Halo 2

1. NorBdelta

   Mar 22, 2012

   10

   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 thoseNow 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

   • 6 of 11 users found this helpful
2. JackyS.

   May 30, 2007

   9

   Great best-selling gameplay formulae that havent changed abit since its first release. Improved graphics, decent but not as good as some of 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

   • 0 of 2 users found this helpful
4. The-Crow

   Oct 3, 2012

   9

   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

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
5. PhilipH.

   Sep 24, 2007

   6

   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 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.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. TimS.

   May 19, 2007

   5

   It's all been said before. An average shooter, poor single player, decent multiplayer ruined by Live, awful PC translation, well below 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

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
7. dogday

   Jul 8, 2007

   3

   Sluggish controls causing lag in movement ruined it for me.

   • 2 of 2 users found this helpful
8. mobius

   May 5, 2007

   0

   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 justAwful. 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

   • 2 of 2 users found this helpful

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