9 / 10
23 Apr 2006 at 14:19
Review by: The Smore
The Smore reviewing
Halo 2
In many ways I was dissaponted with Halo 2, after the excellent Combat Evolved I was expecting something fantastic. It was deffinitely a very good game that I enjoyed playing and still do, but it failed to capture the first halo's essence and spirit.
The story was probably the most dissapointing factor. It was in most ways identical to the first, the ship / space station is attacked, they have a small party of marines on another halo, and the flood get realesed again.
Having said that the choice to include the Arbiter was genius. He is a tough covenant elite who commanded the forces on the first Halo. However now he is in disgrace having failed to activate the ring. Now however he is given the chance to redeem himself in a mission that he is expected to die fulfilling. It was mostly enjoyable playing as him, as the weapons were more intresting than the human ones. ALso the ability to turn invisible and ambush opponents was enjoyable. The only tedious part playing as the arbiter was that he had the dull mission objective at one point to 'escape the falling station' which involved a lot of running around identical red lighted corridors with enimies sparse.
However the level design was mostly so much better than Combat Evolved, as there were almost none of the identical rooms that made the first game so drab. It is now as much a joy to be inside as it was on the first one to be outside.
Weapons were at the same time both wonderfully inovative and yet sometimes uninspired. Almost nothing was done to the h uman weapons other than fiddling round with ammo capacity and scopes. On the other hand the covenant weapons recieved a complete turnaround. While before you would only use a plasma rifle if there was apsolutely no other weapon available, now especially with the new addition of dual weilding it becomes a potent weapon. The further improvement of the brute plasma rifle just emboldens the rifles new status. Also I like the colours that come out of dual weilding red and blue rifles together. There is also the covenant carbine rifle, the two types of sentinel beams that are now weildable (more pretty colours), the particle beam rifle - a variation on the human sniper (which now has a more limited ammo capacity), the brute shot - a grenade launcher of low accuracy and a huge bayonet on the other end, the fuel rod gun which is now available in single player once or twice, and finally my favourite, the Energy Sword. Previously only seen being wielded by the Yellow ELites in Combat Evolved, now you have a chance to wield this incredibly powerful weapon. It has 3 attacks. Pulling the right trigger carries out a basic under cut, while pressing B does a jab. However it's true power lies in its lunge attack that will kill anyone - except a hunter - in one.
Then we move onto the vehicles. Once again the human vehicles have not been changed at all, except for replaing the rocket launcher warthog with a 'gauss cannon' of highly doubtable effictivicy. Once again the Covenant Vehicles have recieved a huge overhaul. The ghost and banshee now have a boost capability and both feel more chunky and powerful. Three new additions are the Spectre - a small manouvarable vehicle with the capability to hold 4 people with one mounting the laser cannon at the back. Also the Shadow which holds 10 people again with a plasma cannon at the front. But the real addition is the wraith. Whilst it was seen in Combat Evolved you could never drive it. It is slow and bulky but its plasma mortar cannon more than makes up for that.
So in conclusion Halo 2 has made a great leap for the covenant and is more enjoyable to play, but the humans have recieved either no improve ment or they have been made worse. Definitely good and worth buying, but not a 10/10 like the XBOX magasine says. Thankyou
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