Just as a heads up... I hate Halo 1. I think it's overrated. The single player campaign is boring, the enemies are annoying, and the weapons are unbalanced. The only redeeming factor is multiplayer, but even that pales in comparison to Tribes or Battlefield.
Enter Halo 2. I had little hopes for this one. I am currently just past the initial level and all I have to say is this... WOW.
Everything they did wrong in Halo 1, they improved 10 fold. From what I've seen, the cut&paste level design is no more. Every room feels different than the last, and each gives a unique challenge.
The graphics have taken a dramatic overhaul. As soon as you see the opening cutscene, you know that this is pushing the Xbox to it's limits, and it maintains the look throughout. Even the little things are so well done. The reticule when zoomed in looks amazing, when your shield is recharged, an electrical sphere flashes over you, etc. etc. etc.
Dual wielding is very well implimented, I won't go into the details so as to not remove the mystery, but pretty much every weapon so far can be dual wielded and you can easily chose to drop your current or secondary weapon for one on the ground and fire each weapon independant of each other (ala Red Faction 2.)
The story is very well fleshed out so far... I felt the story from Halo 1 was rather blah. This one shows SPOILER
That's all for now. I'll post more as I go along. From what I see, it's a great game, but I still feel that Half Life 2 is going to squeak by with game of the year with this being a very close second.
