Halo 2

Halo 2
Halo 2 box art
Developer(s)	Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Platform(s)	Xbox
Release	November 9, 2004
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

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

File:Halo 2 800600 MP E32004.jpg

Halo 2 screenshot from press kit

Halo 2 is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and 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. While the Halo universe shares characteristics with the Marathon series, the two storylines are distinct.

Halo 2 was initially intended for release in the Christmas season in 2003 (Microsoft had been recieving pre-orders since January 2003 and a Halo 2 trailer had been released in Fall 2002) but it was moved to 2004. Other highly anticipated games such as Half-Life 2 and Doom 3, who were expected to contend with Halo 2 for "Game of the Year" honours were also pushed back from the 2003 holiday season.

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. In the end, the leak failed to have significant impact on sales, because many die-hard fans were determined to honour the official release date (to avoid spoiling the surprise) and refused to acquire the leaked version. A supportive Halo community was instrumental in curbing the spread of the leaked version and shutting down potential distribution sites. [1]

The first official release of Halo 2 was in North America on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered [2]. This was followed by releases on November 10 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. 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. [3] As of 1 January 2005, the game had sold 6.3 million copies. According to a contemporary Wired Magazine issue, Halo 2 had a more profitable opening day than did the then-highest-grossing Hollywood film, Spider-Man. Commentators of Halo 2's success noted that video game development was far less costly and risky venture than the movie industry and it had been a few years since the video game industry surpassed the movie industry in revenues.

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 warrior called The Arbiter, while some, but not 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 the player attacks someone or is shot.

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

File:Halo2 multi 4 1094806526.jpg

Xbox Live automatically matches players based on criteria such as skill and ping.

File:Halo2 multi 2 1094806396.jpg

Halo 2 multiplayer screenshot from press kit, featuring the map Zanzibar

There are varying modes, several of which have returned from the original Halo game. A typical classic free for all or team deathmatch game known as Slayer, a team based Capture The Flag game, a game which you plant a bomb in your enemies base to score called Assault, a more esoteric free-for-all or team game of keep away 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 in Team based games. Parties can also play in "Rumble Training" games, which is an unranked version of "Rumble Pit" 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 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, which leads to the overshadowing of the other weapons in the game. Should a 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 seize the weapons in question from the opposition to 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. 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").

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 Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack. Bungie has recently stated that 5 new maps will be available for purchase on July 5, 2005 over Xbox Live.

Damage system

File:Shieldhalo2.JPG

The shield's new placement lets you check your damage and your motion detector simultaneously.

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 until 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.

Gametype Settings: In some gametypes, the overshield and/or active camo are always active on one or all of the players, and if disabled, will recharge over time. One common mistake for new players is to mix the overshield and the active camo: this creates a faint halo around the player, even though they have active camo.

Weapons

Main article: List of weapons in Halo 2

Secrets

The existence of many hidden skulls has been discovered. [4] 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. After finding it and picking it up, some players are entered into a battle with more than twenty Elites using only a plasma pistol, with victory leading to new NPC comments[5]. However, 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. These skulls are only available on the Legendary mode except the blind skull that's found on Outskirts. One skull shows no text when collected but examination of Halo 2 files shows this skull to be known internally as Whuppopotamous (fitting the acronym) and also Cowbell. This is because the names can be found in two almost similiar lists in different Halo 2 files, for example Iron also has the name Ice Cream.

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 only been seen done in one video, using the sputnik and black-eye skulls.

Players have also discovered "super jumps" or bounces which were put into Halo 2 by Bungie. Super jumps can be found on every map and are exectued by crouching under something until your screen shakes and then jumping on a certain area, at which time the player will be propelled very high. Players have only discovered a few of these jumps and there are possibly many more, especially in the newer maps.

Players have also discovered many glitches in Halo 2. They have discovered a way to get out of the ordinary map boundaries by preforming a "sword cancel" in which the player presses the "R" and then the "X" button on their gamepad, while having their sword equiped, while facing another player. They will charge at the player but not slash them, allowing the sword user to fly over the other person and get over a boundary.

These glitches have become a major problem in Halo 2's multiplayer over Xbox LIVE. For example, players can use the aformentioned "super jump" on the level Zanzibar to jump to the top of the level out of reach of most players. Since the release of the downloadable maps, Halo 2 hackers (users who edit the game with formerly illegally modified consoles (modifying Xbox consoles is now legal in the United States) began to mod the maps on the hard drives of their Xboxes to receive advantages, such as weapons that do more damage, flying ground vehicles, etc. This is a major problem in Halo 2's "Matchmaking" system, and Bungie is trying to resolve the problem by releasing autoupdates which ban hackers from the system and terminate their accounts.

Plot synopsis

Template:Spoiler Halo 2 opens with an awards ceremony on the Cairo weapons platform orbiting Earth. This ceremony is cut short when a Covenant flagship jumps out of slipstream and sends boarding parties towards the platforms. These boarding parties are carrying heavy explosives designed to take out the MAC guns capable of destroying the Covenant flagships. Master Chief finds and disarms the bomb with the help of Cortana, then sends it to one of the ships and detonates it. They then head to Earth where the Covenant attack the city of New Mombasa, 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 separate 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 station, 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 because if all else fails, she would detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors. This will destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating it, while preventing the Flood's escape across the galaxy.

Uniting the separatist faction of the Covenant on Delta Halo, and with the help of Sergeant Johnson, the Arbiter succeeds in preventing Tartarus 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 while Cortana meets Gravemind on High Charity for unknown reasons. The stage is set for the final battles of the Human-Covenant and Covenant civil wars in Halo 3.

Main characters

Main article: Halo characters

• Master Chief
• Cortana
• Sergeant Johnson
• Miranda Keyes
• Arbiter
• High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret
• Tartarus
• 2401 Penitent Tangent
• 343 Guilty Spark
• Spec-Ops Command Leader Half-Jaw

Music

The Halo 2 soundtrack was mostly composed by Martin O'Donnell, who had also composed the music of Halo. Steve Vai provided guitar backing for many tracks. Additional tracks were also provided by various outside musicians.

Mjolnir Mix is the signature theme tune for Halo 2. It is based on original Halo theme tune, but has a more orchestrated rock feel.

The "Haunted Apiary" Alternate Reality Game (ARG)

Main article: Haunted Apiary

The website http://www.ilovebees.com 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 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. 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 (though some inevitably persist), 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.

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. Two of these were immediately free to download (the "Bonus Pack"), while the other two (the "Killtacular Pack") had a charge attached (US$5.99, £2.99) until July the 5th (in actuality, late June), when they too became free to download. On the 5th, 5 new maps were made available in a pack for $11.99, and will similarly be made free to download on August 30th. The Map Pack disk (below) was also released on that date. For further information on the map packs and their contents, see the list of downloadable maps.

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack

Main article: Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack

Dispute and Discussion

While Halo 2 has won many awards, a certain group of fans dispute on whether Halo 2 was that great. Most of this group consistes disgruntled Halo CE fans who feel that certain changes such as the toned pistol and the implentation of the sword have made the game "unskilled" and "unbalanced". A main rallying point for these fans is Halo2sucks.com whose main slogan is 1>2. The site has very bad realations with the Bungie.net forum and the hostility is mutual.

Additionally many players (those who like Halo 2 and those who don't) dislike that in Xbox Live Matchmaking, players get spawned with the comparaply weak SMG. Many fans would like a BR start instead (which is familiar to the pistol spawns in Halo CE). While Bungie has slowly added BR starts, it isn't fast enough for many fans. Many player wish for a their own BR start playlist. Oddly enough, talks of this have incited a holywar (the deepest and most severe type of flamewar), which has set B.net aflame. Eventually the Bungie.net mods banned all discussions of MLG playlist (which at the time was the most popular BR start custom type). While this has happened, the BR vs SMG start conflict seems to have no end in sight.

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
  • Best Multiplayer/Online Game of 2004
  • Best Shooter of 2004
  • Game of the Year 2004
• G-Phoria, 2005
  • (These are just nominations for Halo 2, offical awards are announced on 8/9/05)
  • Best Shooter
  • Best Multiplayer Game
  • Best Sound Design
  • Best Orignal Soundtrack
  • Best Male Performance (David Cross)
  • Best Boss (Scarab Battle)
  • Game of the Year

See also

• List of Halo 2 changes
• List of vehicles in the Halo universe

External links

• Bungie's Official Halo 2 site
• Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 site
• H2Press - Creators of the Halo 2 Community Toolbar
• Halo.Bungie.Org
• HIH - Halo Tricking Site
• Halo Fans.com
• HaloWired.com Halo/Halo 2 Community
• Gamespot.com and Gamespot's Halo 2 game page
• Howstuffworks articles on a variety of Halo 2 topics.
• H2Wiki A Halo 2 Multiplayer Knowledge Repository
• Halo fanatics website
• Good Halo Fan Site