Halo 2 is my favorite game of all time.

Games Other Halo
#1

If I could be afforded the time, I’d like to share a story with you people. I happen to come from Bungie.net and I’m rather new on these forums so bear with me.

Halo 2 was the very first game I ever played on Xbox LIVE back in the days before the Xbox 360, when Xbox LIVE was relatively new. I played on the account BEAN 88 and logged an impressive amount of games over the years and now that Bungie has departed from Halo I can easily say that Halo 2 was the crown jewel of the series. It’s an opinion not many have, mostly because of the Campaign that for some reason doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

I can understand the dissapointment in the ending, it was abrupt and the Master Chief’s final piece of dialouge certainly raised the anticipation to ‘Finish The Fight’. However, this is one of the reasons why I personally find Halo 2 to be the best, the campaign was long enough, filled with memorable missions and characters with a Sci-fi plot that was on the level of Halo CE. It had a story that climaxed with each group clashing in a memorable showdown and an unexpected twist that improved upon an already solid story.

Halo 2’s ending succeeded in one thing, and this is hyping up the sequel Halo 3. Immediately after the credits started playing I was eagerly anticipating Halo 3 and that was probably what most effectively marketed Halo 3, ‘Finishing The Fight’.

Halo 2 also had, incase you have been living under a rock, arguable the best multiplayer in the series and in FPS’s in general. It may just be nostalgia but the maps, weapons and players that were a part of Halo 2 made the multiplayer the best on Xbox LIVE and no game aside from Halo 3 has come close to touching it.

So, that’s my take on Halo 2. As I said I am new here, after posting on Bungie.net for many years I thought I would come on here and share my thoughts on my favorite game in the Halo series.

What are your thoughts on Halo 2 and how do you think it compares with other games in the series?

#2

best multiplayer is a matter of opinion. I don’t think it is. Reach multiplayer was in my opinion the best. Still, halo 2 had the best campaign.

#3

> I can easily say that Halo 2 was the crown jewel of the series. It’s an opinion not many have, mostly because of the Campaign that for some reason doesn’t get the credit it deserves.

Not true. Halo 2 is widely regarded as the best Halo game. When I’m not playing Reach or Halo 3, I’m playing Halo 2 Vista, just to get that feel back.

#4

> > I can easily say that Halo 2 was the crown jewel of the series. It’s an opinion not many have, mostly because of the Campaign that for some reason doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
>
> Not true. Halo 2 is widely regarded as the best Halo game. When I’m not playing Reach or Halo 3, I’m playing Halo 2 Vista, just to get that feel back.

Yeah, it is a feel isn’t it? Hard to describe.

#5

Halo 2 is by far the best MP online console game ever and has to be one of the best online games of all time. The MP just felt right, despite it’s flaws. All the good stuff overshadowed them.

Though the way the story was finished I too was left with my mouth wide open as the end of the “Finishing this fight” scene faded to black only to find myself staring at credits thinking “THAT’S IT?”

The campaign as a whole was a lot of fun and ended having a ton of replay value due to the fact we could actually explore the maps.

The only game that has come close to it on Xbox Live in my opinion was Call of Duty 4.

A legendary game. An experience, a lifestyle. Truly unique.

#6

Agreed, OP. Halo 2 is #2 in my top 3 favorite games of all time (#1 being Final Fantasy VII)

I didn’t even get to play the game online as much as I wanted it to and I STILL had a blast. Campaign, playing co-op over and over and over. My brothers and I memorized almost all the pieces of dialogue in the entire game and even got my little cousin to play the game.

Local MP was fantastic and playing online was tough for a while but a blast.

Personally, I am still waiting for the Halo game that will equal that game in fun because Halo 3 was awesome, with Forge and Theater, and Halo Reach…was just okay, but it was not as great as Halo 2.

#7

> > > I can easily say that Halo 2 was the crown jewel of the series. It’s an opinion not many have, mostly because of the Campaign that for some reason doesn’t get the credit it deserves.
> >
> > Not true. Halo 2 is widely regarded as the best Halo game. When I’m not playing Reach or Halo 3, I’m playing Halo 2 Vista, just to get that feel back.
>
> Yeah, it is a feel isn’t it? Hard to describe.

Agreed. It’s hard to describe that feeling. For me it was the expanding scope of the story for instance. Playing as Arbiter, seeing the Covenant inner workings and finally how it fell apart. H2 simply had most depth of story of all Halos. It introduced us to a cast of great characters (Johnson finally as a real character, Hood, Miranda, Arbiter, Half Jaw, Truth and last but certainly not least: Gravemind).
Not to mention that even though CE set the basic rules for Halo games, H2 introduced us to dual wielding, boarding, ODSTs, destructable vehicles, being able to use every vehicle etc etc. Basically CE set the bar, and H2 lifted it even higher (and no other Halo after it touched it as a whole in my opinion). Yes, the end sucked. But my initial thought was: over already? But this…this means there will definatly be a H3 that will finally take place on Earth completely?! YES! (and then H3 came to destroy all of my expectations and dreams…).

Moving on to the multiplayer. No other Halo game has ever had the amount of classic maps H2 had. I think it’s “safe” to say every map in H2, with the exception of laggy Backwash, can be regarded as straight up classic. It had the best mix of small, medium and large maps. All the maps had awesome flows, different paths through them, nice interactive twists to them etc. You could pin an enemy down at one point, and then move around and capture a Flag unexpectetly from another path. Something many maps since H2 lacked.
Another thing that made H2 multi so epic: people played together. They actually communicated. This isn’t so much a good thing of H2 itself, but from that period of time. These days you simply can’t plan and strategize with teammates anymore. That feeling of a real community, working together and meeting new friends online is gone.

Then there are custom games. Expanded and improved in H3 and Reach…but never as much fun as they were in H2. H2 had simple limits, and still custom games were more fun. Who doesn’t remember Tower of Power, Zombies or Tremors for instance?

Finally: no matter how glitched the game was, it didn’t break it. It added another layer of fun. Glitching custom games to play Tower of Power with more than 16 people: fun. Playing custom games outside of map boundaries? Fun. Trying to get out of maps, or discover new glitches and bugs with friends? Fun. That occasional moment when somebody hacked his Xbox and turned up in Matchmaking on a flying turret shooting Scorpions at people: insane. Yes, the insta-kills, deconnecting etc were annoying. Yes, people getting outside of maps in matchmaking could be f-d up. But overall: it was so insanely fun.

Sure: H3, ODST and Reach improved many of the things. But they were either never that much fun, or simply lacked in some aspects (campaign for instance) to reach the bar set by H2. And unless H4/5 or 6 (or any spin off) does what H2 did and go beyond that bar, H2 will be my favorite Halo and general game ever made.

#8

i agree 100% with you sir. i spent so many hours on the halo 2 campaign. me and my brother didn’t have live so we spent all our time in campaign finding everything and going everywhere we could go. i think it was the best halo game period.

#9

> Reach multiplayer was in my opinion the best. Still, halo 2 had the best campaign.

You just embarrassed yourself beyond repair.