I don't even know where to begin. I never thought I would say this, but I am severely disappointed with Halo 2. I know my score says 8.7, but I was expecting a lot more from this game. As most of you have probably played this game in some way or another by now, I won't go into the great online multiplayer that everyone already knows about. In short, if you own Xbox Live and like shooters.....this is a game for you. It's the best multiplayer shooter out there for the consoles.
Now on to the reason I have a problem with this game. Certain games have a bit of expectation around them. The original Halo was an amazing game and the sequal had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately Halo 2 doesn't live up to those expectations. Let's start with the gameplay. It's pretty much the same as Halo except it has some new weapons, enemies, vehicles, and enviroments. It's obvious Bungie took the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it would have been nice to see some improvments on the original other that just adding some new weapons or whatever. You still walk and fight in way too many anonymous corridors. You fight a lot of the same enemies over and over. It's still fun, because Halo is just a fun game to play. I was just expecting something new.
Then we get to the story. When you first start the single-player campaign, you play as Master Chief and you are helping to fight off a Covenant invasion. Then the game takes quite a twist, but not in the same amazing way the original did when you encounter the Flood for the first time. The twist is that you get to play as a Covenant Arbiter. I kind of liked it at first because it was just neat to play as a different character in Halo. The problem is that you spend over half the game playing as this character. The story mainly focuses around the Covenant government's problems to unite, etc., etc. Like I said, it was a nice change of pace for awhile, but I bought this game to play as Master Chief. Not some Covenant soldier. And the storyline itself just isn't all that interesting. The Flood makes an appearance, but it's just as bland as the rest of the story. To top it off, the game is only around ten hours long AND it has the WORST ending I have seen in a videogame in a long time. I don't mind cliff-hanger endings, but this is terrible. I don't know who designed the one-player game over at Bungie, but they need to take a long walk off a short cliff.
When you beat the game, you get no sense of accomplishment. There is no feeling, "Wow, that game was so cool. I wonder what happens next. I am going to play it again because it was so much fun." I was angered that the game was way too short, the story sucked, the ending was atrocious, I only got to use Master Chief half the time (not that there is much gameplay difference between the two characters), and it's basically the same game I played years ago when I first got my Xbox. I know the online gaming here is great, but the single-player experience blows.
Another disappointing aspect was the graphics. They are nice too look at and are definately not bad. But once again, I was expecting more of an upgrade. I mean this is Halo 2 for crying out loud!!! Once again, the in-game cutscenes could have been so much better. The enviroments are bland and feel repetitive after about an hour of playing. It just didn't have that "wow" factor I was looking for.
One area that was very impressive was the sound. The music is great and all of the effects and voice acting was great. This is one area where I have absolutely no complains and the sound actually 'grabbed' me many times and made me think I am real happy I have a nice sound system to play this game on.
Anyone looking for a great online shooter, you should go grab Halo 2. If you are expecting this game to revolutionize the console first-person shooter like the original did, you are in for a rude awakening. While the single-player campaign is fun to play, if you really look at it for what it is......it's crap. I hope Bungie goes back to the drawing board with the third one and actually makes a game that can appeal to all fans of this franchise. Not just the ones with Xbox Live.
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