Official Halo 2 Thread

Ecrofirt said:
And to you guys who beat the game, watch the full end credits. There's a movie at the end.
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I really don't understand why people were complaining about the ending, and the story in general. There some great twists in the game, and there's a huge setup for the next HALO.

A few things go unexplained, however, but I already have a few theories... I don't think I want to discuss it here though, I don't even want to tempt you guys. :)
 
From reading all the feedback from GameFAQs whiners and such, I think the main problems people have with the story/ending is that:

--no questions from the original are ever answered (while totally new and off-the-wall questions are all of a sudden introduced....and then never answered)
--all trailers and footage up to this point have been very deceiving about the game's true focus (nobody is getting what they feel they were promised or what they expected)
--"a huge setup for the next HALO" is insanely frustrating considering that the next game is probably 3-4 years away
--the game is paced such that it doesn't feel like it is about to conclude and then it is suddenly over when it seems as though there should be more levels
 
I'm going to post a MAJOR LEAGUE STORY SPOILER here, do NOT highlight if you do not want to know:

I just reached the point where you take control of an Arbiter- a Covenant alien. I just started this part but do not really care for it at all. It is too much like the Raiden thing in MGS2. I want to be Master Chief, not an alien. Just like I wanted to be Solid Snake, not Raiden in MGS2. I unerstand their desire to shake things up but it seems unoriginal to me, and a bad design choice. If they want you to play as a Covenant alien, they should come out with a spinoff. The sotry may redeem this, but as of now I do not care for it.

I don't know what goes with the story from here but it was advertised as MC fightin to save Earth, and apparently that is only part of it.
 
border said:
--no questions from the original are ever answered (while totally new and off-the-wall questions are all of a sudden introduced....and then never answered)
--all trailers and footage up to this point have been very deceiving about the game's true focus (nobody is getting what they feel they were promised or what they expected)
--"a huge setup for the next HALO" is insanely frustrating considering that the next game is probably 3-4 years away
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I guess I can agree with that. I just don't think it warrants the "shit" label. Despite the story inconsistencies I still loved it.

You guys think Bungie will use DLC to expand on HALO 2's Single Player Campaign?

shantyman said:
It is too much like the Raiden thing in MGS2. I want to be Master Chief, not an alien. Just like I wanted to be Solid Snake, not Raiden in MGS2.
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It doesn't really play out like MGS2. You kind of switch up between the two, they both work for entirely different purposes until the tail end of the game.

I don't know what goes with the story from here but it was advertised as MC fightin to save Earth, and apparently that is only part of it.
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* Sai scratches brow.

... Unfortunately, a very small part of it. :/
 
I was very disappointed that this game was hyped as being the game that takes place on earth, when only the first few levels do. Pretty shitty bait and switch, but the game rocked nonetheless.
 
To answer above spoilers:

the whole thing is about saving earth, now the covenant know the location of it, the only thing MC can do is end the war for good
 
border said:
--no questions from the original are ever answered (while totally new and off-the-wall questions are all of a sudden introduced....and then never answered)
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That's dissapointing. I was absolutely convinced
we would learn about the forerunners. Or I was very much hoping so.
 
jobber said:
is there a online co-op mode?
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Welcome to 2 weeks ago or something like that. No there is no online coop, or even system link coop. It's already been debated, Xbots "don't care", xbox haters "won't buy the game because it's missing THE feature they wanted" and normal people are disapointed but will still enjoy the game (hopefully)
 
jonhuz said:
Boarded my first in-flight Banshee tonight. Perfection!
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Yeah same here, last night. I think the level was
The Uprising
or something like that.

It was the one where you had to protect the scarab from the brutes on the banshees, my banshee was pretty beat up so I boarded the scarab to try and take some pot shots at the enemy banshees from on top, one of them flew quite close and I was given the 'press X to board' prompt. It was awesome to see Master Chief jump and grab hold of the banshee in flight and rip the Brute from inside to take the pilots seat.
Awesome stuff. :)
 
Ecrofirt said:
I was very disappointed that this game was hyped as being the game that takes place on earth, when only the first few levels do. Pretty shitty bait and switch, but the game rocked nonetheless.
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It was clear early on fromd developer interviews that Halo 2 would not take place only on earth. I don't really agree that they tried to make anyone think that they game would take place entirely on earth.
 
While we were told it wouldn't just take place on Earth, I was lead to believe a good chunk of the game would be about Earth, about defending it.

That simply was not the case.
When they hit Earth, it wasn't even a real invasion.

Though it sure as hell was at the end of the game.
 
I recall them saying it simply wasn't in, don't remember them stating why.

What I really want to know is why System-Link Co-op isn't in. I just don't understand it.
 
Sai said:
I recall them saying it simply wasn't in, don't remember them stating why.

What I really want to know is why System-Link Co-op isn't in. I just don't understand it.
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Yeah I should have said system link. System link was more important than online for me.
 
Deku Tree said:
I don't really agree that they tried to make anyone think that they game would take place entirely on earth.
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Have you seen any of the trailers or media released in the last 18 months or so? Just look at the TV spot for goodness' sake....99% the shots are of the earth invasion, the voiceover is focused on it ("We thought they'd never find us blah blah blah....time to save earth blah blah blah"). I guess you can't say that the game is portrayed as taking place entirely on earth, but it's very obviously been slanted to look like the majority of the game involves an earth campaign. An even worse burn is that (ending spoilers)
it ends right before the action is about to shift back to earth
.

I honestly have no idea why they chose to get people's hopes up like this, and unless they promise single-player DLC within the next 6 months I believe that there is going to be some nasty backlash.
 
border said:
Have you seen any of the trailers or media released in the last 18 months or so? Just look at the TV spot for goodness' sake....99% the shots are of the earth invasion, the voiceover is focused on it ("We thought they'd never find us blah blah blah....time to save earth blah blah blah"). I guess you can't say that the game is portrayed as taking place entirely on earth, but it's very obviously been slanted to look like the majority of the game involves an earth campaign. An even worse burn is that (ending spoilers)
it ends right before the action is about to shift back to earth
.

I honestly have no idea why they chose to get people's hopes up like this, and unless they promise single-player DLC within the next 6 months I believe that there is going to be some nasty backlash.
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wtf everyone here can't have got Meijers copies. There must be a ton of hackers.. it amazes me.
 
Well i can see how its much more complicated than simple human only multiplayer, sucks its not in though.
 
You don't have to "hack" a copy of the game to know spoilers. They have been all over the place for weeks on end....you can probably download videos of the ending if you look in the right places.
 
SyNapSe said:
wtf everyone here can't have got Meijers copies. There must be a ton of hackers.. it amazes me.
Click to expand...

A bunch of local places are selling them early - multimedia 1 in ny is selling because the owner said he never signed anything stating they couldnt sell it early, thus avoiding any lawsuits.

Others (like myself) got them through other loopholes...my friend works at eb and gave me my copy yesterday, but wont ring it up till tuesday.
 
Does anybody know how long it takes MTV.com to ship stuff? I've never ordered anything from them prior to this, and I'm starting to get the feeling I'll be lucky to see it in my mailbox before Thanksgiving.
 
Mooreberg said:
Does anybody know how long it takes MTV.com to ship stuff? I've never ordered anything from them prior to this, and I'm starting to get the feeling I'll be lucky to see it in my mailbox before Thanksgiving.
Click to expand...

Probably wont take that long, but I have a feeling that you've got the right idea.
 
border said:
Have you seen any of the trailers or media released in the last 18 months or so? Just look at the TV spot for goodness' sake....99% the shots are of the earth invasion, the voiceover is focused on it ("We thought they'd never find us blah blah blah....time to save earth blah blah blah"). I guess you can't say that the game is portrayed as taking place entirely on earth, but it's very obviously been slanted to look like the majority of the game involves an earth campaign. An even worse burn is that (ending spoilers)
it ends right before the action is about to shift back to earth
.

I honestly have no idea why they chose to get people's hopes up like this, and unless they promise single-player DLC within the next 6 months I believe that there is going to be some nasty backlash.
Click to expand...

bah, bungie has said many times over that halo 2 would be a "glactic romp" from one location to the next. yeah, earth was all that was featured in media, cause anything else would be spoiler. shesh
 
op_ivy said:
bah, bungie has said many times over that halo 2 would be a "glactic romp" from one location to the next. yeah, earth was all that was featured in media, cause anything else would be spoiler. shesh
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Saying something in the back of a relatively low-circulation magazine that will only be read by a fraction of the potential buyers doesn't really counteract the fact that the way the game has been marketed and shown to the public is still totally inaccurate and unrepresentative of the product itself. Showing earth is as much a spoiler as ANY other game location. And seriously, how the is it really a spoiler for them to show scenes from a Halo planet in a game called "Halo 2"?? If they had balanced the media between Halo sequences, Covenant bases, and Earth sequences, they wouldn't be facing any sort of backlash and the story would have the exact same effect. I don't think it will be anywhere near as bad as with MGS2, but a lot of people already see it as a frustrating bait n' switch.....fortunately there are the multiplayer modes to sate them.
 
I can think of other things that are wrong with the Caipaign mode, but I'd agree the lack of Earth-based levels is a disappointment.
 
I don't think it will be anywhere near as bad as with MGS2
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As bad as MGS2? I'd be thrilled if it pulled an MGS2 (and it sounds like, in a couple ways at least, it actually does).
 
Sai said:
No, unfortunately. I don't understand why Bungie didn't give us the option.
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Thanks. Too bad though, no more fun with hogs and grenades I guess.

I saw a video of the new Blood Gulch, looks great. I have a feeling they increased the FOV as well which is a plus to me.
 
WordofGod said:
What do you mean?
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Grenades lying around can no longer explode if you have a detonation nearby.

Instead, those energy brown boxes you saw in Zanzibar are the only ones that can still explode the same way.

I don't view any of this as a negative though.
 
WordofGod said:
What do you mean?
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I mean you can no longer do all sorts of neat tricks with launching Warthogs in the air, getting them on top of things etc. Has no bearing on actual gameplay though, so it's not like it's a huge loss or anything.
 
Saturnman said:
Grenades lying around can no longer explode if you have a detonation nearby.
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... In Multiplayer? They didn't do that in the first game's Multiplayer either. I'm almost certain they do that in HALO 2's Single Player Campaign.

[EDIT] - Just formed a party and played a few 8 player games. Game's just incredibly fun over LIVE, everybody was talkative-- talkin' smack, postgame chatter 'n' all. Bungie succeeded in bringing the feeling of a HALO LAN game online.
 
border said:
--the game is paced such that it doesn't feel like it is about to conclude and then it is suddenly over when it seems as though there should be more levels
Click to expand...


Is that right? I'm buying Halo2 for the single player/story. That could be bad. Do you guys think they focused too much on Multi and hence the 1p game suffered?

I have to say.. I guess its impressions but all that talk about the EARTH campaign being a small part of HALo2 is a massive spoiler in parts. Spoil this for me; but does part of the campaign actually happen in HongKong? It better because I recognised the Norman Forster Shanghai bank in their print campaign.
 
The team working on HALO 2's Single Player was composed of nearly 4 times the amount of people working on Multiplayer.

So no, Bungie didn't concentrate too much on Multiplayer. Single Player was really their main focus, just like the first game. But Multiplayer wasn't just an afterthought(like the first game's was) either.
 
All this stuff about the end is really starting to upset me. I'm still buying it and I still expect to enjoy Halo 2 incredbily. But I really doubt that Bungie would end the game on that note all by themselves.

I used to think that all that PR spin about how Bungie can do whatever they want and MS doesn't exert any of the heavy handed corporate power over them was actually true. Not anymore.

I don't want to know how the game ends until I play it, but I'm already dissapointed. My favorite part about the story in the first Halo was the ending.
 
SyNapSe said:
wtf everyone here can't have got Meijers copies. There must be a ton of hackers.. it amazes me.
Click to expand...

What amazes me is your stupidity. I can post a picture if you like. Next time think before you start spouting out accusations. What are there, 3 or 4 of us posting impressions? Also, no, I did not get mine at Meijer and it was LEGALLY bought and paid for.

h2.jpg
 
Shitload of screenshots here, and here. No spoilers as far as I can tell.

They're all official, by the way.

Kuroyume said:
Is there a multiplayer map that takes place at night? Anyone know? Can you change the day to night settings?
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No, and no.

Deku Tree said:
All this stuff about the end is really starting to upset me. I'm still buying it and I still expect to enjoy Halo 2 incredbily. But I really doubt that Bungie would end the game on that note all by themselves.

I used to think that all that PR spin about how Bungie can do whatever they want and MS doesn't exert any of the heavy handed corporate power over them was actually true. Not anymore.

I don't want to know how the game ends until I play it, but I'm already dissapointed. My favorite part about the story in the first Halo was the ending.
Click to expand...

You guys shouldn't worry about the story too much. There are inconsistencies, and what border said is true, but I still enjoyed it knowing all of that.

If you liked what you saw in the original HALO, you should be more than pleased with HALO 2's.
 
FMT and others, I concur with Sai. It's not really disappointment, but I guess I was surprised. I have to amend what I said earlier. I have not even finished it, so for me to say I'm disappointed is premature.
 
OK, I am reconsidering fully:

After playing some of the Covenant stuff, this is just as fun as Master Chief. It does not bother me in the least now. The active camo is fun to use and I now utilize the power of the covenant laser sword. :)
 
Just finished it.

Kinda funny how much it reminds me of Matrix Reloaded in terms of sequels - loads more action, but it's gonna split people 50/50. Like MR gave a insight into the world of the machines, H2 does the same for the Covenant - those people who like their villians one dimensional won't enjoy Halo 2. I loved the way the Elites are handled...they come across as quite nobel, with the Brutes being devious power-hungry bastards.

As for the ending...well all I'll say (wild speculation). That the E3 demo is from a scene from Halo 3 that MS are going to surprise us with, with a shock release to prop up the final year of the Xbox in 2005 before Xenon arrives. WIld I know... either that or Halo 2 is going to be a great experiment in XB Live level downloads.....with the 'real' ending to Halo 2 on a downloadable content type setup over the coming months....if we have to wait for Xenon H3...then it's going to be a real long wait.

It's safe to say that Halo 2 WILL DISAPPOINT a shitload of people and for that MS/Bungie have only themselves to blame with the trailers that have run. E3 demo ect showed Earth being caned in a full-scale nuke bombardment....you can't pull a switch-a-rooney like they have and not get punished for it.

Loved the combat....loved the story. Polymap issues aside, fantastic graphics in the later levels.

Cockles rates Halo 2....

9.0
 
COCKLES said:
Just finished it.

As for the ending...well all I'll say (wild speculation). That the E3 demo is from a scene from Halo 3 that MS are going to surprise us with, with a shock release to prop up the final year of the Xbox in 2005 before Xenon arrives. WIld I know... either that or Halo 2 is going to be a great experiment in XB Live level downloads.....with the 'real' ending to Halo 2 on a downloadable content type setup over the coming months....if we have to wait for Xenon H3...then it's going to be a real long wait.
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There were all those rumours around ages ago that halo 2 would be the first episodic xbox live game, but nothing came of it, then recently in that interview with the writer dropped what might have been a little clue when talking about what was cut he said "you never know where those bits might turn up". I know it almost certainly wont happen but it'd be awesome if they actually plan to finish the story using downloadable content.
 
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