Halo 2

Halo 2
Halo 2 cover art
Developer(s)	Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Series	Halo series
Platform(s)	Xbox, PC (Windows Vista only), Xbox 360 Backwards Compatible (With HDD unit to store emulation files)
Release	Microsoft Xbox: NA November 9 2004 AU November 9 2004 EU November 11 2004 JP November 11 2004 PC: Microsoft Windows Vista exclusive, 2007/2008
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Multi-player, Xbox Live, Co-Op, System-link

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox game console on November 9 2004, the game is the sequel to the critically acclaimed blockbuster Halo: Combat Evolved. From the day of its initial release, Halo 2 has been the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360. On June 20, 2006, more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 had been played on Xbox Live since its debut, and by October 30 2006, this number was raised to four billion. Halo 2 is compatible with the Xbox 360, including its Xbox Live functionality.

Halo 2 features a newly built game engine and the Havok physics engine, new weapons and vehicles, new multiplayer maps, and a storyline that continues the story begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. As of November 9 2005, over seven million units of Halo 2 have been sold worldwide, making it the best selling game for the Xbox. A Windows Vista version of the game is under development. It has been announced that game developer Pi Studios will be producing editing tools for this version of the game. With these tools, users will be able to create their own levels for the Windows Vista version of the game.

Gameplay

In-game screenshot of Halo 2

Halo 2 is, like its predecessor, a story-driven action-shooter game with a first person perspective. The game features an expanded range of vehicles, including several from the original game as well as new additions and variants. Unlike the original Halo, which featured both health and shields, the HUD in Halo 2 removed the health bar. However the player still has a shield which absorbs a finite amount of punishment. When the shield is depleted, the player is vulnerable; however if not exposed to fire the shield regenerates over a period of time.

Halo 2 features over 14 different human and alien weapons. Some weapons can be used at the same time- this ability to 'dual-wield' allows the player to sacrifice reload times, accuracy, and melee attacks for raw firepower in combat situations. Regardless, the player can only carry two weapons at a time (or three if dual wielding; one weapon remains holstered.) This gameplay restriction forces players to choose their arsenal wisely, as different weapons have both pros and cons. For example, most Covenant weapons eschew disposable ammo clips for a contained battery, which cannot be replaced if depleted. In addition, these weapons can overheat if fired in too rapid a fashion. Human weapons, on the other hand, are less effective at penetrating shields and require reloading, but cannot jam or overheat due to prolonged fire. The player can also carry a total of eight grenades, four each of two types. Grenades can only be thrown when single-wielding, an advantage of using a two-hand firearm.

Campaign

The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. When playing in this mode the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter as the player, who occupy identical but diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that disappears when the player attacks or gets shot.

In Campaign mode there are four levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary (Extremely Hard). An increase in difficulty will result in:

• An increase in the amount, rank, health, damage, and accuracy of enemies
• A reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage
• A decrease in the player's health and shields

Many levels of the Campaign are set in huge, intricate maps. Areas of the maps that players would normally never visit are nevertheless fully built, which allows experienced players to explore huge new areas; notable examples are the mountains of Delta Halo and the skyscrapers of Metropolis.

There is a great amount of hidden content within the game including Easter eggs, messages, hidden objects, weapons and super-weapons. The most well-known of the hidden content are the skulls hidden on every level. The skulls, which can be picked up like a weapon (or 'ball' as in the 'Oddball' multiplayer gametype) are located in hard-to-reach or concealed places and are activated once picked up, and many are exclusive to Legendary mode. Once activated, each skull has a specific effect on gameplay. For example, the 'Sputnik' skull found on the Quarantine Zone level alters the mass of objects in the game, meaning explosions can launch them across huge distances. Players can therefore manipulate this effect to jump to many previously impossible-to-reach places. Skull effects can be combined to provide various new levels of difficulty and/or novelty.

Multiplayer

File:Halo2 multi 4 1094806526.jpg

Xbox Live automatically matches players based on criteria such as skill and ping. The screenshot is from a Beta version of the game.

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via the Xbox Live online service, in addition to the originals support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer.

The first official release of Halo 2 was in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for the game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered. This was followed by releases on November 10 2004 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to US$125 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as highest grossing release in entertainment history. As of November 9 2005, exactly a year after its release, Halo 2 had sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. Halo 2 won "Game of the Year 2004" at GPhoria, among other awards.

On February 9, 2006, Bungie Studios announced that Halo 2 would be released on PC exclusively for the Windows Vista operating system. The game is to be ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios (codenamed Hired Gun) who will work closely with Bungie Studios.

On December 7, 2006, Microsoft visited IGN.com and revealed plans, as part of their Games for Windows brand campaign, to have Halo 2 be playable from disc via streaming during its own PC installation.

Additional content

Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition

The Limited Collector's Edition features the regular edition, but some extras include an aluminum case, many promotional offers, an in-depth game manual with a special cover and a special DVD of the making of Halo 2. One of the most notable bonuses of the limited edition is the Conversations from the Universe booklet that contains information from both the human side and the Covenant side of the story.

See also the contents of Halo 2 Limited Collector's Edition.

Xbox Live updates

A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play has been the widespread cheating which occurred 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. The first forms of cheating that took place were standbying, in which a player would intentionally press the standby button on his or her modem so that everyone in the game would freeze except for the cheater, so that the cheater would be given time to accomplish an objective in the game. "Dummying" is another cheat that exploded in the Xbox Live community, in which an elite model of a character enters and exits a vehicle in a manner that on the cheater's screen his or her character is still in the vehicle, while on everyone elses screen the character is out of the vehicle and standing still. When the cheater finally decides to exit the vehicle, he or she can grab the flag and then warp back to the body that remains motionless in a different location. Cheating also includes softmodding, in which a player uses devices such as Action Replay and computer programs to give his player unfair capabilities, and bridging which involves computer programs that are used to give a player 'host' status and therefore give him/her the ability to disconnect other players from the game session. Many players became frustrated and started demanding that Bungie create a solution to the widespread cheating. In response to these complaints, Bungie released an automatic update for Halo 2 (a mandatory patch) on Monday, April 18th, 2005, which fixed many of 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 and the battle rifle is now more accurate. Bungie maintains a full list of changes. [1] This brings Halo 2 up to Version 1.1. A game exploitation called "Superbouncing" or "Superjumping" is labeled cheating by many of the Xbox Live community, and has been described as cheating by Bungie employees when it is used in Matchmaking [2]. Another group of glitches, which involve the use of certain button combos, have similarly been described as cheating by both fans and Bungie employees. [3] Despite this, whether Superjumping or the use of button combos is cheating or not is still disputed by some players. Bungie has not made a patch to fix Superjumping, and many people claim that a patch would not be able to fix this exploitation because the whole game engine would have to be changed in order to do so.

Halo 2 also supports downloadable content, with Bungie making various new multiplayer maps available. Four maps were made available to download on Monday, April 25th, 2005, which were Warlock, Containment, Sanctuary, and Turf. They are now all completely free. On the 5th, 5 new maps were made available for free on Xbox live. These maps are Elongation, Gemini, Terminal, Relic, and Backwash. The Map Pack disk was also released on that date.

Another update was added in July, 2005 (a week or so after the release of the map pack). The update added a detection tool that would automatically detect and ban 'modders' using modified content on their Xboxes. Modified versions of the downloadable maps would allow people to use cheats such as 'autoaim' and 'automatic reload' during matches on Xbox Live. Any players who are detected using modified content would be automatically banned from Matchmaking on Xbox Live within around six hours. The update also fixes a teleporter glitch on the map, Relic. The players who use 'modded' content to have an unfair advantage over other players now resort to using 2-month free trial accounts to cheat on Xbox Live. Many players hold their rank (or level) in high regard, and these people will give 'modders' 2-month free trial cards so their rank can be 'boosted' up from winning unfairly. Anyone who knowingly and willingly plays with 'modders' will be banned from Matchmaking.

In June 2006, an additional online matchmaking update was released. This update removed the Clan Match, 6v6, and Big Team Battle playlists, as well as made other changes within existing playlists. New additions to the matchmaking playlist included Big Team Skirmish and Big Team Slayer, which are objective only and slayer only playlists, respectively, and Team SWAT (Unranked matches in which shields are disabled, and non-default starting weapons are used - as of October 10th 2006, this playlist is now ranked.)

On August 22 2006, Bungie also added a new playlist called Team Carnage, that was developed by players at Halo.Bungie.Org.[4]

On October 10 2006, Bungie rotated the Team Carnage playlist. The current Team Carnage playlist was developed by players from Real Custom Games [5]. [6]

Inevitably some cheats and exploits remain. As users typically aim to increase their matchmaking rank by using these, some users avoid these by not entering games with particularly high-level players.

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack

File:Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.jpg

The Multiplayer Map Pack cover art.

The Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack is an expansion pack for the video game Halo 2, intended to make Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players. The disk contains the game's automatic update, all nine new multiplayer maps, a documentary about the making of the maps, and a cinematic called "Another Day on the Beach", amongst other features. It was released on July 5 2005. At release, it cost £15 in the UK and $19.99 in the U.S., available at par in Canada.

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

Five of the new maps (Elongation, Terminal, Backwash, Gemini, Relic) were released online through Xbox Live's downloadable content service on July 5, the same day as the map pack. The other four maps (Turf, Sanctuary, Warlock, Containment) were released earlier that year. All of the multiplayer maps are now available as free & mandatory downloads on Xbox Live. This also upgrades Halo's multiplayer to version 1.1. The fuses on the grenades have a shorter timer until they detonate, and grenades are more powerful overall. The magnum has become less powerful, and when dual-wielded, it has a decrease in its auto-accuracy ability. The SMG and Plasma Rifle dual-wield combo has been toned down. Melee damage has been doubled, so now instead of 6 hits it only takes three to take down an opponent with any gun. If the player jumps and hits an opponent his shields will be knocked down instantly. If done in midair as a mid-air melee with the Brute Shot it will be a one hit kill, as the Brute Shot takes 2 regular beatdowns to now kill someone, and the weapon itself is more powerful because of the increase in grenade damage.

The disc also includes a documentary about the making of the new maps and a short bonus movie.

Additional maps

On November 15 2006, Bungie stated that they will be releasing new Halo 2 multiplayer maps in Spring 2007. They will only be available for download with an Xbox 360. The maps will not be free, however no cost has been given as yet. The number of maps is currently unknown.

Reception

From the day of its initial release and up until mid-November, 2006, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360; its position was only recently usurped by the 360-exclusive Gears of War. Halo and Halo 2 are some of the most played games for the Xbox console. Official Xbox Magazine reported that the Halo 2 launch was the biggest event in entertainment history, grossing $125 million on the launch date alone. On June 20, 2006, Xbox.com reported that more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live since its debut. The same article also reported that 9.2 million units of Halo 2 have been sold worldwide.

The game's Campaign mode has received some criticism, from the lack of Earth-based missions, to dissatisfaction with the abrupt, cliffhanger ending that sets gamers up for Halo 3. There is also some criticism of the game's on-the-fly streaming and level of detail adjustment, which can sometimes result in textures or models being loaded into a cutscene in full sight of the player (or less frequently, during gameplay, though these incidents tend to be less obvious). Bungie has stated that this issue has been fixed for Halo 3 and the Windows Vista port. A common point of contention between Bungie and tournament players such as MLG is that Bungie uses SMG starts (meaning the player will spawn with an SMG if they are killed), while tournament players prefer the Battle Rifle.[7] Bungie has since adopted settings similar to the ones MLG used (battle-rifle starts) and dubbed the playlist "Team Hardcore" (for team games) on Xbox Live.[8]

2005 Spacey Awards

• Favourite Video Game

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

E3 2003 Game Critics Awards

• Best Console 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
• Best Multiplayer/Online Game of 2004
• Best Shooter of 2004
• Game of the Year 2004

G-Phoria 2005

• Best Shooter
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best Sound Design
• Best Original Soundtrack
• Best Male Performance (David Cross)
• Best Boss (Scarab Battle)
• Game of the Year

Webby for best "Games Related Website" (I Love Bees)

X-Play

• Best Xbox game ever released

Xbox Nation Magazine

• Game of the Year
• Best Xbox Live Play

Legacy

Halo 2 is being ported by Microsoft Game Studios, with the help of Bungie, to Windows Vista. On February 9, 2006, it was announced that Halo 2 Vista, as it is called by Bungie, would be in stores before the end of 2006, but this now seems unlikely due to the push of the Windows Vista launch into 2007. There will be a map editor included that will be made by Microsoft (in cooperation with Bungie Studios). The extent of the map editor's capabilities have not yet been made available.

Halo 2 Vista will link with the Live Anywhere network and have some operability with the Xbox Live network, as stated in the new FAQ section of Halo 2 Vista on Bungie's official website. Bungie has stated that it will also have networking features of its own, resembling Halo PC's inclusion of free internet capabilities.

Halo 3 is also currently in development by Bungie Studios.

Guinness World Records

Halo 2 player Cody Miller recently completed the game on Legendary difficulty in under 3.5 hours without his character dying. This play-through was recorded in the Guinness World Records of 2007. [9][10]

External links

Official websites

• Bungie's Official Halo 2 site
• Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 site
• Halo.Bungie.org, Halo news and associated productions

Reviews

• Halo 2 on GameSpot
• Halo 2 on IGN.com
• Metacritic.com - Reviews & Scores from Leading Critics
• Halo 2 reviews on MobyGames