It's a decade later and I still hate Halo 2

Long ago I was one of the people who highly anticipated the launch of Halo 2. I had played Halo CE’s campaign multiple times and enjoyed it every play through. Naturally, I assumed the campaign of Halo 2 would be amazing just like the first, but I was wrong. Halo 2 was one of the most boring and disappointing games I’ve ever played. Everything about it just felt wrong and just felt like a washed out version of the first game.

So recently I played the Remastered campaign, thinking that it would different from so long ago, but it wasn’t. Even with the enhancements it is so boring I can’t even get passed the second mission without feeling like I’m just wasting my time trying to have fun. I really wish I could have enjoyed it the way other people claim to, but I just can’t.

It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.

I still have my reservations about the campaign and often skip the first two Arbiter levels because I found them boring and The Flood’s sudden pointless early appearance ruins their return in the late game. I don’t find the later missions boring but they’re definitely a different feel from Halo CE. Some of Halo 2’s campaign issues could be attributed to the rough development the game had.

Did you like the later Halo campaigns?

> 2574155679901782;2:
> It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.
>
> I still have my reservations about the campaign and often skip the first two Arbiter levels because I found them boring and The Flood’s sudden pointless early appearance ruins their return in the late game. I don’t find the later missions boring but they’re definitely a different feel from Halo CE. Some of Halo 2’s campaign issues could be attributed to the rough development the game had.
>
> Did you like the later Halo campaigns?

I liked every campaign besides Halo 2’s lol I even liked Halo 5 and I had no idea that it got so much hate from the community until I looked on the internet. I was just sitting there thinking, “umm. well I enjoyed it.”

I think one of the biggest things that was lacking in Halo 2 was the clarity of objectives and the constant feeling of doing something that Halo CE had. When I played the remastered version recently, it all came back to me why the campaign was so bleak to me. There are so many moments where you just sit there in awkward silence and think to youself, ummm, what’s next? Maybe it was due to loading times, they just didn’t notice it in the design or whatever, idk all the specific deets, but Halo CE definitely had the same pauses in gameplay, however they made sense.

Truth and Reconciliation is a level where there are lots of pauses in gameplay:
There are intervals to each wave of troops coming down the lift, which makes sense because that’s pretty much what any military commander would do, send small sections of troops at the enemy at a time to wear them down, which on Legendary showed it was effective because by the end of the last wave you always have no marines left.
Once you get up the lift, the Covenant stop coming for a minute, which they did purposely to throw the humans off guard.
and even at the end of the level I noticed a brief pause in transition from the last enemy you kill until the mission is finally over, however they fill that gap with Capt Keyes talking to command and the marine bellyaching.

What Halo CE did so well in comparison to Halo 2 was fill the voids better and gave a reason for everything that happens.

One thing that really irritated me was the ODST Mission in Halo 2 where you ascend the hill up to the ruins. After you kill like the 4th wave of troops after having to kill the troops that were already there, the game suddenly just stops for a super long time. So obviously I thought that I was supposed to just keep going on foot. I look at the horizon and think “no way I’m going all that way walkin’” and unknown to me some pelican that didn’t announce or locate itself clearly dropped a warthog earlier on.

In Halo CE, it’s made pretty clear what you’re going to be doing next, what you’ll be using/driving, and so forth.

I would go into the weapons and gunplay, but I’ll just leave it at “Halo 2’s duel wielding and downgraded weapons make for a horrible campaign experience.”

> 2535441777257585;1:
> Long ago I was one of the people who highly anticipated the launch of Halo 2. I had played Halo CE’s campaign multiple times and enjoyed it every play through. Naturally, I assumed the campaign of Halo 2 would be amazing just like the first, but I was wrong. Halo 2 was one of the most boring and disappointing games I’ve ever played. Everything about it just felt wrong and just felt like a washed out version of the first game.
>
> So recently I played the Remastered campaign, thinking that it would different from so long ago, but it wasn’t. Even with the enhancements it is so boring I can’t even get passed the second mission without feeling like I’m just wasting my time trying to have fun. I really wish I could have enjoyed it the way other people claim to, but I just can’t.

But why do you find it boring? The fact that we get to actually learn the inner workings of the Covenant? How we get to directly experience how our actions as the Master Chief negatively impact the Covenant? The fast-paced gameplay? The relatively smart AI? Getting to explore more of the galaxy than most entries in the series?

> 2535421324694638;4:
> > 2535441777257585;1:
> > Long ago I was one of the people who highly anticipated the launch of Halo 2. I had played Halo CE’s campaign multiple times and enjoyed it every play through. Naturally, I assumed the campaign of Halo 2 would be amazing just like the first, but I was wrong. Halo 2 was one of the most boring and disappointing games I’ve ever played. Everything about it just felt wrong and just felt like a washed out version of the first game.
> >
> > So recently I played the Remastered campaign, thinking that it would different from so long ago, but it wasn’t. Even with the enhancements it is so boring I can’t even get passed the second mission without feeling like I’m just wasting my time trying to have fun. I really wish I could have enjoyed it the way other people claim to, but I just can’t.
>
> But why do you find it boring? The fact that we get to actually learn the inner workings of the Covenant? How we get to directly experience how our actions as the Master Chief negatively impact the Covenant? The fast-paced gameplay? The relatively smart AI? Getting to explore more of the galaxy than most entries in the series?

I already explained why I didn’t but like then gsme in this thread.

I’m sorry you didn’t like the game. For me it was one of the strongest games in the entire franchise. It introduced a fan favorite character (the Arbiter), it has some of the best dialogue in the series, it laid the foundation for the alliance between humanity and the Sangheili, it set up arguably the best game in the series (for me at least), and was just plain fun to play.

> But why do you find it boring? The fact that we get to actually learn the inner workings of the Covenant? How we get to directly experience how our actions as the Master Chief negatively impact the Covenant? The fast-paced gameplay? The relatively smart AI? Getting to explore more of the galaxy than most entries in the series?

These are several other reasons why I loved the game too, and I think BoundlessHalo97 was just pointing out several of their own reasons for why they liked the game too

> One thing that really irritated me was the ODST Mission in Halo 2 where you ascend the hill up to the ruins. After you kill like the 4th wave of troops after having to kill the troops that were already there, the game suddenly just stops for a super long time. So obviously I thought that I was supposed to just keep going on foot. I look at the horizon and think “no way I’m going all that way walkin’” and unknown to me some pelican that didn’t announce or locate itself clearly dropped a warthog earlier on.

If I recall correctly, Johnson says something along the lines of “there’s a big building on the other side of this lake. Meet you there. Over.” I see how it wasn’t obvious that this meant “hey take a warthog to that big building over there”, but the Pelican does make a somewhat noticeable entrance. To your point about long pauses, this was one of those times in the game where I agree that the time it took for the pelican to drop the warthog took entirely too long.

> 2535441777257585;3:
> > 2574155679901782;2:
> > It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.
> >
> > I still have my reservations about the campaign and often skip the first two Arbiter levels because I found them boring and The Flood’s sudden pointless early appearance ruins their return in the late game. I don’t find the later missions boring but they’re definitely a different feel from Halo CE. Some of Halo 2’s campaign issues could be attributed to the rough development the game had.
> >
> > Did you like the later Halo campaigns?
>
> I liked every campaign besides Halo 2’s lol I even liked Halo 5 and I had no idea that it got so much hate from the community until I looked on the internet. I was just sitting there thinking, “umm. well I enjoyed it.”
>
> I think one of the biggest things that was lacking in Halo 2 was the clarity of objectives and the constant feeling of doing something that Halo CE had. When I played the remastered version recently, it all came back to me why the campaign was so bleak to me. There are so many moments where you just sit there in awkward silence and think to youself, ummm, what’s next? Maybe it was due to loading times, they just didn’t notice it in the design or whatever, idk all the specific deets, but Halo CE definitely had the same pauses in gameplay, however they made sense.
>
> Truth and Reconciliation is a level where there are lots of pauses in gameplay:
> There are intervals to each wave of troops coming down the lift, which makes sense because that’s pretty much what any military commander would do, send small sections of troops at the enemy at a time to wear them down, which on Legendary showed it was effective because by the end of the last wave you always have no marines left.
> Once you get up the lift, the Covenant stop coming for a minute, which they did purposely to throw the humans off guard.
> and even at the end of the level I noticed a brief pause in transition from the last enemy you kill until the mission is finally over, however they fill that gap with Capt Keyes talking to command and the marine bellyaching.
>
> What Halo CE did so well in comparison to Halo 2 was fill the voids better and gave a reason for everything that happens.
>
> One thing that really irritated me was the ODST Mission in Halo 2 where you ascend the hill up to the ruins. After you kill like the 4th wave of troops after having to kill the troops that were already there, the game suddenly just stops for a super long time. So obviously I thought that I was supposed to just keep going on foot. I look at the horizon and think “no way I’m going all that way walkin’” and unknown to me some pelican that didn’t announce or locate itself clearly dropped a warthog earlier on.
>
> In Halo CE, it’s made pretty clear what you’re going to be doing next, what you’ll be using/driving, and so forth.
>
> I would go into the weapons and gunplay, but I’ll just leave it at “Halo 2’s duel wielding and downgraded weapons make for a horrible campaign experience.”

That’s all perfectly fine and i see your points. Didn’t think of it like that.

The only real thing I’d like to add is that i’m surprised you left the area on Delta Halo. Cortana always says “hold here until the Pelican arrives Chief” once the waves are defeated. If the waves aren’t defeated, she announces “another Phantom inbound”. I can’t remember if the ODST’s do too. Perhaps you failed to clear the area the first time and walked off?

In any case, don’t feel bad about liking/disliking something that others do/don’t, everyone has a different opinion. For example, the majority of people think Halo 2 is the hardest in the series but i’ve never really found the game to be too much of an issue compared to say some sections in Reach.

> 2574155679901782;2:
> It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.

He’s right, it’s not for everyone. Halo 2 was an incredibly popular game and its the game that made Xbox what it is today. With that being said, Halo 2 was also a real struggle. The Halo 2 Campaign Demo from E3 2003 wasn’t in the final game because it was basically torn down all the way to its foundations and rebuilt. If you’re ever curious and want to know about what it took to make Halo 2, I’d strongly recommend watching the Halo 2 Behind The Scenes Documentary. It was incredibly stressful on everyone and it was a miracle that it came out the way it did.

Personally, I love the game even though it’s very buggy. Campaign on Legendary is the most difficult among all the games, multiplayer was a blast though if you didn’t know how to effectively use the button glitches like BXR and the BR Double Shot you weren’t getting anywhere, and how it was infested with mods and hackers once you hit level 34 on Xbox Live. Even with all that, it was incredible and it’s a game that I grew up with in high school.

> 2546678360738636;8:
> > 2574155679901782;2:
> > It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.
>
> He’s right, it’s not for everyone. Halo 2 was an incredibly popular game and its the game that made Xbox what it is today. With that being said, Halo 2 was also a real struggle. The Halo 2 Campaign Demo from E3 2003 wasn’t in the final game because it was basically torn down all the way to its foundations and rebuilt. If you’re ever curious and want to know about what it took to make Halo 2, I’d strongly recommend watching the Halo 2 Behind The Scenes Documentary. It was incredibly stressful on everyone and it was a miracle that it came out the way it did.
>
> Personally, I love the game even though it’s very buggy. Campaign on Legendary is the most difficult among all the games, multiplayer was a blast though if you didn’t know how to effectively use the button glitches like BXR and the BR Double Shot you weren’t getting anywhere, and how it was infested with mods and hackers once you hit level 34 on Xbox Live. Even with all that, it was incredible and it’s a game that I grew up with in high school.

haha it’s about time someone actually acknowledges the hackers and modders online from Halo 2. Even tho it wasn’t really Bungie’s fault that they infested the servers, the fact that everyoen would report them and nothing would happen was a real bummer. I remember in particular a team who modded Relic so they could fly a warthog that had an aimbot on it’s turret. You run into enough people like that you’re bound to just give up eventually. Hell, that was actually one of the boiling points I had in Reach also. One team had freaking rapid fire sniper rifles with infinite ammo and aimbots. And in one game of SWAT on Sanctuary, the dudes would just shoot us in the head every time we spawned. Like, I kid you not every life I would just appear and die. Idk if they were hacking, but it was some definite BS that felt like they were.

I’ll be sure to check out the documentary. thanks for the input.

> 2535441777257585;9:
> > 2546678360738636;8:
> > > 2574155679901782;2:
> > > It’s not for everyone, don’t worry about it.
> >
> > He’s right, it’s not for everyone. Halo 2 was an incredibly popular game and its the game that made Xbox what it is today. With that being said, Halo 2 was also a real struggle. The Halo 2 Campaign Demo from E3 2003 wasn’t in the final game because it was basically torn down all the way to its foundations and rebuilt. If you’re ever curious and want to know about what it took to make Halo 2, I’d strongly recommend watching the Halo 2 Behind The Scenes Documentary. It was incredibly stressful on everyone and it was a miracle that it came out the way it did.
> >
> > Personally, I love the game even though it’s very buggy. Campaign on Legendary is the most difficult among all the games, multiplayer was a blast though if you didn’t know how to effectively use the button glitches like BXR and the BR Double Shot you weren’t getting anywhere, and how it was infested with mods and hackers once you hit level 34 on Xbox Live. Even with all that, it was incredible and it’s a game that I grew up with in high school.
>
> haha it’s about time someone actually acknowledges the hackers and modders online from Halo 2. Even tho it wasn’t really Bungie’s fault that they infested the servers, the fact that everyoen would report them and nothing would happen was a real bummer. I remember in particular a team who modded Relic so they could fly a warthog that had an aimbot on it’s turret. You run into enough people like that you’re bound to just give up eventually. Hell, that was actually one of the boiling points I had in Reach also. One team had freaking rapid fire sniper rifles with infinite ammo and aimbots. And in one game of SWAT on Sanctuary, the dudes would just shoot us in the head every time we spawned. Like, I kid you not every life I would just appear and die. Idk if they were hacking, but it was some definite BS that felt like they were.
>
> I’ll be sure to check out the documentary. thanks for the input.

In Bungie’s defense, there was no effective Banhammer in place nor did anyone think Halo 2 was going to be as big as it ended up becoming. The infestation of modders and hackers could honestly be equated to the Flood infestation. There were too many of them with no real weapon to handle every last one of em. The Banhammer became more efficient over the years and while immediate action wasn’t always taken, anyone who tried to cheat, mod, hack, or EXP boost did get hit, it was just a matter of time. Even recently, Halo 4 has some issues with headless Spartan’s that were predominately in SWAT since headshots are basically the only way to kill anyone.

Yeah, check it out when you have some time. It’ll really put things into perspective.

You have to admit the multiplayer was pretty awesome at the time, dam it was so fun. Brings back many good memories : )

“IT’S A DECADE LATER AND I STILL HATE HALO 2”

In two years I’ll be saying the same thing, but about Reach.

Quality thread discussion OP…

Yeah I share some sentiment with the OP. Halo 2 was very different, coming from Halo CE. I still remember on launch night, when I thought the BR was going to be single shot when zoomed in, like they had shown at E3 earlier that year. Nope. And the E3 demo from 2003 was also nowhere to be found in the game. What game was I playing??

Halo 2 was ahead of its time for online play. It had the best implementation of the Xbox friends system yet. It had parties. It had matchmaking. It had clan battles. You’ll still see me reflecting on these forums about how some of Halo 2’s matchmaking features are still missing from modern games. Halo 2’s campaign is not my favorite, but the game as a whole still pushed the franchise forward and gave me a lot of good LAN parties.