Halo 2

Halo 2
File:Halo2box.jpg
Developer:	Bungie Studios
Publisher:	Microsoft Game Studios
Date Released:	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 video game console. 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

File:Halo 2 800600 MP E32004.jpg

Halo 2 screenshot from press kit

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 (i.e. using a weapon) is performed.

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

Multiplayer

There are a modes, several of which have returned from 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.

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other over 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 games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players sign up for "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 signed up for 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.

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.

Halo 2 players with Microsoft Passport accounts can log on to bungie.net and obtain extremely detailed statistics on their performance, including level maps for several hundred of the player's most recent games that indicate graphically where and when the player scored a kill or was killed him- or herself.

Damage system

The damage system in Halo 2 is not much different than it was in Halo: Combat Evolved. The player still has a regenerating shield and regenerating health.

• Shields: The shield in Halo 2 is much stronger than it was in Halo: Combat Evolved, 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 2 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 Halo: Combat Evolved, the health in Halo 2 regenerates after the shield. The amount of health left is not visible to the player.

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 multiplayer Halo 2, the overshield gradually depletes over time. 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 Camoflauge: Drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him transparent. 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, if he or she fires a weapon or throws a grenade, or in some cases if he or she switches weapons. For example, 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, and the Envy Skull enables the Master Chief to cloak as well in Campaign mode. The powerup is not available in Campaign, and the built-in generator is not available in Multiplayer.

Weapons

See List of weapons in Halo 2

Secrets

The existance of many hidden skulls has been discovered. They are strewn in hard to find areas of (presumably) each level and can usually only be found on the Legendary difficulty. Each of the skulls seems to activate something, such as making enemies explode from headshots and camoflage for Master Chief. You can find one of the skulls (dubbed the Blind skull) on the level Outskirts on any difficulty by entering the first door, then jumping onto one of the two lamps attached to the ceiling in the hallway with the grunt. Then crouch-jump onto the roof, make a left and go into the dark space between walls. The skull is at the end of this little tunnel. Pick it up by holding 'X' and it will activate blind mode, which will turn off your HUD and your gun. Don't get this skull unless you plan on playing this way, otherwise it's hard to get your HUD back. Other skulls have been found, but a link is unavailable at this time.

Storyline

The Game starts with Master Chief on board the defense station Cairo, a MAC cannon in orbit with the Athens and Malta around Earth. After the Covenant fleet arrives just outside the killzone of the battle cluster, they launch boarding craft to take out the cannons. The Chief engages the boarders and then leaves the station via airlock with a Covenant bomb and plants it on one of the carriers heading to Earth. He then lands on the UNSC ship In Amber Clad, which heads towards the other Covenant carrier on Earth's surface.

The player engages in urban combat in the city of New Mombasa, East African Protectorate. Shortly afterwards, a Covenant ship makes a Slipspace jump which causes an explosion on par with a weapon of mass destruction. In Amber Clad, carrying the Master Chief, follows into the ship's slipspace rupture in a desperate effort to follow it.

The player is transported to the vicinity of another Halo ringworld—christened Delta Halo—perhaps many tens of thousands of light years from Earth. At the same time, a power struggle within the Covenant is revealed. The Brutes, a large and furred Covenant race who roughly resemble eight-foot-tall gorillas, are attempting to usurp the role of the prophets' guardians, traditionally carried about by the Elites. This movement was aided by the decision of the High Council, following the murder of the Prophet of Regret (the Covenant invasion force commander), that the Elites could no longer fulfill their duties as guardians. Eventually this sparks a civil war within the Covenant, wherein the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters join forces against the Brutes, Drones, and Jackals. At the same time, a movement within the Covenant, regarded by their leaders as heretical, argues that Covenant teachings aren't true.

A little over halfway into the story, the player is introduced to an apparently massive creature called the Gravemind, which appears to be the controlling mind of the Flood. The creature is highly intelligent and appears to have a vast knowledge of the universe. The Gravemind lives deep within Halo, out of sight. Its actual size, although not revealed, may occupy many of the hidden underground caverns that encircle the ring.

At some point, because she wants to ensure that In Amber Clad's reactors can be detonated in a worst-case scenario, Cortana becomes separated from the Master Chief and is left within a computer on the Covenant Holy City of High Charity, in orbit near Halo. She had made attempts to forestall the launch sequence of a docked Forerunner ship in order to destroy the City and the Ring, but was thwarted by a mysterious Covenant AI construct of unknown origin.

Halo, according to 343 Guilty Spark, was built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy. The Forerunners who built it were wiped out when they fired it as a "weapon of last resort" at some point in the remote past. In spite of this, the Brute leader activates the ring to bring about - according to the teachings of the Prophets - the Great Journey. As the Halo prepares to fire whatever energies it contains, the player must fight to retrieve the Index and deactivate the ring.

The Index is retrieved and the Delta Halo cannot fire. 343 Guilty Spark reveals that although the Index was removed before Delta Halo had time to complete its firing sequence, it fired a beacon recognized by all other Halos in the Galaxy and causing them to go into standby. In standby, a failsafe method of ensuring that the rings could not be stopped by the Flood, they can be activated remotely from the Ark, the location of which is assumed to be on Earth.

Main characters

• Master Chief
• Cortana
• Sergeant Johnson
• Miranda Keyes
• Arbiter
• High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret
• Tartarus
• 343 Guilty Spark
• 2401 Penitent Tangent
• Chips Dubbo (The Aussie)
• Gravemind

Future developments: Halo 3

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. Sergeant Johnson, Miranda Keyes, Guilty Spark and the Arbiter ponder this in the Halo control room. It is inferred that this device was sequestered away by the Forerunners, 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 insistence. The ship that the Chief is on is a Forerunner ship and it is occupied both by the last Prophet and its AI, which Cortana said she had great difficulty with as it fought her. Both the Master Chief and the Prophet are probably trying to head to the location of the Ark on Earth. The stage is set for a climactic final battle on Earth to find and gain control of the Ark which has either the power to shut down or resume the Halo Installation superweapon firing sequence all over the galaxy and also on High Charity.

After the credits, we are treated to a small cinematic. The short movie reveals the omnipresent nature of the controlling intelligence behind the Flood - the massive Halo-wide creature that lives within its depths known as the Gravemind. He recites a verse:

Silence fills the empty grave now that I am gone,

But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on.

I will ask and you will answer.

Cortana appears above a console; its tentacle reaches out to her, but she raises her hand to halt its grasp - "alright, 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 which will join the final battle for control of the Ark.

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" 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.

See also

• List of Halo 2 changes

External links

• Bungie's Official Halo 2 Site
• Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 Site
• Halo.Bungie.Org
• IGN E3 2004 Preview
• "Frankie's Bungie Updates"
• Halo Wiki, a MediaWiki site dedicated to everything Halo.
• The Haunted Apiary publicity game:
  • ilovebees.com
  • Forum devoted to the ARG
  • Wiki devoted to the ARG
• Howstuffworks article on the game AI of Halo 2.