My Favorite Games, Vol. 1.11 - Halo Special, Part III (12/2/09)

When I bought my second Xbox, I went ahead and picked up Fable and Halo 2 as well.  I'd read about Fable since it was still codenamed Project Ego, and I'd read about the phenomenon that Halo 2 was becoming.  Both of them became some of my most played games ever.  I love Fable, just epic...and there will be more on that later.  Halo 2 was really good, too, however, from my initial playing of the game, I decided to start with Fable.




Then I played through Halo: Combat Evolved, wanting to refresh myself on already trodden ground and actually finish that game.  This didn't take long, and was playing Halo 2 within the week.  That game was fun...dual weilding needlers made me death in disguise, and the ability to get in a ghost as soon as the second level made me happy...driving it down on to a scarab was awesome (kinda hard to drive it in, but I'm sure it can be done...however, rocket launcher clears that room out, too).



Then, I got to play as the Arbiter.  The first time I was invisible with an energy sword, I knew something was about to die, and die it did.  Did you know you could kill the hologram clones with one sword hit?  It's like the first game's Hunter-pistol trick...how I started to miss that as the game progressed.



Music picked up majorly this time around, and it was worth it.  Still not as amazing it would become in Halo 3, the music took on a more rock feel to it, which felt more appropriate in some parts.  I'm not a fan of Breaking Benjamin, but the Banshee chase is scored nearly perfectly.


Breaking Benjamin's Blow Me Away featured in the game

Gameplay was a definite step up.  As I mentioned, duel wielding and finally getting to use the energy sword were awesome additions, but then we also got the BR and Carbine, what some consider the best guns in the series.  I also got my favorite (and call me a noob if you like, but it is), the SMG, and the ability to drive the Covenant Wraith.

Then other weapons got tweaks.  The needler became an instrument of death's will, and when there were two of them, no one stood for long against me.  The pistol was ruined in comparison, and the sniper lost the ability to see in the dark (not that you really needed it in this game).

The visuals also got a significant bump up, becoming some of the prettiest on the system, with CG rivaling SquareEnix's own FMV studio at the time (Kingdom Hearts 2 and Final Fantasy XII weren't out yet, mind you).  Don't believe me...check it out.



I'll agree that the human models are horrid until the 3rd game, but they're getting better.

Speaking of cutscenes, voicework got a significant rise in quality.  Where as the first game's voice cast was made up of mostly unknowns (including Steve Downes, who voiced Master Chief, and Tim Dadabo, who returned to play 343 Guilty Spark) with only two, that I'd heard of before, veteran voice actors (Jen Taylor and David Scully, easily the best choices since they were voicing returning characters), the new one approached more famous voice work actors, like Ron Perlman (Terrence Hood), Julie Benz (Halo 2's Miranda Keyes), Michael Wincott (Prophet of Truth), and Keith David (The Arbiter).  Each of these had not only acted in something I'd seen previously, but had acted well in them.

Multiplayer also made a return, now with full internet support, creating the phenomenon that is Xbox Live (more on that later).  Here it added a few new maps, and made the changes the series had gone through, such as duel wielding, new vehicles and guns, and changes to the old ones.  Also changed was the ability to finally use the Banshee in multiplayer.  It was the first time all of these elements had been brought together so well in a multiplayer experience.

Now, I know usually start with story, but I really couldn't with Halo 2.  There's a lot of reasons why, but Halo 2 just doesn't have much of a story to me.  Yes, it does further the story, but comparative to the first and the books, the story seems to be an afterthought in this game to the multiplayer.  That's one of the problems with games today, but I'll make that rant another time.

Before you start up an angry post saying  that yes, Halo 2 has a wonderful story, read what I have to say.  Halo 2's story is that the aliens reach Earth...and rather than get the invasion story every single trailer said was coming, we go two levels of it before we were on the Delta Halo.  Rehashing of old ideas, much?

Sure, this one added the issues going on with the Brutes and the Elites so that the humans were aware of the dissension amongst the Covenant.  In actuality, First Strike was the first work in the series to hint at such, but none of the UNSC knew before the fight with Tartarus.  The game just brought that to the forefront.

It also introduced the Gravemind...the monstrous, flood overlord, ages old, and plotting his vengeance on all other sentients since the last firing of the Halo rings.  He would become the third main antagonist in the series (Guilty Spark and Truth being the others), and much of the last half of the third game would deal with him.



In the end, this was a giant set building episode.  Much like The Empire Strikes Back, Halo 2 was only meant to set the scene for the epic resolution in the sequel.  This caused a major divide in the gamers who played the Halo games.  Those that played for the multiplayer and would buy it anyways (the obvious majority) and those that played for the story (the minority made up of mostly old school gamers).  Being among the latter, I stuck with it as best I could nevertheless hoping for better in the third game.

I got it...but that's the story for Part IV.  So, tell me what you thought.  Did you mind the story?  Did you love the upgraded game play?  Did you only play it for the multiplayer?  Let me know.

Also, Part V still needs some ideas.  If you have them, send them my way.  I'll be sure to try and include them.

-Sara