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Halo 2: Thoughts; *spoiler alert*
Topic Started: Nov 15 2004, 12:57 PM (570 Views)
HardRocker87
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the MAN of ROCK
Alright i know there is already a thread for this but that one is just too damn confusing. So, the game of the gods came out, and i must say that it was everything i expected it to be. It so totally lived up to the hype and then some. The graphics are fucking tight. The gameplay is unbelievable. And dont get me started on the Xbox Live integration. Bungie revolutionized the way we are going to play Live from here on out. This game is just wicked awesome. But then there is the story. Now, dont get me wrong, i thought the story was GREAT. The way they did it was so much better than they did the last one, i thought. The way the covenant spoke english, the way that they switched back and forth from MC to the Arbiter was cool too. But i do have some questions. Was that big venus flytrap thing the master of the flood or something? Where did he come from? How did he get from delta halo all the way up to the Covenant city, the High Charity? I mean, that ending was way to much of a cliffhanger. I highly suspect that Halo 3 will be coming out a lot sooner than we all think. Think about it. They cant leave us with that big of a cliffhanger for another 3-4 years. And why would they break the trilogy fronm being on Xbox 1 to releasing Halo3 on Xbox 2? I dunno. Just a gut feeling that i have. I'm probably wrong, but, we'll see. Anyways, discuss here and maybe we can help each other out in solving this mystery. B)
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UltimateDogg
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*major fucking spoilers*


what i believe happened is that the venus flytrap is the leader of the flood. he knew that the covies had the index so he sent us to stop em. he used that time to capture the human ship that captian keyes 2.0 owns to get the flood ( and maybe even him) on to the covie home world/ deathstar thing
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UltimateDogg
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yeah to every one who said the ending was bad its lying.
its not bad it just is at such an inopportune time to edn the game
the ending is best described by mav
so ill quote him.
"imagine you have the worlds hottest fucking girl [or guy if thats your thing]. she is naked and your bed and says 'fuck me'. you undress jump in the bed and she says 'sorry i have to go' and leaves"
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BMrningStar87
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Haha, Mav rules, but yeah I hope your right Bamfan, cause I need to know the end.
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HardRocker87
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What i dont understand is if the humans stop the halos from destroying all life, then how are they going to kill the flood? Its obvious that they are roaming space freely in hijacked ships.
And how about that double posting bstar?
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HardRocker87
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HOLY SHIT.
http://www.utopiangamer.com/features/halo3release/index.php?
I may be right
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BMrningStar87
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it was an accident, hopefully dan will delete on when he gets here.
[size=7]"Yes I kill things, now leave me alone."~Joe Little[/size]

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UltimateDogg
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i deleted it bstar

Quote:
 

probaly not but hey it would be awesome

Quote:
 
What i dont understand is if the humans stop the halos from destroying all life, then how are they going to kill the flood? Its obvious that they are roaming space freely in hijacked ships.
And how about that double posting bstar? 


thats still up in the air
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UltimateDogg
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i wasnt going to do it but i have decided to anyway.
my halo 2 review is being drafted up now. expect it posted soon

EDIT: part of the review is up now so scroll down!
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[size=14]Halo 2 Review[/size] - [size=7]*[/size]Spoilers Ahead[size=7]*[/size]

[size=10]Halo 2: Hold on, Halo 3 is on the way[/size]

[size=7]-Single Player Component-[/size]
-----Overview-----
Ah the single player. You’ve read the 3 novels so many times that some pages are barely readable, the binding has been taped multiple times and you can say how many lines Cortana has. You have watched over the E3 2003 movie so many times that its now permanently linked on your desktop, right next to that music video you DIDN’T download and the new picture of Vida Guerra you just found. And now, after all the waiting, you’re finally able to get your grubby hands on the core of Halo 2

First off I feel I must make this clear the ending isn’t bad like so many say it is. It just comes at a time when you have so much adrenaline in you, and its just so... anti-climactic, that your left with adrenaline your never going to use, plot questions never answered and more desire to have Halo 3 then you ever wanted Halo 2. The feeling has been said in so many four-letter words and paraphrased in oh-so-many ways but one comparison stands above the rest. It goes like this “Imagine the hottest girl in the world. She is so extremely hot and you have gotten here extremely drunk. Imagine this girl naked on your bed asking you to sleep with her. You quickly undress, hop in, and just mumble off how awesome this is going to be when she gets up says she has to go and walks out off your house, still naked.” And quiet frankly it isn’t far from the truth.
-----Story-----
All throughout the stories 15 missions (13 being real missions, one being the opening cut scene, and another serving as the training and background information level) you fight many enemies, lose many comrades, and do so many things in general that immerse you in the universe of Halo. Yet in the end the sense of accomplishment isn’t there. Sure the Covenant threat has been reduced by an uncountable amount, you killed one of the three Prophets of the Covenant leadership, there home world is abandoned, and half of the collections of the species that comprised the Covenant no longer fight under the Prophets banner. (As far as we can tell in the game) But if you think about it what did YOU really do? You saved Earth, but were they really in any danger? How can 15 Covenant capital ships compete against 300 orbital MAC guns? You didn’t start the war between the two sides of the Covenant. The Flood took over High Charity not you. You took out the Prophet of Regret yet the Covenant Fleet was already on the way to destroy him. In the end it feels more like your a minor player in a story unfolding instead of creating the story.

And this isn’t necessarily making the game any less worth playing. If it were any other game it would be considered in my ‘must play’ category. Hell it would be in the ‘Game Of The Year Nominee’ category. But what it comes down to is it just doesn’t FEEL like Halo. I guess the all-important answer is why? What did they change that causes the game to feel inherently different? The answer is mostly the story. It feels like a tangent or the filler information that was originally cut in the first game to meet time constraints. Sure there was new stuff told. But it doesn’t really feel as if it needed a whole game. In fact, at the end of the game, when the credits role, you’ll find yourself saying “Man I can’t wait to save Earth!” “Whoa, I pre-ordered the wrong game, Halo 3 is where its at!”, and “&%$@”.

Another source of disappointment is the fact that First Strike is almost not mentioned at all. (Or at least so obscurely that only one who has had access to the Halo bible would understand it) The other Spartans aren’t mentioned in the slightest, Dr. Halsely isn’t acknowledged and all the other plot points of the book are likewise thrown aside. Granted you shouldn’t have to read a book to play a video game, however, it would have been a little nice to maybe even see some acknowledgements about the Spartans or something. Now that I’ve spent the better part of a few paragraphs ranting lets move on to the happier parts of the game.
-----Sound-----
From here on in there’s only a few minor negative points. First off the sound is gorgeous. Every time the familiar Gregorian chant play that sense of awe comes to you, almost as if called by the song. The Flood levels are accompanied by foreboding music that makes it a surprisingly good mixture of Doom 3 and Resident Evil. Sound plays when it is supposed to and sound gorgeous. The dialog sounds convincing (Though Lord Hood, in the beginning, seems like he’s being put to sleep. I would have thought a Covenant Invasion would cause a little more emotion) and with tens of thousands of lines of it you’ll never here idle chitchat the same way twice.
-----Graphics-----
Graphics are simply put, the best on the Xbox. The textures are clean and sharper looking then the original, everything gleams, reflects and most importantly explodes like it should. One of the most noticeably concerning things is pop in. It happens in cut scenes the most but is evident elsewhere. Basically when you look at anything the textures is streamed off the disk. Unfortunately the Xbox can’t do it fast enough. What you get are textures popping in during the middle of cut scenes and when you turn the corner. While this is a negative point to the game, there really is nothing that could be done, as this is the price that everyone pays for not having load times. The scenery in the levels is simply put stunning. It conveys a much wider sense than in the first game. In the first Halo you where basically fighting indoors, in a canyon, or on a cliff over an endless sea. No more. This time around levels are wide and immersive. For example in the middle of the game you start a level on the bank of a lake. Your objective is to get to a building in the center of a lake via a ‘bridge’ of sorts. You can literally see the end point of the level from the beginning of the level. You’ll start out playing the level and soon it will hit you. "Whoa, I’m actually going to go there."
-----Gameplay-----
Jaime Griesemer (Design Lead at Bungie) put it best when he said “If you can get 30 seconds of fun you can pretty much stretch that out into an entire game.” And man Halo 2 is fun. Its not the same fun that is Halo but nothing ever will be. It really opens up a whole new dimension to game play. Dual wielding is practical and makes sense. (Why can’t a super human who can turn over tanks not dual wield a weapon?) The no health bar scheme, while questioned even by me at first, turns out to be a surprisingly fun situation. No more conserving health packs or getting stuck at the checkpoints with one health bar, and no packs anywhere near. It serves to quicken the game play and does it well.

[size=7]-Multiplayer Component-[/size]
-----Overview-----
In Halo 2 people will come for the single player and stay for the multiplayer. End of story. The maps are awesome. Even Blood Gulch, now called Coagulation (dried blood) has been improved yet still retains the feel of being the same Blood Gulch you played with 15 of your friends late on Friday night. Also for the record Battle Creek is back and, now due to Indians buying up the land, is now called Beaver Creek. There are 12 maps each with there own distinct look and feel.
-----Multiplayer and Xbox Live-----
The Xbox Live implementation has been near flawless and the stats on bungie.net is nothing short of awesome. There is near no lag in any game. This is due, in large part, to the dynamic hosting nature of the gaming. It tests ever person’s connection that comes in the room. If the current server can’t handle the current load it simply changes to the best host available. It makes so much sense that in a few years you won’t see a game without it. Also the amount of customization is on par with and even exceeds most PC games to date. You can choose what vehicles you want, shield types, weapon types, and respawn types, anything really. You name it and you can modify it. Most things are balanced too. Sure there is only so much a big honking Scorpion tank can be balanced, but still, it never feels like your winning only because you have a tank. All the weapon combos are balanced too. The only possible exception to this rule is the energy sword. For base defense in CTF and in close quarters maps the sword dominates. Period. A health bar for the sword as they did in single player would be a nice addition.
-----Cooperative Mode-----
Co-Op is also brilliantly done. The room is set up like a split screen game and you can choose the level and difficulty. Once you’re off in the game its smooth as ice, butter, or anything smooth. The screen is sometimes blocked a lot by some dual wielded weapons, but this is mostly contained to the dual plasmas rifles (or brute plasma rifles). Frame rate takes no noticeable hit, although some pop up occurs like in the single player game. Remember those annoying loading zones in Halo? Well although there back they have been reduced significantly, and often you can go through a loading zone with out warping the other player to your position. I won’t go into the story or how certain things were implemented in single player here. I’ll save that for the single player section. Which incredibly is right below.

[size=7]-Wrap-Up-[/size]
So how is it when you throw all these factors together? Well Halo 2 is and isn’t Halo 2. It is the stellar graphics, sounds and game play. This game pushes the Xbox to the breaking point both offline and online. It almost feels like a great commander inspiring the troops and pushing them to do things they couldn’t normally do. Halo 2 is so great that it seems to inspire the Xbox to work harder. (I mean is it so hard to have some destructible environments? *cough* Rainbow Six *cough*) It isn’t however the pivotal point in the overall Halo story line it was made out to be. Unlike the announcement trailer and E3 2003 Demo, which hints at a much larger Human-Covenant battle for Earth, Halo 2 is so much more yet at the same time… less. Now I’m not going to get on the conspiracy theory bandwagon and say that it was Microsoft who made them do it for the money, but something had to happen whether it be time, money, even hardware limitations but the game just isn’t what it could be (Not to mention what it was hyped to be). Pros and Cons aside people want a rating. But you wont get one. Let me put it this way though, I’m already calling up my local Electronic Boutique Store asking when they are taking preorders for Halo 3…
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UltimateDogg
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like what?
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HardRocker87
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thats a really well done review dogg. you should write for a gaming magazine or something.
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UltimateDogg
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yeah when i actually try at things i do pretty good :lol:
although platchen and matrix helped proofread
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BMrningStar87
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You can proofread my ballz.
[size=7]"Yes I kill things, now leave me alone."~Joe Little[/size]

A Green Beret may not be a God, but he fights like a demon! ~Joseph Little

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