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[Mason]

W. T. F.

I read all the early magazines reviews that talked about how Halo 2's story was so epic and connected with the player on an emotional level, and blah blah blah. I wasn't even planning on buying the game until the price dropped but I bought into the hype and grabbed a copy on release day for one reason: so I wasn't taking a chance having the story ruined.

Now I just beat it a few minutes ago and the three letters above are all I could think of. My friends were talking about the game the other day and they tried to keep quiet because of the "big plot twists" they didn't want to ruin. WHAT PLOT TWISTS? Maybe I slept through all the cutscenes, but I could almost swear this game was a rehash of the first with a bit of "internal struggle within the Covenant" thrown in for good measure.

When I got to the last level of the game, I was finally getting excited about the story. To see where it was going and if some explanations would be given. Or a plot twist. Or a revelation. Or something. So here I am getting pumped up for the next level, going, "Now this game is finally gonna start getting good," and THE CREDITS ROLL.

Maybe I'm missing something. Can someone please give me a reader's digest version of the entire plot or send me in the direction of someplace where one is already available? Because unless I missed something, I cannot believe I paid over $50 for this game.

Oh, and cliffhanger? No, the game stops so abruptly "cliffhanger" is putting it mildly. Just sad.

 

[AniHawk]

Run. Run for your life. Hurry, I can hear them coming...

 

[SantaC]

Run. Run for your life. Hurry, I can hear them coming...

:lol

 

[Gek54]

You played it for the story???

I too was dissapointed with the story....*shrugs*

 

[Solid]

Run. Run for your life. Hurry, I can hear them coming...

Yeah they're like The Flood. You can hear how they smash every door

 

[Defensor]

I too was dissapointed with the story....*shrugs*

Same here, I played it for the mulitplayer.... get on LIVE Gek!

 

[deadhorse32]

Welcome to the real world .....

 

[duderon]

I totally agree, if i bought this game and didn't play it on my friends Xbox, i would have been seriously pissed off. Bungie didn't even let the player finish the game as Master Cheif for christ sakes! I was sooo ready to kick ass and save earth, then the screen goes black and the credits roll. They then decide to add insult to injury and show the Cortana/Gravemind cliffhanger (as if the player needed another one).

I truly can't see how anyone could be happy with this ending. Bungie shafted everyone that bought this game and wanted closure.

 

[Mason]

I totally agree, if i bought this game and didn't play it on my friends Xbox, i would have been seriously pissed off. Bungie didn't even let the player finish the game as Master Cheif for christ sakes! I was sooo ready to kick ass and save earth, then the screen goes black and the credits roll. They then decide to add insult to injury and show the Cortana/Gravemind cliffhanger (as if the player needed another one).

I truly can't see how anyone could be happy with this ending. Bungie shafted everyone that bought this game and wanted closure.

EXACTLY. And the Halo universe is so big and there is so much backstory, they could be making sequels for decades and not run out of material. Why couldn't they wrap up this part of the story in one game?

I'm honestly thinking this was planned and Halo 3 is going to be an X-Box 2 launch title. Sort of like the Matrix 2 cliffhanger. They're setting it up so gamers will "only" have to wait a year to find out the rest of the story, and be forced to buy a new console to do it.

Anyway, I'm not real big into multiplayer, and I was thoroughly convinced the single player was more than worth buying the game for. Bungie said it themselves. At least now I've learned my lesson.

 

[Tellaerin]

I totally agree, if i bought this game and didn't play it on my friends Xbox, i would have been seriously pissed off. Bungie didn't even let the player finish the game as Master Cheif for christ sakes! I was sooo ready to kick ass and save earth, then the screen goes black and the credits roll. They then decide to add insult to injury and show the Cortana/Gravemind cliffhanger (as if the player needed another one).

I truly can't see how anyone could be happy with this ending. Bungie shafted everyone that bought this game and wanted closure.

It's obviously the middle game of a trilogy. Why the hell are you looking for closure now? If the next game ends the story without tying up all the loose ends, then you'll have a valid reason to bitch.

 

[Mason]

It's obviously the middle game of a trilogy. Why the hell are you looking for closure now? If the next game ends the story without tying up all the loose ends, then you'll have a valid reason to bitch.

Please keep in mind, it's not just the ending. The entire story was lackluster and rehashed.

 

[Deku Tree]

Awesome game. I thought the story was great and I didn't feel let down by the ending.

But Bungie didn't do a good enough job of making you feel nervous that all the Halo's were about to destroy all life. And they didn't do a good job making you feel like you had accomplished something incredible by stoping the count down.

At least, with the sales of Halo 2, a sequel is pretty much guaranteed.

 

[Matlock]

Halo 3 will be played completely within computer systems, with Cortana being the main character. Gameplay will play like Zookeeper.

 

[SantaC]

I don't think halo3 for xenon launch is possible unless they kept it totally secret. i am sure halo3 will come during xenons lifetime though.

 

[duderon]

EXACTLY. And the Halo universe is so big and there is so much backstory, they could be making sequels for decades and not run out of material. Why couldn't they wrap up this part of the story in one game?

I'm honestly thinking this was planned and Halo 3 is going to be an X-Box 2 launch title. Sort of like the Matrix 2 cliffhanger. They're setting it up so gamers will "only" have to wait a year to find out the rest of the story, and be forced to buy a new console to do it.

Anyway, I'm not real big into multiplayer, and I was thoroughly convinced the single player was more than worth buying the game for. Bungie said it themselves. At least now I've learned my lesson.

Once again i agree. Halo 3 will probably sell more than Halo 2 as a launch title as well, so bungie won't feel a backlash from this. I wish they didn't take advantage of everyone that waited so long for JUST another reason to wait.

It's obviously the middle game of a trilogy. Why the hell are you looking for closure now? If the next game ends the story without tying up all the loose ends, then you'll have a valid reason to bitch.

I have never played a game that didn't have an ending. I have always known who the final boss was and here i didn't even realise it. Why should people that love halo have to wait for the next game? They bought this game now, so they should at least be satisfied for now. It wouldn't have been that hard for bungie to make a final goddamn level.

 

[Mejilan]

Is this the inevitable backlash thread?

 

[AniHawk]

Is this the inevitable backlash thread?

Yes, with guest appearances by shpankey, drohne, and Brute Force.

 

[Dracos]

I have been reading all the dissappointed posts regarding the bad ending on GAF, so I was prepared for it to suck. I didn't read any spoilers, but I told myself, it can't be that bad. Then I beat the game the other night. When it ended, my jaw was on the floor. I was like fuck, they were right. This is horrible. It was like stopping a conversation mid-sentence, turning around and walking away from the person you were talking to. Talk about rude. The game isn't bad at all, but that ending is a ball grabber. What's even funnier, Halo is now all about the Arbiter for me. Bungie just destroyed their own mascot. With the strategy of playing with a short term cloacking device, the Arbiter levels were hands down better than the MC levels. IMO of course.

 

[arhra]

But Bungie didn't do a good enough job of making you feel nervous that all the Halo's were about to destroy all life.

Disagree completely. My heart literally stopped when the Halo appeared to have activated after you dealt with Tartarus (although something with a countdown akin to the race to escape the PoA in the first game would have been vastly preferable to a somewhat lame boss battle).

 

[Solid]

What's even funnier, Halo is now all about the Arbiter for me. Bungie just destroyed their own mascot. With the strategy of playing with a short term cloacking device, the Arbiter levels were hands down better than the MC levels. IMO of course.

Agreed.

Arbiter > Chief

I hope he makes an apparence in Halo 3. He's so much better character than Master Chief.

 

[Ranger X]

Story or not, fitting or not, willing or not: Halo3 = a reality in some futur it's 100% sure.
Just the sales of Halo2 can tell you that.

 

[impirius]

HALO 2
EARTH WILL NEVER BE THE SAME

Spoiler

(after halo 3)

 

[drohne]

i have nothing to say in this thread that i haven't already said in the official thread, but i feel obligated to post whenever my screenname is mentioned. hi, anihawk. hi.

oh, as long as i'm here: you wanted "closure?" what is halo 2, your parents' divorce?

 

[Gek54]

Its part of the satisfaction of completing a game.

 

[AniHawk]

i have nothing to say in this thread that i haven't already said in the official thread, but i feel obligated to post whenever my screenname is mentioned. hi, anihawk. hi.

Heh, sorry.

 

[kitchenmotors]

I haven't finished Halo 2 yet, but all the gripes seem to point to a Angel type ending, which I don't mind so much. It ends on a cliffhanger, sure, but it also ends on a high note. It's there for a reason, they didn't end it this way just to piss off some fans.

I do feel it will be a while before we see another Halo though, but that doesn't bother me so much. I want to see Bungie do something different.

 

[beerbelly]

English speaking aliens? Aliens with a court system and vocabulary similar to humans? I played a bit of online 2 nights ago. What is so good about this shit? I really can't understand the hype. The voice acting is pretty bad too. Slowdown in cutscenes, texture popups. Long ass boring stages, except the 'bridge' stage. I bought into the hype train...very disappointing game for me.

At times, it reminded me of the hugely disappointing Perfect Dark. The british accent floating cube thing reminded me of that flying laptop in PD :lol

 

[GhaleonEB]

I'd call playing as an Elite a twist.

As well as the Covenant falling apart, with Brutes and Jackals teaming up against the Elites and Grunts.

And Gravemind not only showing up but then betraying Master Chief.

And 343 Guilty Spark being captured and interogated by the Covenant.

Or the Flood's unexpected intelligence, and what they do with it at the end.

I didn't spoiler tag any of that - remember, no plot twists, right?

DFS.

 

[GhaleonEB]

English speaking aliens? Aliens with a court system and vocabulary similar to humans? I played a bit of online 2 nights ago. What is so good about this shit? I really can't understand the hype. The voice acting is pretty bad too. Slowdown in cutscenes, texture popups. Long ass boring stages, except the 'bridge' stage. I bought into the hype train...very disappointing game for me.

At times, it reminded me of the hugely disappointing Perfect Dark. The british accent floating cube thing reminded me of that flying laptop in PD :lol

You played the first few levels. I say this because there is no pop-up in cutscenes after level 4. And the levels are all an order of magnitude better than in Halo.

 

[ChrisReid]

English speaking aliens?

Boo.. This is one of the most ridiculous nit picks in all of science fiction. Aside from the fact that Cortana snaps her fingers and instantly the audio changes from convenantlanguage to English shows we're hearing an automatically translated audio track, what do you expect? Most people don't like to hear alien gibberish and read subtitles.

 

[pj]

English speaking aliens? Aliens with a court system and vocabulary similar to humans?

They don't speak english. In-game, you can understand them because MC has a translator in his suit. In cutscenes you can understand them because.. it would be shitty to have to read subtitles in a videogame.

 

[Seth C]

I'd call playing as an Elite a twist.

As well as the Covenant falling apart, with Brutes and Jackals teaming up against the Elites and Grunts.

And Gravemind not only showing up but then betraying Master Chief.

And 343 Guilty Spark being captured and interogated by the Covenant.

Or the Flood's unexpected intelligence, and what they do with it at the end.

I didn't spoiler tag any of that - remember, no plot twists, right?

DFS.

So what is Gravemind? After playing through the game, I didn't "get it" when it comes to him. Was he in the third book or something?

 

[Docpan]

Yeah, the story was piss-poor. So what, though? The game ROCKS! (Minus the flood)

 

[xexex]

BREAKING NEWS....THIS JUST IN TO OUR NEWSROOM.....HALO 2 IS A PIECE OF SHIT....



now back to the rest of this generation of gaming.

 

[Mason]

I'd call playing as an Elite a twist.

As well as the Covenant falling apart, with Brutes and Jackals teaming up against the Elites and Grunts.

And Gravemind not only showing up but then betraying Master Chief.

And 343 Guilty Spark being captured and interogated by the Covenant.

Or the Flood's unexpected intelligence, and what they do with it at the end.

I didn't spoiler tag any of that - remember, no plot twists, right?

DFS.

These are plot points, not plot twists. If these things weren't there, a "story" wouldn't even exist.

And I don't know who you think you're punishing by not spoiler tagging plot points, but I've already completed the game.

 

[Kon Tiki]

"Sorry, the ending is in another game."

 

[GhaleonEB]

These are plot points, not plot twists. If these things weren't there, a "story" wouldn't even exist.

And I don't know who you think you're punishing by not spoiler tagging plot points, but I've already completed the game.

You're gonna need to distunguish 'twist' from 'point'......

DFS

 

[Azih]

It's obviously the middle game of a trilogy.

Um, nope. Nowhere in any of the interviews or any of the previews was it ever mentioned that this was part 2 of a 3 game series. Most trilogies are decent enough to specify they're triologies a little earlier than a stupid cliffhanger in the last few freaking seconds. And it wasn't even much of a cliffhanger, it's like they forgot to include the second half of the damn game. You had to sit through the entire credits to see the real cliffhanger.

I'm personally convinced that the real last level of the game will be a premium download or something from Xbox Live. I mean this.. can't.. be it.

Game's great, but the single player campaign finale was not handled well at all.

 

[Nerevar]

Run. Run for your life. Hurry, I can hear them coming...

Why? I doubt anyone is going to really attack him for not liking the story. It was admittedly the worst part of the game. That cliffhanger just fucking ruined it for me.

 

[Kiriku]

I still cannot believe they decided NOT to include subtitles in the game (apart from the cutscenes, that is). It's so damn annoying not being able to hear what they say. They could've at least given us a menu option to scroll through the most recent lines/orders in the game.

Spoiler

And it's even worse in this game, with buzzy, distorted covenant voices growling out your orders.

I catch like 1 word out of 15, at least when there's a lot of action around.

 

[Ryu]

I still can't believe, other then the many psoters in here, that there are so many people on GAF who actually thought this was a great ending. I just don't see it. Just imagine the film Aliens rolling to credits when Ripley is going down that elevator to try and save Newt. Imagine Indiana Jones rolling to credits before they open the ark. Imagine the first Halo rolling to credits right after the timer starts before that final drive to escape the explosion. Or just imagine ... shit you know what? There are too many dirty examples. I highly doubt any of you would find any of those acceptable.

 

[Do The Mario]

Spoiler

They should have let master chief defeat the last prophet, and eliminate the threat of the Halo’s. The game could end with master chief back on the surface of earth realizing he has a fuck load of cleaning up to do, and cortana talking to gravemind.

 

[Black Deatha]

I agree 100%, Im soo pissed I can't even be bothered to re-play single player again yet. In fact I was considering making this thread.

I just can't belive this shit, I mean, it's bad enough you dont even get to play the last fucking level as the MAIN CHERECTER, but than Bungie gives every player the old boot to the head for thinking they might get some scence of accomplishment from completing the game.

I LOVED the ending to Halo, the whole single player experience was fantastic from begining to end, and by the end of the game you felt like you really accomplished your task, and yet there wasa good cliffhanger that basicly told everybody that there would me more. But with Halo 2 it's like if had Bungie ended Halo with a cinima of Master Chief heading off to the Pillar of Autum saying "let's finish this!" and BAM credits, I belive that's pretty close to what they have done. And FUCK THEM for it.

And to the person who said it's like the ending to Reloaded, it's not really, because with Reloaded people KNEW Revolutions would be out in a few months, plus it was a proper cliffhanger, at least we got to see them complete there goal by the end of the movie, but still with the bigger goal left unresolved.

All it would have taken for Halo 2 to have had a better ending with a good cliffhanger would be for MC to fight and kill Truth and find out that he was too late and that the other Halo's had been activated or something. And unlike Revolutions Halo 3 will most likely not be out in the next 2 years even.

I think even the promo line "Earth will never be the same" was very missleading, the game had a couple levels on earth and any drastic changes werent shown in this game.

And the Arbiter kicked ass, though I don't think he better than MC.

~Black Deatha

 

[Kai Dracon]

There is a desperate need for Super Mario Bros. 1 backdrop with teeny sprites of Master Chief facing Guilty Spark.

Guilty Spark: "We're sorry Master Chief, your game is on another Xbox!"

 

[Mejilan]

I still can't believe, other then the many psoters in here, that there are so many people on GAF who actually thought this was a great ending. I just don't see it. Just imagine the film Aliens rolling to credits when Ripley is going down that elevator to try and save Newt. Imagine Indiana Jones rolling to credits before they open the ark. Imagine the first Halo rolling to credits right after the timer starts before that final drive to escape the explosion. Or just imagine ... shit you know what? There are too many dirty examples. I highly doubt any of you would find any of those acceptable.

You should play it again. Just to be sure.

 

[MetatronM]

For everybody complaining that "you didn't get to even play the last level as Master Chief" I say who cares? The Arbiter is so much cooler than Master Chief.

And it's not like the ending was entirely random. You DID just stop Halo from destroying all life in the galaxy again, after all (albeit in the most anticlimactic way possible). It's not a particularly good ending or anything since it is awfully unsatisfying (especially knowing that we'll have to wait YEARS to see what happens next), but as I've said before, it's not all that unlike the ending to The Fellowship of the Ring. Ooh, interesting stuff is going on and our comrades are in danger...TO BE CONTINUED. Pretty much the same kind of ending.

Oh well, it would have been nice to have a little better sense of accomplishment in the end, or at least not have to wait for years to seeing the conclusion, but the only thing you can really do is wait for Halo 3. Whining about it isn't going to do any good.

At least you accomplish more in Halo 2 than the rebels do in Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Mejilan]

For everybody complaining that "you didn't get to even play the last level as Master Chief" I say who cares? The Arbiter is so much cooler than Master Chief.

And it's not like the ending was entirely random. You DID just stop Halo from destroying all life in the galaxy again, after all (albeit in the most anticlimactic way possible). It's not a particularly good ending or anything since it is awfully unsatisfying (especially knowing that we'll have to wait YEARS to see what happens next), but as I've said before, it's not all that unlike the ending to The Fellowship of the Ring. Ooh, interesting stuff is going on and our comrades are in danger...TO BE CONTINUED. Pretty much the same kind of ending.

Oh well, it would have been nice to have a little better sense of accomplishment in the end, or at least not have to wait for years to seeing the conclusion, but the only thing you can really do is wait for Halo 3. Whining about it isn't going to do any good.

At least you accomplish more in Halo 2 than the rebels do in Empire Strikes Back.

FotR? I still weep for folks that only saw the movies and haven't read the books!

 

[MetatronM]

FotR? I still weep for folks that only saw the movies and haven't read the books!

I was talking about the movie version. And yeah, FotR.

 

[Dead]

After FOTR we knew when to epect what was coming next. We have no idea how long well have to wait for the continuation of Halo. 2 years? 3 years?

 

[PkunkFury]

This is a bad trend and I hope other games don't pick up on it. TV cliffhangers are great, they are free and you only have to wait a week to see what happens next. Movie cliffhangers can be tiresome, but the movie ticket was only 8 bucks and often we hear that the movies will be continued ahead of time (aka Matrix, Star Wars)

Video games cost 50 freaking dollars. I do not want crappy marketing ploys like cliffhanger endings in my video games. We paid a lot of money and we waited a long time, we deserve to feel some form of closure. The single player campiang was already short and the ending just made it feel shorter. If any other game did this it would have been blasted in reviews. Other games have left open ended areas and questions unanswered for future games to pick up on, but most of those games present some form of a climax. It's an art form, leaving just enough unanswered to make people want more. Leaving everything open just plain sucks.