About the game
Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. It is the second game in the Halo series. The campaign follows the supersoldier Master Chief and the disgraced alien commander Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the United Nations Space Command, the genocidal Covenant and the parasitic Flood.
You play mostly from a first-person view, with the camera shifting to third person in vehicles. Weapons come from both humanity and the Covenant, and some can be dual wielded, trading accuracy, grenades and melee for firepower. You carry two weapons at a time, or three when dual wielding. Enemy vehicles can be hijacked. Your shield regenerates when you are not taking fire. The campaign can be played alone or in co-op, and it alternates between Master Chief and the Arbiter, who has a short-lived active camouflage in place of a flashlight. There are four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary.
Like the first game, Halo 2 has split-screen and system link multiplayer, and it added online play through Xbox Live. Instead of making players join lobbies by hand, it used matchmaking. You pick the kind of match you want, and the game chooses the map and game type and finds the other players. The playlist system, a skill ranking on top of it and the ability to party up with friends became a template for later online games.
Halo had sold more than five million copies in three years, so a sequel was expected. Bungie wanted to use ideas that were cut from the first game, including online multiplayer. Development was troubled. The E3 2003 demo was built on a graphics engine that had to be thrown away, the campaign sat unplayable for more than a year, a planned third act was cut, and the larger Warfare multiplayer mode was dropped. That is why the campaign ends on a cliffhanger. The game was finished after a long crunch to make the November 2004 date, the last holiday season before the Xbox 360.
Halo 2 came out on November 9, 2004 in North America and Australia, with Europe following on November 11. A record 1.5 million copies were pre-ordered three weeks before launch, and the game sold 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours. Marketing included the alternate reality game I Love Bees and a trailer shown in cinemas. It was sold as a standard edition and a Limited Collector's Edition in a metal case with a bonus DVD.
Halo 2 received acclaim, with the multiplayer, audiovisual design and soundtrack singled out, while the campaign and its cliffhanger ending divided opinion. Metacritic gives the Xbox version 95 out of 100. It was the most popular game on Xbox Live until Gears of War arrived nearly two years later, and it is the best-selling original Xbox game, with about 8.46 million copies sold. It was ported to Windows Vista in 2007, and a high-definition remaster, Halo 2 Anniversary, came to Xbox One in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014.
The text above is adapted from Wikipedia and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
What critics said
Metacritic 95 out of 100 (Xbox). Individual reviews: Edge 9/10, Game Informer 10/10, GameSpot 9.4/10, GameSpy 5/5, IGN 9.8/10.
Extra content
Bungie released a map pack on disc and a second pack online. The online store for original Xbox games closed in April 2010, so nothing can be downloaded for it now.
- Multiplayer Map Pack: Nine new multiplayer maps, a making-of documentary and a bonus cinematic, plus the Xbox Live software update for players who were offline. Sold as a disc.
- Blastacular Map Pack: Two more multiplayer maps. Bungie made it free on July 7, 2007.
Good to know
- The original Xbox had no achievements, so this version has none. Achievements came with Halo 2 for Windows Vista in 2007 and with Halo 2 Anniversary in 2014.
- The Limited Collector's Edition comes in a metal case and its booklet is written from the Covenant side.
- The French version leaked online in October 2004, before launch.
- The Multiplayer Map Pack disc carried the Xbox Live updates and nine maps so that offline players could get them too.
- It plays on Xbox 360 through backward compatibility at 720p with anti-aliasing, but the online and download features did not carry over after 2010.
- The Arbiter replaced an earlier Covenant character called the Dervish late in development.
- Halo 2 is the best-selling game on the original Xbox.
Made by
Project Lead Jason Jones, Executive Producer Pete Parsons, Game Design Lead Jaime Griesemer, Mission Design Lead Paul Bertone, Art Director Marcus R. Lehto, Writer and Director of Cinematics Joseph Staten, Composer and Audio Director Martin O'Donnell, Composer Michael Salvatori, Multiplayer and User Interface Lead Max Hoberman, Engineering Lead Charlie Gough.
