This is where the multiplayer started getting hype. Thanks to Bungie doing an almost perfect game, no other game have made an addictive multiplayer game. Halo 2 kicked ass back then, and it still does.

I can't tell you how great the moment i got this game and looking at the graphics. After playing NOTHING but Halo 1 for three years, seeing this games graphics stuned me. I spent hours just looking at the games graphics in awe. a great game in everyway

I LOVED Halo, the gameplay, the story, the music, Playing it I felt like I was in a movie. With much hype and anticipation I awaited Halo 2. Boring.. they kept pushing the release date back for this?!?!?! save your money or play halo 1.

Great presentation. Unfortunately this game is simply a sequel to an already bland game. Maybe if Halo 1 wasn't like a million other video games this would be impressive. Improving an engine and making better graphics is what every single sequel does. Let's try something original for once. Overall it's a waste of money unless you're a diehard fan.

Probably my favorite war shooter multiplayer game. Had so much fun with this one. One of the best multiplayers ever.

Craig's Review 4U: The Guns are to damn big and in your face obstructing most of the visible area, especially in dual equipt mode. There is to much flashing to see what you are doing. Sets are to dark due to the new eviromental shaders. Story is awsome though but once again it takes a lot to get used to the interface. They should have left well alone.

What a waste of 3 years, we now have a new version of Unreal Tournament 2004, that's about it. The look and feel has now changed, and the first thing I can think of is...where's my Halo ONE disk!

This game dissapointed me very much. I can't believe I was lied to or led the wrong way. I got it and the game is not all that it is hyped to be. The multiplayer is good... yea yea so what. But there is a thing called single player, and that is what counts to me. That is what the first person counts to me. O yea... Bungie... you suck.

Extremely disappointing.. not a sh.tty game.. but for all they hype that it got... it sucks... weapons are not fun to use for hte most part.. grenades bounce all over the place.. you can fall from 100000 feet and live without losing any energy.. you jump about 50 feet in the air.. enemies look small and not intimidating.

This game sucks. the weapons are weak, and i swear ive seen them somewhere else...oh yeah Unreal Tournament 2004. and that game is way better. like the other reviews said, you can fall from any distance and nothing happens. the maps look the same, just with different names, and the other maps are way to big if you only want to play with like 4 people.

Poor level design Uninteresting story Uninteresting enemies Dated gameplay Unbalanced weapons Sluggish controls only 30 frames per second Some poor multiplayer maps Those were all problems of the first, and so far it doesn't look like much has changed. While Halo 2 has some new features, it still features dated gameplay, and uninteresting enemies, story and levels.

Just old and tired ideas.

After reading a bunch of reviews, it's pretty obvious to me that the average player of this game is one of two types. 1 - mindless idiot who just likes the run/gun game. 2 - Envolved player who likes to master every gun, controls, storyline, and feature of the game to its fullest. I am the second one. That's where this game falls flat on its face. No story, no difficult gameplay, no real challenge except how fast you can pump bullets into the next 50 enemies that pop on screen. I'm bored of this gametype. The multiplayer is better, but not by much. A "No bots" feature doesn't help fill the huge maps, and X-box Live costs too damn much to justify it's existence. I refuse to shell out $200+ for the system, $60 for the game, and $40 per month for the ability to play online. Overall disappointing. I will be going back to favorites like Counter Strike and Unreal on PC before I touch Halo 2 again.… Expand

It's hard to believe you could improve in anyway on the first, but they did! recommend playing this one after playing the first though. The game continues on the story of the original game and adds cool key things in the game like new weapons and the feature of dual wielding which was a great feature added in. Definitely a BUY.

Rarely does a game come along and absolutely blow our wildest expectations away. Well this game is one of them. And boy did it blow them away into the darkest voids of our universe, never to be seen again. Good god, what happened? Let me emphasis one inherent flaw plaguing the Halo 2 Single-Player campaign: the level design. Good grief. You'd think the most acclaimed console game of just about all-time would demonstrate aptitude in level design prowess. But no. Every stinking dirt-ridden, crap-spewing level I was forced to endure not only had the gall to be LONG but also unnecessarily repetitive. If you can survive the SP, then you are either brain-dead or a devout Halo fanboy. Or both. I guess one implies the other, doesn't it? As for the graphics. Screenshots don't do the graphics in this game as much justice as they should. The screenshots look amazing. The in-game graphics look like they were constructed by soggy non-fat milk cartons straight from the dumpster. And did I mention they were melded together using fecal matter? And that they were constructed by traumatized children without hands, covered in bloodthirsty bees and screaming in absolute pain? I should have. Music is equivalent to the vilest blasphemy from the 80's. Halo 1, despite it's mediocrity in the gameplay department, had an excellent soundtrack. Halo 2 doesn't. Multiplayer. From a person who's used to the convenienve of online PC gaming, Xbox Live was a catastrophe of monumental proportions. No server browser? *croak* NO SERVER BROWSER?! Dual-wielding, in my opinion, was utterly useless (how could you sacrifice the use of grenades?). Melee attacks are oddly awkward in this iteration. And the new shield system encourages cowardice. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't realized by now, I hate Halo 2 with all my heart. I absolutely hate how such an overrated game with virtually no talent behind can get so much more recognition and support than other VERY deserving games. The Halo fanboys reading this and going "OMG WTF BBQ U IZ TOTALL LIEING L0LZ." Seriously. Step back from your ignorant delusion, and begin to look at this game that you've been blindly and fanatically supporting for so long.… Expand

Too Bad this game was ugly rubbish. No where near at Killzone.

Absolute perfection!

This game is so tight.

It is awesome.

I would like to state that this game is not broken. You H2-haters are. You are broken because you are blind, and comfortable in being that way. I hate people that are ignorant because they want to be. Any real Halo fan would know this. I lost many hours of my life at lan-parties for years because of the first game, and many things that made me say: "bullsh.t" were taken out. Face it. The pistol took too little skill to be effective. I could kill you in 2-3 shot all the time, everytime. Even noobs could kill you in 5-7 shots. Were's the skill in that old-school fans? Hell, you could snipe a Spartan from a Scorpion tank. Yeah right. They fixed the Devil-pistol. In Multiplayer you cannot go Lone-Ranger as much anymore. You can be good, but any team that works well together will make short work of you. They will hunt you in packs. Have all the weapons. They will own you. I owned people by myself in the first game. I can't do that as much now. I need tactics, not just brawn to win. As for match making, it's good. You play against people of your lv. They system works. People also complain about online problems, like swearing and glitching. Bungie fixes these problems. People can also report you if you are bad! YOU WILL BE EXPLELLED OR WORSE! Trust me, I see it everyday. I also haven't had much problems with lag, which surprised me. Also old-school fan's bitch about duel weilding. Old-school fans can be idiots and not try things, because they are afraid of change. Besides, duel-weilding isn't that effective! I own people that do that! A well place nad' and a single smg clean house all the time, everytime. You guys could also try a battle rifle with a plasm gun. So deadly it's scary! Owns the duel-weilding freaks so much it's scary! I don't understand people hatred for the single player mode. Halo had me going "holy shit" everytime. Halo 2 did that for me and more. I love the Arbiter too. I guess people expected a different game. I feel sorry for these pathetic masses of rage and hatred. They are broken relics. Note: Pc games and console are like judging fresh water from salt water. That's why I don't mention Half-Life 2 or World of Warcraft.… Expand

The game is an exellent sequel to halo, and both multiplayer modes are amazing.

This is the best game ever. The graphics are some of the best ever on X-Box. I see that Nathan complained about plants? Who cares about plants materializing 5 feet in front of you when every other part of the game looks simply amazing? Nathan didn't like the multi-player because he got his ass handed to him. If he won he would say it was great. I dont know how you could say something is wrong with the maps when they are beautiful. The gameplay sucked? The gameplay definitely doesn't suck. It is action packed and fluent. Even on x-box live there aren't problems with framerate or anything. Shoaib complained about not really saving earth. You saved earth by forcing the covenant to leave earth. Then you followed them to stop them from ever coming back to earth. Yes, being the arbiter sucked, but the gameplay with the arbiter was awesome. Being invisible was freaking sweet! When the arbiter talked then it was stupid, because i agree with you. I just want to kill elites, but you barely notice them when you are playing as the arbiter. in first person as along as you dont look straight down you dont even notice. To wrap it all up Halo 2 is the best game ever and everyone who doesn't agree with me and complains about the game are ...… Expand

Good game but one was the most original.

This game is a great, quality shooter that easily captures the attention of all gamers.

I really don't see how this game got so overrated in the first place. Graphics aren't bad, but with a stupid, repetitive, and predictable story line it isn't even comparable to Half-life 2. Also, gameplay offers nothing new, everything is been there done that. MUultiplayer isn't bad, but with an online community filled with immature 12 year olds it isn't worth it, especially since you can get the same online experience buy getting HL2 and dling mods with the same multiplayer modes as Halo 2.… Collapse

Multiplayer perfection.

Its great fun to pick up and play. What more do you want?

as the xbox official will agree this is quite possibly the best first person shooter game ever to be released on this generation of consoles.