Gameplay

New Features of H2

On the gameplay side, fans of the first are going to have a lot to look forward to. The original Halo had the subtitle of “Combat Evolved,” and Halo 2 looks to have gone through another evolutionary cycle. Part of the new game takes place on Earth, and the setting for the demo we were shown was in Mombassa, Africa. The city was under siege by Covenant forces, and MasterChief has been sent to take out the trash. You’re dropped in a war zone, and immediately we noticed that combat has definitely evolved. There’s a sense of urgency in the setting as you fight from area to area – paced with the excitement that you expect from a war movie.

Once again you’ll be facing battles with the aid of human marines, but this time they promise to be smarter and tougher – just like the Covenant. Your marine help will be able to drive the warthog, allowing you to hop on the back and play the game as a rail shooter. The warthogs have upgraded firepower as well. The first game’s warthogs only had a Vulcan cannon mounted on the back, but the sequel has a large plasma type cannon which just loves to make things go boom. The fantastic Halo physics are back again, demonstrated by even larger explosions causing and even greater number of flying enemies and debris.

Spacewalk

Earth doesn't look so good.

The 'chief

Many of weapons from Halo 1 were shown again in Halo 2, and just like in the first you’ll only be able to hold two weapons at any given time. New for the sequel, however, is the ability to wield two assault rifles akimbo. MasterChief’s gonna be going John Woo on the baddies fo’ sure. That’s not the only move our favorite Spartan has picked up. Apparently MasterChief has been getting some ideas from Grand Theft Auto and figured that it’d be pretty cool to hijack Covenant vehicles. During this one greatly entertaining instance of the E3 demo, MasterChief grabbed onto a slow moving Ghost and proceeded to give a quick boot to the head of the pilot and took control of the ship. Instant classic!

The E3 demo we were shown was composed almost entirely of combat scenes, and from those scenes we can safely say that Halo 2 will have great action. That still leaves the question of what type of gameplay takes place away from the action. The first Halo was plagued with repetitive levels, almost to the point of classifying them as boring dungeon crawls. Hopefully, Halo 2 will have none of that – but we’ll find out for sure early 2004 when the game is released.