Halo 2 Review for Xbox at GameSpot

No_Style

Halo 2, the long-awaited sequel to one of the most widely praised, most influential first-person shooters ever created, has a very tough act to follow. Fortunately, it's built on a foundation that's as strong as they come. The game's success was preordained--publisher Microsoft tallied more than 1.5 million Halo 2 preorders in the weeks leading up to the game's release, which demonstrates just how confident Halo's fans are in the sequel's quality. But how is it, really? The good news is, the sequel to the Xbox's defining action game is an absolutely superb, fully featured game, boasting an excellent presentation, a highly replayable campaign, and the greatest, most complete online multiplayer component in a console shooter yet. A surprisingly disappointing story and a fairly short single-player portion are noticeable shortcomings, but there's just so much breadth of content in Halo 2, and the action itself is so outstanding, that there can be no denying its quality. Overall, it's one of the very best action games available.

Too lazy to read? Watch the Video Review.

Warning: Minor spoilers are evident
_______________
Read More/Source: GameSpot

No_Style

Looks very impressive. Although, some of the former quirks were mentioned to be evident in the sequel, I do look forward to playing it on the PC. I sincerely hope it's ported over well.

TJ-

the question is do u think its the best game to ever be created....?

No_Style

No. Probably, the best CONSOLE FPS game to be ever created.

TJ-

after seeing the video review i must say it doesnt look as good as i expected. It looks to easy, hes flying through the level with ease. I like a challeging game..have u played it nostyle..?

better than far cry??
doom3???

it looks like a mix btw the 2....

No_Style

No, I haven't played it, but if you're looking for a good action game, Halo 2 has it. Is it a splice between Far Cry and Doom 3? Yeah, if you think about it, it is. The game is challenging, but the controls are intuitive and that's why it looks like he's going through it with ease. If you ramp up the difficulty, the game gets quite difficult. The AI is top notch, not Doom 3 like at all.

If you like the original Halo, you'll find Halo 2 to be a nice refresher title since Bungie went with the whole "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." route with it. If you didn't find the original Halo too grand (like I did), but are looking for a good shooter, Halo 2 is still a title to play by the looks of it.

Nacht

the AI looked about the same as it was in Halo. Everyone thought that Halo's AI was amazing, but to me it seemed like standard fair. I mean, even Turok 2 on Nintendo 64 had enemies that took cover to reload, rolled from fire, and performed various other feats...Far Cry is one of the only games that has really made me think "WOW" in the AI department.

I think it will be fun for multi, just like the original halo was...but i dont see the single player being that great.

like the guy said, the graphics werent all that impressive either. its like they took the halo engine, and just added a few real/bump mapping things and some pixel shaders. i feel sorry for all of those die hard halo fans screaming about halo 2 having the best graphics of any game, including doom 3 and half life 2. it runs at 320x240 with no AA for chrissakes!

In the end, i think it will be a very good game, just not worthy of all the hype and fanboyism that has preceeded it. Half life 2 might be the only game truly worth all of the hype. I think that Doom 3 was worth all of it, but there are many people that would disagree with me...I think it is due to the fact that I value that atmosphere so highly.

I wonder how Halo 2 on PC will fair...

Sargentwhitey

I personally will enjoy every aspect of Halo 2 I think.. except the online play... I'm never a fan of online play...

Shike

Actually it has HDTV suppport, and AA/AF are on (not sure to what degree, usually 4x and no AF...sometimes a balance) with a frame limiter set to 30. The graphics the Xbox can do a fairly impressive for what it is, although we still know PC's can turn out better...

Ex. Halo 2 can have AA and AF on at medium or low quality with effects enabled, but our PC's would at least run it medium with AA and AF enabled...let alone high seems quite possible (just wish they had a custom frame limiter for the PC ver. of Halo)

Also the Halo 2 engine has more textures and seems a bit more vibrant than the original. HL2 can definately beat it, but that's not the point of Halo. Halo is meant to be an ownage game in co-op or at a split second LAN where not everyone has uber PC's like us or nobody feels like lugging 50LBS rather than ~5LBS.

Also, Halo 2 will take at least a year for it to hit PC, and may never actually hit just for the sole purpose to move boxes of the shelf. I had two friends who only use PC and PS2 buy a box just because they didn't want to wait a year again, and face stuttering cause their hardware can't keep up (they had Radeon 9500 Pros trying to run Halo, although I heard power machines can stutter too even with no-cd cracks...)

So, I still suggest if you have a box just get the damn thing and be happy ^_^

Nacht

I knew that the XBox had component video, but I didnt know it was capable of a full 1080 line resolution...Is that true? I had heard of it using AA before, but I have never seen it in action. All of the games I see my brother play must lack this feature.

I certainly understand the point of having a cheaper, mobile gaming only box. I was a console-only gamer for many years, only having played a few mediocre titles on the pc. Now that I have a job and computer knowledge however, PC gaming has taken it's toll upon me However, I still think that consoles are better for certain types of games, i.e. adventure, certain rpgs (like final fantasy), platform, side scrollers, and fighting games (of course)

hehe, it wasnt your friends 9500pros holding them back (well...it WAS...). On my old system (athlon 2400+, 1024mb ddr ram, FX5900U 128MB) i could only play the game as a slide show...even on modest settings at 1024x768. it's never fun to play a game under those conditions. If it would turn out like that again with halo 2, i would rather them never port it, as it would just make me loose more respect for them

Sargentwhitey

I only know of one game that has AA enabled when you first get it.. its Unreal Championship.. although it made the game run a little slower than they had liked... so they patched it out...

Veridian3

No, that was Goldeneye on the N64...

Callandor

The review sounded fair to me after playing this game. The only trouble is, I still feel the first offering gave me alot more bang for my buck.

Oh well

dipstick

I think Halo2 is much improved over the original for sure. Story, gfx and music-wise it is amazing and very well done(the music is probably the best I've heard in any game). Not sure why everybody has to compare console gfx to PC but hey, to each his own. Anyways, online gaming is great and its definitely the best Live! game to date(and better than most online PC fps imho). If you liked the first you will definitely love this one. I mean it runs, looks and sounds better, the story is top notch and the online gaming is superb. What more can you ask for?

Zardon

I sometimes wonder for your sanity stu - that game was slower than my grandma crossing the road.

Zardon

Im sure its 100x better than doom3 - unless you rate a game totally on graphics, ive had more fun playing space invaders in flash code

Zardon

Well going on the first version I hope they learn from their mistakes, Halo pc was TOTALLY destroyed by the fact they left out coooperative play. That was one of the best points of the console version, you and a mate playing it on the same screen. The PC had the potential to better that with two players on seperate monitors over LAN in coop mode........ must have been too much work.

dipstick

That is definitely true man, CoOp is probably the thing in any game and Halo was awesome when played like that. I was hopin they could offer CoOp over LAN or Live for the Xbox this time around but I guess the poor Xbox cant handle it lol. I hope the 2-3 years they spend porting this over are used well and that they do include CoOp.

Zardon

incubus apparently do some of the music on the soundtrack

Dom

Yeah, I believe they (and a few other celebs) helped beta test it and got a copy in advanced that came in it's own suitcase with an LCD monitor and an Xbox. "Halo 2 Crew", or something like that.

Zardon

im listening to the soundtrack right now, I have to say its kickin, incubus are a tight band. nice sounds.

Shike

I would like them to port it sooner or later for the sake of mouse and keyboard, and I think your FX was holding you back...

Most good games use AA or AF when possible, just may not be to the highest degree. Go play Halo at 800x600 and compare it to the Xbox ver. on a flat screen. As long as your TV isn't super detailed sharp (I'm the only one out of my group with a flat screen that makes more jaggies. Really, Riddick looked jaggied on my TV yet reviewers sayed it has had the best graphics they've seen on a console in a long time). On my friends standard TV's though Halo looks about on par with my PC running it at 800x600 standard detail with 4XAA and AF disabled.