Halo 2

I beat halo2 last night, and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about it.

First, the game is great — it’s everything I could expect the sequel to be and more. The graphics are a bit better, the soundtrack is much better, the sound effects are better, the maps are bigger, the enemies are harder, and all of that. I have no real bitch about any of the "better" about the sequel.

Second, the gameplay and the plot is quite interesting this time around as not only do we get to walk around killing bad guys as Master Chief, but also as the Arbiter — an alien kamikaze martyr who is being punished for losing the first ring in game one. At first I didn’t like playing the Arbiter because it seemed really lame to be playing the enemy that I had been against for the first part of the game, but then I started liking it. Particularly I enjoyed playing an alien who had nothing to lose and was out for vengeance and to prove to his alien hierarchs that he was worthy of living and even of forgiveness. But to be honest, I really liked Master Chief much better — it just felt more like home to me I guess.

The flood make a return (ugh I fucking hate the flood!) in part 2 as should be expected with a completely new ring to contend with (and later we find out that there are many many rings). The flood are nastier and more annoying than ever before. The upside is, the aliens and the humans have a common enemy fighting them and their infected halfbreeds. In fact on some levels, I simply got up high on a level and stayed out of the fight altogether and let them kill each other until there were only a manageable few left.

There is also another enemy "race" (if you can call it that) in the game… the robots/machines. These come in the form of flood controlling beamers (as per game one) but also in new forms that fly around like robotic insects and fill their prey full of pink needles. The primary enemy, as it turns out, is one of the hierarchs in a sort of plot twist. One of the big guys seems to have gone completely L. Ron Hubbard and started a cult of aliens and followers of "brutes" who believe that the "great journey" is the answer to all of their problems. The only down side is that this "great journey" also spells complete obliteration of the universe as it involves re-enabling the ring and thus destroying existence forever amen. So obviously it’s our job to stop this loony bastard from completing his quest.

The ending is gay. I was sure that there would be more after the human lady retrieved the index while I was battling the king brute, but just after that it was cut-scene city until the credits rolled. Ugh. And the ending is the worst. Basically Master Chief barely makes it on board the departing hierarchs ship enroute to earth and tells the human commander he’s "finishing this fight". But we also find out that there are like 9 more rings (complete halos including the flood apparently) to deal with and the way it ended, I am guessing that means 9 more fucking sequels. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. It’s just very UNHALO to end in such a way. The first ending to the first game we had plenty of closure, but this second one? No closure at all, in fact, it makes me feel that what I played wasn’t even worth the $50 bucks. I was just getting into the story when the game ended. Is this cliff-hanger ending due to lack of funding for bungie taking years to complete the sequel, or what? They have to make money of course. And I’m sure a project as extensive as Halo is very time consuming and seems like an unending battle in terms of development. But, come on man. That ending blew.

I have not, and probably will not, play online with x-box live so I cannot really comment on that part of the game. However, if it is as great as the first game was in local LAN scenarios (and I am sure it has to be at the least), then that part of the game rules without a doubt. Maybe one day I’ll try it.

So, if you have $50 or a modded x-xbox and some bandwidth to spare, surely you could do a LOT worse than Halo 2. But don’t be expecting any closure, and don’t be expecting a super long adventure either. All told I think it took me around 3 days to beat Halo 2, whereas the first game took my friend and I atleast a week or two in cooperative mode. Regardless of if the reason for the length of the single player gameplay being short was to accomodate more extensive online stuff doesn’t matter to me. Being one of those non-live enthusiasts it is only the single player game I care about.