Halo 2 Receives Low Review Wow, Look At This Guys Review.

[CRABBATTLEOLIOLIOOOO 0]

I don't know how it happened. I really don't. The game that I have been waiting for since the day I beat Halo has come out, and I hate it.
Let me begin by saying that I desperately wanted to like this game. I stood out in the cold for 2 hours for this game. If you had told me that Halo 2 was going to be this bad on Nov. 8th, I would have called you a liar. I would have been wrong.

Let me explain...

Graphics: 8 - At the very least, there's nothing wrong with the graphics. Actually, I'd say that they're pretty good, excellent even. All the shiny new effects and the bump mapping look really keen, and I can dig all the new animations for the characters. Granted there are a few little spots in the movies where textures don't load as fast as they should, but overall this game is visually very sharp.

Sound: 8 - The guns...sound like guns. The alien energy weapons sound like alien energy weapons. All in all everything sound like it ought to. You ask, what is so special about that? I answer: everything! There is no fakeness to the sounds, they sound more lifelike than a lot of video game sounds I've heard recently. The music is also very nice, although a bit of a penalty for the overuse of wailing guitar. To the gentlemen at Bungie: yes, wailing guitars are awesome, no doubt. They are, however, not appropriate for every other level. I'm sure that an alien space warrior doesn't rock out on metal when he's storming a stronghold.

Control: 5 - To set the record straight, I did really like the Halo 1 control scheme. I thought it worked very well. When playing Halo 2, however, I constantly felt like there was something wrong with my controller. It seemed just a little broke. After trying three other controllers I decided that the problem wasn't on my end. Everything just seemed....squirrelly. The melee attack doesn't work for crap now, dual wielding is more of a burden than a blessing, and the chief jumps like a friggin' rabbit. The vehicles also don't seem to control quite right. It seems like to compensate for the overly slippery nature of vehicles on Halo 1 that they made everything too tight. In general the controls left a sour taste in my mouth.

Multiplayer: 3 - Heaven help you if you haven't got Xbox Live. Almost all of the maps are absolutely cavernous. Want something for you and a few friends to have a quick round on like Halo 1's Chill Out? Well that's too bad, because in place of fast-paced action, you get to wander around for what seems like forever to try and find your opponent. Want to play with more than you and your friend, maybe fill out the map a little with some bots? Tough! If you want the luxury of shooting something on Zanzibar at 2AM besides an exploding barrel and you don't have any friends over then you have to pay for Live. Make sense? Without bots you have to buy Live to play a halfway decent multiplayer game. You buy Live, Billy Gates gets richer. You wonder why they decided not to do bots? You could set up a system link game of course, provided you know 16 people with enough equipment and copies of Halo 2 to get things running. From the experience I just had tonight trying that I can tell you that you're better off going to bed early and telling everyone to stay home. Also, co-op is a joke. A sad one. The graphics get bad, already dark levels get get even darker, and even getting a vague idea of whats going on in a dark level with only half a screen is even less fun than having your teeth chipped out with a screwdriver and a claw hammer.

Single Player:1 - Talk about frustrating. Easy is far too easy. I'm talking to the point where I never even had a moment where I thought I might die. The whole game was a cakewalk. Normal, on the other hand, was a major headache. By comparison in Halo 1 easy was easy, but not to the point where it was insulting. Normal was a decent challenge, but by no means undoable. Heroic, where I usually played, was hard and required you to plan ahead (and die a little), but eventually you could figure out what to do. Legendary was just that. Halo 2 skips the gradual progression in favor of "easy enough for kids with no thumbs" mode and the ever so popular "let's label it Normal and make it as obnoxious as possible without making it totally impossible so that they play for hours at a constant state of enragement." At any higher difficulty you'll just become too angered to play and will wither quit or smash your controller through your TV. The whole thing is so bad I just want to cry.

Story: 1 - OH GOD, WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO? After only 9 hours of playing through an obviously slapped together story, I was summarily treated to the most anti-climactic end EVER. Not only was it a horrible anti-climax, it wasn't even the end! It was a lame cliffhanger. I didn't even know the game was over until the credits rolled! I completely expected to start another mission, and BAM! Credits. I was in a state of shock. Not only was it over, it was awful. After all that time playing, begging for the sweet release of a well wrapped up story, all I got was a lame cliffhanger. One of the main reasons I bought the game was to find out what happened after the engrossing story of Halo 1. This is what I get? Heresy! Absolute heresy!

In closing, it has to be an illusion. This can't be the sequel to my beloved Halo. This can't have come from Bungie. It's impossible. This is just a cruel joke played on us by Bill Gates. Shame on you Bill, shame. I've loved everything Bungie did before this, the Marathon series, the Myth series, even Oni was ok. But this, this can't be from them. If it truly is, if this is really what Bungie cranked out as Halo 2, then this is a sad day for us all, for it means the yet another company with talent and fresh creative ideas has burned out and become but a hollow ashy shell of its former self.

He gave it a 4/10..

Notice from BuffaloHELP:

Topic title edited to fit the description. Topic description is always needed.

Edited December 29, 2005 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

[AlphaMei 0]

Personally I can see why some places give halo 2 a bad review and iv seen quite a few sites with the same response. For a start i love halo 2 MULTIPLAYER as its up there with some great fps shooters of its time, but the single player and tweaks to key aspects of the game made it a bit worse then it could have been. Xbox Live really brought this game back to scratch with its ranked multiplayer online etc, and its lan and up to 4 players on one console feature is also a great addition to any fps game. The fact that I completed the story mode in 2 days is why i wasnt to keen on it, and the storyline was far below average compared to its prequel. Now call me a games addict all you like but iv heard of people completing it in 5 hours straight and for a story mode consisting of a tweak on the engine of its prequel and a almost completely identical way of advancing to places (kill group of troops move on, kill group of troops move on etc) is not the kind of 'revolutionary game' people waited 3 years for including me. If you want to see an fps with proper advances and results see the difference between half life 1 and 2 and compare that with the jump made from halo 1 to 2. In comparison there's barely a skip made by halo let alone a jump and that skip is only because of the multiplayer options. And please dont get me started on the weapon tweaks e.g sniper rifle, pistol and battle rifle they messed weapons up quite a bit. Wel theres my input.

[stlgoalie 0]

We used to play 8v8 Halo on Xbox back when I lived in the Dorms a number years ago. It was a blast over the lan. Halo 2 was a good rent, but I thought the story was extremely weak. I remember just after beating it thinking "is that it, wow that was short". Now that I live in the Real World, I don't play multiplayer and plus I own a PS2. Sometimes I trade with a friend for an Xbox just to see the differences in some games. Personally I thought for single player games that Star Wars BattleFront, and now Battlefront II, are a lot more fun to play. Especially in coop on a single box.

[Nerd 0]

I do see how he could give the single play part a bad review but the multiplayer part is fun even if you don't have xbox live. I have lans with my friends all the time and i see no problem with that.

[bucksta 0]

i dont have an xbox but according to what i heard from my whole clan , halo 2 is the best game they ever played. i wanna try out halo 2. that review was just low. i mean who would even think about given the greatest game on xbox a 4/10. i would have proble given it an 8/10 cause shooting games are kinda confusing to me. but thats just insulting.

[AtomikSt0rm 0]

Alot of games are over-rated, just because the prequel was supposedly great doesn't mean the sequel will be. H2 was alright (the storyline was a heck of alot better then H1 ).

[DaRealChrono 0]

I'm a huge Microsoft fan, and a huge Xbox fan. I gotta agree with the guy. Halo 1 is so much better than Halo 2. I like Halo 2, don't get me wrong, but it has something in thier that just screws it all up. Which is the main reason I havn't played it since July. It's dull, and it gets boring very quickly. Hopefully when Halo 3 hits it'll feel and play and seem so much better and keep my intrest.

[gerald_foe 0]

I aggree with the review. story poor, split screen poor, single player poor, weapons not enough of, monster get repetative the online i have never playe but apparantly it is fun so i cnt rate but wud luv to lay it to see wat it is like. for a game with a crap story it shud be a lot more funner like timesplittrs for example. halo 1 is even more repative and boring.

[BD Photography 0]

Personally I can see why some places give halo 2 a bad review and iv seen quite a few sites with the same response. For a start i love halo 2 MULTIPLAYER as its up there with some great fps shooters of its time, but the single player and tweaks to key aspects of the game made it a bit worse then it could have been. Xbox Live really brought this game back to scratch with its ranked multiplayer online etc, and its lan and up to 4 players on one console feature is also a great addition to any fps game. The fact that I completed the story mode in 2 days is why i wasnt to keen on it, and the storyline was far below average compared to its prequel. Now call me a games addict all you like but iv heard of people completing it in 5 hours straight and for a story mode consisting of a tweak on the engine of its prequel and a almost completely identical way of advancing to places (kill group of troops move on, kill group of troops move on etc) is not the kind of 'revolutionary game' people waited 3 years for including me. If you want to see an fps with proper advances and results see the difference between half life 1 and 2 and compare that with the jump made from halo 1 to 2. In comparison there's barely a skip made by halo let alone a jump and that skip is only because of the multiplayer options. And please dont get me started on the weapon tweaks e.g sniper rifle, pistol and battle rifle    they messed weapons up quite a bit. Wel theres my input.

216661[/snapback]

yes exactly. i used to play halo alot. i mean i was up there with many of the pros. and i have to say that i have only played campaign about 2 times for aout 10 minutes each time. one of the times i only palyed it because teh house i was at didnt have live. so i felt like trying out the campaign. to rate this game i really think you have to play it and get good at it to really enjoy it.

[zach101 0]

You know I think at first glance Halo 2 really in all regards is just terrible, a complete let down. Thats at least what I thought. When i bought it (the very day it came out) I was like "wow great halo 1 but you get to hold two guns!!" Yes I was very dissapointed especially after I beat it (the next day) only to find a very short single player and NO ending. Weak indeed... However once I got use to the shield system and got xbox live everything started changing. Because I really must say besides counter strike nothing in my gaming life even comes close to how great halo 2 multiplayer is. It is litterally so much fun and i think have of what makes it so is the ease of it. Match making rocks as well as custom games. Its extremly easy as well as a good interface for the freinds list. Yes i think at first glance its easy to be quick to judge halo 2 but after a few hours on live and becoming use to the shield system you will be very very happy with your purchase.