FiringSquad: Home of the Hardcore Gamer - Games, Hardware, Reviews and NewsSubmit your own or view users' CPU overclocking results!

  
 Home   News   THE MATRIX   Deals   Hardware   Games   Features   Media   Products   Forums   FS China 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Home : Games : First Person Shooter : Halo 2 Review
» Join the Greatest Gaming Community NOW! (It's free)

Already a member? Login
 


Random Gallery >> 
Click to view high-res Image!
STALKER: Call of Pripyat DirectX 10 vs DirectX 11 Screenshots [10] (3)

Funniest thing to do with the OCZ name (4) by SuperCharge
Know Your Roots: Unreal Tournament Review [Preliminary #2] (10) by Discobiscuits
My eVGA ride (0) by devit
WW2 License Plate says it all (0) by Ph33rsPhun
Guild Wars Gets a Bad Review (11) by Joluha
T-Shirts! (0) by Skippy989
Scandle at EVGA! (2) by exe3
Sins of a Solar Empire Beta Review [Prelim 2] (5) by Itchyeyes
Round 2 Rules! (20) by fs-lyle
Bioshock: The Brutally Honest Review [Preliminary #2] (8) by Swatt

More Blogs >>




Halo 2 Review
November 23, 2004   Brett Todd > [View My Other Articles]
Product Info | User Reviews(12) | Article Images(27) | Image Gallery | Comments | Forum Thread
Controls, saves

Occasionally you have to pilot a Warthog buggy or a Ghost hovercar through areas so tightly scripted that you can practically read page numbers flipping by at the bottom of the screen. Other than that, though, you just trudge from one ambush to the next, fighting the same three or four Covenant opponents most of the time. Even the missions where you play a Covenant warrior don’t mix up the opposition, as you’re mostly fighting fellow space bugs who have embraced some sort of heretical beliefs not all that well explained in the cutscenes. Essentially, you blast nothing but the same Covenant Grunts, Hunters, and Elites that you did in the first Halo, albeit with the new options of double-fisting with a weapon in each hand, and using the Covenant’s seriously nifty energy sword.

Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.


Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.


Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.



Saving Lives

Save checkpoints might actually be the biggest contributing factor to the intensity of firefights, as there just aren’t enough of them. In the first couple of levels, Halo 2 automatically saves your progress practically every couple of feet. But these save points soon become fewer and farther between. They also seem somewhat erratic. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Certain areas—such as the long, long bridge in “Ladies Like Armor Plating”—forced me to do a lot of backtracking the first couple of times through, sending me all the way back to the start of the section, but later started giving me checkpoints much further along. Feature? Bug? Who knows?

Halo 2’s multiplayer is pretty cool, thanks to a pile of game options, stellar Xbox Live support, and a co-op mode (which only works in split-screen, though, which is hard to understand). But even this only stands out if you don’t have a PC. There are at least a dozen PC shooters with superior online multiplayer modes, and they don’t charge subscription fees a la Xbox Live. Also, not being able to use a mouse and keyboard is a real issue. At least it was for me. The almost relaxed pace of the campaign disappeared when I faced off against human opposition, so I no longer had that extra second or two to get an enemy in my sights (crucial when you’re playing a shooter with a gamepad).

Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.


Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.


Halo 2 Review [  @ 640 x 480 ] > View Full-Size in another window.



Unless you’re a really skilled FPSer with a gamepad, the frustration factor is crazy high. There are mouse-and-keyboard combos available for the Xbox, although there isn’t anything here that you won’t find in a PC shooter. So it doesn’t make much sense to go through the trouble and expense, unless you’re a serious Halo fanboy.

Don't forget to check out these links for further Halo 2 info on FiringSquad!
» EXTENDED REVIEW LINKS
Halo 2 product information: screenshots & official sites
Search eBay for thousands of Halo 2 items at great prices!
Add your own user review for Halo 2
View HHalo 2 reviews from around the internet
Back! Gameplay     Ballistics Report Next!
Blog + Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit SU furl • More: AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Send This Article to a Friend!  
Table of Contents
  Print Entire Article  

MATRIX CONTENT » RANDOM MEDIA BLOG More Blogs >>
No ratings yet
» Please rate this
I am an AMD AgentRead this Media-Blog entry!» First Entry (1)
by Skippy989 (78) Talk with this user on their Shout Box (My other blogs) Posted 7 months ago


 Hottest Topics
New Modern Warfare 2 PC petition created (33)
ATI Radeon 5970 Performance Preview (12)
BioShock 2 special edition includes vinyl LP (12)
Activision hopes to monetize some aspects of CoD multi (11)
Modern Warfare 2 PC outsells Call of Duty 4 (11)
Today's News >>
Today's Siteseeing >>


 Table of Contents


FiringSquad is powered by... Back to Top Site MapContact UsAdvertise With Us Privacy StatementAbout Us  
News RSSSiteseeing RSSArticle RSS   © 1998-2009 FS Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved