What's the verdict on Halo 2?
>>12722651It kinda sucks
>>12722651fun
disappointing campaign (brutes/arbiter were mistakes) but it didnt really matter since the multiplayer was so good
>>12722651The story does to expand the Halo universe but as a game I've always found it fairly disappointing. It gets off to a good start but it never opens up like the first game does. Later stages become a slog through samey looking corridors and Brutes are just bullet sponges. Then there's the wet fart of an ending that doesn't even let you pay as Chief for the final mission. Also the games marketing made it look like you'd be battling the Covenant on Earth but that ended up being the first few stages.
>>12722651>Also the games marketing made it look like you'd be battling the Covenant on Earth but that ended up being the first few stages.and even then it didnt feel anything like earth at all. it felt like the same big sprawling environments half assed changed at the last minute to sort of look like an earth city
>>12723470>>12723479I can't believe millennials were disappointed at the prospect of exploring alien society in a space opera and visiting a ringworld in a game called Halo 2. Did you really want brown and bloom Fallujah levels the entire game?
>>12722651It insists upon itself.
>>12722651The music, story, game play, weapons loadout, and vehicle options set the standard for FPS.The original Xbox Live online environment was a magical slice of time that will never be recaptured.
>>12723484As a millennial I never heard these complaints at the time, these are irony poisoned disciples of pedantic YouTube essayists.
>>12723484>I can't believe millennials>>12723516>As a millennialLuckily I'm GenX and literally every trailer and gameplay demo billed the game as the fight to save Earth. It established a certain expectation that the final game never met. It wasn't until Halo 3 ODST that it felt like we got some of what Halo 2 advertised.
>>12723525Wow damn, ODST was an odd fumble. It was the Doom 3 of Halo, a departure from the formula that made the series great.
>>12723534>a departure from the formula that made the series greatWhat. It's the only Halo that plays remotely like CE because there isn't a fucking Battle Rifle/DMR to ruin the sandbox and the vehicle sections are actually good
>>12723534Clearly you've never played any Halo game after Reach
>>12723552It’s an episodic detective story in a pitch black city. It doesn’t have the scale of Halo 1. It (like Doom 3) is a technically competent game, but completely different in tone from its predecessors. >>12723578You’re right, I’ve owned Halo 4 for years as part of the master chief collection and haven’t downloaded it once.343 couldn’t even port the MCC correctly and it was broken for years, I don’t care about any of the dogshit they developed completely in house.
>>12722651I was blinded by its majesty
>>12722651booting up that on Xbox Live for online multiplayer for the first time was amazing that was first time I had done anything like that
>>12722651The multiplayer was excellent and to this day it has the best BTB maps in the series. But the campaign sucked.Actor counts are massively decreased over Halo 1, as you rarely fight more than 5 enemies simultaneously. The enemies themselves are less fun to fight since the Grunts run slower, the Elites one-hit you with their melee attack, the Flood have been turned into bullet sponges, enemy projectiles travel faster, Brutes are wholly unenjoyable, and the game constantly harasses you with Sniper Jackals. I really lament the decline of the Flood because their overwhelming swarm tactics in Halo 1 were the only time in the whole trilogy where they were fun to fight.The weapons sandbox in H2 is also poor because NOTHING feels satisfying to use. The weapon tuning is absolutely horrendous:>They introduced dual-wielding, which was balanced only by nerfing every dual-wieldable weapon; so half the guns are completely useless>The Shotgun is utterly useless, except in enemy hands which is when it magically becomes the Halo 1 shotty>The Sniper Rifle and Fuel Rod are the only guns that can hold more than 3 spare mags now>Even Rocket Launcher doesn't feel exciting when there's a dominant strategy of Battle Rifle + Beam RifleWhich brings me to the level design, which is pretty bad too. The aforementioned dominant strategy exists in part because so much of the game consists of lengthy lines of sight in narrow corridors. When the game's not doing this, it makes you hold position and do wave defence for minutes at a time, CONSTANTLY. It feels like you're just playing King of the Hill the entire game. Plus, the closest the game comes to a good vehicle section is the beach chapter in Outskirts, because the vehicle sections are otherwise very authored runs through linear stretches. Finding a tank turns it not into an artillery game but a corridor shooter, and splattering is boring because the Warthog's handling isn't weighty anymore.Story and OST are 10/10 though.
>>12722651Arbiter's story is one of the best in any game. That said dual wielding sucks. It's idiotic that you can't melee.
>>12726456>Even Rocket Launcher doesn't feel excitingDisagree, the rocket launcher mogs the hell out of CE's. Locking onto targets is extremely satisfying.
>>12722651Starts off strong enough but it starts to suck. Great multiplayer. Combat Evolved will always be the best single player campaign
