Halo 3 better be good.
an online gamer
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AUG
21
2007
Xbox - Halo 2 —
If you are a fan of the first Halo you need to get part 2! The game's story expansion, online features, and new weapons and vehicles upgrades just have to be experienced and even the new multi-player stages have secrets to unlock. Halo 2 isn't perfect but it is still pretty darn close.Halo 2 begins right after the events in last game. The Covenant alien race had just failed in their attempt to wipe out the human colonist thanks to the heroic efforts of the enhanced super soldier simply known as Master Chief. When the Master Chief and his crew return home to earth for a celebration, their worst fears are realized when the Covenant have discovered your home planet and are starting an aggressive invasion. Although the humans are desperately fighting for survival, the Covenant themselves are having their own internal problems and in a cool twist there are missions where you get to play as one of these Elite alien warriors complete with special cloaking abilities.
If you are familiar with the first game then you will feel at home with the 3D first person perspective and the controls. On the surface the game doesn't look or play too different but there are few new notable changes. One big new addition is you can now hold two small weapons at once. The bad news is you can't throw a grenade when you dual wield but you can easily go back to one gun at any time. The game also has many cool new weapons like the awesome Energy Swords and Laser beam guns to play around with too.
The multi-player only games have almost an endless supply of options and features. You can compete in Team fights, Tags, Free for all, Capture the Flag, certain weapons only, vehicles can be edited out or just leave them in, and much much more. You can do several custom made matches across 10 big and small sized maps (plus more if you have the special expansion paks). Of course, if you have a Cable Link and Router then you can hook up 4 TV's and have a massive up to 16 player Halo LAN (Local Area Network) party like in last Halo but now you can even take the war online. For those that have the service you can always find someone to fight and all without having to leave your place (just be careful of all those racist 8 year old girls out there).
Like the original Halo the graphics are downright gorgeous. The characters look better then even with impressive real time lighting effects and the game's bosses and warship have to be seen to believe. Sadly it looks like developers tried to push the game too hard the game feels a bit slower then the first Halo and there are a few texture and pop up issues so it doesn't quite measure up to the visuals in a game like Half Life 2 for the PC. Like the graphics the sounds are incredible. There are a lot of moments where there is no music at all but some cool background music will kick in when something important happens. Also all the characters are voice acted and they don't even sound lame or annoying like Paris Hilton plus all the guns and explosions are realistic as ever.
If for some reason you didn't like the first Halo game then this isn't going to change your mind. Both FPS games are still very similar in design, lots of action, great futurist graphics, and who can forget the vast variety of weapons and vehicles. Of course if you don't love that stuff then there is something wrong with you. Sure, shooting a bunch of alien invaders and traitors is still lots of fun and the added improvements like upgrades to the standard weapons and now destroyable vehicles (like lock-ons, speed boosts and more) were great, but it wasn't quite perfect and some gamers may prefer the original Halo's more simple game play. Still despite a few minor issues here and there, you would still be a fool to miss this highly addictive action sequel.
Halo 2 overall rating: 96/100
For 1 to 16 players
Rated (M) for Mature
graphics: 9/10
sounds: 9/10
gameplay: 9/10
replay: 10/10
-StarSoldier 2007
(Ryan Genno)
Xbox - Halo 2 is recommended by StarSoldier1
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