Editor’s Note: Here is the second portion of our week-long inspection of Halo 2: the total Master Chief Collection! Stay tuned for more during the week, as we give our final verdict on the sport.
The effort has ever been closest to my heart, filled with complex characters whose motivations and intentions (and affiliations) are not known until the action-packed last action of the game. Two excellent warriors should forfeit everything by game’s end in order to complete the fight against the Covenant. Better days loom over them just beyond the darkness of space.
Adhering to the blockbuster which was Halo: CE, it had the tricky task of one-upping its own predecessors. Whether you think it did or did not, whether you think Halo 2 is the most crucial entry in Halo canon or a pass, that is irrelevant. 2014 is about celebrating the title, and what a grand reception it’s been thrown.
THE NECESSARY REVIEW STUFF
Truly, I am simply giving you full disclosure here. Let us get the review-y components out of this way before I return to telling you why this match is a masterpiece. Note that Halo 2: Anniversary won’t be getting a numbered score from us. We’ll save this for the full Master Chief Collection review on Friday.
Much like Halo: Anniversary before it, Halo 2: Anniversary is quite decked out — even a graphic update, a completely re-recorded score, and re-done cinematics that perfectly complement the game’s excellent narrative. For all intents and purposes, Halo 2 is still the game you know and love — all the familiar things continue to be there, down to the first controller configuration (which I must confess is a little too dated for me to work with ) — and that’s a fantastic thing.by link halo 2 xbox iso website
Not to say Halo 2 does not reveal its wrinkles occasionally. It does. Not only are the controllers blasphemous to the regular shooting controls, but activity sequences occasionally often move a bit too slowly. Chief doesn’t always react when you want him to and the AI is much worse. Actually, I’d totally forgotten just how bad the AI was back in 2004. Or was it just Halo? They’ll be dead in minutes, and you’re going to be left to fend for yourself pretty much the whole game. But that’s how you like it?
Halo 4 and 3 (particularly the latter) were an upgrade to gameplay than I recalled. Halo 2 occasionally feels stiff. Mobility wasn’t what it is now. I do recall feeling like Chief was overpowered by now that the next episode rolled around. He was more versatile, faster, stronger. Basically untouchable. Beating that game on Heroic was no sweat.
After spending hours using Halo 2: Anniversary, I feel as though maybe today’s console FPS fanbase is overly pampered. The sunrise of Call of Duty did actually streamline enemy AI to the point where it’s all become a shooting gallery. However, the enemies at Halo 2 appear smart, swarming you at just the perfect moments or holding back and choosing me off at long distance. The hierarchy in control is obviously evident during a firefight. Take the Elite and the Grunts shed their heads, running in circles such as loose chicken until you’ve struck them to death. It is more than I can say about Rodriguez and Jenkins around there.
Perhaps today’s lazy enemy AI is a symptom of awful storytelling and world-building. Nevertheless, the early Halo games, particularly the first two, take a whole lot of time creating the Covenant out of hierarchy to civilization to spiritual beliefs — performed so sparingly, in actuality, with cues during gameplay and Cortana’s comment. I understand why Bungie decided to once again utilize an AI companion to feed you little tidbits concerning the enemies at Destiny. Too bad that it does not work also.
Maintaining your way through the devastated Cario roads is ten times more enjoyable than any other world city level in the modern contemporary shooters. The roads are claustrophic and spin and turn as a maze. You will find snipers at every turn, inconveniently placed where they will definitely get a great chance on you. The squads arrive in small packs along with the stealth Elites look like the killing blow when you’re overwhelmed by plasma fire. There is no sitting in cover in these close quarters.
The same could be said of”Sacred Icon,” an Arbiter level that still disturbs the goddamn crap out of me. Every new place, most of which provide bigger spaces to maneuver in compared to Cairo, is overrun by the Flood, who’ll chase you all the way back into the starting point of the degree when it means that they can feast upon your flesh. There are lots of drops in”Sacred Icon” that make you feel as if you’re diving deeper in the flames of Flood-filled Hell. It is done so unbelievably well.
Ah, but that I won’t review the already oft-reviewed. Everything that looked and felt great in 2004 feels and looks much better in 2014. It is a fantastic remaster. There are even a couple added melodies within the new and improved score which provide their own epic minutes. Obviously, I think Halo 2 has among the best video game scores made.
Couple of specialized things: Apart from rigid movement, there is the occasional graphical glitch. Nothing game-breaking, but you can tell the source material has really been pushed into the graphical limit. Driving vehicles is still kind of the worst. There is just something about doing everything with a single joystick that actually irks me. But you get used to it. It is far better than letting Michelle Rodriguez (she is actually in this match as a spunky lady Marine) push, though.
Oh, and the BIG ONE. You will notice that I haven’t even bothered citing the multiplayer element. Even though Halo 2’s great old multiplayer remains my favorite in the pre-mastered series (I expect I just coined this term — does it even make sense?) , the entire multiplayer knowledge in The Master Chief Collection is pretty broken. With this particular write-up, I abstained from attempting to combine a match playlist in the other matches. Attempting to find a game in any of those Halo 2 playlists is a big disappointment. Next, I will try another playlists, but that I do not anticipate any of those matchmaking to get the job done. In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft knows about the matchmaking problem and is trying to fix it. Sit tight.
I’d play a little bit of co-op using a Den of Geek pal, however it took us forever to setup online. Maybe I’ll update this after Halo 2: Anniversary’s multiplayer is up and functioning. But likely not. I will be too busy blowing your head off in Team SWAT.
Yikes, now that you’ve gotten your review, perhaps I can return to discussing why Halo 2 is the best installment in this series.
“WHAT IF YOU MISS?”
“I won’t,” answers the Master Chief, as he prepares to launch herself into space using a giant Covenant bomb. I wonder whether it was with that identical assurance that Bungie plunged ahead into the growth of Halo 2…Just like I stated previously, the developer had to follow to a video game phenomenon. So I’m sure that they were panicking only a little between popping new bottles of smoke. One thing is for sure, Bungie took considerably larger dangers with Halo 2. And that’s commendable in today’s formulaic play-it-safe strategy to first-person shooters.
We won’t get too deep in the history of the growth of Halo 2 (although that’s coming later in the week), however some facts deserve a course: Bungie had much more story and theories than could fit in Halo: CE. Obviously, after earning Microsoft a bazillion dollars, they had the leeway and writer service to have a little more difficult with this sequel.
And that’s how you receive a story of two towns, 1 half of this match starring an ultra good guy fighting for a militaristic society that wants to distribute into the world and another half starring a morally ambigious alien who belongs on suicide missions in the title of some mislead theocratic government. These days, we understand that the two of these societies pretty much suckbut back thenwe had only discovered the tip of the iceberg.
By being able to peek at both sociopolitical surroundings, we’re in a position to actually unfold the world of Halo. We learn the rulers of the Covenant aren’t directed by the gods but by their own desperation. From the start of the second action of this match –“The Arbiter” to”Quarantine Zone” — we understand that the Covenant doesn’t know exactly what the Halo rings are effective at, or instead the Prophets will not show the truth. Things get way grayer as the story progresses. Whether you like it or notbeing in the Arbiter’s shoes allows you to take this step to discovering a living, breathing galaxy on par with the Star Wars universe.
Bungie were daring enough to tell the story of both sides, and it pays off exceptionally well. You could almost say that the true story in Halo 2 is all about the Arbiter and also his trip to recover his honour. A 15-level epic about a single character’s location in his decaying society and that societies place in the universe.
Most of all, it answers the thematic questions posed in the beginning of the match. Does the Covenant have to proceed to the Fantastic Journey? I believe most of us know the response to this by game’s ending. Is your Arbiter a honorable warrior battling for the better? From the time the credits rollup, indeed he is. The Arbiter and his society have shifted. That is the story arc of Halo 2.
I know that many fans of the first game didn’t enjoy the Arbiter plot, preferring the experience feel of this Master Chief portions of this match, and that’s fair. It didn’t help that the Brutes, the faction which could finally topple the based Covenant arrangement, were seriously rushed out through development. A logical one for developers who are used to adapting large concept theopolitical science fiction in their games. I’d dare say that up to this stage, (because Destiny does not really have a lot of story at the present time ) Halo 2 is the biggest leap in storyline Bungie have performed. This is why it takes its position as the best game in the Halo series.
After Halo 2, the subsequent two chief installations (sandwiched in the center is the excellent and daring ODST) were the standard sci-fi shooter fare. Nothing was ever quite like this game again.
