Halo 2 : Web Wombat : Games

Sure, it's been a tough number of years waiting for Halo's progeny, but after playing the game to death (clinically, that is) I have but one scant phrase for the half dozen gamers who are still sitting on the fence: it's time to rock!

Usually I mince words at this stage in my reviews, trying to pad things out, self indulge and perhaps get a giggle or two from you guys, the readers - but this time I gonna jump into the deep end and lay it out for you:

By and large, Halo 2 is a success, and 1.5 million pre-orders can't be wrong.

The game engine feels largely unchanged (Bungie will dispute this of course), making jumping into the action smooth and seamless - like the 2004 US Presidential Election, I suppose.

There aren't too many new controls, save for the fact that you now have to hold down 'X' to use things and get into vehicles, and also when you're toting twin weapons, the left trigger shoots the left weapon instead of throwing grenades (your hands are full with firearms, after all).

The graphics have been improved over the original game, by not by leaps and bounds. The player models and polygon count have been increased significantly, and the bump-mapping and textures in general are a bit sharper, but best of all the levels themselves are much bigger in scope, often dwarfing players with their structural grandiosity.

In the original Halo there were many levels that became exceedingly repetitive in terms of their look and feel, and this is one area of level design that has been remedied in the sequel. There is also far less backtracking and this improves the game's pacing considerably by not encouraging you to switch off and watch The Simpsons instead.

The token 'smart' baddies, Elites, look more complex and a bit scarier - complete with articulating mandibles - and dynamic lighting effects have been added, making it a more immersive and atmospheric visual experience.

Explosions and weapons fire also look better this time around (though there are still many 2D sprites in there), but unless you're a hard core gamer who knows everything about the Covenant, including their mating habits and national anthem, you probably won't notice a lot of the graphical changes, which is a bit of a shame I feel.

At the same token, I guess you could say the original was so far ahead of its time that not a lot needed to be done.

The gameplay is rock solid as per the original game; though I was disappointed that Bungie only included only one new warthog (the jeeps with guns), as it was one of the first game's coolest features.

A scorpion takes on a pair of banshees after
a long haul up the freeway on futuristic Earth

That said, there are a couple of levels based on the planet Earth that have massive sections of highway to which the warthog is ideally suited, and these levels can be played over and over with just as much glee as the first time through. Perhaps more.

I guess that's one of the things that made the original Halo so good - the fact that you could play through the single player game for months on end over and over - and this legacy is intact in the sequel.

The physics, the enemy AI, the use of different weapons, the vehicles - it all combines to form a game that is quite probably without par. While you may play the same level over and over, you'll almost never see or do the same thing twice.

In general, the game is great to play through and the multiplayer modes, particularly online, are incredible. But for mine, there was a subtle sense of disappoint underneath all the new bits. Beyond wielding two weapons at once, beyond playing as an elite and beyond the new guns and fancy story there's something not quite right.

Bungie spent three years working on it, and the results are fantastic - don't get me wrong - but all the hype, all the midnight openings and all the hoopla with the Master Chief feel somewhat overstated once you've spent a good half dozen hours playing it. It still feels like Halo, and at the end of the single player game I was asking myself "Is that it?"

Granted, the story is completely compelling and the cut-scenes are tip top, the new Covenant vehicles are pretty cool and being able to fight new enemies is a wondrous thing (particularly the shield-less brutes), but for all the games new bits and bobs it felt as if I was playing Halo 1.5 -- just new levels with a few minor tweaks.

I wanted to see Bungie take the next step in vehicular combat and add a banshee-like single seater human fighter aircraft, a mini Pelican dropship if you like. I wanted to see a greater variety of new weapons, I wanted to see system link 4-player co-op and stuff like that. But hey, selfishness leads to the dark side, right?

But even in the face of my gripes, and beyond all the 'I wants', Halo 2 is a very good game. And though I whine and whinge, I'll also be the Master Hypocrite as I keep playing the game well into 2005 and beyond...

To set the scene, Master Chief, the bad-ass cyborg über-soldier you control, is rewarded for his courage in destroying one of the Halo rings upon rejoining the human fleet.

This is the first level aboard the human cruiser, and
you can see other spaceships and planets outside

For those who are not aware, the Halo ring worlds have the capacity to destroy the universe, something the evil Covenant wants to bring about in the name of its religion.

As soon as you've been rewarded by the top military brass, the first level begins as your capital ship is attacked and boarded by the aforementioned Covenant, who try to plant a massive bomb on board. Big mistake.

What ensues is a complex and even riveting plot that follows both sides of the conflict, Human and Covenant.

The deeply religious Covenant want to destroy the universe by activating another recently discovered Halo ring world, as they believe that only those pious enough will be carried off to some special hereafter where the beer is free, as is the healthcare. Is someone at Bungie having a go at certain religions, perhaps?

The humans, on the other hand, have one goal in mind - to destroy the Halo just like they had done previously, and the Master Chief is intent on doing so while carrying out his own particular brand of extreme justice.

One of the best new aspects of the game for me was the inclusion of real end bosses. In Halo 2 you'll come across a massive spider-robot ripped straight from the script of Ghost in the Shell.

It looks amazing, and the lead up to the conflict is one of those special videogame experiences that will go down in history, one of those unforgettable moments. You're basically cruising along a massive suspension bridge that stretches more than a kilometre in length, driving tanks and jeeps as you approach the nefarious spider-bot, fighting off ghosts, wraiths and other assorted Covenant scum as you go.

The addition of true end bosses adds a little more closure to tough levels and it's very rewarding after running the gauntlet of a marathon stage to be able to fire off several dozen clips into a super-tough enemy kingpin.

One of the Covenant Prophets is another end boss who must swiftly be taken to meet his maker, and in Halo 2 you get to see a lot of the Covenant side's story, and these Prophets turn out to be the alien race's grand poo-bahs, the religious leaders, the big chiefs if you will, so it makes taking one down quite an experience.

Another cool addition to Halo 2 is the dual-wielding of weapons, and duelling with magnums akimbo hasn't been this much fun since Max Payne 2. Only one-handed weapons can be used in tandem, such as needlers or the new human sub machine guns, however.

Vehicles can now be destroyed, and the rocket
launcher has a fire-and-forget tracking mode

Vehicles are no longer invincible and gradually take damage, whether Covenant or human and the enemy AI has been altered too, providing for a tougher challenge on the top two difficulty levels.

With this increase in NPC scripting, the human AI has also been improved. Now your troops have much better pathing and they will even drive vehicles such as the warthog, allowing you to man the minigun turret mounted in the back, for example.

You can also exchange weapons with your subordinates, which makes for interesting gaming as you can equip them with the weapons of your choice. It's pretty cool having two or three snipers backing you up in every fire fight.

On the topic of AI, all your favourite beasties are in the there too, just waiting to be mulched by your shotgun of vengeance.

There's the robotic Sentinels with a new and much larger hovering 'bot, there's the parasitic Flood, the technologically advanced Covenant and even a few different factions therein, which makes for interesting battles.

There are also quite a few single player missions in Halo 2 where you'll play as an Elite, fondly called the Arbiter thanks to his hip threads. Playing as a retrenched Elite is quite cool as you'll get to use the alien creature's special Predator-like camouflage ability, as well as the energy swords, which are most effective against the Flood.

Some of the vehicles on offer have new features too, as the Warthog can do power slides with the use of the handbrake, and most Covenant vehicles have a turbo feature, giving them increased mobility. You can also jump onto vehicles while on foot and remove the driver/pilot by force, which looks ace and it makes multiplayer games more evenly balanced when vehicles are involved.

Another big change to the way the game plays is the removal of the health bar. The new Master Chief suit of armour has shields that recharge more quickly, but now you have no health, so when your shields are gone, you can only take a few shot before its lights out. The flipside of this is that you'll never have to go searching for health packs now.

Listening to what's going on around you is quite a treat as well. Bungie has crafted an immersive game not only through the use of detailed graphics, in-depth gameplay and clever storytelling, but the sound is also perfectly suited.

Okay people, let's see what the dropship brought:
Beer? "Check." Guns? "Check." Toilet Roll? "...."

In addition to the constant sounds of weapons fire, the orchestral score is simply brilliant, giving the epic-looking game an epic heart. The quality of the soundtrack and sound effects is also top notch, and if you've got a 5.1 Dolby setup you'll be in for a real treat.

One of the more charming aspects of the original game was your comrades' speech during battle, and thankfully this has returned in Halo 2.

There's different accents matched to the different soldiers (even when playing as Covenant) who sound off after making kills and try to psych themselves up for the next skirmish, and it gives the game a real sense of character.

Once you're done with the mammoth 15-level single player game, there's the multiplayer side of things to contend with, and methinks that the reason why I was a little disappointed with the new features (or lack thereof) included in the game could be due to all the time Bungie spent on the multiplayer side of things.

With one Xbox and four controllers you and three buddies can go the tonk on a single TV set, but the real action is with system linked consoles or, better yet, up to 16 players via Xbox Live.

There are far more multiplayer modes this time around, including capture the flag and assault-type maps, and when you factor in the new vehicles, the new weapons and the new player skins, it makes for a very compelling online game.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that this is one of the best online console games yet available. Even though the task at hand is usually the same as in the single player game (kill them all), it's how you go about this that makes it so addictive. In a team game, do you ride in the back of the gauss gun-equipped Warthog, or simply charge into battle, energy sword at the ready?

You'll come across some rather nice multiplayer maps as well, as Bungie appears to have put more thought into level design, and there's also more game modes this time around. As well as the usuals, (Slayer, King of the Hill), the multitude of capture the flag (CtF) modes will keep team-based action fans happy, as will the Assault mode, where teams must plant a bomb in their enemy's lair.

On top of all the game modes, the customisations that can be made to each map and each online encounter are rather impressive, as you can alter weapons, vehicles, time settings and the list goes on.

One of the larger multiplayer maps
(note the warthog and banshee below)

Bungie.net has been upgraded to track all your player stats as well, plus you can join or create a clan. The cool thing about these is that there are also clan rankings, which are separate to your player ranking and can be boosted when you set up clan matches online.

I've really only scratched the surface in terms of the multiplayer modes, but suffice it to say that Bungie has gone above and beyond the call of duty in this respect.

And while this is a great thing, not everyone has their Xbox hooked up to a broadband connection, and particularly so in Australia where our networks, well, they suck compared to American, South Korea, Spain and other regions.

And though the single player game is an improvement over the original game, there was a feeling of disappoint at times when it did feel like playing Halo.

But, when all's said and done, Halo 2 is a tremendous game, offering fans of the original game new levels - many of which are set on Earth, psyche! - new weapons, new bad guys, new multiplayer bits and my personal fave, new one-liners.

The story is engrossing and really it's only a matter of time before Hollywood cottons on to Halo's massive influence and popularity and puts the Master Chief on the silver screen (with the voice of Michael Ironside for the hero, no doubt).

While I do harbour some misgivings about how the single player game has changed in the past three years, the game is hard to fault. Participating in massive battles involving multiple vehicles and up to four different sides warring is something that very other few games offer, and none do it as well as in Halo 2.

The game looks amazing, the scope is huge, and it's one of those titles that can be played over and over again, whether in single or multiplayer mode, without things getting tedious. The co-op campaign mode is the dogs bollocks, and the online aspect is without par.

Like Halo before it, Halo 2 will help Microsoft sell consoles and rightly so. It will go down in the annals of gaming history as one of the best sequels ever, and stands to do for the online Xbox community what Counter-Strike did for those on their PCs.

So, despite the fact that not everything Bungie had promised has appeared in Halo 2, it is still a brilliant game that should - nay - must be played through multiple times. And with any luck in another three years or so we'll get Halo 3. And I'm talking to you, Bungie, when I say you better have my troop carrying warthog ready by then…

Game: Halo 2
System: Xbox
Players: 1-16
Online: Yes
Developer: Bungie
Distributor: Microsoft

Rating: 90%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Halo 2 is on the shelves now.

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