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[GhaleonEB]

Maybe so, but that wasn't what was actually happening at the end of the game. There wasn't a big enough fleet.

The other prophet (was it Mercy? the one with the Flood infection buried in his neck) told the MC something along the lines of "soon you will be all wiped out". I'm assuming he was referring to a full scale invasion, and I think it's reasonable to assume that is what's happening at the end of the game.

Given that we beat back or destroyed their first landing party, with Truth's ship being the only one to get out, the second battle at the end must have been a full-scale assault.

I don't fully agree with the statement that Bungie was doing 'false advertising' about the premise of the game, at least not up until that commercial. They have said all along that the premise it that the Covenant find Earth, and that the story would move to other places including a new Halo. (they even mentioned the gas mine back in November 2002).

The TV commercial, though, is misleading. The Covenant dialogue is taken entirely out of context:

"No enemy has ever withstood our might." The rest of the sentence is, "and nor shall the Flood."

"There are some who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?"
This is referring to the civil war which has broken out within the Covenant.

Also the TV ad showed covenant ships arriaving at Earth, with nukes going off on the surface. That was not in the game.

I would not mind if the ad only showed the beginning of the game, all on Earth, so as to not spoil the story. But to include those deliberately misleading elements did cross the line.

 

[mrmyth]

The other prophet (was it Mercy? the one with the Flood infection buried in his neck) told the MC something along the lines of "soon you will be all wiped out". I'm assuming he was referring to a full scale invasion, and I think it's reasonable to assume that is what's happening at the end of the game.

Given that we beat back or destroyed their first landing party, with Truth's ship being the only one to get out, the second battle at the end must have been a full-scale assault.

The Prophets know what the Halos do. There tortured Guilty Spark for information. They just happen to think that the pulse that destroys all sentient life will also carry the worthy to their version of Heaven.

They're a really big doomsday cult.


Mercy wasn't referring to an invasion. He was referring to firing the Halos, thus cleaning the universe of human filth and beginning their Great Journey. You saw the fleet that slipspaced into the vicinity of Delta Halo. That and High Charity would be in Earth orbit if it was full-scale invasion. Just their ships took out Reach. If High Charity was at Earth, there'd be no Earth.

The way Halo2 ended, I think that the Covie fleet that shows up at Earth will be headed by the Arbiter, Miranda Keyes, and Johnson.

 

[tedtropy]

First off, don't get me wrong, I loved Halo 2. What's there is incredibly polished gameplay and graphics-wise. My dissapointment stems from the final cinematic scene, where we see the Master Chief in 'about to kick ass' mode. Here I am, thinking to myself, oh man, this level is going to be awesome and then...roll credits. I was pretty irked by that, which was only magnified by the fact that we probably won't see a resolution to the issues present in the ending until a good three years from now. For a game that barely took me 10 hours to beat (and that's being generous), that wait seems kind of upsetting...

 

[GhaleonEB]

The Prophets know what the Halos do. There tortured Guilty Spark for information. They just happen to think that the pulse that destroys all sentient life will also carry the worthy to their version of Heaven.

They're a really big doomsday cult.


Mercy wasn't referring to an invasion. He was referring to firing the Halos, thus cleaning the universe of human filth and beginning their Great Journey. You saw the fleet that slipspaced into the vicinity of Delta Halo. That and High Charity would be in Earth orbit if it was full-scale invasion. Just their ships took out Reach. If High Charity was at Earth, there'd be no Earth.

The way Halo2 ended, I think that the Covie fleet that shows up at Earth will be headed by the Arbiter, Miranda Keyes, and Johnson.

Did he know, or was he in denial? I think it's left ambigious as to whether the Prophets knew they would erradicate life; they may be just blinded by their fanaticism.

 

[Gorey]

For posters who consider Master Chief emblematic of Halo, I encourage rapid acceptance that Halo is far greater than Master Chief.

Very well articulated point, and I'll concede this is a better attitude to take than my 'wah, wah, it ain't the MC' stuff. But damnit, I LIKE the master chief- and do not think of him as utterly flat or one dimensional. Not exactly original, sure. Perhaps because I read the books? In any case, that's my opinion. I think scoot's general analysis is pretty uplifting, in the sense that they have plenty of material to work with in the universe, and it's all good.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the advertising campaign was bad, or full of 'lies', just that it wasn't very....accurate.

I think I'm gonna give up trying to explain why the ending annoyed the hell out of me, as it seems like there are those who like it, and those who don't. Not so much middle ground, I guess.

 

[Azih]

I thought the story itself was fine and I enjoyed the Arbiter bits, however the final boss fight sucked and the ending was very very badly done.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Very well articulated point, and I'll concede this is a better attitude to take than my 'wah, wah, it ain't the MC' stuff. But damnit, I LIKE the master chief- and do not think of him as utterly flat or one dimensional. Not exactly original, sure. Perhaps because I read the books? In any case, that's my opinion. I think scoot's general analysis is pretty uplifting, in the sense that they have plenty of material to work with in the universe, and it's all good.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the advertising campaign was bad, or full of 'lies', just that it wasn't very....accurate.

I think I'm gonna give up trying to explain why the ending annoyed the hell out of me, as it seems like there are those who like it, and those who don't. Not so much middle ground, I guess.

I'm in the middle.

 

[Karg]

I'd guess I'd be in the middle as well. I enjoyed playing the Arbiter role but just felt like I ran into a brick wall at the end. Not even really a cliffhanger but more of a cruel joke.

Like Bungie dangling that one last Earth battle right over your head...

 

[arhra]

Maybe so, but that wasn't what was actually happening at the end of the game. There wasn't a big enough fleet.

Well, at the end of the game, most of the fleet was busy blowing the shit out of each other... who knows what that Forerunner ship is capable of, though...

--

"There are some who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?"
This is referring to the civil war which has broken out within the Covenant.

That sentence is referring to the Great Journey, not the civil war. The full quote is something like: "Soon our Great Journey will begin. [there might be another sentence here, i'm not sure. if so it's the usual religious twaddle]. There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?". Basically, Truth's saying "we're off to heaven. suck it down, non-believers!"

Did he know, or was he in denial? I think it's left ambigious as to whether the Prophets knew they would erradicate life; they may be just blinded by their fanaticism.

The way i see it, the Prophets view the Forerunners as divine beings, and therefore view anything they constructed as divine artifacts, created with a divine purpose in mind. They view the activation of the Halos as a form of spiritual ascension, rather than the true purpose, which is a kind of last-ditch galactic pest-control device. They probably view the destruction of all sentient life as an insignificant side-effect, if they know about it/have thought about it at all.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I'd guess I'd be in the middle as well. I enjoyed playing the Arbiter role but just felt like I ran into a brick wall at the end. Not even really a cliffhanger but more of a cruel joke.

Like Bungie dangling that one last Earth battle right over your head...

Yeah, I guess I come down this way:

1) I'm glad there will be a sequel
2) I loved the Arbiter missions
3) The ending, had I not known it was coming, would have been a jolt.
4) The game answered enough questions from the first game that I don't mind that it left a few big opens at the end of this one - I still had some sense of closure.

 

[Lakitu]

Man I really wanna know the conclusion, I don't think a game has left me like that before, and the wait is so hard to bear. Do you think Bungie's next major project (which they're working on now), Halo 3? Please god I hope so.

 

[Karg]

Yeah, I guess I come down this way:

1) I'm glad there will be a sequel
2) I loved the Arbiter missions
3) The ending, had I not known it was coming, would have been a jolt.
4) The game answered enough questions from the first game that I don't mind that it left a few big opens at the end of this one - I still had some sense of closure.

And luckily the online side of the game has been nothing but good to me. Just hope they keep maps steadily coming...

 

[GhaleonEB]

. There are those who said this day would never come. What are they to say now?". Basically, Truth's saying "we're off to heaven. suck it down, non-believers!"


The way i see it, the Prophets view the Forerunners as divine beings, and therefore view anything they constructed as divine artifacts, created with a divine purpose in mind. They view the activation of the Halos as a form of spiritual ascension, rather than the true purpose, which is a kind of last-ditch galactic pest-control device. They probably view the destruction of all sentient life as an insignificant side-effect, if they know about it/have thought about it at all.

Okay, thanks for the clarification on the first quote. I'm always blowing stuff up when he says it.

I still think there's plenty of room to speculate on the exact knowledge/motivation of the Prophets, but you make a few good points.

 

[Azih]

I'd guess I'd be in the middle as well. I enjoyed playing the Arbiter role but just felt like I ran into a brick wall at the end. Not even really a cliffhanger but more of a cruel joke.

Like Bungie dangling that one last Earth battle right over your head...

See the thing is.. most people aren't bashing the story, they're bashing just the ending. The ending is the issue. Not the story. You're on one side buddy.

 

[Karg]

See the thing is.. most people aren't bashing the story, they're bashing just the ending. The ending is the issue. Not the story. You're on one side buddy.

Touche.

 

[GhaleonEB]

See the thing is.. most people aren't bashing the story, they're bashing just the ending. The ending is the issue. Not the story. You're on one side buddy.

Yeah, I translate such complaints as, "The story was good. Then it ended."

 

[mrmyth]

Well, at the end of the game, most of the fleet was busy blowing the shit out of each other... who knows what that Forerunner ship is capable of, though...

If you mean the Covie fleet, we don't know that for certain. The ships in area of the High Charity were in-fighting, but we don't know that to be the entire Covie population. The Brutes took over as guard of the Prophets, so they're where the action is. There could be umpteen more High Charity-type worldships elsewhere, still under Elite control. We're dealing with a coalition of races from possibly five planets, with technology that can manufacture ships like Gemany cranked out VWs - we haven't seen the entire fleet.
And let's not forget, fifteen Covie ships is still a shitload for the regular UNSC forces to handle, MAC guns or no. That forerunner ship was smaller than a Covenant cruiser. I'll bet its durable, but weaponless. Its only function probably has something to do with the Ark.

No, I think when the full Covenant fleet appears around Earth, the Arbiter will be commanding. Whether he'll be in a good enough mood to destroy only the Ark and not Earth is anyone's guess.

 

[Gorey]

It's the wait. When you hit the ending of Matrix: Reloaded, it didn't irk so much because hey, the next one is due out and we've got a date (and they still sucked, but that's a discussion for another thread).

In the case of halo...unless Bungie is keeping an impenetrable shield of secrecy in place, it will most likely be three+ years before we get any kind of continuance or closure. For that style of ending....ugh. Am I being impatient? Damn straight.

 

[Deku Tree]

In the case of halo...unless Bungie is keeping an impenetrable shield of secrecy in place, it will most likely be three+ years before we get any kind of continuance or closure. For that style of ending....ugh. Am I being impatient? Damn straight.

I've seen a link around for a MS press page where Steve Balmer is giving a speach and he says that Halo 3 is already in development in the middle of 2003. He says something like 'I hope you can keep a secret because we are already working on Xbox 2, Halo 2 and Halo 3.' Dunno if his statement has been debunked. And I don't have the link right now either.

So we could possibly see Halo 3 with all the features cut from Halo 2, the e3 2003 trailer graphics and hopefully a more closure for the story by sometime in 2006.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I've seen a link around for a MS press page where Steve Balmer is giving a speach and he says that Halo 3 is already in development in the middle of 2003. He says something like 'I hope you can keep a secret because we are already working on Xbox 2, Halo 2 and Halo 3.' Dunno if his statement has been debunked. And I don't have the link right now either.

So we could possibly see Halo 3 with all the features cut from Halo 2, the e3 2003 trailer graphics and hopefully a more closure for the story by sometime in 2006.

In October last year, an erroneous release from Microsoft supremo Steve Ballmer caught a few Bungie employees off-guard. Mr. Ballmer's statement to the press (on a completely unrelated matter) contained the following shocker, " we're working on the next version of Xbox right now and we're working on Halo 2 and Halo 3, the two newest versions of the game." Halo 3? What the...! Anyway, turns out it was a mistake, nobody had to go quickly program anything, and work continued on Halo 2.

Note this is from an article on Bungie.net, so it does not get much more official than that....sadly.

That said, Bungie is currently hiring a good number of folks - this went up today:

http://www.bungie.net/Inside/Page.aspx?section=Jobs&subsection=Main&page=1

They did their last round of hiring at the tail end of Halo 2's development, so this could be a sign that their next project is ramping up fast. (or that a bunch of people left after Halo 2).

Frankie mentioned in an interview recently that Bungie had already begun work on their next project, and a few 'sub and smaller projects as well'. Take that as you will, but it's probably just DLC for Halo 2.

 

[Mr_Furious]

Yeah, I translate such complaints as, "The story was good. Then it ended."

If the story wasn't good, people would be glad it ended (regardless of how)

 

[KAOS]

I didn't have a problem with the ending. I just enjoyed the game so much that I didn't want it to end!

The earth will survive a Convenant invasion but it won't survive the invasion of the Flood. I think that's pretty much why the game ended the way it did. Gravemind will get his revenge on the Forerunners if he destroys earth and it seems likely that he'll get the information regarding earth's location from Cortana.

 

[Ramirez]

Cry a little more for me ladies,lol.

 

[wipeout364]

I would have preferred to play thye whole campaign as Master Chief and on Earth till the end. Maybe a few levels at the end of the game off earth.

I thought the covenants world was ass, wth repeating tile sets and boring levels. As well the return to HALO was not handled well. Really I felt the game was scattered and unfocused, disappointing in almost every aspect as far as atmosphere and story. I disliked most of the new covenant weapons as well.

That said the combat remained fun, and multiplayer is great, as is Co-op. Deserves about a 9/10.

 

[Date of Lies]

For posters who consider Master Chief emblematic of Halo, I encourage rapid acceptance that Halo is far greater than Master Chief. It'd be like saying Garland/Chaos is Final Fantasy. The Halo-games, for as long as they come out will focus on that universe and the people within it, likely across different time periods, et cetera. Halo 2's ending completely fractures the conventional notion of narrative in video games — a narrative which has come tremendously far even since the days of NES Ninja Gaiden. Now, with Halo 2, instead of reaching a finality to the story arc, an arc that will likely be completed in Halo 3/Halo 2.5/online content download, whatever.

Halo 2 is ground breaking in terms of storyline and/or narrative? :lol


The books of the Halo universe have a compelling storyline build around a believable universe. Sadly, Halo 2 pisses on all the books with it's shitty dialog, sloppy pace and confusing cutscenes, but most of all, uninspired storyline in a universe that could have offered far more interesting things.

Things I like about the Halo universe:
The rings
The flood
The Convenant's religion


All things that have been horribly misused in Halo 2. Halo 2 threw objectives at me and did a poor job of explaining why I'm doing all this. Fuck man, I'm taking orders from some big ugly thing that LITTERALLY popped out of nowhere (had Master Cheif never fallen in the sea, he would have never picked him up). Please...

The game made no effort in making me attached to any of the characters, it's cold and unfufilling, with no emotion flow, never going deeper than the shallow super-male persona.

Also, Cortana is ugly. The other chick in the ship looks like a reject from Star Trek. The old military black guy is in there cause he's an old military black guy. Those Regret, Mercy and Sorrow(?) priest guys all have the same cliché power-craving manipulating repugnant leaders that scream like faggets when you hit them. "Brutes". With the notable exception of the arbiter's story (which I liked), the game is without any virtue or feeling for a greater picture. It has no message, nothing outside the superficious "kill or die." The humans working with the arbitor was nice, if it wasn't so completely predictable and cliched, but it still gives that lovable "let's put aside our difference" but plagued with a sloppy delivery (probably looked better on paper).

But again, perhaps all this could have been cleared with a comprehensive ending, something to wrap it all up.

I don't want to compare anything, but StarCraft's storyline, which involved the human race in peril againt 2 other alien races, was so much more complete, researched, with moral conflicts, great character developement. Really an achievement for a videogame.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Halo 2 is ground breaking in terms of storyline and/or narrative? :lol


The books of the Halo universe have a compelling storyline build around a believable universe. Sadly, Halo 2 pisses on all the books with it's shitty dialog, sloppy pace and confusing cutscenes, but most of all, uninspired storyline in a universe that could have offered far more interesting things.

Things I like about the Halo universe:
The rings
The flood
The Convenant's religion


All things that have been horribly misused in Halo 2. Halo 2 threw objectives at me and did a poor job of explaining why I'm doing all this. Fuck man, I'm taking orders from some big ugly thing that LITTERALLY popped out of nowhere (had Master Cheif never fallen in the sea, he would have never picked him up). Please...

The game made no effort in making me attached to any of the characters, it's cold and unfufilling, with no emotion flow, never going deeper than the shallow super-male persona.

Also, Cortana is ugly. The other chick in the ship looks like a reject from Star Trek. The old military black guy is in there cause he's an old military black guy. Those Regret, Mercy and Sorrow(?) priest guys all have the same cliché power-craving manipulating repugnant leaders that scream like faggets when you hit them. "Brutes". With the notable exception of the arbiter's story (which I liked), the game is without any virtue or feeling for a greater picture. It has no message, nothing outside the superficious "kill or die." The humans working with the arbitor was nice, if it wasn't so completely predictable and cliched, but it still gives that lovable "let's put aside our difference" but plagued with a sloppy delivery (probably looked better on paper).

But again, perhaps all this could have been cleared with a comprehensive ending, something to wrap it all up.

I don't want to compare anything, but StarCraft's storyline, which involved the human race in peril againt 2 other alien races, was so much more complete, researched, with moral conflicts, great character developement. Really an achievement for a videogame.

 

[Azih]

Aw Ghaleon that's ok, I'm sorry Date of Lies hurt your feelings. Remember Halo 2 is only a game, you don't have to take the criticisims personally!

 

[Late Stage Marxist]

Self-owned. :lol

 

[Guileless]

Does anyone know if there's a plot synopsis of the Halo series somewhere? I just beat Halo 2 and am totally confused about both games and what's going on.

 

[AniHawk]

Sorry.

 

[StoOgE]

The problem is, most people think that MC is going to land on Earth and conclude the story then the game ends. Most likely he is going to land on Earth and ALOT of stuff is going to happen, and everything we are 'sure' about will be turned on its head.

 

[AniHawk]

The problem is, most people think that MC is going to land on Earth and conclude the story then the game ends. Most likely he is going to land on Earth and ALOT of stuff is going to happen, and everything we are 'sure' about will be turned on its head.

Like it's actually a planet ruled by giant talking apes.

 

[Ramirez]

Who are the Brutes!AM I RIGHT?!

 

[KeithFranklin]

I thought Master Chief would head back to earth and i'd get to play that level from E3 2003

That wasnt a level...Imagine how pissed people would have been if the E3 (8 minutes of play) was an entire level.

 

[adam20]

I was just expecting more from the game since this time Bungie had the time as they needed to develop to satisfaction, unlike Halo1's rush for Xbox launch. I figured the campaign would be much more impressive and longer due to longer development time and I heard from someplace that campaign is the #1 priority for the game.

I thought Master Chief would head back to earth and i'd get to play that level from E3 2003. I should have played on Heroic, I beat Normal in about 8 hours. So for me, the game seemed to end in the middle of action and never got difficult. I would go back and play on heroic, but I have no incentive to do so.

Uh the game is 3 times as fun on heroic. Dont be a wimp. jk =). Seriously. Normal is nothing. Enemies are more significant and it is the way the game was meant to be played. Just like Bungie said the real game in Halo 1 was Heroic and Legendary.

So pick up that controller and get to it. You can skip the nasty first level though. Seriously. Normal wasn't a lot of fun. It was decent but Heroic is just so much more.