Game Reviews - Indews

If you've played Halo, you probably already know about the gameplay, so here is a quick summation of what new weapons you will see. There are quite a few new and modified weapons in Halo 2. The most notable are the new sub-machine guns, which can be dual-wielded (discussed soon) for maximum damage. Watch out though, the kick given off by firing the weapons is considerable, and it has to be compensated for. Both the pistol and the battle rifle have been modified as well (with the former being relinquished of it's almighty scope that the latter being given a scope and a more concentrated, more deadly, highly accurate three round burst, respectively).

The main thing to talk about with Halo 2's gameplay is its amazing AI. Both marine and Covenant AI has been drastically improved over the original title, making the battles in this game a really hectic experience. Marines are much more useful this time around in many ways. For one, they used better tactics when engage the enemy and now can actually kill a few aliens. But more importantly, they now are able to drive vehicles, allowing the Master Chief in all his coolness to manage the deadly weaponry on the vehicle and take out the enemy (since we all know how pathetic the AI Marines were at taking out the Covenant using vehicle weapons). As for the Covenant, they now present a much more formidable foe. Although not quite as noticeable on Easy or Normal difficulties, the Heroic difficulty is almost as difficult as Legendary in the original, and the new Legendary difficulty is downright one of the hardest things a gamer will ever come across. You will have to pull out all the cards and use every trick in the book (with a touch of luck thrown in) to take on the new Covenant AI that will use very smart tactics in engaging you. Always remember one thing: watch your back!

In the graphics department, Halo 2 has tried to go all out, making very pretty on one hand but it also created a few bugs along the way. On the upside, even in hectic, large battles the game generally rums smooth and uninterrupted (without those matrix-like slow motion instances in the previous Halo). On the downside, especially in the cut-scenes, when a new scene first pops open there are generally instances where you can see graphics that are horribly ugly for a second until the bump mapping and the sparkly touches can load up. While not overly bad, these graphics loading issues are still annoying and seem like they could have been dealt with.

The audio aspect of Halo 2 is also superb. Each weapon has a sound that matches it perfectly, bullets whistle through the air and ricochet off walls or give that slight slosh sound upon penetrating flesh, needlers ping when being reflected by the Master Chief's shield, and just about everything else sounds just as it should. Put plainly, the sound effects are downright awesome ranging from the explosions, to the grunts and battle cries, to all of the different weapons.

Halo 2 ends up being a nearly perfect game and a nearly perfect sequel. Although it could have used a little more length on its campaign mode (and a better ending for it as well), it offers so much in its multiplayer component that the game can be played from here to eternity. Any fan of the original game should not delay in picking this game up.