I bought Halo 2 about a month ago for my oldest son. I have been hesitant to buy "M" rated games for him because of the violence. After reading "epinions" on the game, I felt a little better about buying it knowing that you are hunting down an alien race instead of mowing down other humans.
I have always loved playing "First Player Shooters" (FPS) on my PC for years. Duke Nuke'em 3D being my favorite. However, those games were to intense and adult for my kids. I had always been told that FPS games belong on a PC, but after buying a XBox and playing several games, I feel that the current gaming consoles do just fine with FPS games.
So lets get to what I like and dislike about Halo 2.
The story is a continuation of the first game. You are the Master Chief again, and after destroying the Halo and defeating The Covenant in the first game, you are being rewarded for your valor. However, The Covenant has regrouped and is back and wants Earth. You load up on weapons and are off again to stop the aliens. On the other side, the top alien is getting beaten and tortured for his failure. So, he is mad and wants to stop the Covenant as well.
I like the single player mode in this game. The first Halo was a little bland, but Halo 2 is much improved. The boards are a little to dark for my tastes, but the action is constant and your enemy seems to be better organized. The grunts (the weakest aliens) spout humorous phrases and run like sissies when you confront them individually. In a group however, they fight as one and are pretty tough. I laughed out loud when walking up on a single one and he said "Hi there ..." I bashed him with my shotgun before he finished his sentance, but now I wait to hear what they say instead of mowing them down. It makes the game funny while entertaining with the action.
You have your pistol, shotgun, machine gun, battle rifle, sniper rifle, and rocket launcher. You can have a duel mode with a weapon in your left and right hands, but this stops you from being able to throw regular or plasma grenades. The plasma grenades stick to your enemy, so they cannot run away from the grenade. You know they are dead. You have to be cautious though. Sometimes they will run at you when they are hit and you can kill yourself. The weapons are realistic and have to be reloaded. The rocket launcher is the only weapon I do not like. It does not have to be reloaded and shoots as many rockets as you have. I liked it better in the origional Halo. You actually had to reload after each rocket and it made you use the weapon selectively. The enemy again, has the almost identical equivalent of weapons and I prefer to use them at times, because they use power instead of bullets. They never have to be reloaded. They do over heat though, so you have to be careful firing them. My favorite weapon is the energy blade. A knife like weapon, that when locked on an opponent, if you pull the right trigger, you become a slashing killer. One swipe with this weapon downs almost anything.
Co-operative mode is used by me and my kids 90% of the time. You go through the story line and work as a team to destory the enemy. We also use the split screen mode fighting each other until one of us gets mad that they are getting ganged up on and then they quit (usually my youngest). The blood is different colors so it is not as gruesome as I thought it would be. If you decide to kill your own, they turn on you and kill you. So watch that friendly fire.
The graphics are awesome as well as the sounds. The tasks asked of you are minimal, so killing the aliens and taking their areas of penetration are the fun. I like that. Again, the boards are a little dark and I had problems fighting. I kept killing my own. There are sections of the game where you fight as an alien, and it became even harder to tell who was who. My kids could do it, but I think that was repetition not a better knowledge.
You can use vehicles for battles as well. Tanks, jeeps, and enemy vehicles. Taking a vehicle over is fun. Press "X" when you are close by, and you jump up on it. Hit "B" and you are either getting rid of the enemy or killing them. Flying the vehicles is pretty simple and mastering them takes very little time.
The controller however is a different story. This game as well as its origional uses every button and trigger. So, making you soldier a killing machine does take some practice.
The one big beef I had with the game is the weapons. Especially the energy blade. You get one of these, and you are almost unstoppable if you know what you are doing. It made the splitscreen mode no fun to play, because my oldest would get it and go on a killing spree. The only way we could kill him is to snipe him or blow him up with the rocket launcher. The battle rifle fires to slowly. I like that you can snipe with it, but the bullets should pour out of it.
Halo 2 is a great FPS. However, from what I have read and experienced, Halo is just as good. So, save yourself some money and just buy Halo. You get to save $10 and have just as much fun.
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