100%Xbox

I don't remember how many times I beat this game.

80%PC

Completed on Legendary difficulty for the first time. Not the way it's meant to be played.

90%PC

++Story and halo lore was extra juicy
++Gameplay makes you feel badass
++Play as the Arbiter
++Feels like how a halo game should be

-Has a fair bit of bugs as it was developed in a short amount of time

85%Xbox One

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH

80%PC

Halo as it should be. Just a great shooter. The game looks really crisp. The remaster is really well done. I also like the possibility to switch between the old and new Halo graphics using tab, makes you appreciate the work they put into the remaster even more.

The game also plays really well and gameplay doesn't feel dated to me. The shooter action is very much on point.

One thing I noticed is that the cutscenes are displayed in a weird way when watching with the new graphics, I get a small frame within my screen in which the cutscene is displayed.

Overall a great linear adventure! We should have more games like this these days.

50%PC

Historia 9/10 Lo mejor de todo Halo, excepto su final que es una puta cagada cliffhanger, pero de resto Bastante excelente con la historia del Inquisidor y como se da cuenta de todas las mentiras de los profetas, como alfinal se une con los humanos para dar paso al ultimo juego de la Trilogia original. Aunque lo unico criticable esque convirtieron al Jefe Maestro en simplemente epicidad en vez de tener la personalidad que tenia en Halo CE pero bueno...

Soundtrack 10/10 ES UN PUTO BANGER AUNQUE TENGA TRACKS QUE NO ENCAJEN CON HALO SIGUE SIENDO BUENISIMO Y FIRE AHHH BLOW ME AWAY LO MEJOR

Graficos 5/10 Este juego tenia planeado usar una tecnologia de iluminacion similar al de Doom 3, pero al xbox no soportarlo, no pudieron implementarlo haciendo que el estilo de arte se vea feo y sin baked lighting en los modelos. Se nota esto cuando lo comparas con los trailers y la version que estaba en desarollo que se nota que todos los graficos y estilo de arte estaban planeados con stencil shadows en mente.

Gameplay 2/10 Aqui comienzan todos mis problemas de este juego y la razon de porque le pongo un 5.......

Primero, eres MUY debil en este juego acomparacion de Halo CE y posteriores Halo.
Solo tienes 70 Puntos de escudo y 30 Puntos de salud, combinado hacen 100 puntos de vitalidad en total, a comparacion de Halo CE con 75 puntos de escudo y salud (150 en total), y Halo 3/posteriores con 70 Puntos de escudo y 45 Puntos de salud (115 en total).

Segundo, los enemigos te hacen mierda demasiadas veces y aguantan demasiado en Heroico y ni hablar de Legendario que por lo que he oido es HORRIBLE. Si con mi experiencia en heroico es Horrible, con Legendario es mucho peor....
Y Facil/Normal hacen el juego demasiado aburrido aunque bueno, por lo menos aguantas mas........

Tercero, El diseño de niveles es simplemente inferior a comparación de Halo CE
Halo 2 Tiene casi nada de campo abierto, haciendo que las secciones de vehiculos sean excasas y demasiado limitadas a comparacion del primer juego cosa que es triste y supongo que se debio a limitaciones de la xbox + falta de tiempo.
Por suerte, en este juego no se repiten pasillos ni niveles como en el primer juego pero lamentablemente hace que ciertas secciones sean infumables cuando presentan de nuevo al flood que simplemente, es una experiencia de morir bastante....

Cuarto, El sandbox esta nerfeadisimo.
Este es el primer juego que veo que tiene una pistola sencillamente casi inutilizable a excepcion de headshots.
Se que en todos los juegos la pistola se vuelve inutil despues de conseguir mas armas, pero aqui nisiquiera tiene oportunidad de brillar como lo hacia en el primer juego.
Como te dan la SMG y Battle Rifle apenas empezar, simplemente queda inutil la pistola y lo unico para que lo ocuparas es el dual wielding con una pistola de plasma......

La SMG? Bueno viable en dificultades faciles y normal, pero simplemente de nuevo, se queda inutil apartir de Heroico... Incluso para un grunt en Heroico no los mata casi nada....

El arma de plasma? Bueno sigue cumpliendo un papel importante a la hora de sacarle los escudos a los Elites, pero ya no tiene el daño que tenia el primer juego, una lastima...

La escopeta? Similar a la de Doom 3, Una bazofia que ni se le acerca a la escopeta que era en Halo CE
Apenas tiene rango de disparo, Un poco menos de municion, Mas lenta animacion de recarga y simplemente casi inutil en los niveles de flood.
Por suerte si te acercas demasiado a alguien con ella si puede ser medianamente efectiva, pero no tanto como lo era en el primer juego.

Otras como el sniper, plasma gun, rocket y needler, se mantuvieron igual o hasta mejoraron el caso del Needler haciendo que sean compenentes en vez de completamente inutiles y el Rocket que ahora tiene un sistema de Lock-on.

Mientras que las nuevas armas que agrega son buenas... Si se quedan media atras
La espada de energia, Mientras que util en bastantes casos si un enemigo te agarra a melee o no lo matas a tiempo, cagaste ya te mato.
El battle rifle, bueno es simplemente la pistola de Halo CE convertida a un rifle que dispara rafagas de 3 y tiene mas magnetismo de balas, hace el trabajo
Beam rifle, simplemente una copia covenant del sniper humano.
Sentinel Beam, Eficiente contra flood y enemigos pero igual te hacen mierda.......
Carbine, una copia con menos precision del Battle rifle, solo existe para que tengas una arma de precision efectiva en los niveles del Inquisidor X D
Brute shot, Util pero la verdad solo aparece en casi alfinal del juego, cuando introducen los brutes.

En fin, si no fuera por estas cosas que explique del gameplay, y lo absurdamente desbalanceado que esta, pues simplemente si le pondria una puntacion alta.

Lamentablemente, soy a una persona que le importa mucho el gameplay de los juegos, asique si no es disfrutable o muy frustrante para un juego que no se supone que sea frustrante simplemente, me hace bajarle bastante la puntuacion.

(ojala este juego tenga remake)

75%PC

Adds variety playing as other characters. Maps are fun but sometimes get lost.

90%PC

8.7/10

90%Xbox One

An incredible shooter that was tons of fun to play. Has a bit of a surprisingly abrupt ending though. Playing as the Arbiter is an awesome change of pace as well. An absolute classic FPS.

Score: 90

100%Xbox

This game is awesome and still holds up today. From its great pacing throughout the levels to its solid gunplay that bungie does so well. The big flood level as arbiter goes for a little bit long and really that's my only downside to this excellent campaign. It was worth the wait from One to Two. Fixed my CRT during this play through as it was too dark in some missions, so I turned it down to Normal from Heroic whilst that was an issue. Anytime the scarab was on screen, I was blown away that this was possible in 2004

100%Xbox One

Gameplay 3/3 really well refined combat with great variety of weapons and enemy types
Story 3/3 it does end in bit of a weird way. Kind of feels like having played through halo 3 that this is 2/3 of the story and halo 3 is the last 3rd. Overall really great story
Visuals 2/2 great style great enemy design and character design great variety of locations and creatures
Audio 2/2 great music and voice acting

Reccomend completing, not 100%

85%Xbox

Halo 2 is the sequel we needed, and really builds on the already good mechanics and designs of the original! The story goes much deeper as you are now seeing perspectives of the enemy. Very amazing game!

90%Xbox Series X/S

9/10

50%Xbox Series X/S

Meh. Quite a letdown after CE.

Pros:
+ I played Anniversary edition. And it has two great advantages: the cutscenes are great and the level actually look better in the remaster (in CE I preferred the original mode)
+ The opening level is great. Both visually and gameplay wise.
+ The soundtrack is epic. As in any Halo game, I assume.

Cons:
- An awful encounter design. There are too many enemies in small spaces. So in the second half of the game I preferred to run away instead of fighting enemies. And that's not a great review for a shooter game.
- I didn't like Arbiter mission. They don't make the plot that much better (it's very similar to CE). But he's weaker then Master Chief and his stealth is lame.

90%Xbox

Great story with great gameplay improvements. It just was hype all around.

5%PC

bad graphics, boring gameplay

100%Xbox One

This was my first time playing the anniversary version of the game, but Halo 2 is one of my favorite games of all time.

90%PC

that cliff hanger ending tho

85%PC

Muito bom o jogo, diferenciado, não achei a perfeição dos jogos, mas ainda sim é muito bom!

90%Xbox

Amazing couch co-op shooter from my childhood. Amazing level design and cheesy humour. Not overall keen on the multiplayer however.

80%Xbox 360

Halo 2 in my opinion is far better than Halo 1. Dual wielding, shield only instead of health and shield, non-repetitive missions and amazing cinematics all make up an incredible game. Even if so, I liked the ending to Halo 1 far more than Halo 2.

70%PC

time estimate

80%Xbox 360

Great game.

90%PC

Heroic

80%PC

the most frustrating campaign i've played on a hard difficulty. A blast.

90%PC

I only played the campaign because I don't give a shit about multiplayer so this review is for the campaign only.

Fantastic game and a worthy follow up to Combat Evolved. I really enjoyed the story and the characters, especially now that the villains were more fleshed out and you get to see their side of the story as well. My only complaint was the game ended on a cliffhanger, as I'm never a fan of those; I felt like things could have been wrapped up a bit better before the post credits scene, which is where I prefer the obvious sequel baiting stuff to happen. However, the gameplay is still very fun and there are new weapons to use and new enemies to fight. Plus, you can dual wield now and it's a jolly good time. I really enjoyed the level design as well, though this game is much harder than the previous one, even on normal. Plus, the game is absolutely gorgeous for when it came out, and still holds up to this day for me, and the music is fantastic as always.

With all of that being said, I don't think this game is as good as Combat Evolved. This is mainly because this game lacks a lot of the polish that that one had. I had quite a few random deaths, like getting crushed in between walls for no reason or exiting a scorpion and going flying to my death. Also, what's up with all of the dead body and broken vehicle physics? They randomly fly all over the place for no reason, especially ghosts, which made me waste bullets on them because I wasn't sure if I shot them enough. Plus, something's up with the sound design because it's pretty hard to hear Cortana's voice during gameplay.

However, aside from these gripes, the game as a whole was still a blast to play through and I highly recommend checking it out for those that enjoyed the first :)

70%Xbox

Playing through in co-op, got most of the way but we haven't picked it up again since. Of what we have played it was ok, but man the original xbox version is scuffed in co-op. The lighting barely works and texture pop-in is everywhere, thankfully more entertaining than intrusive.

Finished it solo 8 months later, very fun, very challenging but lord has it aged. 40 fov is no joke man, and neither are any levels with flood in it.

80%Xbox 360

Loved the story so much. gameplay hit the spot as well
the fukin arbitor shit tho hrnnng

40%PC

Honestly, I've never understood people who say that this is the best game of the whole saga. Having completed it 3 times already (1 of them on Legendary), I only realize that this game has one of the worst campaigns of all. I remember how much I hated this game the first time I played it, I found it a mediocre game in every aspect, but having replayed it more times, I've noticed a lot of other things I didn't see before, and I feel like my opinion has changed a lot since then. Overall it's an inferior game to Combat Evolved and Halo 3, perhaps on a similar level to Halo 4, and I think it's a really special game to me, as it's the only one I have a love/hate relationship with.

The game is neither good nor bad, just a rushed game in development. Bungie's team used to be small most of the time they spent making video games, but this time they were much bigger than they used to be. So when they split up, everything got messed up with the disorganized structure of the H2 developers. The multiplayer team worked very well and communicated constantly in creation. But the single player team was split up on every level and didn't talk to each other until the time came. When they had to put it all together, the result was a catastrophe. Bungie quickly scrapped much of the single-player mode and started over from scratch. The campaign present in Halo 2 was built in a matter of months at breakneck speed, and what did we get? A half-baked game, like much of its story. It has very cool and engaging missions, like Delta Halo or Cairo Station, and others that I would rather not exist, like Gravemind. Are there illogical and pointless things? Of course, it's full of things like that, a clear example of them is when the Gravemind uses teleportation at will only when the script requires it, and it's something they never explain well, they never define the limit of his power, and when he catches John and the Inquisitor, why the hell didn't he teleport the master chief directly to Truth's side, so he could instantly kill Truth? Of course, if you think about it that way there would be no game, and no ending. But it's something that could have been perfectly justified, but was never done. Now probably more than one will try to defend Gravemind, saying that in such a book, comic or magazine his powers are explained or stuff like that. And that's something a bit pathetic, it's directly something that doesn't come out in the game, so you have to resort to transmedia storytelling, to justify all the existing gaps. A similar case happens in Halo CE with Cortana and her teleportations, except that here from the beginning she tells John that these have a limit and that she would always try to leave him as close as possible to the target she could leave him.

Now back to the story, I don't like the campaign, being the Arbiter during the middle of the campaign was a big mistake, as it disrupted the focus of all the drama. When you are constantly switching between the point of view, it takes away all the excitement and motivation one has. It's also one thing that doesn't fit at all, and it honestly doesn't enter my head that the Master Chief is reduced to a background character than a main one, and it's a shame that the final mission is starring the Arbiter instead of the Chief. If they had at least put the Arbiter's campaign as a separate DLC, the whole thing would have been a hell of a lot better. The only thing I like about the game is its amazing multiplayer, and the gameplay. If for a moment you forget about the crappy story, and pretend it doesn't exist, the experience is much better, it feels really nice and pretty to kill grunts with the improved graphics engine that was implemented, which in turn introduced much better physics than CE. I really enjoy these little things. As for the rest, the sound is fine as always, but the BSO is not as good as CE and 3. The graphics are really meh in some aspects, they could have been better, but they are definitely not bad.

Halo 2's campaign was a horrible disappointment and is the worst in the franchise. The only way to make it enjoyable is with a chill out session, leaving all the shitty story and its context behind. It's also a lesson for anyone making a sequel: never end with a cliffhanger if the rest of the game sucked.

70%PC

I can imagine Halo2 being a good game in 2004. I mean, it has lots of features that were special for the time – but it has not aged particularly well. Then again, they do have the master chief collection that I haven't played – and maybe some of the wrongs are corrected there.

Let's start with the good stuff: The game feature a good range of weapons from machine guns to sniper rifles in both human and alien form. It also has an effective melee weapon that can be used in close-quarters fights. Some enemies are more vulnerable to one weapon compared to another so gaining that knowledge can prove useful in the more challenging levels. Vehicles range from ground- moving to alien aircrafts – there are a few of them to take control of, each with a slightly different control scheme that makes moving them about a more varied experience.

Level design is also good, with environments moving in and out of structures to immersive outdoor areas. There is a nice circular design to some of the levels which mean that after engaging in a skirmish, you are not always sure if you are looking forward or backtracking.

The game has not aged gracefully, and the graphics do look their age. AI is not bad, but I have seen better AI in more modern games. Enemies seem to come in waves – it almost reminded me of "hard reset" but with a fewer enemies and easier combat. In many areas, it felt like a bullet fest rather than meaningful fighting, and the environment combined with enemy AI, does not leave much place for strategy in combat.

The worse bit of the game is its confused b-movie sci-fi story, which tries to expand and explain events in the previous game. It’s a mess about a race called the Covenant who tried to activate a large installation called Halo, believing it will bring salvation to its people, not realizing that Halo is a weapon created by an ancient civilization called the Forerunners. The Forerunner created Halo as a doomsday weapon in case a parasite race called the Flood endanger the universe, and its activation will eliminate all sentient life, including the Covenant, Humans and the Flood. The Master Chief (player character) knows this from the first Halo game and tries to prevent it, befriending in the process the Covenant elite. Add to that politics and religion and it sounds poor – because even with the decent production values – it is poor. I do like sci-fi – this is just not a great example of it.

Don't get me wrong – this was an enjoyable interlude, and probably one of the best around in the early 2000s, but it just does not have the same wow factor today.

90%PC

The remaster of this game is fucking exceptional. Almost everything is perfected, sounds great, looks great, and the new music is perfect. Cutscenes by blur are a godsend.
They make the relationship between cortana and chief way more interesting, sgt. johnson is a joy of a character. This feels like what people say about half life 2 but actually true. HL1 is far superior of course
Halo 2 is halo refined. The arbiter story line might be one of my favourite things. It's so well done, with so much taste. The new terminals add so much texture to the story, finding out who Thel 'Vadam is, is a great moment too.
Shame for the last boss, really ruined tho whole thing right at the end. Cliffhanger is dope now that you van just jump into 3, god it must've felt like shit back then tho.

90%Xbox

this was a really awesome game had a couple of promblems because of the mudiness of games of that era also when your character is in the dark even with the torch it can sometimes get confusing.Also the level desgn was a bit confusing sometimes and i would get lost.The gunplay was freaking awesome.Highy recommended.

70%PC

Better than halo CE, with the introduction of dual wielding and more weapons but one of the hardest Halo games to beat on legendary. It was fun but challenging as all hell. Took my forever to solo it. Shout out to the BR + Energy Pistol Noob combo for carrying me the whole game.

80%Xbox One

Even though we all thought with the launch of the original Xbox in 2001 that Halo had arrived and established itself as the forefront console FPS franchise, we were wrong. Of course, it had no competition; but at the time we had no idea how much better the game was going to get. For many of us those LAN parties with multiple TVs and Xboxes felt like the pinnacle of gaming It was truly a next generation experience. It would get better.

Then Halo 2 arrived three years later, and with it came Xbox Live. I remember devoting hundreds of hours to that online experience; it got me through the last years of high school and the first years of university when I needed to take mental breaks from studying or from writing papers. And it was this online experience that got me hooked and kept me hooked for the next generation of games too - Xbox Live, and Halo Multiplayer became a staple of my gaming experience. It was the same for all of my friends. Truly, this was one of the defining shifts in gameplay that came with the Xbox.

Which is interesting, because I never really put much time or effort into understanding or following the story of the series at all, and so it was all pretty much entirely forgotten. Of course, I diligently played each campaign thinking that failing to do so was going to be a great disservice to the money spent buying the games - but starting with Halo 2 the series was all about the multiplayer for me. Campaigns were an add-on that didn't deserve much of my attention. Hence my current playthrough of all of the campaigns; and hence my level of surprise and shock with this one.

Last month I finished Halo 1 and Halo Reach. To keep it simple, Halo 1's campaign is not great despite pulling well above its weight and helping put the series on a very strong foundational track. Halo Reach's campaign is great from a gameplay perspective, and it has some hard-hitting moments in the story, but it really truly shines in the gameplay and level design. Halo 2 mixes both exceptional gameplay and strong level design with a plenty-good-enough story that is told quite well. And the remade version that is available in the Halo Master Chief Collection is beautiful to look at and play, and with stunningly beautiful cut scenes.

But something that was missing from both Halo and Halo Reach really comes into its own in Halo 2; we see something of the Other Side, and, in great sci-fi story-telling tradition, it helps reveal more about our own species than about others. I can't remember what is done with this story moving forward from this point, but getting some perspective on the Covenant is a refreshing approach to exploring an enemy in video games; watching their empire begin to collapse due to corruption felt like it was insightfully done and explored. This is particularly true when you add in the story-expanding terminals that are sprinkled throughout the anniversary edition (when I found these during my playthrough I was always excited to see what more of the understory I would learn). And, honestly, I like the cliffhanger ending with Cortana and the Chief; I'm enjoying the ongoing uncertainty of the Oracle and their motivations with the Reclaimers, the Prophets and their ongoing Journey.

It helps, of course, that the gameplay is damn near perfect. Dual wielding is an exceptional addition to the game, and sword-wielding to felt exciting and powerful. The Flood continue to pose a challenge, and the arrival of the Brutes (I didn't think this happened until Halo 2) as a new challenge adds an extra layer of strategy and challenge; the new bugs, sadly, just add an annoyance. Nonetheless, it says something about Halo 1 and more about Halo 2 that each and every enemy type comes with its own particular weapon weaknesses that, given the limited number of weapons that can be carried, helps convert a meat-grinding genre into something more like a sandbox first person strategy shooter. Especially in the higher difficulties.

And the level design is very nearly stellar. Admittedly, I think I enjoyed some aspects of the level design in Reach more, but this game came out 6 years earlier and already fixed many of the core issues of Halo 1's map design. Not all of the most egregious issues that popped up there are resolved here - there is still enough copy-pasting and reusing of design assets to feel like filler - but the correction is enough for it to feel like a minor issue rather than a major concern. Moreover, the world (at least in the remake) feels like it is architectural in a way that Halo 1's design limitations never allowed it to. The elevator level, for example, while far from the best in the game, gives the inside world of the ring movement, grandness of design and space. Aside from some poorly placed loading points that can become confusing during co-op play, the level and encounter design here moves from strength to strength.

Which is something that could be said of the game as a whole: strength to strength.

70%Xbox

[ review in progress.. | playtime : 7h54 ]

Les Elites parlent ?!
Cortana à une meilleure tête et les animations faciale sont meilleures.
On peut s'équiper de deux armes à feu en même temps pour plus de fun.
Le jeu est trop sombre et c'est impossible de voir les ennemis venir..
The gunplay is less fun and you jump way higher..
The Master Chief is more badass with more dialogue and cutscenes.
Les voix VF sont de bien meilleur qualités aussi.
Meelee damage is reduced alot !! Bro I used to punch everything to death 😅.
I prefer UI of the first game (mostly for the placement of the shield energy)
Vehicles gameplay is better, also enemies can now use them and hijack your own.
Sniper is very encouraged in this game.
Maps are way more open compared to Halo CE.
You can take or give weapons to allies IA.
There quite a bit of new vehicles.
Hijacking an enemy vehicle and turning the situation upside down is pretty cool.
The flashlight keeps shutting down.
On peut utiliser le sabre Covenants !
The pacing if the game is very good for now.
We see a lot more of the story from the covenant side, we also play as one.
Il y a beaucoup trop de moment où il faut juste attendre à un endroit sagement et survivre au vagues ennemies.. c'est nul.
Les lumières sont trop puissantes et les ombres trop prononcées.. c'est horrible parfois...
Beaucoup de moments où le jeu ramme du cul.. mais c'est peut-être l'émulation.
J'ai changé les paramètres de l'écran en 480p normal (pas wide screen).. et les soucis de niveaux trop sombres sont résolu, l'expérience de jeu est bien meilleur comme ça..
Ok le jeu et les environnements sont plus beau, spacieux et plus unique que dans Halo CE.
La musique est toujours solide.
Le pacing du jeu est plutôt bon, l'alternance de personnages est plutôt bienvenu.
Autant avec Halo CE ils posaient à peine les bases de l'histoire, autant avec Halo 2 ils approfondissent vraiment beaucoup le lore, et j'aime ça.
La fin nous laisse un peu sur notre faim.. mais le cliffhanger enrichis toujours plus le lore.

90%Xbox 360

Jugablemente una auténtica maravilla, para la época. Ahora, repetitivo a nivel Halo, alargando pasillos y haciéndote pasar por ellos para ir y para volver varias veces. Pero como shooter, original, con estilo propio.

60%Xbox

The story was very engaging, I really enjoyed switch perspectives between the Master Chief and the Arbiter. The new shield system feels much more fragile than the first game so some parts of the game felt much slower paced. Dual wielding added a lot of depth and strategy to fire fights and encouraged me to try out new weapons.

90%PC

8.8

70%PC

Chef

90%Xbox

My personal favorite Halo Game

100%Xbox

Halo 2 baybeeee

80%PC

After playing through the first game and finding it mostly just okay rather than mind-blowingly amazing like everyone else, I decided to see if the second game was any better. That said, if you love this game and expect to read a gush-fest, look elsewhere, because I can't say I'm any more sold on it than I was before.

Halo 2 is definitely an improvement on presentation. The cut scenes are much more cinematic and the story goes in all sorts of directions (I'll admit I had trouble following it though; it requires a lot of focus to know what's going on), and the levels themselves are a lot more varied and elaborate. The main gameplay remains primarily unchanged from the original though. The biggest additions are a few new weapons and the ability to dual-wield.

The dual-wielding definitely comes in handy when you are swarmed with enemies, but most of the time I stuck to holding only one weapon. I did find a lot of the new weapons quite useful, and the greater level variety helped me feel a little more engaged; the first game had a lot of environment reuse and the second half of the game was basically just the first half backwards, both of which have been alleviated here.

One other neat touch is that you swap between the human forces and the Covenant in this game, so you play both sides of the story. That does mean you have two major plot threads to follow, but it was a neat concept that I thought was pulled off pretty well. Master Chief and the Arbiter play identically to each other so it's not like you're going to face major gameplay differences or anything, but I still welcomed it regardless.

That said, I still found the game monotonous in a lot of places. There were a number of areas in the game where you just had to camp in a room and kill the endless swarm of enemies until the game advances. Some particularly bad offenders were a really long elevator section and two cases where you rode a gondola to a building with little else going on. They also did a number of reusing the same room types throughout to pad the levels out.

That said, I did enjoy some parts of it. I like the one section near the end where you guard the giant mech while piloting a banshee. I also liked the greater variety in levels compared to the first game. The new weapons also were generally fun to use.

All in all, I mostly just found this game okay, but not my favorite FPS game. Maybe it was just because I didn't follow the story that well, but I just didn't see what others saw in it. I dunno, maybe you'll feel different from me.

100%Xbox

Even better than the first, an absolute masterpiece

100%Xbox

While I’m certainly biased and gave Halo CE and 3 a 10/10 as well, I believe Halo 2 is no exception to this immaculate trilogy. While I believe it certainly still has flaws, Halo 2 improved on the first in every way maybe save for level design. It is easily the best written game in the series, with a genuinely great story and some of the most memorable lines and scenes in gaming history. The voice acting, dialogue, and story telling are second to none, especially for its time. In addition to this fantastic campaign, this game pioneered the FPS multiplayer experience. Lobbies, playlists, customization (albeit minimal), and really several things we consider standard came from this game. It improved on the original’s multiplayer in every way, maybe besides the BXR glitch and other exploits. All in all, a legendary game with a legendary soundtrack from Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

80%PC

GREAT

80%Xbox

84

80%Xbox

I recently played through the Anniversary Edition of the Halo CE and my biggest complaint there was the repetitve and copy&paste leve design. Luckely this has been fixed with Halo 2 (I played the original, emulated on Xbox 360). As a game that is nearly 16 years old now, it of course has aged in a lot of aspects. The vehicle controls are still sub optimal and some of the weapons still feel underpowered. Sadly, the shotgun was nerfed to the point I wouldn't even bother using it, while it was kind of my main weapon at Halo CE. The dual wield mechanics are a nice edition, but suffer a bit from the fact, that you automaticle drop of of your weapons when switching to your other loadout. Also I whis they would have made it possible to pick up ammo from energy based guns instead of having to replace the whole gun.

Regarding the story I enjoyed getting more depth on the background of the Covenant aliens and the internal conflicts in their alliance. I even liked playing the Arbiter more than the Master Chief.

On Xbox 360 there where sadly a few graphical glitches that where most anoying in the more dark parts of the game, has some random transparent textures ended up from time to time on the HUD layer of the screen.

If I had played it in the context of the initial release time, I would have surely rated it 90%. As some of it's gameplay mechanics and the overall pacing can not compete with more recent games, I'd give it a 75%. I heard the Anniversary Edition for the Xbox One is very good, so that may be a good alternative to playing the original.

70%Xbox

Not as good as the original I believe. It’s the same great gameplay that has been extremely tightened. Halo games just evoke the badass in inside you like no other game. The story is also really well done, I like how it tries to take on the covenant perspective. What makes it worse than the original is the environments. They’re too narrow and indoors. The second level of CE feels like such a wide open space. No level in Halo 2 achieves the sense of wonder and mystery as any level in the first. There’s something special about CE that’s just missing in this one. It’s still a really good game. I can tell Bungie put a lot of love into this game, and they went through hell to give it to us.

100%Xbox One

I am shocked by how 343 was able to make a masterpiece even better with the MCC. Well done!

50%PC

(Review of SP only)

I can't believe how disappointing that was.

I loved the first halo, but this was nothing like it. It had none of the charm, the aesthetics, the sounds, even the music and story were lacking. Oh my god, lets start with the sounds. The voice acting for every character except Master Chief, Johnson, and the Arbiter were awful. Every time someone communicated to you by any kind of communication link, it was either garbled or quiet as hell! What were they thinking? I could barely understand when half the characters in the game spoke to me. It completely took my immersion out because it became noise on top of noise. Seriously, what happened there? Halo 1 had crisp clear voices. Theres no excuse for that.

To clarify, I don't care if a game's story/sound/music is not to my liking as long as the gameplay is good. It wasn't.

None of the guns felt satisfying to shoot. The shotgun was my favorite in halo 1 and they completely gutted it in 2. I couldn't find a replacement gun that felt just as good. Dual wielding felt gimmicky and I never used it up till the last levels, when you get the brute guns. That was the only time it felt actually good. And can I just say the sounds of the guns were awful?? None of them sounded as good as the guns in Halo 1 did, EXCEPT for the plasma blade or whatever it's called that the elites use.

The enemies were bullet sponges, brutes especially. They were so god damn unsatisfying to kill. Three pointblank shotgun blasts cant kill them, you have to use alot of ammunition on them for them to die. It actually becomes easier to just run past them and into the next area, because you achieve nothing by killing them.

Missions were pointless and alot of them felt like filler. I'm not even kidding when I'm saying half the missions are to just wait in a certain spot while a couple enemies spawn and then you move on. I remember standing in a giant lab elevator where 2 flood spawned and then you wait 3 minutes for the next wave. I thought I was doing something wrong so I started looking around, thinking there was a puzzle I had to solve. Nope, you just wait until the animation of the lab elevator finishes pulling out canisters or something. It has to do this 4 times.

Some missions are just ride a vehicle from point A to point B. Again, this is not a bad thing considering it's a FPS, but it just felt like nothing. Just point and shoot your big tank gun at objects and hopefully not get blown to bits in a matter of seconds.

Speaking of vehicles, there are times when you get the chance to hijack enemy vehicles. This is the clunkiest thing I've ever encountered. The animation of master chief or arbiter punching the vehicle looks ridiculous. I get that this is the xbox era, but, come on. Shadow of the Colossus had amazing animations when it comes to clinging to objects and that came out in 2005. Ignoring the animation, you literally have to press the melee button 30 times before the elite in, lets say a Wraith, dies. It's stupid.

I was relieved it was over when I hit the end of the game. I was just about to give up on it. By the way, that story ending is not satisfying at all, nothing happens!

To sum up, Halo 2 felt more like a tech demo than anything, I guess testing their capabilities as programmers? I mean this was an exciting era of physics based games, so it's bunch of ideas that were new to the industry. But Half Life 2 had alot of the same ideas and actually did well with them.

Here's hoping Halo 3 is better.