Halo 2

The original Halo was a game that polarised the gaming community not for its content, but the big business running behind it. It was a tale of two gaming platforms and helped to drive a bigger wedge between the gaming community in the old “PC vs Console” debates. The game had originally been developed as a PC title and soon kicked up a loyal following of expectant fans, but it was not to be, at least not as soon as they had expected, for Microsoft picked up the title and summarily made it the flagship game of their new revolutionary console, the X-Box.

There was uproar, there was much frustration and many death threats waved back and forth between PC gamers and Microsoft, PC gamers and console gamers...poor little Halo had become the center of a viscous storm. In the end it went to the X-Box, became the flagship product and was hailed an automatic classic by all who played it. It would take another year for the game to make its way onto its original (and some would say mother) platform.

Halo 2 has, thankfully, not provoked such debate among the various gaming communities, possibly because PC gamers have become sick and tired of fighting their console cousins over the game, possibly because PC gamers currently have the likes of Half-Life 2 to entertain themselves with, probably a mix of both. Whatever the reason, Halo 2 looks set to have a much less ambiguous launch which will allow gamers from both sides of the fence to pick up an X-Box controller on the 8th of November and sit down to a good old fashioned split screen multiplayer or Cooperative romp, with all eyes being on the gameplay rather than the platform. I was fortunately enough to receive a press copy of the game on Friday and having sat down to it with a few friends all that night and well into the next day, I can tell anyone who would listen that they’d be much advised to go out and play this game.

Be warned, however, that it’s not as great as the hype would have you believe, though that can be said about any long expected game, it needs repeating again here. Halo 2 is no Earth shattering, ground-breaking, universally adored masterpiece, and there are flaws in the gameplay. These flaws are mainly centered around a long and tedious slog through ill-advised sections of the game where the player must assume control of Alien Elites (not fighting the humans, but rather a bit of an uprising at home) in confusing, frustrating and dull levels that will leave a bad taste in the mouth upon completion.

These missions are however bearable, and shouldn’t put off anyone from getting at the meat on the rest of the game, from the excellent Master Chief missions and multiplayer experience. The first big noticeable improvement is in the graphics, with everything in the game world now much more clearly defined than in the slightly blocky Halo. The enemy and squad AI is also second to none, with opponents making smart use of cover and working together to beat players about like flotsam in a raging torrent at times.

Much of the Master Chief based missions are excellent examples of set-piece based master class, and from the first Alien strike upon the ship the player is aboard, to riding on the back of a giant insect-like tank the orders to blow it up, to lush tropical landscapes which the original was famous for, Halo 2 rarely runs short on new things for players to experience.