E-Mail This Article to a Friend Halo, my old friend Halo 2 meets expectations, but doesn't exceed them BY MITCH KRPATA
	Halo 2 Published by Microsoft. Developed by Bungie Studios. For Xbox. Rated M for Mature.
	Counterpoint Please note that in Mitch’s review of Halo 2 he said, "I have not played it online." Well, you should have stopped reading right there. (Sorry, Mitch.) How good is Halo 2 on Xbox Live? I’ll put it to you this way: During my second one-on-one deathmatch, my Xbox stopped working for good. (Those of you who bought an Xbox three years ago may have already suffered this fate. And if you haven’t, you will.) Anyway, instead of bitching about it and trying to blow in it to make it work, old school Nintendo-style, I immediately went out and bought another Xbox. I needed to play more Halo 2 online. This is the most fun I’ve had playing a game online yet. There’s no lag, the maps are amazing, the lobby set-up is so easy to navigate that the biggest idiot in the world could find his friends or a clan online, and it’s Halo. Online. Honestly, I’ve owned this game since its release and I have yet to even play the single player campaign. It’s made me say "wow" out loud and laugh like a five year old more times than I would have imagined. If you have been on the fence about online gaming like I have, prepare to be literally and figuratively blown away. Halo 2 is the reason to own an Xbox, and the reason to get Xbox Live. (Look for me online, gamertag: FNX BIG JIM.) I give it a 10.0. -Jim Murray

If you're one of the throngs who lined up at midnight last Monday in a noble effort to give Bill Gates's retirement fund an estimated $125-million boost on the day of Halo 2's release, then I imagine there's not much I can tell you about the game. I assume further that hearing any criticism of it will either cause you to clamp your hands over your ears, squeeze your eyes shut, and shout, "La la la, I can't hear you," or simply inspire you to punch me in the face should we ever meet. But if you are one of those devoted fans, my guess is you're currently entrenched in a bitter war of attrition on that blood-soaked battlefield we call Xbox Live, and not reading this review. So maybe you won't be too upset about my tempered verdict:

It's pretty good.

I mean, what else can I say about a sequel that, as far as I can tell, is nearly indistinguishable from the original? A caveat: I have not played Halo 2 on-line (see sidebar for Jim Murray's take on the Xbox Live experience), so here I'll be discussing campaign mode.

The story picks up not a moment later than when the original Halo ended. Two parallel threads unfold: on a space station orbiting earth, Master Chief is receiving a medal for his valor in destroying Halo when Covenant ships attack. And back wherever the hell the Convenant are from, the commander of the Covenant forces on Halo is being tortured for the heresy of his defeat to the humans. In fairly short order, you once again take control of Master Chief and lead the defense of the space station, and then land on Earth, where Covenant forces are attempting to gain a foothold.

Slipping back into the role of Master Chief is pretty exciting, but before long it becomes apparent how similar the single-player experience is to the original. Combat still strikes an impressive balance between balls-out, Doom-style action and more realistic war sims. It's never a good idea to charge into an enemy-infested area with all your guns blazing, but it's also not as though one plasma round to the head will kill you (good thing, since the Covenant are great shots). Taking cover and planning a tactical assault are still the keys to victory. But again, how is this any different than the original Halo?

Granted, enemy AI and combat dynamics are not something that needed to be improved upon. However, if the first game had a single, crippling flaw, it was the boring level design. Perhaps you recall the Library level, which was nothing more than about 6000 identical rooms placed in a row. I had assumed that the criticism Bungie received for this gaffe (none more pointed than from the guys at Penny Arcade) might lead them to invest a little more creative effort into their single-player maps. Well, it didn't happen.

They are slightly improved, in that there is a little variation in the way the levels look, but progressing through the maps is just as facile. There's nothing even resembling a puzzle, and the only requirement to advance through a stage is to kill everyone in the way. Often, there aren't even branched paths to explore. And, in some odd way, this design philosophy worked in the first game. The Halo setting was brilliant in the way it dictated a hermetic type of environment; in the sequel, particularly the levels set on Earth, the lack of freedom to explore is frustrating. (But don't worry, you will find yourself back on Halo for part of the game.)

The other design decision that gave me pause was the inclusion of campaign levels in which you play as the disgraced Covenant commander, who is given armor, an energy sword, and the moniker "The Arbiter" before being sent on a suicide mission. Master Chief has become one of the iconic video-game characters, akin to Solid Snake. I felt the same sense of deflation when I lost control of him as I did in Metal Gear Solid 2 when I found myself playing as that blond-haired dweeb Raiden. At least in Halo 2 you get to play as the cool guy again.

The Arbiter's sword as his primary weapon is another curious choice. There's little you can do with it besides run up to enemies and slash at them. No aiming is involved, and there are no Die by the Sword-style flourishes that allow you to feel fully in control of your blade. Frankly, the whole episode left me a little cold.

Still, what Halo 2 does right it does better than any other game. So often, it's the little things that add up to a unique and thrilling gameplay experience. As I mentioned before, the enemy AI is great. The Covenant are good shots, they work well in teams, and they're not too proud to flee from live grenades. Speaking of which, there's still little more satisfying in games than sticking a plasma grenade to an enemy and watch his panicked scramble. And the vehicles are better than ever – especially because of the improved damage effects. The Warthog struck me as slightly easier to control, though it could have been that I was expecting it to be as difficult as it was the first time I drove one.

Also, what pushed the original over the top for me were the many frissons the co-op mode offered. So many times, my buddies and I would find ways to advance that I'm not fully sure the designers intended – such as when my teammate was helming the tank and I sighted distant targets for him through my sniper scope – and simply shake our heads in amazement. Thankfully, the cooperative campaign in Halo 2 is every bit as deep and rewarding. To me, it's the real reason to play this game off-line.

The production has been slightly amped up in Halo 2 (listen for the marine voiced by – get this – David Cross), but in the end it doesn't strike me as a significant step forward. It's more like later episodes of The Simpsons – better than the rest, but hardly as thrilling as it was the first time around. Improvements are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Still, it's hard to blame Bungie for not overhauling what was such a success in the first place. And, given the game's astronomic first-day sales, can you blame them for the awkward cliffhanger that sets up Halo 3?

Score: 8.0 (out of 10)