Introduction
We are once again delving into the Halo franchise, we will be continuing with a review of Halo 2! This time, you also get to play as the elite alien called the Arbiter. The missions between playing as the Master Chief and the Arbiter, there is a nice balance with the missions. Furthermore, you can also dual wield guns in Halo 2 and the Arbiter has a camouflage skill! This allows you to sneak up on enemies even better.
What did I think before playing Halo 2?
I had a lot of fun during my time playing the other Halo games that have been reviewed in the last couple of weeks, and I was very interested in how the series would continue. It felt weird though how the Flood is used in this game, as it seemed their demise was sure after Halo 1. Especially with the parasite Gravemind cutscene! It seems it will not be easy to rid the galaxy of the Flood! The new graphics are insanely amazing though because of the remastered graphics! I was interested to see how the new interface would work. For more information, we are going to the Microsoft Store page.
The Microsoft Page
https://www.xbox.com/en-CA/games/store/halo-2-anniversary/9P5739G419LD
The page tells you that there are fifteen missions for you to complete, there are missions with both the Arbiter and Master Chief. The gun balance from Halo 1 is quite gone with the ability to dual wield guns. Overload your enemies with bullets! There are some things that are also not improved in Halo 2 which we will go over in the gameplay section.
Rating
I rate Halo 2 with a 9.0 before playing.
I wondered if the gameplay would be the same or would have new additions next to a new playable character!
Story
The story will contain spoilers for Halo 1!
The story takes place after the events of Halo 1, whereas the Master Chief is praised for his actions in saving the universe by destroying the Halo world, the Arbiter of the Covenant race is disgraced. Events that unfold have them eventually end up as allies to stop the false prophets and the Flood!
Rating
I rate the story of Halo 2 with a 7.3
While I did enjoy the main story compared with Halo 1, the new character is fleshed out and fun! However, the ending is very odd, and it seems like they had to cut a mission from the game.
Gameplay
In Halo 2 there are a few elements that instantly annoyed me, the health bar is gone! This time around you only have a shield which makes it really hard to gauge if you can attack the enemy or if you need to hide! There are also no health packs, this means that you will always need to hide if your shield runs out!
This time around, you will not only play as Master Chief, but you will also see the side of the Arbiter’s story. Eventually, they must team up to take down the false prophets and the Flood. The swapping between characters is well-balanced, but the Master Chief is missing an ending mission, and it feels like there is an open end that is not addressed in Halo 3. For that, you will need to read a comic book.
A new addition is the ability to dual wield guns, this is an amazing feature that totally unbalanced the game as you pump your enemies full of plasma! If you use two needlers you can blow up all those covenant bad guys easily! Do not per accident shoot the good Covenant aliens, they look the same, though.
This time off course, you will have again skulls to choose from if you play the Master Chief collection! This also comes with enhanced graphics that you can switch on the fly!
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Halo 2 with a 7.2
While the gameplay is fun with some new additions, there are also bad elements like the health bar removal. It is a guess when you will die! The gun damage is also very unbalanced in this game from both sides. If you can find a brute plasma rifle, you can annihilate everything! However, two normal plasma rifles also work! If one is out of juice, pick up a needler!
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics of Halo 2 are amazing with the remastered cutscenes! One of the best cutscenes is where the Gravemind shows his face! If you could call that a face though.
Sound
It is Halo, no matter which game of the series you play, the music in Halo remains epic!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics of Halo 2 with a 9.2
The voice acting is also done wonderfully!
What did I think after playing Halo 2
I did enjoy that the Arbiter was playable, there was a fine balance in switching between the playable characters. However, the balanced gun damage has gone out of the window with the ability to dual wield guns! The Arbiter also has the ability to camouflage himself and then strike with an energy sword in the back of a bad guy!
The biggest problem is that the ending of Halo 2 feels unfinished, as it ends right in the middle of a mission. To see how this mission plays out, you will need to read a comic book! Which is quite frustrating as you will enter the next game with no clue what happened unless you can track down that comic book(s) or find a digital copy! Or you can read a ripped of summary on the internet!
Rating
I rate Halo 2 with an 8.0 after playing
My biggest gripe might be the story and that I cannot see my health bar anymore! This caused quite some deaths for me, as I misjudged how much health I had left.
What are my personal thoughts about Halo 2?
I did like Halo 2 more compared with Halo 1, while the story was not as good, I liked dual wielding guns and blowing up enemies with the double needler combo! Having someone else to play as next to Master Chief was also fun as the missions were quite balanced!
Rating
My personal Rating of Halo 2 is an 8.2
I liked dual wielding guns the most!
Last Words
Pros
- Experience the story of what Happens after Halo 1
- Amazing Graphics and soundtracks that you can switch on the fly!
- Team up with a new character in a balanced mission structure!
- There are a lot of new weapons to test out!
- Dual wield guns to take down bad guys!
- See both sides of the story in the human-covenant conflict
Cons
- There is no health system, only a shield system
- the gun damage is unbalanced
- you need a comic to find out the conclusion of Halo 2
If you want to know how the Halo franchise continues, you should play this game! The new dual wielding system is very fun!
Final Rating
8.1
Let me know what you think of Halo 2 in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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It looks great!
Better than first episode i think.
One more nice game from Halo universe
Coming soon : Halo 3 review!
I never got into the Halo games, but honestly, I didn’t give them a fair chance either because I didn’t have an Xbox console..
Time to get playing on the PC!
I love the Halo series.
My wife loves it too, as do I!
Being able to switch between old and new graphics should be required for every remastered game!
That would be a good suggestion!
Nice review
Thanks!
Oh yeah, dual pistol + plasma gun = OP.
Dual wielding was too overpowered lol
a lot hear about this game but never played before need at least play Halo infinite
I will work on getting a review of Halo Infinite as well!
I wonder what they though when they were removing health bar?
I don’t know but it seems quite odd!
Good review, I think it will be possible to play
Go play Halo!
Has it aged well?
With the remastered graphics? Yes indeed! Without? the gameplay has!
You choose peace or war?
The covenant always wants war, however they always get bashed up.
graphics is a little bit outdated, and the movement feels a little bit odd, but the game still looks good!
Imagine the old graphics!
Shield system importance is increased by removing the health bar.
Indeed!
I think the shield system is an experiment
It did feel like that yes!
The situation regarding the ending and the comic is really confusing and I wonder why the developers weren’t able to complete the mission for the remastered version of the game. Still, the game sounds very fun overall and I wish I had been able to play the whole Halo series when I was younger, but I never had a Xbox.
It is like they just cut a mission and totally forgot about it!
Good memories playing them with my relatives!
That was always fun!
Thanks for this review! Haven’t played any of Halo games yet.
Get playing already!
I find it quite annoying to have to look for external material to understand or see the conclusion of a game’s story
I think I played this game on coop with a friend of mine on the xbox … or was it halo 3? … can’t remember … it was a lot of fun even for playing a shooter on console! The soundtrack was amazing
The first three Halo games were apex!