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Halo 2 is a first person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. The sequel to the blockbuster and critically acclaimed Combat Evolved, Halo 2 features a newly built game engine and the Havok physics engine, new bitchin' weapons and kcikass vehicles, new, cool multiplayer maps, and a really gay storyline that continues the story begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. Released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004, Halo 2 and its predecessor are both compatible with the Xbox 360, including its Xbox Live functionality. From the day of its initial release, Halo 2 has been the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360. Halo and Halo 2 are some of the most played games for the Xbox console. On June 20, 2006, Xbox.com reported that more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live since its debut. The same article also reported that 7.4 million units of Halo 2 have been sold worldwide.
The game will also be available for the Windows Vista operating system sometime in the near future.
History
One note regarding the release of Halo 2 was an estimated one million dollar Alternate Reality Game project titled I Love Bees. For those who are not familiar with the "ARG" premise: a story is put forth on web pages and other media devices. Players are invited into a part of the story they might not otherwise see.
On the morning of October 14, a leak of the French version of the game was posted on the Internet, and circulated widely. Microsoft, the parent company of Bungie Studios, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version. The leak failed to have a significant effect on Halo 2 sales.
The first official release of Halo 2 was in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for the game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered. This was followed by releases on November 10 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Dead Man's Chest as highest grossing release in entertainment history. As of November 9 2005, exactly a year after its release, Halo 2 had sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. Some observers saw this as another milestone in the emerging dominance of the video game industry. Halo 2 won "Game of the Year 2004" at GPhoria, among other awards (Best Boss Battle, etc.), including different award shows. Most people say that its campaign mode is not as good as the one in the first game, but the multiplayer is said to be a bit better.
Since Halo 2 was a successful killer app for the Xbox and its Live online service, Microsoft took advantage of Halo 2 to ban modded Xboxes from the network when they tried to log on for online gaming.
On February 9, 2006, Bungie Studios announced that Halo 2 would be released exclusively for the Windows Vista operating system. The game is to be ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios who will work closely with Bungie Studios.
Plot
Halo 2 opens with Master Chief receiving an award aboard Cairo Station, a MAC gun platform orbiting Earth, alongside Miranda Keyes. Miranda is the daughter of Captain Keyes, who died during the course of Combat Evolved, and Miranda is accepting a posthumous award for her father's bravery. This ceremony is juxtaposed with the judgment and torture of the former Elite admiral of the Covenant fleet Particular Justice, who is being punished for his incompetence. Both events are in response to the destruction of Halo during the events of Combat Evolved. Master Chief is awarded for his bravery and sacrifice, and the unnamed Covenant admiral is being tortured for his inability to prevent the destruction of Halo. It is also revealed that the Covenant's interest in Halo lies in the belief that the activation of Halo would bring about the "Great Journey", which would cleanse the universe of lesser lifeforms (including the Flood) while providing salvation for the Covenant.
The action begins following the Master Chief's ceremony. A Covenant fleet jumps out of slipspace near Earth and sends boarding parties towards a battlecluster of stations. These boarding parties are secretly carrying explosives designed to take out the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) guns. Master Chief finds and disarms a bomb located on Cairo Station with the help of Cortana, while the flagship of the Covenant fleet speeds past Earth's defenses and heads toward Earth itself. Master Chief and Cortana join the UNSC ship In Amber Clad, which is en route to New Mombasa to deal with the Covenant flagship. In Amber Clad is carrying Staff Sargeant Johnson, and is piloted by Miranda Keyes.
Before reaching New Mombasa, Cortana decodes transmissions revealing that the flagship carries the High Prophet of Regret. The UNSC successfully repels the Covenant invasion force with the help of Master Chief, and the Covenant ship begins preparations for a slipspace jump to an unknown destination. In Amber Clad follows, and discovers a second Halo installation dubbed "Delta Halo". The crew of In Amber Clad learn more about the Covenant's belief regarding the Halos, and Master Chief ultimately slays the High Prophet of Regret while attempting to prevent the activation of Delta Halo.
The action switches to the condemned Covenant fleet commander assuming the role of the Arbiter. His first mission is to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, in turn starting the Arbiter along a path which ultimately results in Arbiter doubting his own beliefs. Seeds of discord are further sown within the Covenant when the Prophets decide to grant the Brutes control of the military instead of the traditionally favored Elites. During his missions, The Arbiter realizes the danger that the rings represent: they are weapons designed to cleanse the galaxy of all life, not the religious artifacts the Covenant believes them to be.
The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood from Delta Halo. A mysterious Flood creature called the Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief in separate directions to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo. Master Chief finds himself aboard the Covenant Holy City High Charity, a gargantuan space station, and pursues the remaining Prophets. During Chief's mission, he finds himself in the middle of an erupting Covenant civil war between Brutes and Elites. After capturing the In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by the Gravemind, arrive at the city and begin to consume and infect the populace. The only remaining High Prophet, Truth, escapes on a Forerunner vessel hidden in the core of High Charity. The Master Chief manages to stow away on board while Cortana stays behind in order to detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors to destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating Halo.
The game comes to a close with The Arbiter's missions as he is aided by a group of Elites as well as surviving members of In Amber Clad's crew. Together, they pursue and kill Tartarus and his Brutes on Delta Halo. Tartarus, however, has already succeeded in inserting the Index, making Delta Halo fully operational. Miranda Keyes manages to snatch the Index out of Delta Halo's control panel, thus halting the firing sequence. Despite this success, Delta Halo's deactivation sends a signal out to the other Halos, sending them all into a "standby" mode so they can be remotely detonated from the Ark. Meanwhile, the Forerunner ship that Master Chief has stowed away on approaches Earth. One of Earth's remaining orbital forces contacts him and asks what he is doing aboard the Forerunner ship. He replies, "Sir, finishing this fight," ending the game on an abrupt cliffhanger, and setting the tone for Halo 3.
After the game credits finish rolling, a scene appears in which Cortana and Gravemind are conversing. This is meant as a further teaser for Halo 3.
Gameplay
Campaign
The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. When playing in this mode the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels require the player to alternate between the roles of Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy identical but diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline the Arbiter differs from Master Chief 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 gets shot.In Campaign mode there are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. An increase in difficulty will result in:
- An increase in the amount, 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 damage and shields
Legendary has been described as "suicide" by the game developers. However, the game can be made harder by use of the various skulls. Once the Mythic Skull is picked up, for example, enemy shields, damage, accuracy, and health all rise dramatically. Other skulls modify certain features, such as removing the HUD (and thus removing the targeting reticule) or increasing the number of grenades enemies throw.
Multiplayer
Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via the Xbox Live online service, in addition to the original's support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer. Halo 2In Halo 2, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players select "playlists" that are geared to different styles of play. For example, the "Rumble Pit" playlist offers a variety of "every man for himself" game types, primarily Slayer or variations thereof; "Team Skirmish" offers a number of 4-on-4 team games, which are primarily objective-based games like Capture the Flag; "Big Team Battle" is similar to Team Skirmish but allows teams of up to 8 players. Other playlists allow matches between different clans. Bungie updates these playlists every once in a while, deleting the unpopular gametypes and adding new ones. The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have chosen each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host (being the host is generally a desirable position to be in, as the host experiences no latency. If the Xbox console hosting the game drops out, the Xbox Live service automatically selects a new host from among the remaining players so the game can continue.
Players can create small parties with their friends and enter games together as teammates in Team based games. Players may still choose to set up games for their own party to their own specification, and invite others into that game from their Friends and Clan lists, however these games are not made publicly available.
Bungie.net records every single statistic that is displayed on-screen in the end-of-game "Postgame Carnage Report". Anyone can visit Bungie.net and look at any Xbox Live player's stats. If a player logs in with a Microsoft Passport, they can also access the "Gameviewer". This presents an image of the level that was played from the player's choice various angles, superimposed with a summary of the crucial game events. For example: for each kill, the attacker and target's locations and the attacker's weapon are displayed, and the paths taken by flags in Capture the Flag games are shown. Bungie keeps the stats for each game for 7 days, before purging them to save space. The stats are also used as evidence when banning suspected cheating players (see "Xbox Live updates").
Vehicles
Halo 2 offers a larger array of vehicles to choose from, and advanced maneuvering abilities, such as boarding (hijacking) a vehicle and boosting (Covenant vehicles only), features that were not offered in Combat Evolved.
Powerups
There are two types of powerups available in Halo 2 Multiplayer.- Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which gives the user three times the strength of a normal shield. The overshield adds a strong glowing effect to the user, which can give his position away more clearly. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield – when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In addition, when an overshield is picked up, the player is invulnerable until it finishes charging, which takes a second or two. In multiplayer Halo 2, the overshield gradually depletes over time, can be used as a default shield that recharges and can be completely taken out along with the normal shield with a charged up plasma pistol shot. The overshield is no longer present in the campaign mode of Halo 2. However, the Black Eye Skull will enable the player to charge his/her shield into the overshield range. In certain Multiplayer gametypes, one or more players start with a regenerating overshield.
- Active Camouflage: Essentially a device used for stealth by The Covenant, active camouflage drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him invisible and producing a lensing effect as they walk. This effect (which is almost identical to that of the alien armor in the Predator movies) is reduced if the player is hit by weapon fire, or if he fires a weapon. The stealth camouflage also removes the auto aim players usually receive when targeting an enemy because the reticule will not turn red if held over someone with the camoflage active. Weapons such as the Sword, Plasma Rifle, and Plasma Pistol can give someone with cloak away because of the glow each produces. Curiously, the glow from the Needler and Beam Rifle do not shine through the cloak. The ability to use active camouflage is included in the Arbiter's part of the campaign, although its effect only lasts a few seconds, and the user can be given away if he fires, but not if he performs a melee attack (unless he hits an enemy). Since the AI technically does not rely on sight to locate targets (because they are bots and don't technically see at all) the glow from the plasma rifle, plasma pistol, or even the sword will not give the player away. The power-up is not available in the Halo 2 campaign as it was in the first; it is only given to the Arbiter to use as the Master Chief uses his flashlight. The Envy skull, only accessible on the Legendary difficulty, gives Master Chief access to the built-in generator, and has the same duration as arbiter's would on legendary difficulty. During multiplayer, active camouflage is acquired as it is in the first game, and is located often at a relatively hidden or remote location on the map. Anything that requires a red reticle to function properly, such as the tracking ability of the needler and plasma pistol, and the lunge ability of the energy sword will not function against an invisible target.
Gametype Settings: In some gametypes, the overshield and/or active camo are always active on one or all of the players, and if disabled, will recharge over time. One common mistake for new players is to mix the overshield and the active camo; the overshield creates a faint halo around the player, rendering the active camouflage useless.
Main characters
- Master Chief Spartan-117 John
- Cortana
- Sergeant Major A.J. Johnson
- Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes
- Arbiter, former Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice
- High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret
- Brute Chieftain Tartarus
- 2401 Penitent Tangent
- 343 Guilty Spark (Oracle)
- Spec-Ops Commander "Half-Jaw"
- Gravemind
- Heretic Leader
Music
The Halo 2 soundtrack was mostly composed by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, the team that had also composed the music of Halo. Steve Vai provided guitar backing for many tracks, including the album's signature piece Halo Theme- MJOLNIR Mix, which also serves as the theme song for Halo 2. Additional tracks included various outside musicians, including Joe Satriani, Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank, who are all featured on the official soundtrack, and to a certain extent, in the game.
The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume Two was released on April 25, 2006 and features Incubus with special guest appearances by Kirk Johnson and Steve Vai.
Additional content
Xbox Live updates
A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play has been the widespread cheating which occurred almost immediately upon the game's release. Users exploited bugs in the game and vulnerabilities of the network to win ranked games and thus increase their matchmaking rank. In response to these complaints, Bungie released an automatic update for Halo 2 (a mandatory patch) on Monday, April 18th, 2005, which fixed many of the various bugs and cheats in the game, slimmed down split-screen HUD information, and rebalanced various weapons to promote use of single-wield weapons, grenades, and melee attacks. For example, the melee attacks and grenades are now far more powerful. The battle rifle is now more accurate. A full list of changes can be seen here. This brings Halo 2 up to Version 1.1.Halo 2 also supports downloadable content, with Bungie making various new multiplayer maps available. Four maps were made available to download on Monday, April 25th, 2005. They are now all completely free. On the 5th, 5 new maps were made available for free on Xbox live. The Map Pack disk (below) was also released on that date. For further information on the map packs and their contents, see the list of downloadable maps.
Another update was added in July, 2005 (a week or so after the release of the map pack). The update added a detection tool that would automatically detect and ban 'modders' using modified content on their Xboxes. Modified versions of the downloadable maps would allow people to use cheats such as 'autoaim' and 'automatic reload' during matches on Xbox Live. Any players who are detected using modified content would be automatically banned from Matchmaking on Xbox Live. The update also fixes a teleporter glitch on the map, . The players who use 'modded' content to have an unfair advantage over other players now resort to using 2-month free trial accounts to cheat on Xbox Live. Many players hold their rank (or level) in high regard, and these people will give 'modders' 2-month free trial cards so their rank can be 'boosted' up from winning unfairly. Playing with 'modders' can get one kicked off the Xbox Live service.
In June 2006, an additional online matchmaking update was released. This update removed the Clan Match, 6v6, and Big Team Battle playlists, as well as made other changes within existing playlists. New additions to the matchmaking playlist included Big Team Skirmish and Big Team Slayer, which are objective only and slayer only playlists, respectively, and Team SWAT (Unranked matches in which shields are disabled, and non-default starting weapons are used.)
Inevitably some cheats and exploits remain. As users typically aim to increase their matchmaking rank by using these, some users avoid these by not entering games with particularly high-level players.
Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack
The Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack is an expansion pack for the video game Halo 2, intended to make Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players. The disk contains the game's automatic update, all nine new multiplayer maps, a documentary about the making of the maps, and a cinematic called "Another Day on the Beach", amongst other features. It was released on July 5, 2005. At release, it cost £15 in the UK and $19.99 in the U.S., available at par in Canada. It contains 9 levels: , , , , , , , , and .Information on the new maps can be found .
The new multiplayer content can be used on Xbox Live, System Link and Split-Screen modes.
Five of the new maps (, , , , ) were released online through Xbox Live's downloadable content service on July 5, the same day as the map pack. The other four maps (, , , ) were released earlier that year. All of the multiplayer maps are now available as free & mandatory downloads on Xbox Live.
The disc also includes a documentary about the making of the new maps and a short bonus movie.
Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition
The Limited Collector's Edition features the regular edition, but some extras include many promotional offers, an in-depth game manual with a special cover and a special DVD of the making of Halo 2.See also the contents of Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition.
Criticism
Despite the critical and financial success of Halo 2, there continues to be heated debate as to whether the title is superior or inferior to its predecessor, Halo: Combat Evolved. Arguments are mainly directed at the multiplayer aspect of the game, and include claims that the game's learning curve has been simplified too drastically, and that there may be deep-rooted problems within the game's online matchmaking modes via Xbox Live.
The game's Campaign mode has also received some criticism, including dissatisfaction with the abrupt, cliffhanger ending that sets gamers up for Halo 3.Halo 2 Review on GameSpot.com Some players were also dissatisfied with the inclusion of a second playable character, the Arbiter, because they felt it drew away focus from the series' main character, Master Chief, and demystified the Covenant species, removing their originally menacing appearance.
There is also some criticism of the game's on-the-fly rendering technique, which can sometimes result in textures or models being loaded into a cutscene in full sight of the player (or less frequently, during gameplay, though these incidents tend to be less obvious). Bungie has stated that this issue has been fixed for Halo 3. Additionally, this "texture popping" problem is noticeable to a much lesser extent while Halo 2 is being run on an Xbox 360.
It should be noted that much of the criticism of Halo 2 's multiplayer is voiced by competitive online gamers, and that, despite the criticism, Halo 2 continues to be the most-played game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360. * .
Awards
2005 Spacey Awards
- Favourite Video Game
- Favorite Game of the Year
- Favorite Xbox Game
- Favorite Shooter Game
- Excellence in Audio
- Game Innovation Spotlights (I Love Bees)
- Best Console Game of E3 2004
- Best Console Game
- Best Action Game
- Best Online Multiplayer Game
- Best Console Game
- Best Visuals of E3 2004
- Best Xbox Game of E3 2004
- Best Shooter of E3 2004
- Best Game of E3 2004 Nominee
- Best Multiplayer/Online Game of 2004
- Best Shooter of 2004
- Game of the Year 2004
- Best Shooter
- Best Multiplayer Game
- Best Sound Design
- Best Original Soundtrack
- Best Male Performance (David Cross)
- Best Boss (Scarab Battle)
- Game of the Year
Xbox Nation Magazine
- Game of the Year
- Best Xbox Live Play
Future developments
Halo 2 is being ported by Microsoft Game Studios, with the help of Bungie, to Windows Vista. On February 9, 2006, it was announced that Halo 2 PC would be in stores before the end of 2006, but this now seems unlikely due to the push of the Windows Vista launch into 2007. There will be a map editor included that will be made by Microsoft (in cooperation with Bungie Studios). The extent of the map editor's capabilities have not yet been made available.
Halo 2 for Windows Vista may also link with the Xbox Live network, as Microsoft is currently working in ways of achieving this. However, Bungie has stated that it will have networking features of its own, resembling Halo PC's inclusion of free Internet for mega capabilities. It should be noted however, that Xbox Halo 2 players will not be able to play with or against players using the Windows Vista version of Halo 2.
In Popular Culture
- In the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "You're Pitiful" (Parody of the James Blunt song You're Beautiful) he says "You're half undressed, eating chips off your chest, while you're playing Halo 2. No one's classier than you"
See also
- Combat Evolved
- Halo (video game series)
- Haunted Apiary
- List of Halo 2 changes
- List of multiplayer gametypes in Halo 2
- List of multiplayer maps in Halo 2
- List of vehicles in Halo 2
- Halo 2 Original Soundtrack
- Red vs Blue
- The Codex Series
- Halo 3
References
External links
Official Websites
- Bungie's Official Halo 2 site
- Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 site
- Halo.Bungie.org, Halo news and associated productions
- Halo:Main Page
- H2Wiki
Reviews
Halo 2 | 2004 computer and video games | Microsoft games | Xbox games | First-person shooters | Futuristic games | Windows games | Science fiction computer and video games | Computer and video games with special editions | Computer and video games featuring cooperative gameplay
"Halo 2"