Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Halo 2 Revews

Today has had posted many a Halo 2 review, but I only bothered with the IGN Video Review. Basically they say 'it's the best XBox game' and I think at this point in the year and looking at all the positive reviews, Game Of The Year, this year is going to be a tossup between Half Life 2 and Halo 2.

I didn't like the original Halo because firstly I am not a console gamer so obviously I spent the whole seven hours it took to complete it screaming for a mouse and complaining about the controls. There are loads of other things i didn't like too, like the partially zoomed in camera that produced a very tight field of view. The plot holes in the story:
  • How does Halo act as a weapon (sorry, but "it's a weapon" didn't cut it with me).
  • Why are the Humans at war with the Covenant.
  • What is The Flood exactly anyway.
  • Why does the flood have to be so mind bogglingly floody.
  • Why do you only get to kill soldiers and not any big bosses at the end of levels.
  • And who is this Master Chef guy anyway!? (Intentional poor spelling)
Plus there was the fact you had to back-peddle through the same levels over and over. The levels looked like a Copy + Past job just to make the game longer (would you believe I actually wasted over half an hour going the wrong way through a level). The AI was too predictable. And the only fun levels where the first three.

I honestly didn't have a very good experience. Even the first three levels infuriated me because it wasn't until after these that I realised how to pilot the Warthog (not in-game instructions or any mention in the manual so you have to work it out for yourself).

I digress anyway, Halo 2 has supposedly fixed all these faults and has an involving story to boot. All the reviews are positive, the multiplayer has been expanded to include a cut-down version of Assault where you have to plant a bomb in the other teams base, and the multiplayer in general has been beefed up.

If you want an FPS for your XBox buy Halo 2,if you haven't played the original, don't bother, just buy Halo 2. That's the impression I get from the reviews at least. Out in America now, out in the UK Thursday, no idea about anywhere else.