. One thing I can say is that you have almost too many options when playing on Live. It is a good thing.

System Link: This is where you connect two or more Xbox consoles together via system link cables and hubs. This is fun if you wanna play with more than four people or you wanna have a screen to yourself. Your multiplayer games will accept up to 16 players at a time. You are allowed to system link up to 16 consoles (1 player per xbox). This is pretty cool.

Split Screen: I am guessing that this is the most often type of game used. It allows up to four people to play toegether on one Xbox. You may also access the cooperative play from this menu. Co-op is when two players play together on the same team in the campaign mode. This can be fun. With split screen you can all play together and taunt/congratulate each other in the same room.

ONE NOTE: There is a multiplayer map, Foundation, that was supposed to be hidden until you completed the game. There was a bug, however, that would not allow it to be revealed in some consoles. If you have Live you can download it now as an automatic update. If you do not have live, you are out of luck, for now.

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Conclusion
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This game is extremely good. The graphics, audio, story, multiplayer, and soundtrack are all wonderful. The storyline is excellent, but the levels are short (a sacrifice for having alot of levels).

I think that you must buy this game if you love first person shooters, or the original Halo. I think that if Microsoft would have given the designers more time, the game would have been better in the terms of graphics and bugs. All in all, this game, is the best.. I cannot get enough of it.