Horrible.....not nearly as good as the original and probably should have stayed on the shelf...yuck.

An FPS that does not withstand the test of time.

Sloppy port that keeps the floaty and sluggish feal of the xbox version (im sure it works fine on the xbox controler) totaly substandard for a vista game and the the xbox live thing is just a joke, if i can im gonna stear clear of all xbox live games for the pc.

I found it to be repetitive and not as compelling as the first one. There were a lot of things they could have done differently, and for starters, not making it Vista exclusive since it doesn't even require DX10 as was initially stated. I feel it's too little too late, as there are many better shooters out there to choose from. It sells on the Halo name alone imho.

Perhaps if this game had been released a decade ago, this would actually be worth playing. Yet, considering the plethora of fantastic PC FPS already availible, Halo 2 (and Halo 1 for that matter) fail to distinguish itself from the pack. From the singleplayer to the mutliplayer, the Halo series is the definition of the word 'over-rated'.

What a waste of money. The controls are screwy and frustrating. The graphics are really crap. Storyline is pathetic. It forces you to use Vista. The whole MS Live is just retarted. Its not worth the money, the time or the headache. I think i might try and return mine. Its just sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. I would suggest AVOIDING THIS GAME AND ANY OTHER MS LIVE XBOX360 REMAKES... ie Gears of War... Nothing but crap..… Expand

Now my review is going to be based on when this was released and not what it is compared to the games of "now".

Halo 2 was one of those games for me that I was addicted to; the totally immersing story, the enemies the vehicles and most certainly Master Chief.

Granted the graphics were not a good on the Xbox version but on the the PC version they were improved immensely. I have very fond memories of Halo 2, very fond memories indeed that probably set me onto my current gaming life.… Expand

Sluggish controls causing lag in movement ruined it for me.

Awful. one thing to come from this is that i wont be linking my PC the the Microsoft live server. the single player element of this is just awful. to complete this game all you need to do is either spam the enemy with grenades and bullets or to just race to the next checkpoint. this game is a poor port of an old first generation xbox game . there is nothing here that shouts " hey im an exclusive Vista game" as it dont show of the DX10 features and the microsoft live is a real joke , i cant belive microsoft are trying to get PC gamers to link up with the exspencive Xbox live servers. the graphics on this game are just shamefull and you would think that this being a next generation vista game it would beat half life 2 graphics hands down , but its no different from the original halo game exsept that that it plays worse than the original, im sure there will be some hardcore halo players that are looking foward to this game and will love to diss this review but the truth is that this is a poor mans conversion of a consol game, and to prove this is a straight conversion they still ask the player at certain points in the game to press either the A or B buttons.. . BTW i see that CRYSIS has some very serious crashing and compatability issues with Vista so look out for a review on that in the near future.… Expand

Nothing redeeming here, it was better on Xbox, forces Vista w/o D3D10, odd mouse controls, and nothing new aside from a rare texture. It still looks like a 3 year old game and is charging $50 for an old title. Don't bother. PCG said it well: Too little, too late.

We simply should be able to have server access like Halo PC and the play should feel the same. We should be able to use more profile names too without have to buy more gamertags. It cost 800 ($10) points to change a gamertag on a gold account. Greedy bastards!

Halo 2 is about the least reliable game I have encountered in recent years. I have been unable to get it to run for more than 2-3 minutes, and judging by all the comments I see on the various boards, I am not alone. This game was released too soon and is not solid at all. Right now, I feel that I have wasted my money.

Commercial product made for forcing us to buy Vista, the game play is bad, gfx are hugly........ CSS is better.

I kind of liked the first one, but this one completely ruined the game with its bad controls and I was dissapointed by the graphics. Also, why is this game so popular? It sucks!

Horrible port, horrible graphics, horrible requirements, horrible singleplayer, horrible multiplayer, horrible engine, horrible AI and horrible controls do not make a good FPS in 2007, especially on PC.

This game is solid with a few minor setbacks. The game was fun with a pretty good story... well... besides the end but i don't want to give spoilers. But the thing that has made halo what it is the multiplayer. It is so much fun and i just can't get enough. Too bad the servers have shut down though so if you are reading this review now, i wouldn't get this game because all you will have is the single player which is alright but not worth it because the multiplayer does not exist anymore.… Expand

Terrible gameplay, awful bland copy/paste level design, terrible graphics and laughably bad story. Even if you're a huge fan of the first Halo stay well away from this train wreck.

Not really sure why so many people are giving so many bad reviews. The PC Version graphics were crisp and enjoyed the new gameplay which included jacking vehicles and exchanging weapons. The storyline and you playing the covenant at first Was a turn off but was interested in their side of the story. Not perfect controls but added enough to make it a great sequel.

(I just selected any rating by the way) Just like to point out that PC Gamer UK gave Halo 2 on the PC an incredibly high 66%, citing its problems as being A) Generic gameplay B) Poor graphics C) Lack of notable changes from previous game D) Windows Live! restrictions E) Poor console translation (Xbox controls can be found on the screen instead of keyboard controls) F) Vista only despite not being DX10-worthy
G) No 'emergent gameplay'
H) And probably a severe feeling of disappointment… Collapse

A terrible, sloppy port that manages to be worse than the original. Completely un-optomized for the PC platform (framerate problems galore, even on a 7800gtx), with broken mouse/keyboard controls that are no more accurate than using a gamepad. Spend your money on something else, don't make the same mistake I did.

I actually bought the game and i played all the way through the campaign i'm not really into the multiplayer, also i don't really see why people expected more, yeah it would of been nice to see it in DX10 and all but even if they did that im sure alot of people would still bash it and say why did they make it in DX10 it is a game that is 4 yrs old, what a waste i guess you can't make everybody happy.… Expand

The first Halo introduced a couple of good new ideas to the genre. It was, as console shooters go, among the best. But compared to even average PC shooters, it's nothing to be proud of. Now we've got Halo 2 which is about half as long and its major feature was that you could shoot two guns at the same time! Woohoo! Oh wait, that's been around since the first shooter games, for instance Descent, which was a competitor to the original Doom from about 15 years ago! Halo 2, to begin with, was average at best for a console shooter. Then they "port" it without actually porting anything - they think you're actually going to push A and B on your keyboard for the menus! Weapons are still designed to be shot in the general vicinity of the square kilometer where your enemy is located and yield a kill shot. The sounds is average, the enemies look like something out of a kid's show, the controls are horrible, the physics are bad, and the graphics... oh let's not even touch that with a ten foot pole. And they actually think you're going to not only pay full price for this disaster, but also upgrade to Vista for it? Do you want one of my arms too, Microsoft?

In conclusion, play through Half-Life 1 again. Heck, play Unreal, Jedi Knight, FEAR, uh, Pac Man... you'll find more original ideas in any of the above than you'll find in Halo 2, and you might actually have fun instead of feeling like you wish you were at the dentist getting teeth pulled by a blind co-op student.… Expand

Great best-selling gameplay formulae that havent changed abit since its first release. Improved graphics, decent but not as good as some of our 2006 and 07 previous ones. The exciting and epic storyline havent changed. New online features for live and map making are what really catches my eye. Summarizing this, Halo 2 vista is just an improved version of the best selling game, even though it lacks some of the graphics of our new ones. Get this game if you barely/never played it and still enjoys the game play formula. Do not get this game if you played it to death on xbox, and is a big stickler on graphic and new titles. -just telling you guys the new fps games realesed for 2007 are mediocre, there is only 2-3 out and the fps realeased in 2006 have similar graphics to halo2 and most games' gameplay and online multiplayer wont match up with this bestseller.… Expand

Halo 2 Vista is definitely a great port of a great Xbox game. Though Games for Windows LIVE could work much smoother like its Xbox counterpart, it still offers many important and useful features. The graphics are improved massively, especially when running higher than 720HD (1280x720). The game plays very smooth, but does not include any of the major fixes the xbox does. Because of this there are still many problems that need to be worked out. Though the release date was very grey (esp. w/ delays) and there are some quicks with GFW Live, the game is still extremely fun and well worth playing.… Expand

Good multiplayer, but otherwise average or underperforming game in light of 2006/2007 games available for PC. Halo 2 looks shocking low-res and enemy AI is plain stupid (don't confuse aggressive with smart). Graphics are way underwhelming and single player relatively bland and uninteresting. It's hard to understand why Vista is mandatory (no DX10, poor DX9).

Terrible controls but I still like it... and I'm hoping for a patch! I'm not into multiplayer or fancy graphics but atmosphere and gameplay!

As I read down the comments, I find that complete idiots are posting, including the "I find that xbox 360 players have an unfair advantage". This would be true, if the game actually had the capability to play with xbox 360's.... If you want good graphics, go to a different game, the game is as lackluster and repetitive in the campaign mode as Halo 2 Xbox was (gee, seeing that this is a direct port, that shouldn't be surprising). Multiplayer is what makes halo. It always has, and always will. Rating it on its campaign is like saying you bought CS:S just to play against the bots, or Unreal expecting some sort of story line. I would also like to point out that it includes a map editor... which is quite powerful if you know how to use it. Bottom line, if you like halo 2 xbox, and have a gaming PC, its a definite buy. The control scheme is actually quite pleasant,. I personally was wondering what they would use for dual wield, and I think the 'q' key is an excellent choice. The reviewers are also missing another feature... you can play it straight from your dvd drive, no installation is required.… Expand

Graphics are much crisper than the xbox version (which used horrible streaming) and the online play (and new achievemnet system) is much smoother faster and just generaly better. The single player is still one of the worst of any game ever made. The graphics and textures on the level design looks exceptionaly dated next to the much more detailed modles of the MC and the in game arcitecture is rather uninspiring. This is a very solid title held back by microsofts decision to make it vista only and to wait over 5 years to port to PC. This would have been a good title if only so much time hadn't passed that the game started to look and feel dated. Gameplay elements are very solid, quite possibly better than the original. To the user that stated he was getting lag and the user who was getting crashes, I had no such problems, but then again I have a brand new top of the line mechine.… Expand

WOW! When this came out it had straight 100s. Yet I HATED it. Still do. I LOVE Halo, the best game ever, I play it all the time and love everything (except the boring Library level). I hated Halo 2 it ruined everything about Halo 1 - the weapons were horrid and too numerous, the weapons had lost their sheen and power and were now like toys, the graphics were small and ugly, the levels were diabolical - the first level is messy, dull, confusing and pointless. The clambouring over the big gun just sums up the ghastliness of it all. This was the only game I have pre-ordered. I got the special edition tin too. And from the first minute I thought it was ****. I am trying to replay it now but all the time I think "I hate this". Everytime I play Halo? I think "I LOVE THIS!". The second most over-rated game of all time second only to ... Gears of War which is total garbage. Bad mushy graphics, bad AI, bad weapons, no atmosphere, a pathetic non-story, no character and enemies that are the same as your colleagues. Eugh.… Expand

Not much better or worse than the first one. Better graphics (except for all the glitches) but worse story and gameplay. Mostly a waste of time. This should have killed the developement of the Halo franchise.

It's all been said before. An average shooter, poor single player, decent multiplayer ruined by Live, awful PC translation, well below average graphics. It's four years old, and it really shows. I'm only here because a ridiculous 10/10 score on the BBC ceefax page filled me with righteous rage. That guy is an absolute tool. It's a decent, out of date 5 out of 10 game. No more. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go wait for Half Life 2 Episode.2 to welcome me back to gaming in 2007.… Expand

Sloppy. Three years too late.

Good, but it's a little old. Still has it's great story, music, and Multiplayer though. Acheivements make it worth playing again.

Good game as always. Graphics are much much sharper than the original and of course the resolution is as well but still seems... 2004ish... Feels a little odd with keyboard and mouse but you get used to it quickly. The Bad: performance:appearance ratio (if your system can't bite the bullet) Windows Live (lame, I'm a PC gamer I don't pay for online gaming unless its a goddamn mmo)

Awesome game, but...the controlling is hard and it's very laggy.

My favorite Halo game of all time. It introduced dual-wielding and showed the true power of the Xbox at the time. The story is second best to Halo CE. But in this Halo you go through the story of Master Chief and the Arbiter. Very good game, a must play for Halo fans. Sadly, Microsoft has recently cut off the Online to all Xbox Originals so no online on this one. But my only complaint is the extremely hard difficulty that Legendary offers, very unfair, very punishing, and NOT recommended. Overall, good story and fun game-play, check it out ;D.… Expand

How does this game get an average score of 5.0? I had it for the xbox and i could not find an xbox review. It had a great campaign and a great multiplayer. Yes it did have a bad ending but it had a great story with the elites getting involved. Multiplayer was extremely fun with tons of maps and game modes. Maybe not as good as the first game but i give it a 9.1

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. halo 2 for the president… Expand

I don't understand the negative comments of this game or ports of other games that come out later. On the Xbox, this game had 20 Games of the Year awards. This port comes with all the features of the the Xbox version, plus achivements, exclusive multiplayer maps, a customization mode like an advanced form of Forge, the use of the Xbox 360 controller to play it, and currenlty the only way to play the Halo 2 multiplayer experience. Sure it doesn't meet current PC FPS standards, but it's not supposed to. It's for nostalgia sake and it's a little unfair to put one of the best selling games of all time to the standards it was not originally supposed to meet. The game is a classic game that deserves a little more respect.… Expand

Halo 2 has now made it's way to the PC. It is Halo 2, just like it was on the Xbox (with a few improvements), and although this is not a bad thing, it would have been a much more successful release if they had upgraded the graphics significantly more, even though they aren't terrible, they could be better. Still, the intense multiplayer and singleplayer can be a blast, and although a lot of people report bugs in the game, I have actually found more on the Xbox version. The game still has a decent sized multiplayer community, and you can always find a game to enjoy.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I must confess to being very dissapointed with Halo when I finally got it on Xbox all those years ago. It was an xbox exclusive, a game that had originally been planned for PC release and was going to be a large open world game where as the masterchief you roamed the Halo hooking up with ragtag bands of marines and took the fight to covenant while trying to uncover the secrets of the halo, no 2 playthroughs would play the same if you made different decisions and they even hinted at allowing "drop in" co-op in the early interviews.

What we got was fairly much that story but on rails and towards the third quarter of the game it was quite repetitive. Sure it had all the beauty we knew to expect from the early videos but the single player was just... ok. Co-op was great fun 2 plyayer on xbox and if not for that I probably never would have completed the game on the console.

Then halo 2 arrived and it started off very cool, it let you play as the MasterChief to begin with fighting the covenant on earth in some very memorable battles. Then you got to play as the fallen Arbiter on the Covenant side which was also cool.

**SPOILER AHEAD**

Here the game took a turn for the worse, back in the master chiefs shoes you are transported to another halo like the first one... ugh. It was at this point in H2 on xbox that I stopped playing, recalling how horribly repetitive the areas in the later halo game had been. Being that I do not like the concept of paying my ISP and then paying for Xboxlive service I never took either game online.

Since then Halo 1 came to PC and was since upgraded to Halo CE or the Halo Custom Edition which is a lot of fun, the fact that the CE allows custom maps and mods (theres even a halo 2 weapon mod and the community is still active with new maps) has kept it alive far past where I though it would exist and the Vs gameplay with vehicles is actually a lot of fun.

Eventually Halo2 also appeared on PC but only for Vista users. I bought it a year or two back for about $10 in the clearance bin at JB Hifi alongside copies of Shadowrun (that other Vista only games for windows launch title) with the intent of seeing if the online community was any good for it. I installed it and sat down to play a little single player to tweak my settings and get a feel for the weapons.....

OMFG the mouse even at speed 10 (Max) felt like I was trying to turn in a tub of concrete, keyboard was permenantly mapped and you couldnt edit it (not a big deal I guess if you like WASD standard settings) and general game performance was pretty lousy. I stopped playing the game but didnt uninstall it.

Recently I was reading some gufff about the next Halo installment in passing & one of the user comments was that Halo 2 is hard to surpass as the best of the series which I found surprising, more surprising were other comments by quite a few people who agreed that Halo 2 was the best of the series thus far. Hmm I thought, maybe I should give it another chance ? ugh but the controls were horrible and the game performance terrible.... well sort of.

After a bunch of tweaking in nvidia control panel & maxing out all my halo 2 graphics options the mouse is actually quite responsive and the gameplay not choppy. Turns out the game tries to limit itself to 30fps capped, if your system exceeds this (especially if you have vsynch off and are pre-rendering frames) then the game starts dropping frames which makes it look choppy and interferes with your mouse control. long story short I am 90% happy with how it feels now.

So I played through the first Masterchief section & the Arbiter section, and arrive back on the fourth Halo where I abandoned the game on xbox. Oh dear how wrong I was, after a slightly slow start to this section there are some extremely exciting shootouts and vehicle gameplay to enjoy. The environments look a little dated (low res textures by todays standards) but the player/creature/vehicle models were always incredibly detailed in the halo games & got a lot of love to the point they still look exceptional IMHO.

My recommendation, if you havent tried Halo 2 on PC and you can find it someplace cheap grab it. The Story and single player gameplay are well worth it (sadly no co-op in PC version), multiplayer seems dead with Halo CE being the far more active title for multiplayer (no doubt due to the modding options). That said the Ingle Player portion of Halo 2 is really good and worth a look for FPS fans, though I am not sure how available it is in 2012, a recent stroll through some local games retailers showed me they are still stocking Halo (probably because people need the game keys for Halo CE) for PC but no sign of Halo 2.… Expand

although halo CE was way better, halo 2 is not half bad thanks to the new weapons, better maps for versing and better graphics. campaign wise, this one kinda sucked because after beating the campaign once or twice it gets very boring and repetitive. however if you are looking for the halo that is more fun to vrs in than halo2 will not disappoint. overall halo 2 was ok.

Sadly this one did not deliver... The campaign was uninspires, the graphics were dated (for the xbox version) and the gameplay was just not as fun. However, the multiplayern was amazing! this game would have received a 2 from me if it were not for the multiplayer! Luckily this time round there are acheivements but you will need an internet connection if you wish to gain them. The campaign is full of un-needed levels that feel as if they are only there for the sake of it, but playing as the other side is actually alright!

Campaign: 2/10
Graphics: 7/10 (2/10 for the xbox version)
Multiplayer: 9/10… Expand

For those who loved the original, Halo 2 was a disappointment. The single player plot was very disjointed and confusing, and at some point it didn't really matter what was going on, the point was just to frag more. But doesn't that make it just a souped-up Doom-like shooting gallery? Game play was fairly good, but still put to shame by its predecessors like the Unreal Tournament series.

On the plus side, the colors and textures were improved and even more lush than the original. A couple new weapons, new aliens and truly beautiful level architecture helped redeem the game and keep the score in the "good" range. The cut scenes were interesting, but the disjointedness of the plot made those insufficient. Overall, well worth playing, but don't expect it to be particularly memorable.… Expand

Probably my favorite game in the series besides the first one. Played it for PC and Xbox, and the PC version is much smoother and better. The only thing it lacks is a multiplayer base since it's an older title. If you can run at 120fps, it looks great even though the textures and engine are older. Still overall a great game in the series. Just wish the multiplayer had actual people in it :/

Well, Halo 2 for PC is a fantastic game although with a few minor setbacks. I don't know why people say "It's the worst game ever!!" Its just like Halo 2 on Xbox, just a few things missing. Its odd how it only got a 5.2 score.

awful graphics, stupid story, disgusting sounds and more... after the first halo this game is shame(microsoft) my 1 point for the chief . really heart breaker...

This game is a mixed bag, for while it does some new and very good things, it also does some rather lamentable ones too. The story is about as good as the first game's, but because of the split narrative it becomes more confusing. The ability to control the Arbiter, who has a nifty cloak, is fun at first, but eventually it just becomes a drag to frequently switch between characters. I liked the levels where you are on earth fighting alongside the Marines against Covenant forces, but was fairly bored with those against Flood or Rebel forces. In the end, if you liked the other Halo games, this is probably worth playing, but it's more significant for what carried over into future games than for what it did itself.… Expand