Halo 2
| Halo 2 | ||
| Developer: | Bungie Studios | |
| Publisher: | Microsoft Game Studios | |
| Release date: | November 9, 2004 | |
| Genre: | First-person shooter | |
| Game modes: | Single player, multiplayer | |
| ESRB rating: | Mature (M) | |
| Platform: | Xbox | |
| Media: | DVD | |
Halo 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox. It is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and features a newly built graphics engine and the addition of new elements to the game. Like the Marathon series, the game will further develop the struggle between the human race and a religiously zealous and technologically superior foe (The Covenant from the first Halo).
The release date of Halo 2 was November 9, 2004. This is one of the most highly anticipated games on the Xbox. 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, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version. Regardless, Microsoft later touted that there have been 1.5 million preorders for Halo 2 in the United States alone and that this guarantees it to have the largest first-day revenue of any game or movie ever. [1] The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves. [2]
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 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 rechargable form of Active Camoflage that will drop if an action other than movement is taken.
There are four levels of competition: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary.
Multiplayer
There are a variety of multi-player competition modes, several of which have returned fromt the original Halo game. A typical melee game called 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, and a game extrapolated from a child's game of "it" called Juggernaut, as well as others and the ability to create one's own variations. Of the preset variations present in the original game only Race is missing, replaced by a similar but different game.
Storyline
The game starts with a probing covenant attack on Earth, our hero, the Master Chief is on one of the many space defence platforms which orbit our planet. After repulsing the covenant boarding parties, the battle shifts to Africa.
The player engages in an high tech urban warfare scenario against the alien invaders. Meanwhile a covenant ship makes a hyperspace jump above the city, whilst a human ship with the master chief aboard gets swept up in the warp field in an desperate effort to follow it.
The player is transported to the vicinity of another halo ring, perhaps many tens of thousands of light years from earth, on which they land. Also, a power struggle within the covenant is revealed, with Brutes usurping the role of the Elites, and a movement, which the covenant leadership regards as heretical, which argues that covenant teachings aren't true. Also, we are introduced to an (apparently massive) creature which appears to be the controlling mind of the Flood. The creature is obviously intelligent and gives the impression of knowing a great deal. It appears to live deep within Halo, out of sight and yet its actual size, although not revealed may encompass much of the entire hidden underground caverns that encircle the ring.
At some point, (by accident or more interestingly, by her own design) Cortana becomes seperated from the Master Chief and is left within a computer on Halo.
Halo and the Forerunner, we learn from Guilty Spark was built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy, and that the Forerunner, who built it, were wiped out when they fired it at some point in the remote past. In spite of this, the Brute leadership activate the ring in preperation to fire, to bring about - in their eyes - the Great Journey. The player must fight to retrieve the Index, and deactivate the ring before it fires and destroys all life in the Galaxy.
The Index retrieved from the firing mechanism, Halo cannot fire. Guilty Spark however, reveals that because the index was removed before Halo had time to complete it's firing sequence, it sends a superluminal signal to every other Halo in the Galaxy, putting them into standby mode. At this point, esentially the player has completed the game and we are treated to end game cinematics.
Main characters
- Master Chief
- Cortana
- Sergeant Johnston
- Miranda Keyes
- Arbiter
- High Prophet of Truth
- High Prophet of Mercy
- High Prophet of Regret
- 343 Guilty Spark
- 2401 Patent Tangent
- Chips Dubbo (The Aussie)
Future developments
It is revealed that all other Halo rings in the galaxy have been activated and put into standby mode, and that only a device known as the Ark has the capability to shut them all down. The Marine Sergeant, Captain Keyes' Daughter, Guilty Spark and an Elite Commander (whom the player plays through much of the Game) ponder this in the Halo control room. It is inferred that this device was sequested away by the forerunner, probably somewhere on Earth in remote pre-history. The Master Chief, meanwhile, returns to Earth in a spaceship he stowed away on when he left Cortana behind at her insistance. The ship that the Chief is on is a Forerunner ship and it is occupied both by the last prophet and it's AI, which Cortana said she had great difficulty with as it fought her, both are probably trying to head to the location of the Ark on earth. The stage is therefore set for a sequel in which a climactic battle between the Covenant and the Humans on Earth to find and gain control of the Ark, which has the power to either shut down or recommence the firing sequence for all of the Halo rings throught the Galaxy.
After the credits, we are treated to a small cinematic. Which reveals the omnipresent nature of the controlling intelligence behind the flood - this massive halo-wide creature that lives within its depths. Cortana appears above a console, it's tentacle reaches out to her but she raises her hand to halt its grasp as the creature proposes to ask her questions - "ok, shoot" is her response.
This also leaves open the possibility that Cortana may have become - or may be becoming, Rampant, and either giving some information to or forming some sort of alliance with the Flood.
It should also be noted that Cortana is not a biological lifeform, but a computer program and would likely be unaffected should halo actually fire. It is likely that Cortana is aware of this, so people should factor that into her reasoning.
Cortana going rampant would also be in keeping with the tradition of other rampant AI's in bungie games - ie: the Marathon series. It appears at least that Cortana has motivations that aren't entirely clear and may in fact be above and beyond her programming.
The "Haunted Apiary" ARG
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. 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.