Halo 2

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox video game console. It is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and was released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004.

Introduction

Halo 2 is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and features a newly built graphics engine and physics engine, new weapons and vehicles, new multiplayer maps, and a storyline that continues the story begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. While the Halo universe shares characteristics with the Marathon series, the two storylines are distinct.

The release date of Halo 2 was November 9, 2004 (November 10 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK). It was one of the most highly anticipated releases not only on Xbox, but in videogame history. On the morning of October 14, a leak of the French version of the game was posted on the Internet, and circulated widely. Microsoft, the parent company of Bungie Studios, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version. [1] 1.5 million copies were reserved beforehand. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus outgrossing the film Spider-Man 2 as highest grossing release in entertainment history. [2] As of 1 January 2005, the game had sold 6.3 million copies.

Gameplay

Campaign

The game is playable in campaign mode either single-player or cooperative. When playing in this mode the player(s) must complete a series of episodes. Some of these episodes require the player to compete as a Covenant hero called The Arbiter, while the majority are still played as the Master Chief. Aside from variations caused simply by switching sides in the conflict, most notably The Arbiter is different from Master Chief in that his armor lacks a flashlight and is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that will drop if an action other than movement is performed.

There are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary, the latter of which has been described as "suicide" by the game's developers.

Multiplayer

There are varying modes, several of which have returned from the original Halo game. A typical classic melee game known as Slayer, a team based Capture The Flag game, an offense/defense version of capture the flag called Assault, a more esoteric free-for-all form of capture the flag called Oddball, a game extrapolated from a child's game of "tag" called Juggernaut, King of the Hill, where players race to control a specified area of the map, and finally, Territories, which bears some resemblance to King of the Hill, but with multiple hills. All of these modes can be twisted and changed in thousands of unpredictable ways, resulting in incredibly varied multiplayer gameplay. Of the preset variations present in the original game, only Race is missing.

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via the Xbox Live online service, in addition to the original's support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer. Halo 2's Xbox Live mode offers a unique and, some would say, innovative approach to online gaming that is intended to alleviate some of the problems that have plagued online first-person shooters in the past. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server (or host), specifying the game type and map and configuring other settings. The game software then uses a service like Xbox Live or GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering as well as the ping times they are able to receive.

In Halo 2, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players select "playlists" that are geared to different styles of play. For example, the "Rumble Pit" playlist offers a variety of "every man for himself" game types, primarily Slayer or variations thereof; "Team Skirmish" offers a number of 4-on-4 team games, which are primarily objective-based games like Capture the Flag; "Big Team Battle" is similar to Team Skirmish but allows teams of up to 8 players. Other playlists allow head-to-head play and matches between different clans. The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have chosen each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host.

Players can create small "parties" with their friends and enter games together as teammates or, in Rumble Pit, adversaries. If the Xbox console hosting the game drops out, the Xbox Live service automatically selects a new host from among the remaining players so the game can continue. Players may still choose to set up games for their own party to their own specification, and invite others into that game from their Friends and Clan lists, however these games are not made publicly available.

Since launching in November 2004, the service has been very popular with video gamers. While some players resent the loss of individual control inherent in Halo 2's approach to online gaming, others feel it provides a significantly improved gaming experience compared to more traditional online first-person shooters. Bungie's servers match players up by skill level, which tends to eliminate the kind of severely imbalanced games that less-skilled players often consider unfair and unenjoyable. The automatic host selection process also eliminates the ability of the host to exert outsized control over the parameters of the game.

Bungie.net records every single statistic that is displayed on-screen in the end-of-game "Post Game Carnage Report." Anyone can visit Bungie.net and look at any Xbox Live player's stats. If a player logs in with a Microsoft Passport, they can also access the "Gameviewer". This presents an image of the level that was played from the player's choice various angles, superimposed with a summary of the crucial game events. For example: for each kill, the attacker and target's locations and the attacker's weapon are displayed, and the paths taken by flags in Capture the Flag games are shown. Bungie keeps these stats for several hundred games per player at a time, then games begin to be purged to save space, and they are used as evidence when banning cheats (see "Xbox Live Updates", below).

Regular players have expressed various concerns regarding the game balance of Halo 2. Many players feel that game strategies are too dependent upon controlling the "power weapons" in each map such as the Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifle, and Energy Sword, at the cost of overshadowing the other weapons in the game. Should an team acquire these weapons, it becomes more difficult for their opponents to score kills or attain objectives. Much game time may be consumed attempting to sieze the weapons in question from the opposition and shift the balance of power; in some cases it may not even be possible to do so. This primarily affects team games and one-on-one games; in free for alls, a player with a "power weapon" will become a priority target for the other players, meaning that the weapon will change hands frequently as well as the holder of the "power weapon" constantly being referred to as a n00b. This leads to the shared sentiment that "Halo's For n00bs". Another common criticism is the dominance of dual-wielding weapons over single-wielding combined with grenades, although attempts have been made to address these issues with the April 18th automatic update (see "Xbox Live Updates", below.

Multiplayer Maps

For more information on this is List of Multiplayer Maps in Halo 2 New maps are downloadable from Xbox Live or available on the Multiplayer Map Pack disk (see below).

Damage system

The damage system in Halo 2 is slightly different from that in Halo: Combat Evolved. The player has a regenerating shield, but now has regenerating health as well.

• Shields: The shield in Halo 2 is much stronger, and recharges at a higher rate. It covers the player's entire body, and slowly decreases in power as it sustains damage. After it takes damage, it starts to recharge 4 seconds after the last time damage was sustained. The power is displayed above the motion tracker in the bottom-left of the screen.

• Health: In Halo 2, once the shields run out, the player also has a buffer of health. Unlike the first Halo, health regenerates after the shield. The amount of health left is not visible to the player, and is also much smaller than in the original game.

Powerups

There are two types of powerups available in Halo 2.

• Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which is three times the strength of the normal one. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield – when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In addition, when a overshield is picked up, the player is invulnerable untill it finishes charging, which takes a second or two. In multiplayer Halo 2, the overshield gradually depletes over time and can be completely taken out with a charged up plasma pistol shot. The overshield is no longer present in the campaign mode of Halo 2. However, the Black Eye Skull will enable the player to charge his/her shield into the overshield range. In certain Multiplayer gametypes, one or more players start with a regenerating overshield.

• Active Camouflage: Drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him invisible. This effect (which is almost identical to that of the alien armor in the Predator movies) is reduced if the player is hit by weapons fire, or if he fires a weapon. However, the Energy Sword remains clearly visible even if the player is using camouflage. This feature is included in the Arbiter's armor, though its effect only lasts a few seconds. The powerup is not available in Campaign (the Arbiter can activate it for a short time), and the built-in generator is not available in Multiplayer. The Envy skull gives Master Chief access to the built-in generator.

Weapons

See List of weapons in Halo 2.

Secrets

The existence of many hidden skulls has been discovered. [3] These small objects are hidden in every campaign level in Halo 2, some levels containing more than one. Their effects, while somewhat disputed, can do anything from making the player invisible to removing his HUD. One, called "I Would Have Been Your Daddy," is a maddening skull that, unlike the others, seems to have no reliable mechanism for triggering its appearance. It could be random. It has been claimed that a player's reward for finding and picking it up is a battle with more than twenty Elites using only a plasma pistol, with victory leading to new NPC comments. However, this has not been confirmed, and some users have acquired the skull with no apparent effect at all.

The current known skulls are Thunderstorm, Blind, I Would Have Been Your Daddy, Catch, Grunt Birthday Party, Famine, Envy, Assassins, Mythic, Sputnik, Angry, Ghost, Iron, Black Eye, and Winner. The Winner skull will only display its name when the skulls are collected in a certain order, with Winner being the last collected.

The Scarab's obscenely destructive main cannon is available as a handheld weapon. It uses the Plasma Rifle model, and is located in a hard-to-reach area in a level where the Scarab is present. It has been claimed that it is also possible to obtain it by grenade jumping to a Scarab's main cannon and snatching it in mid-air on the Outskirts and Metropolis levels; such a high grenade jump is extremely difficult and has yet to be confirmed by video evidence.

Plot synopsis

Halo 2 opens with a Covenant attack on Earth, repelled with the assistance of the Master Chief. It continues across another ring world, dubbed "Delta Halo", as the crew of the UNSC vessel In Amber Clad attempt to discover the reason for the Covenant's incursion. There, the Master Chief kills one of the Covenant's three High Prophet leaders, which ultimately triggers a civil war inside the Covenant. Meanwhile, the fleet commander who led the Covenant forces in Halo is stripped of his rank, only to assume the role of the Arbiter, the greatest of the Covenant warriors. His first mission, to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, starts him on a path which will make him question his beliefs.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood and the discovery of the Prophets' true objective: driven by their ancient religion, they seek to activate Delta Halo, which would cause the death of every sentient being in the galaxy. A mysterious Flood creature called the Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief in seperate directions to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo.

The Master Chief finds himself upon the nearby Covenant Holy City, High Charity, a gargantuan space vessel, and pursues the remaining Prophets. After capturing the In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by the Gravemind, arrive on the city and begin to try and capture it. The only remaining High Prophet, Truth, escapes on a Forerunner vessel. The Master Chief stows away on board, but Cortana stays behind to detonate the In Amber Clad's engines. This will destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating it, while preventing the Flood's escape across the galaxy.

Uniting the seperatist faction of the Covenant on Delta Halo, and with the help of Sargeant Johnson, the Arbiter succeeds in preventing the Covenant leaders from activating the installation. However, the Halo and its counterparts across the galaxy are left on standby alert, awaiting a trigger signal from "The Ark", whose location is yet unknown, but is believed to be on Earth. Meanwhile, the Forerunner vessel arrives near Earth, with the Master Chief on board. The game ends with a cliffhanger, with the last cutscene showing the Master Chief about to enter the battle to save Earth.

Main characters

• Master Chief
• Cortana
• Sergeant Johnson
• Miranda Keyes
• Arbiter
• High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret
• Tartarus
• 2401 Penitent Tangent
• Special Operations Commander "Half-Jaw"
• 343 Guilty Spark

Minor Characters

See the main article on Halo characters

The "Haunted Apiary" Alternate Reality Game (ARG)

Main article: Haunted Apiary

The website ilovebees.com (interestingly, the domain ihatebees.com also points to this website) is currently being used as a publicity site for Halo 2, with the site being pointed to by adverts for the game during movie trailers. Ostensibly a site about bees, the server appears to have been taken over by some mysterious force, which is "counting down to something".

The frontpage had a counter counting down to July 27, 2004 (when it says "network throttling will erode"), August 10, 2004 (when "this medium will metastasize"), and August 24, 2004 (at 8:06 am, when it will be "wide awake and physical") – many thought something big would happen related to Halo 2 on these dates. Instead, it became the kickoff for a "War of the Worlds"-esque online radio show. Other messages relating to the Halo story are hidden throughout the site.

This style of publicity is similar to that which surrounded the movie A.I. which featured a grand Alternate Reality Game. The Halo ARG has been dubbed The Haunted Apiary.

Additional content

Xbox Live Updates

A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play has been the widespread cheating which occured almost immediately upon the game's release. Users exploited bugs in the game and vulnerabilities of the network to win ranked games and thus increase their matchmaking rank. In response to these complaints, Bungie released an automatic update for Halo 2 (a mandatory patch) on the Monday the 18th of April, 2005, which fixed the various bugs and cheats in the game, slimmed down split-screen HUD information, and rebalanced various weapons to promote use of single-wield weapons, grenades, and melee attacks. For example, the melee attacks and grenades are now far more powerful. A full list of changes can be seen here. This brings Halo 2 up to Version 1.1.

Four multiplayer maps were made available to download on Monday the 25th April, 2005. Two of these are free to download (the "Bonus Pack"), while the other two (the "Killtacular Pack") have a charge attached (US$5.99, £2.99) until June the 28th, when they too will become free to download.

On the 28th of June 2005, 5 new maps will be made available in a pack for $11.99 (and will be made free to download at a later date). On the same day, a disk containing the update, all 9 maps, and various other extras will be released, for £15 in the UK and $19.99 in the US. See "Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack", below.

See List of Multiplayer Maps in Halo 2 for more detailed information on the new maps.

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack

The Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack is an expansion pack intended to make Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players. It contains the automatic update (see "XBox Live Updates", above), nine new multiplayer maps, plus a new cinematic and a "making of" documentary.

The new multiplayer content can be used on Live, System Link and Split-Screen.

See List of Multiplayer Maps in Halo 2 for more detailed information on the maps.

Awards

• 2005 GameFly Q Awards
  • Favorite Game of the Year
  • Favorite Xbox Game
  • Favorite Shooter Game
• 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards
  • Excellence in Audio
  • Game Innovation Spotlights (I Love Bees)
• Game Revolution 2004
  • Best Console Game of E3 2004
• E3 2004 Game Critics Awards
  • Best Console Game
  • Best Action Game
  • Best Online Multiplayer Game
• 1UP, 2004
  • Best Visuals of E3 2004
  • Best Xbox Game of E3 2004
  • Best Shooter of E3 2004
  • Best Game of E3 2004 Nominee

See also

• List of Halo 2 changes
• List of vehicles in the Halo universe
• Halo Fanatics Must Live

External links

• Bungie's Official Halo 2 site
• Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 site
• Halo fanatics website
• Halo.Bungie.Org
• Halo Fans.com
• Gamespot.com and Gamespot's Halo 2 game page
• Howstuffworks articles on a variety of Halo 2 topics.