Halo 2 | 
| From: Microsoft
List Price: $19.99
Buy Used: $7.92
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New (31) Used (93) from $7.92
Rating:  782 reviews
Sales Rank: 414
Platform: Xbox
Genre: Action Games
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 0.8 x 7.5
MPN: m41028
Model: XBMSFT 805529792234
UPC: 805529792234
EAN: 0805529792234
ASIN: B00008J7NZ
Release Date: November 9, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: All items are guaranteed to work.
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| Features:
| • | Master Chief can now wield two weapons at once, board Covenant vehicles and steal Covenant weapons like the incredible double energy sword | | • | Lead an all-new unit of super-soldiers, the ODST -- tougher, badder and deadlier versions of your old comrades | | • | New enemies, allies and surprises around every corner - intense combat action with enhanced AI and real-time lighting | | • | Immense single-player action with maassive landscapes and huge cities to explore and defend - destructible and interactive environments | | • | Take the action online with your Xbox Live and switch sides, to become a Covenant Elite! |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Halo 2 is one of those rare video games that garnishes attention from regular folk who wouldn't know which direction to point a game controller. With more than 1.5 million pre-orders and a massive release party in Times Square, the game enjoys the sort of buzz, and sales, generally reserved for boy wizards. But does it merit the hype? Opening Scene
Halo 2 opens with a cut scene in the Covenant Holy City of High Charity. Much has happened since Master Chief (that's you) created so much havoc for the Covenant in the first Halo, and the Arbiter has much atoning to do for his failures. This first cut scene is long, but the lush graphics, orchestral sound, and polished voice talent for both this and other cut scenes as well as the game itself put most animated television shows to shame.
Much has happened since Master Chief created so much havoc for the Covenant in the first Halo, and the Arbiter has much atoning to do.
| In the end, though, Halo 2 is unabashedly a first-person shooter. It has a Mature rating and is not meant for kids. Gameplay is constant and intense. No sooner is one bunch of aliens taken care of than another descends. The controls are identical to the first game so those familiar with it will be up and blasting in no time. And the sound and graphics have been beefed up so that Halo 2 is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful console games available. Opening Fire
Most of the weapons from the first game return, although strangely the MA5B Assault Rifle (the default weapon in the first game) is not available. There is a single melee weapon known as the Covenant Sword, but the controls for it are the same as that for all the shooter weapons, making it difficult to direct. Also, for a new twist, you can hold two of the smaller guns at the same time and shoot double-fisted. As for vehicles, the old favorites are back and joined by a few new, mostly Covenant wheeled monsters. Some improvements have been made to the AI so that the nonplayer characters can drive without running into too many obstacles while you man the turret. This improved AI also has enemies ducking for cover, and the banter from both the Marines and the bad guys has undergone massive improvements so that it no longer sounds quite so repetitive. On Your Own
The most significant change in the single-player game is with Master Chief's much-touted defensive suit. At the beginning of the game, he is told that the suit has been upgraded, but it's really undergone a severe downgrade. In Halo 2, the player has only one lifeline. Unlike in the first game, there is basically no defensive shield on the suit, making gameplay tougher. It can often take multiple--sometimes a maddening number--attempts to make it through thorny parts of the game.
Or with a Friend
Finally, no review of a Halo game is complete without mentioning multiplayer. One of the main reasons to buy Halo 2 is the ability to play through Xbox Live, a feature not included in the first game, which was among the original releases for the Xbox. Multiplayer for Halo 2 uses all of the same weapons and vehicles as in the single-player game, and the types of games available in Halo (King of the Hill, Slayer, Capture the Flag) return with a host of new maps. Multiplayer Halo 2 offers customizable profiles, control layout, and screens as well as a voice proximity feature, where you can talk with other players via an Xbox Communicator so that those closer to you sound louder than those farther away. Players can also create both permanent clans and temporary parties in the Xbox Live world. Undoubtedly, this multiplayer feature alone ensures that Halo 2 will remain a top-selling game for years to come. --David Morel Pros: - Lush graphics and orchestral sound
- Constant, thumping shoot-'em-up action
- Multiplayer available through Xbox live
Cons: - Suit downgrade makes single-player often overly difficult
- Get ready for some bleary-eyed mornings
Product Description
Halo 2 continues the story of Master Chief, the heroic super-soldier who defied the invading alien Covenant and survived. The Covenant leaders within Halo are angry at this unheard of event. To save face, they launch an invasion of our planet. Earth's defenses are breached, and we're all in danger -- unless Master Chief can lead a small military squad to victory against Covenant forces, in all-out guerilla warfare!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 777 more reviews...
 Brilliant sequel with only a few flaws November 15, 2004
Lisa Shea
182 out of 224 found this review helpful
I just finished the full walkthrough for Halo 2, as well as played a number of multiplayer games. I'm finally ready with the review of this awesome game!
First off, this is obviously the sequel to the hugely popular initial Halo game. You are Master Chief, a space marine who is sent out to battle the enemies. You are fighting the Covenant, who are your main foes, but you also run into the Flood, who are a space parasite that wants to eat all life. In addition, there are mechanical creatures on Halo who want to kill pretty much anything including the Flood. So each location and creature type has its own look, feel, attitudes and reactions.
The graphics are simply gorgeous, from the rippling water to the clouds in the sky and reflections off of surfaces. I love taking screenshots of this game. The music is also extremely well done, in that the quality is always very high. But it's a little bizarre to be going from new age lilting softness in one heated battle to high intensity rock music in another and so on. It doesn't necessary track to the location you're in, either. It's just whatever the designers felt like putting in.
The gameplay and plot is where this game really shines. Your characters that interact with you are simply BRILLIANT in how they each do what a real live creature would do. Grunts are my favorite - these little Covenant front-liners are brave and talkative when they're in groups, but when you whittle them down they suddenly turn and flee, shrieking at the top of their lungs. Your teammates leap into vehicles with you, either driving or shooting depending on your preference. They'll come alongside you to give you support, and duck for cover when appropriate.
The quips the characters come out with mid-battle still make me laugh out loud. In one sequence you are the covenant Arbitor and are working your way through a room. You come across a pair of grunts and a jackal under attack, and take out the enemies. The grunt comes running to you in glee, shouting, "Arbitor! My savior!" Then he pauses and adds, "Jackal, say thank you to the Arbitor!" :)
The cut scenes are equally as brilliant and are truly movie quality in the interactions. The timing, dialogue, everything is great. The little touches are everywhere. In one sequence, the Sergeant is preparing his troops to get ejected in pods down to the surface of Halo. He walks past the Master Chief's pod and thumps twice on it, as if to say "All OK in there, ready to go?" Right on beat, you see Master Chief inside his pod, thumping once back in response. You really forget that these are just computer generated characters.
Multiplayer is the stellar addition to this release and there are reasons to be thrilled. You can play on a large variety of maps, in a number of styles, and there is even going to be downloadable content in the future.
That all being said, there are of course a few non-stellar aspects to this release. First, the ending SUCKS. The first one was bad enough with its "Oh I bet there is another Halo out there" so you don't even feel like you really saved the world. In this one, not only is it not a "you're done but it's not over" ending - it's pretty much cut off mid-battle! That is INCREDIBLY frustrating for a gameplayer. Obviously they want you to buy Halo 3, but that's going to be a year or two away. Can't we have some satisfaction in the meantime?
Next, the game is really short, even on normal mode. We had a friend start the game up Sunday morning at about 12:30 and he was done with the entire game by around 8. You can have fun replaying it on the harder levels, but that's a rather quick game.
Finally, the multiplayer, while brilliant in concept, is lacking in implementation right now. There are two general ways to play - either you set up a game yourself for friends ONLY, or you launch into the ether to play a quick match. If you get up your own game you can control all the settings, but you can only invites people on your friends list. That limits the chances of having a full game unless you are VERY proactive in seeking friends. The quick match game only lets you make a few choices, and then in essence you are auto-connected with other people who are also actively seeking those game types. You can't browse or look. You just say "I want to play X type of game" and then you wait - literally for 5 minutes or more sometimes - as the servers gather together other people who are also actively seeking that game type. Then the game auto launches without you even knowing who is on your team or if you want to play with them. It's very frustrating to people who are used to the more customizeable lobby situations.
Still, the online experience can always be tweaked going forward, and the base gameplay is amazingly good. I highly recommend the game to anyone who enjoys shooting / strategy games - but you might want to rent it for a week first, to see if what it offers to you after that point is going to keep you playing.
Doesn't Match the First November 27, 2004
bean-fiend (Portland, OR)
103 out of 165 found this review helpful
(SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW)
"Halo 2" is a solid game in almost every respect and certainly stands head and shoulders above most other FPSs out there. That said, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic for the original throughout the game.
Bungie has made a few changes to the game in this outing and, unfortunately, most of them were changes that shouldn't have been made.
For starters, the dual-wielding capability doesn't add much to the game. With two guns in hand the player, understandably, can't throw grenades. But more frustrating is the fact that using the melee attack with two weapons causes you to toss the left one for no good reason. Furthermore, as other reviewers have posted, the guns really clutter up the screen. Even with only one, it seems to take up far more space than in "Halo: Combat Evolved".
When the first game came out, one of the only consistent complaints was that the second half of the game reused level maps a lot. That didn't bother me too much, since the enemies, power-ups and available vehicles changed. In "Halo 2" the player doesn't do nearly so much backtracking, but they might as well have since every level looks just about the same, and most are quite boring. The only exception were the couple of Earth-city levels near the beginning. I was very, VERY disappointed to see the story leaving Earth for alien bases and other such linear environments so early on, especially since each level was so short. (After I'd finished the first three levels, I thought I was still on the first). The game took place in confined spaces and suffered a severe shortage of large-scale battles, open areas, and vehicles. But what made the first game so great was the free, open spaces where the player could tool around in a Warthog with allies or fly over everything and carpet-bomb them in a Banshee. (Also, the ability to hover in the Banshee, probably the most important move it could make, by holding back while pointing your nose to the ground seems to have been omitted in "Halo 2"). Frankly, there was too much of an emphasis on adding lots of new (unnecessary) weapons and vehicles. The first game was perfectly balanced, which is what made it such a phenomenal success. Here there's too much clutter.
Much has been written about the multiplayer portion of this game. It must be said that it's a very strong selling point, offering a dizzying variety of options for play. However, the original also boosted most of the same capabilities. The one important addition has been the cooperative mode, which I think should be implemented in absolutely all FPSs developed on a console.
Of course, a whole new engine has been developed for the sequel, and it shows. Textures are much more beautiful and character animation is slightly improved.
The original game had a bare-bones story, which is appropriate for an FPS of this type, and what it had it told well. "Halo 2" puts perhaps slightly less emphasis on the story, but it's still at an appropriate level.
Perhaps the biggest mistake the developers made though was pulling a "Metal Gear Solid 2" in the middle of the game. For multiple long stretches the player takes control of a Covenant Elite. I found that I couldn't wait to get past this part and return to what I considered the 'real' game with the Master Chief. It's not that this portion was poorly implemented- it wasn't. The Elite controls exactly the same and sports a 10-second optic camoflauge ability in lieu of a flashlight. The problem is that I just didn't care about him, his mission, or his part of the story. I wanted to follow the main character's story throughout.
"Halo 2" is still a solid gameplay experience. Enemies are much tougher (as in, take more bullets to kill) on Normal Mode here than they were in "Halo: Combat Evolved", which felt a little unbalanced given your weapons' relatively low ammo capacity. However, one thing to be thankful for is the omission of any exceedingly annoying individual levels such as "The Library" from the original game. While the Flood does make an appearance, it's generally in the kind of moderation that allows it to be fun to play against and not the kind of highly-annoying patience-drainer it was the first time around.
In truth, there's not a lot wrong with this game. It just seems that there was so much that could have been done in a sequel with the available engine and hardware that wasn't. How the development team chose to use their resources this time around was way off the mark, in my opinion, and I can only hope they re-evaluate the direction of their innovation in the succeeding game(s).
"Halo 2" is the way to go if you're looking to buy an FPS for your Xbox and you already own "Halo: Combat Evolved" (at least until "Doom 3" comes out). However, in almost every way I recommend the original game over this one.
First Impression? A little better than mediocre.... November 10, 2004
H. Barden (Richmond, VA)
33 out of 62 found this review helpful
Bungie/Microsoft, I hope you are listening...
I have played some multiplayer and some of the mission. But, already I can tell you that this game is not the huge leap we were looking for. I keep asking myself, "it took 3 years to come up with this"? Issues:
- During the cut-scenes, things (usually characters) just pop into the picture after a short delay. I know they are using the gaming engine for this, but it obviously works so poorly that Bungie must have seen this in their testing. Why use the game engine? Just put a movie clip in there!
- Dual Wielding is cool, but takes too much of the screen to show both guns. The perspective should have been better.
- Graphics in multiplayer are not that great. At a distance, things look distorted (this is on a brand new Sony 57" HD Widescreen TV running my Xbox in HD Widescreen mode)
- Can anyone else not understand the "creatures" when they talk?
- The manual does not address basic issues like what the buttons do. For example, they say the white button is for "active camo", but never tell us what this is. My white button has always been used for a flashlight.....
I will admit that I like the new weapons and I do like that the AI can drive the Warthog, even though the AI sometimes gets stuck. I also like that we can handicap a person in multiplayer. One of our team members is just naturally better than the rest of us so we can hold him back a little bit to make things fair.
I hope that what is going on here is that Bungie is limited by the Xbox hardware and had to compromise. I am sure they will never admit this since they are owned by Microsoft, but it's gotta be true. Or, all of their talent left after the first Halo and they could not reproduce the results. Finally, maybe nothing could have lived up to the hype....
Consider this game Halo 1.5 with Xbox Live capabilities and some new maps. We should have had this 18 months ago. Bungie, try again with Halo 3 on Xbox 2!!!!
For your reference, I am not a diehard gamer. I am a 32 year old guy who likes to play video games with his buddies once a week. Eight of us usually play Halo via systemlink with two TV's. We have been playing Halo for a couple years now and have always had a great time. Since it came out, I have also played the Halo mission all the way through several times. Your mileage and preferences may vary....
Pretty damn good November 10, 2004
a gamer (Pittsburgh, PA)
27 out of 31 found this review helpful
I loved the original Halo. It had everything I wanted in a game. Good graphics, excellent story, and lots of action.
Halo 2 is essentially its predecessor, except better. I know that sounds unlikely, but the few things that I didn't like about the original game such as bad Marine AI and monotonous maps are gone in this version.
For example, I was playing last night, and I was on the second level where you and a team of Marines are going through an African city killing everything. A Marine in front of me gets killed as soon as he rounds a corner. Instead of charging ahead, the rest of the squad hugs the wall. So, I swap my sniper rifle for Sarge's auto rifle (another kickass feature, you can swap guns with marines). Since the Marines are better shots, Sarge charges ahead and takes out the Covenant sniper. The marines and I then charge ahead and waste the covenant.
Here is a summary of cons and pros about the game.
PROS: Marines are much, much more intelligent.
You can swap guns with marines.
marines can drive vehicles on their own now.
the flood return
AH TOO MANY TO LIST CANT LIST THEM ALL
Cons: The only bad things I noticed so far were some minor graphial glitches, such as guns and vehicles sticking through walls. Also, every time it loads a charecter in a cutscene, a milisecond later the game seems to "draw" the person. It is kind of wierd looking, but in no way hurts the game.
If you are into a good sci-fi story or lots of action get this game. Also, Halo 1 fans wont be dissapointed, all changes were for the better.
AWESOME! Hey, pay attention (for Deaf) November 9, 2004
John M. Slaughter (Kansas)
19 out of 25 found this review helpful
I got this game last night after the midnight from Gamestop (have to wait in long line!). This morning, I open the game and started play Halo 2 and I am very awe of it. The graphic is awesome. It has more activie and shooting against aliens (kinda like Halo 1 in some way, only better).
Now, for deaf people out there (I am deaf too) that I would like to let you know that Halo 2 has SUBTITLE! You can go to "Set" mode and turn on subtitle on just like DVD movie. That part impressive me mostly and make me enjoyed Halo 2 more than Halo (I play Halo once and cannot find to turn subtitle on but Halo 2 has).
Thank for reading
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