Retro Review – Halo 2 | Finishing This Fight

<p><em>Halo 2<&sol;em> was something truly wonderful and it remains so even to this day&period; Hype can be a very powerful ally or the beginning of a game&&num;8217&semi;s downfall&period; There are so many games that have fallen to this but the first game that comes to mind is the <em>Fable<&sol;em> series&comma; especially the third entry&period; Games can even still be pretty good and still have shortcomings simply from the hype they generate&period; Some games even have the opposite happen and are still able to exceed all expectations in spite of all the hype&period; <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> is absolutely a prime example of the latter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The original <em>Halo<&sol;em> helped reshape multiplayer and even helped the Xbox survive the doubt that gamers greeted it upon release&period; Its sequel would help Xbox maintain the faith that gamers were now giving it and help Microsoft secure the dominance in the market&period; The PS2 might have been selling better but damn it if Microsoft was giving them hell the entire way and <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> was very much responsible for aiding in this fight&period; The impact it had absolutely cannot be overstated&period; It was everything the first game was but somehow even more&&num;8211&semi;which is everything a sequel should be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Halo 2<&sol;em> helped shape the foundation of <em>Xbox Live<&sol;em> while also bringing gamers to it in droves&period; It did exactly what the original <em>Halo <&sol;em>did for multiplayer gaming and LAN parties but for <em>Xbox Live<&sol;em>&period; It gave people a reason to want to jump online and show off their skills&period; Furthermore&comma; it also contained <em>many<&sol;em> features that went on to become staples of both <em>Xbox Live<&sol;em> and online gaming&period; While these features are now just taken for granted&comma; back then it was just Bungie providing a solid and top-notch online multiplayer experience&period; Online gaming wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t be as great as it is if it weren&&num;8217&semi;t for <em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just like I said&colon; the impact of <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> can not be overstated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116306" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116306" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116306" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;23012808&sol;dual&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Halo 2&comma; Microsoft" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116306" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&comma; Microsoft Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The opening cinematic and intro to <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> let gamers know that they were in for one hell of a ride and that really meant something&period; The original release had already cranked everything up to 20 so it was insane to even suggest that <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> could outdo it&&num;8211&semi;but it did&period; From the moment you&&num;8217&semi;re dual wielding two SMGs and just creating a pile of Covenant bodies&comma; it was clear that this was a special game and that Bungie had no intention of sliding into mediocrity or even getting too comfortable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story of <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> is a wild ride and it&comma; along with outside media&comma; really helped expand the universe and lore of the <em>Halo<&sol;em> storyline&period; The first game had twists and turns and a great story but the sequel helped expand upon all that the first game set up&period; The opening cinematic alone lets everyone know that there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of story to take in and while gamers can skip past it and just shoot all that moves&comma; <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> compels those sort of gamers to give it a chance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Aside from the cliffhanger ending&comma; the story received universal acclaim&period; There was some initial skepticism with controlling the Covenant Elite known as &&num;8220&semi;Arbiter&&num;8221&semi; but after giving it a shot the overall consensus was positive&period; This was brave of Bungie and it really helped add additional depth and more perspective to an already rich and detailed world&period; Getting to see more motivation for the villains and forced to accept their motives while also having to take in a defector helped mature <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> past just the blood and gore that earned it an &&num;8216&semi;M&&num;8217&semi; rating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116307" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116307" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116307" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;23012842&sol;arbiter&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Halo 2&comma; Microsoft" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116307" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&comma; Microsoft Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The cliffhanger ending may have bummed people out at and around its release but just like the masterpiece that is <em>The Empire Strikes Back<&sol;em>&comma; all is forgiven now that the next release is out and more of the story has been told&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t a bad cliffhanger really&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just hard to accept it and to have to wait a few more years for the next game&period; I do still remember holding my controller and being stunned when the credits rolled&period; Now it&&num;8217&semi;s nice being able to just pop in the next disc though and continuing to destroy Covenant forces with a smile on my face&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay is where <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> shines the most&period; Bungie added new enemies&comma; weapons&comma; and features to an already well-rounded game and other developers should take note of how to continue an already awesome series &lpar;&ast;cough&comma; cough&ast; Activision &ast;cough&comma; cough&ast; all of your franchises &ast;cough&ast;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first major change that players were able to experience was the lack of a traditional health bar&period; Some loved it&comma; while others hated it but either way&comma; it was gone&period; Master Chief now just had a shield with regenerating health&period; At the time this did feel a bit odd and definitely wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the norm but now it&&num;8217&semi;s pretty common&period; From <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> to <em>Gears of War<&sol;em> to <em>Mass Effect 3<&sol;em>&comma; more and more games began going in this direction&period; It is nice not having to worry about how much health you have and certainly helps with a checkpoint system&period; Gamers no longer had to worry about the game auto-saving when they&&num;8217&semi;re down to one dot of health and no way to go back and re-do a section without just restarting the entire chapter&period; Another nice thing is it constantly brought skill for the here and now to the forefront of the shootout conversation&period; There was no more just chipping away at players&period; Now is all about a player and another player and constant equal footing on the playing field&period; It may have felt strange at first but all you have to do is look around and utilize the hindsight to know that Bungie&&num;8217&semi;s foresight was absolutely 100&percnt; spot on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116308" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116308" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116308" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;23012924&sol;halo27&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Halo 2&comma; Microsoft" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116308" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&comma; Microsoft Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The level design of <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> was definitely more open and detailed than the original&period; Textures and just level design in general felt even more thought out&period; It was very refreshing and other than a few stand out multiplayer maps from the original&comma; I enjoyed the maps much more on <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> as well&period; The world felt alive and it added that much more weight and gravity to the story and the mission of Master Chief&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s right&semi; finishing the fight was somehow even more badass and compelling because this world just felt that much more worth saving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The multiplayer lives on in the <em>Master Chief <&sol;em><em>Collection<&sol;em> and may I just say that I will forever thank Microsoft for this decision&period; The multiplayer is too detailed&comma; well thought out and fun to have died out&period; You can always grab some original Xbox systems or 360s&comma; and system link too of course should you decide on couch co-op&period; Keeping multiplayer on the couch is always fun but the online multiplayer of <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> was and remains breathtaking&period; The amount of modes&comma; customization&comma; and map design is just amazing&period; Maps helped push players into each other and encouraged player interaction while still inviting strategy with both weapon placement and environmental design&period; There were spots to engage in camping but they were known&comma; obvious and fair&period; You knew someone was perched up there and not only did it take them some time and thought to get up there but it&&num;8217&semi;ll take you an equal amount of time to take them out&period; It was balanced and that kept it feeling fun and fresh&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116309" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116309" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116309" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;23013028&sol;multi&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Halo 2&comma; Microsoft" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116309" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&comma; Microsoft Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Everything has held up so well with <em>Halo 2<&sol;em> and it is absolutely one of my favorite games on the original Xbox and in the <em>Halo<&sol;em> series&period; The original <em>Halo<&sol;em> created the foundation and was an absolute delight to play but the sequel doubled everything&comma; exceeded expectations&comma; and brought a grand sense of scale while also making everything even more compelling and epic as players experienced both the campaign and multiplayer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played this incredible game then you owe it not only to yourself but also to the developer to check it out&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s extremely cheap and runs on Xbox 360 as well&excl; I usually see it for next to nothing at gaming shops and would gladly pay much more than pocket change to simply re-experience all that lies in this beautifully developed game&period; If you want to play the well-made remaster and the rest of the Master Chief&&num;8217&semi;s journey from the Xbox to the Xbox 360 then you can just pick of the <em>Master Chief Collection<&sol;em> on Xbox One&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a bit dearer than most used games but it&&num;8217&semi;s easily worth five times what it&&num;8217&semi;s going for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116310" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116310" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116310" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;23013101&sol;maxresdefault2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Halo 2&comma; Microsoft" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116310" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Halo 2<&sol;em>&comma; Microsoft Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Halo 2<&sol;em> has aged perfectly despite being over a decade old and I absolutely think that it will be talked about and imitated for decades yet to come&period; It truly deserves its place with the great games of their respective times&comma; like <em>Super Mario Bros&period; 3<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Donkey Kong Country<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Crash Bandicoot 2&colon; Cortex Strikes Back<&sol;em> or <em>The Legend of Zelda&colon; Ocarina of Time<&sol;em>&period; It represents some of the best shooting mechanics and level design that you can experience in a first person shooter and yes&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m looking right at you <em>DOOM<&sol;em> and <em>Quake<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;