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Halo 2 Stomps & Hiccups Author: Jeremy C. Wright Wednesday, 10 November 2004, 08:18 GMT While we don’t typically do video game reviews here at eBCVG, it’s hard to get away from the mania that is Halo 2 among the geek and tech crowd. So, I was sent, quite willingly, to have a whirl with the game. This won’t be a long drawn out review, but a quick synopsis of the highs and lows in the first 24 hours since the game’s massive launch. Graphics Halo 2’s graphics are better than the original’s. Most of the time you won’t notice, but when you do, it will take you aback. I nearly fell off a cliff when I realized my sniper rifle had a mini view of what it was seeing while I was walking around. That said, the level design is much, much better than the first. The cut scenes, though, leave a lot to be desired. Everyone I’ve spoken with has reported consistent glitches with the in-game cut scenes. Sad, really, as they are such an integral part of the game. Plot The original Halo saw the Master Chief, an enigmatic superhuman, kill Halo, save humanity and piss off the Flood. The second installment takes a much greater “Covenant-centric” approach. More than half of the cut scenes have to do with the Covenant, and you even play through levels as a Covenant Elite. Interesting? Sure. But after hundreds of hours of hating the Covenant in Halo, it’s difficult to come to grips with being one of them in Halo 2. The plot is definitely more involved than the first, though, and it is still just as well – at least in video game terms – done as the first. Gameplay Halo 2 features several innovative new gameplay features. By far the most fun, in multiplayer anyways, is the ability to hijack vehicles. There are few things more satisfying in life than jumping on the back of your buddy’s massive Covenant tank and whipping him senseless while he screams for mercy. Also included are more weapons, even the Energy Sword used by Covenant Elite in the original Halo, the ability two wield two weapons at once and improvements to many of the vehicles making them all seem powerful in their own way. Level Design Halo’s original levels, particularly multiplayer, were simply okay. The vehicles, weapons and gameplay allowed you to skim over the fact that levels like Blood Gulch, while incredibly fun, were also incredibly 2-dimensional: there simply wasn’t a lot of strategy involved. Halo 2’s levels, particularly multiplayer, are amazing. Many of them are gorgeous but, more than that, most levels have varied terrain, dozens of different vantage points, several focal points… I and a dozen “reviewers” spend nearly two hours on one level alone, and we still kept finding new ways to surprise each other. Multiplayer The multiplayer aspect of Halo was undoubtedly one of its biggest selling points. Halo 2 has taken the concept and expanded it. Bigger, more beautiful levels and full clan support. Halo 2’s Xbox Live enabled multiplayer is, to put it mildly, the best thing to happen to Xbox gaming since, well, the inception of Xbox Live. The potential we all saw in the service is finally here. Sadly, the ability to match up with random players simply wasn’t working during my 5 hour “testing” period; however there were enough friends online to more than make up for it. Conclusion Most Halo players could count on one hand the number of truly engaging sequences in Halo. They defined the game and made you yearn for more, but there simply weren’t enough memorable moments. After 3 hours of multiplayer and 3 hours of single player, roughly a quarter of the game, I can say that there is definitely a greater capacity for memorable moments. Halo 2 is a fantastic game. It could have used some more work on the cut scenes, but Cooperative play is better than ever, Multiplayer is better than ever, gameplay is better than ever, level design is better than ever and the vehicles and weapons are better than ever. I never felt like I was lacking, and I certainly can’t get enough of stomping some of my buddies in my patented kamikaze dive maneuver. |
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Network Security
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