I am pretty into the video game world, however i am not really an Xbox player and have only played the original Halo briefly. I was suprised when this FPS seemed to take the industry by storm when i felt there were superior games of that genre already on the market (Timesplitters 2).
So as a nintendo fanboy, imagine my suprise when the release of Halo 2 was being hyped as the most anticipated release of all time…apart from being upset at that title being taken away from (in my opinion) more worthy games like Mario 3 and Ocarina of Time i was very curious on if it would even satisfy the fans of the original in light of all this hype.
I noticed a thread here on someone being underwhelmed by the single player game, but i know it is the multiplayer that really sells. So my question is How much better is the Halo 2 multiplayer compared to it’s the original game? Is it worth the money to upgrade? Worth the hype?
Worth the hype? Certainly not, at least in the sense that Ocarina of Time was.
Halo 2’s single player campaign came as an extreme disappointment; I found myself simply running through the games later levels with nary a shot fired, simply so I could finish the damn thing and watch the [hopefully work it] ending. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the game’s conclusion is an extreme letdown.
Multi-player, however, is very, very awesome, but it’s not “I-better-wait-in-line-for-six-hours-while-crapping-my-pants” good. Again, it’s fun as hell, but it really is more of the same that Halo 1 already offered.
So no, the hype was way overblown and I really don’t understand how Halo 1 even garnered this kind of attention. Sure, it was a fun game and had some truly (albeit few) brilliant moments, but those were far outnumbered by tedious, repetitious level designs. I also was not impressed by the ridiculous plot.
To me it was. I love it. I l;iked the Original Halo but to me the bulk of the life of Halo 1 was the multiplayer LAN parties, not so much the singleplayer.
With that in mind, Halo 2 brought more vehicles, different weapons, different game types, easy access to XBox Live and other things that make it perfect for me.
I did enjoy what i’ve played of the campaign, but to me it’s all about killing my fellow man.
To compare it to other shooters I have on the XBox:
Timesplitters 2 - my favorite campaign type shooter. However since i know NO ONE who owns it i can only plau multiplyer with bots
Counterstrike - it’s pretty good but it seems like it’s very one sided in almost every game. Also it just feels kind of “blah”
StarWars Battlefield - great for single player but the lag online makes me curse god and Jesus as well.
I have not played Halo 2 in multiplayer yet but so I cannot comment. I have completed a few levels in against the games AI and it is quite good. The main differences are; new maps, better AI, a few new weapons, the ability to hold a weapon in each hand, vehicle upgrades. There must be more goodies to discover but I have basically just started the game.
It seems to have the same gameplay as the original Halo so no big changes. The main difference is that the game is much more intense then Halo1. After 30 minutes of play I need some therapy.
Timesplitters 2 came out after Halo (the box said “First Halo, now this”) and I don’t even know anyone who liked it, much less thought it was better than Halo. I found it boring and thought the controls were clunky.
I was extremely disspointed with this game. I waited a long time for it and was very, very excited and then when I finally got it I found it to be a slower version of an Unreal game. There was virtually no single-player to speak of (I “beat” it in about an hour) and the online play offered nothing special or original except the Star Wars “feel”, which even got old to this SW fanboy after ~10 hours. I’m really glad that I decided at the last minute to rent this one instead of rushing out to buy it like I had planned on doing.
The catching point for me in Halo is really the story. The look and feel of everything, especially the Master Chief, the Warthog, the Halo itself, etc. The black and white, good vs. evil old school “space opera” type storytelling and atmosphere. The graphics are great but I’m not really a graphics-whore; the original Everquest still looks fine to me despite most gamers constantly complaining about and laughing at its archaic graphics. The gameplay and AI in Halo are great too but that’s just a bonus. It’s definitely the story and atmosphere that get me.
The Timesplitters 2 controls were completely customizeable and the game ran much much faster than Halo (unless i’m completely insane, Halo seems SO SLOW to me). If you doubt that anyone “likes” Timesplitters 2 just look up some reviews.
No because nothing could’ve lived up to that much hype. I did not drive an ambulance. I was not chased by flaming ninjas. The suspiciously absent ambulance was, alas, not on fire either.
Yes because, well, I mean, it’s Halo. The AI is improved, the story is furthered, and it’s, it’s Halo! The ending was a bummer on the first go 'round, but the second time I beat it I was thinking “damn, that’s actually pretty cool.” There’s also speculation that it’s not over yet. I mentioned in another thread that I’ve beaten it on Legendary and didn’t see anything about February 9th, but I was expecting a full-screen graphic. I didn’t realize that it was supposedly hidden away in the credits. If anyone can confirm or deny this it’d be great.
As for the multiplayer…I’d say I don’t like it better yet. I say yet because I’m just not used to the maps. I love the sword and the ability to finally talk to your teammates, though the voice-chat is far from flawless, I’d guess you can only hear each other about 20% of the time. The only time it works reliably is when you’re in the lobby, waiting for a game to start.
Dual-wielding is kind of lame in my opinion, but I’ll probably get used to it and miss it when I go back and play Halo 1. As for now I’m a grenade man all the way in single player and multiplayer. Unless I get two needlers. Those are harsh.
No because nothing could’ve lived up to that much hype. I did not drive an ambulance. I was not chased by flaming ninjas. The suspiciously absent ambulance was, alas, not on fire either.
Yes because, well, I mean, it’s Halo. The AI is improved, the story is furthered, and it’s, it’s Halo! The ending was a bummer on the first go 'round, but the second time I beat it I was thinking “damn, that’s actually pretty cool.” There’s also speculation that it’s not over yet. I mentioned in another thread that I’ve beaten it on Legendary and didn’t see anything about February 9th, but I was expecting a full-screen graphic. I didn’t realize that it was supposedly hidden away in the credits. If anyone can confirm or deny this it’d be great.
As for the multiplayer…I’d say I don’t like it better yet. I say yet because I’m just not used to the maps. I love the sword and the ability to finally talk to your teammates, though the voice-chat is far from flawless, I’d guess you can only hear each other about 20% of the time. The only time it works reliably is when you’re in the lobby, waiting for a game to start.
Dual-wielding is kind of lame in my opinion, but I’ll probably get used to it and miss it when I go back and play Halo 1. As for now I’m a grenade man all the way in single player and multiplayer. Unless I get two needlers. Those are harsh.
Oh, and the music isn’t as good on this one. A lot of the tracks are the same, which is great, but the new ones are kind of lame. Some of the tracks try to mix classical music and 1980sish Joe Satriani-style guitar tracks and it just doesn’t work. According to the credits, Incubus (and one other popular band whom I can’t seem to remember) contributed to the soundtrack.
Overall, I can’t really find anything legitimate to complain about. I’d say the only thing it failed to do is dissapoint me.
Weren’t the ninjas dipped in flaming bacon fat or something along those lines?
I’m liking the game a lot, but it’s not a major leap from the original. The hype made it out like Halo 2 would transform my Xbox into a flaming-atomic-bacon-greased-SR-71-Blackbird-on-steroid-laced-crystal-meth-plunging-into-the-Sun. It did not. It is prettier, dual-wielding and Ghost-jacking are certainly a lot of fun, as is manning the gun on the Warthog while a marine drives (like a retarded kamikaze, but still). But deep down, it’s still the Xbox, and it’s still basically Halo. I think it’s great, I don’t regret the purchase for one minute, I’m having loads of fun playing, but it is not the transformative technological masterpiece everyone has been telling us it would be. It’s a little better than Halo; but since Halo is the only game I ever really could get into, that, to me, is saying a great deal.
All I can say is I hope the Xbox2 comes out soon, and we don’t have to wait so long for Halo3. And next time, I’m hoping there really are flaming ninjas.
I never paid any attention to any hype (I missed most, if not all, of it because I don’t subscribe to any gaming or computer magazines, don’t read any gaming sites, and don’t usually watch TV), so for me, the game was (er…is) just fine. Rather short, I thought, since I finished it on Normal difficulty within about 10 or 11 hours. But, I’m now working through Heroic, and will do Legendary as well.
I like the options for multiplayer games. I don’t play online, so the XBox Live functionality doesn’t matter to me. Usually, three friends come over and we blow each other up all in the same room. Primitive, perhaps, but still fun.
I like some of the new weapons, and don’t like some of the others. The Covenant weapons seem to be much better this time around, while the only human weapons I bother with are the sniper rifle and the battle rifle. And I usually only use them until I run out of ammo, then switch to the ubiquitous plasma weapons.
All things considered, I’d say it’s a worthy sequel, hype or no hype. Yeah, Master Chief’s story is left hanging, but that doesn’t really bother me. Marathon went three games, so I actually expected the same from Bungie for Halo.
I’ve heard this is just a hoax propagated by Slashdot. No one has been able to reproduce it.
I liked the game a lot. I didn’t think it was much different from the original as far as gameplay. The graphics were better, the levels were more interesting, the story left us hanging, but I still thought it was good. The sword is just awesome.
Most of the complaints I’ve heard are from people who claim that “Bungie promised us blah blah blah”, when in fact, Bungie promised nothing. I think they suffered from a case of trying to keep their fans too well informed and ended up giving some people false expectations.
Anyway if you really want to have fun, put it on easy, pick up 2 SMGs, and watch how fast you can mow through the Covenant. Tactics are fun sometimes, but so is a mindless killing spree.
It’s not really fair to compare a game that can run on a cutting edge system to one that runs on a Celeron 733 with 64 MB of RAM, and an outdated video card. Halo 2 pushes the XBOX to the limits and the system is showing its age. You can see the graphics pop and stutter during the cutscenes, but it’s still a beautiful looking game.
And, I’m not enjoying HL2 as much as I thought I would. I like Halo’s seamlessness compared to Half-Life 2. With HL2, I have long load times that completely take me out of the game. Some of the transitions are in odd places, and I have sound and video stutter. I don’t have a low end system by any means, and in comparison, Doom 3 (which IMO had better graphics) played flawlessly. Some of the sections just go on and on - the hover boat. I’m really over that by now and would like to move on to something else, but I’ve been informed that there is still another long section after the boat gets upgraded. Throwing cans and chairs at people is fun though, and the graphics are very good. I’m only a short way in, but for the most part I haven’t seen anything ground breaking - not that Halo 2 had that either. I’m waiting to see the gravity gun before I decide.
Also, I complained about this in another thread, but I purchased the retail version, and only realized during the install that it was not the entire game. Og forbid if Valve ever goes out of business (and we know that NEVER happens to game developers) because I will have half a game that I can’t install anywhere else. So yeah, give me a XBOX game any day over this travesty of “anti-piracy”. If Valve doesn’t get rid of Steam, I will not be buying any of their products again.
The nice thing about it is to rent it before you buy it.
Worth the hype , I would have to say yes it was. The story was tacked on to some gorgeous scenery , and it was a marathon just to get through the game.
That said , the online multi-player is were its gonna be a keeper.
Just think of a custom .wad level , with a platoon of scorpion tanks going head to head with that covenant armor.
Bungie did a good job on the game , campaign wise, but you could tell that it had the microsoft influence majorly.
How long are they for you? For me, they never last more than 10-20 seconds, which , while slightly longer than HL1, is far from devastating.
Again, I don’t have this so I can’t sympathize, but it sounds like a bug or and issue you’d really want to address before continuing. It would really spoil the experience for me to have that going on. This IS PC gaming after all, where there are a zillion different hardware configurations, degrees of Window installations, all sorts of different software on everyone’s computer, and so on.
Not much longer, but you finally get to
give that fucking helicopter a piece of your mind at long last
I found the boat sequence a little long too, but that still didn’t stop it from being exileratingly fun.
Heh. Wait until you meet Alyx’s best friend once or twice. And the final level… good lord it’s crazy…and different. There are more things than just the gravity gun that are innovative and fun, though its hard to top how the grav gun changes FPS gameplay for the better.
But basically, I think HL2 is tops because of good game design: probably among the best in the business. They create gameplay out of “scenarios” instead of a bunch of indentical rooms with identical monsters: each new encounter has a new twist. Add that to the variety of gameplay, and they’ve really got a winner.
Again, pity, as I think Steam is one of the best ideas, while not exactly the smoothest execution yet, that Valve has had. If they go out of business, they’ll just release a final version that opens the authentication. Even if the content on your cds is incomplete (which, actually, I doubt: I believe it’s just encrypted), once you have the final full game installed you can create your own personal CD or DVD backup using Steam (“Backup game files” option) which will give you a copy of the game ready to be installed on any computer, albiet still requiring that it “check in” your account on that new computer.
Long enough that I can pick up a book and read a page or two.
Everyone I work with has the same issues. I have the recommended system, and others have even higher end systems. Their code is just buggy. I tried your recommendations from the other thread, and nothing changed. It’s not earth shattering, but it is annoying. I didn’t have any issues running Doom3.
Yes, he’s pretty cool. I’m up to the road now. The grav gun is a lot of fun and the game seems to be picking up now. The NPCs are very well done.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s an excellent game, but it doesn’t have quite the same nonstop fun factor for me as Halo. HL2 is more of a high intensity game with great atmosphere and a few fun moments scattered around.
Good thing we all have different tastes though or the gaming industry would be pretty bland. I for one, think The Sims titles are boring as hell, but other people love 'em. ← Og help them.
