Halo 2

Gameplay

Halo 2 is a shooter game. Players primarily experience gameplay from a first-person perspective, with the viewpoint shifting to third-person for vehicle segments. Players use a combination of human and Covenant weaponry and vehicles to progress through the levels. Certain weapons can be dual-wielded, allowing the player to trade accuracy, the use of grenades, and melee attacks for raw firepower. The player can carry two weapons at a time (or three if dual-wielding, with one weapon remaining holstered), with each weapon having strengths in different combat situations. Most Covenant weapons, for example, overheat if fired continuously and eschew disposable ammo magazines for an internal battery, which cannot be replaced once depleted. Human weapons are less effective at penetrating shields and require reloading ammunition, but cannot overheat due to prolonged fire. Players can hijack enemy vehicles and quickly assume control of them. The player is equipped with a damage-absorbing shield that regenerates when not taking fire; their health bar is not visible.

The "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels alternate between the Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline, the Arbiter differs from Master Chief only in that his armor lacks a flashlight; instead, it is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of active camouflage that disappears when the player attacks or takes damage. There are four difficulty levels in campaign mode: Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the number, rank, health, damage, and accuracy of enemies; a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage; a decrease in the player's health and shields; and occasional changes in dialogue. Enemy and friendly artificial intelligence is dynamic, and replaying the same encounters repeatedly will demonstrate different behavior.

Like Halo, the Xbox version of Halo 2 features a multiplayer system that allows players to compete with each other in split-screen and system link modes; in addition, it added support for online multiplayer via Xbox Live. Instead of implementing multiplayer by having players manually join lobbies, as was common in games at the time, Halo 2 used matchmaking. Players chose the general type of match they want to play, and the game selected the map and gametype and automatically found other players. This "playlist" system automated the process of finding matches to keep a steady flow of games available at all times, and combined a skill-ranking system on top.

Synopsis

Setting

Halo 2 takes place in the 26th century. Humanity, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC, have developed faster-than-light slipspace travel and colonized numerous worlds. Human worlds come under attack by a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. Declaring humanity an affront to their gods, the Forerunners, the Covenant begin to obliterate the humans with their superior numbers and technology. After the human planet Reach is destroyed, a single ship, The Pillar of Autumn, follows protocol and initiates a random slipspace jump to lead the Covenant away from Earth. The crew discovers a Forerunner ringworld called Halo. Though the Covenant believe Halo's activation will lead to divine salvation, the humans discover that the rings are actually weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to contain a terrifying parasite called the Flood. The human supersoldier Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and his AI companion Cortana learn from Halo's AI monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, that activation of the Halos will destroy all sentient life in the galaxy to prevent the Flood's spread. Instead of activating the ring, Master Chief and Cortana detonate the Pillar of Autumn's engines, destroying the installation and preventing the escape of the Flood. Master Chief and Cortana race back to Earth to warn of an impending invasion by Covenant forces.

Plot

Halo 2 opens with the trial of a Covenant Elite commander aboard the Covenant's capital city-ship of High Charity. For his failure to stop Halo's destruction, the Elite is stripped of his rank, branded a heretic, and tortured by Tartarus, the Chieftain of the Covenant Brutes. Spared from his execution, the Covenant leadership—the High Prophets Truth and Mercy—give the Elite the chance to become an Arbiter, a rank given to Elites in times of great crisis or turmoil. As the Arbiter, the Elite quells a rebellion and recovers 343 Guilty Spark.

On Earth, Fleet Admiral Hood commends the Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson for their actions at the first Halo, with Commander Miranda Keyes accepting a medal on behalf of her deceased father, Captain Jacob Keyes. A Covenant fleet suddenly appears near Earth. In the ensuing battle, a single ship carrying the High Prophet of Regret slips through Earth's defenses and besieges the African city of New Mombasa. Master Chief assists in repelling the invasion. With his fleet destroyed, Regret makes a hasty slipspace jump, and Keyes, Johnson, Cortana, and the Master Chief follow aboard the UNSC ship In Amber Clad. The crew discovers another Halo installation; realizing the danger the ring presents, Keyes sends Master Chief to kill Regret while she and Johnson search for the Index, Halo's activation key.

Responding to Regret's distress call, High Charity and the Covenant fleet arrive at the Halo. After Master Chief kills Regret, the Covenant bombard his location; he falls into a lake, unconscious, and is dragged away by tentacles. Regret's death triggers discord among the races of the Covenant, as the Prophets give the Brutes the Elites' traditional role as their honor guard. The Arbiter subdues Johnson and Keyes and retrieves the Index. Tartarus appears and reveals that the Prophets have ordered the annihilation of the Elites, and sends the Arbiter falling down a deep chasm.

The Arbiter meets the Master Chief in the bowels of the Halo, brought together by a Flood creature called the Gravemind. The Gravemind reveals to the Arbiter that the Great Journey is a lie, and sends the two soldiers to different places to stop Halo's activation. The Master Chief is teleported to High Charity as the Covenant falls into civil war. The Flood-infested In Amber Clad crashes into the city, and Cortana realizes that the Gravemind used them as a distraction. As the parasite overruns the city, the Prophet of Mercy is consumed. As for Tartarus, the Prophet of Truth consigns him to Halo with Keyes, Johnson, and Guilty Spark to activate the ring. Master Chief follows Truth aboard a Forerunner ship leaving the city; Cortana remains behind to destroy High Charity and Halo if Tartarus succeeds in activating the ring.

Development

Halo had not been planned as a trilogy, but its critical and commercial success —selling more than five million copies in three years—made a sequel expected. Xbox general manager J Allard confirmed Halo 2 was in production at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2002, with a planned release in time for Holiday 2003.

Many at Bungie wanted to make a sequel, building on cut ideas from Halo with a more ambitious follow-up. The added publisher support for a sequel allowed greater leeway and the ability to return to more ambitious ideas lost during the development of Halo. Not satisfied with merely restoring cut content, designer Jaime Griesemer recalled that the team "tripled everything", rebuilding the game engine, changing the physics engine, and prototyping a system for stencil shadow volumes. The development suffered from a lack of clear leadership. Early development discussions happened in small, unconnected teams that did not talk with each other. Bungie cofounder and project lead Jason Jones, who had been exhausted shipping Halo, was similarly burned out during Halo 2's production. Jones left to work on another Bungie game, Phoenix, leaving fewer people to work on Halo 2. The departure of Bungie's cofounder Alex Seropian in 2002 caused additional friction and politics in the workplace where Seropian had once mediated tensions. Artist Robert McLees recalled that Bungie had never had good managers, with creatives simultaneously juggling managerial roles. "This kinda worked when there were 12 of us. It worked less well when there were 30 of us. It collapsed when there were 60 of us," he said later.

Writer Joseph Staten described the team's ambitions:

Then we just plowed ahead, much like we'd done with Halo, with one notable exception. We ordered ourselves a giant sandwich, took a bite but didn't realize exactly how big it was before we started in. And we did that across the board, technically, artistically, and story wise. But of course, we didn't figure that out until way too late.

Griesemer said: "What's the phrase? Putting ten pounds of crap into a five-pound bag? We really tried to cram it too full, and we paid the price." Lack of communication led to some team members spending time developing assets or content that was duplicative or wasted. McLees recalled he spent two weeks developing a weapon that was cut.

Audio

Halo 2's soundtrack was composed primarily by Martin O'Donnell and his musical partner Michael Salvatori, the team that had composed the critically acclaimed music of Halo. O'Donnell noted in composing the music for Halo 2 that "making a sequel is never a simple proposition. You want to make everything that was cool even better, and leave out all the stuff that was weak." O'Donnell made sure that no part would be completely silent, noting "Ambient sound is one of the main ways to immerse people psychologically. A dark room is spooky, but add a creaking floorboard and rats skittering in the walls and it becomes really creepy." Halo 2, unlike its predecessor, was mixed to take full advantage of Dolby 5.1 Digital surround sound.

In the summer of 2004, producer Nile Rodgers and O'Donnell decided to release the music from Halo 2 on two separate CDs. The first, contained all the themes in Halo 2 as well as music "inspired" by it; the second contained the rest of the music from the game, much of which was incomplete, as the first CD was shipped before the game was released. The first CD was released on November 9, 2004, and featured guitar backing by Steve Vai. Additional tracks included various outside musicians, including Steve Vai, Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank. The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume Two CD, containing the game music organized in suite form, was released on April 25, 2006.

Release

Promotion

Halo 2 was announced in September 2002 with a cinematic trailer, scheduled for a Holiday 2003 release. The first major look came with the E3 2003 demo in May; Halo 2 was Microsoft's strongest showing at the event, and some journalists believed it looked too good to be live gameplay and must have been a scripted cutscene. Halo 2 was delayed to a first-quarter 2004 release, then to holiday 2004. The final November 9 release date was confirmed at E3 2004, where the multiplayer was playable on the show floor. The demo showed off a new map, Zanzibar, an attack/defend capture the flag mode, dual wielding, and vehicle boarding. Microsoft executive Peter Moore rolled up his sleeve to reveal the date tattooed on his bicep.

Microsoft intended to market Halo 2 not just as a video game, but as a cultural event. Part of its widespread appeal would come from the social nature of the multiplayer, but Microsoft also heavily promoted and marketed it. A trailer for was shown in movie theaters, making Halo 2 the first video game so advertised. Excitement was fueled by the press, with Microsoft telling one journalist that their Halo 2 review would be the most consequential of their career. The marketing heavily focused on Master Chief and the defense of Earth, leaving the reveal of the Arbiter as a playable character a surprise.

Halo 2's release was preceded with promotions and product tie-ins. There was a Halo 2 Celebrity Pre-Release Party at E3 2004, in which a private home was transformed to replicate the world of Halo, complete with camouflaged Marines and roaming Cortanas. Launch events were held worldwide, with players waiting for hours in a line that stretched two blocks in Times Square, New York City. The French version of Halo 2 leaked on the internet in October, and circulated widely.

In addition to more traditional forms of promotion, Halo 2 was also part of an elaborate Alternate Reality Game project, I Love Bees. Microsoft approached 42 Entertainment's Elan Lee, who had helped launch the Xbox with Microsoft, on producing a tie-in game. I Love Bees cost an estimated one million dollars. It centered on a hacked website, supposedly a site about beekeeping, where an AI from the future was residing. The project garnered significant attention, drawing attention away from the ongoing 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. It won an award for creativity at the 5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and was nominated for a Webby award. Nearly 3 million people participated.

Sales

Halo 2 released on November 9, 2004, in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Anticipation was high; a record 1.5 million copies were pre-ordered three weeks before release. Massive lines formed at midnight releases at more than 7000 stores across North America and attracted significant media attention. This was followed by releases on November 10, 2004, in France and parts of Europe, and November 11 in the UK, Japan, and elsewhere. Halo 2 was released in eight languages and a total of 27 countries.

Halo 2 sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to US$125 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, outgrossing the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as the highest-grossing release in entertainment history. It sold 260,000 units in the United Kingdom in its first week, making it the third fastest-selling game in that territory. It ultimately received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. In the United States, it was the second best-selling game of 2004 (after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) with sales of 4.2 million that year, and the eighteenth best-selling game of the 2000s decade.

On release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later. In the first ten weeks of release, players collectively logged 91 million hours playing it; by June 2006, more than 500 million games of Halo 2 had been played, and more than 710 million hours logged on Xbox Live. Over five million players had played by 2007. Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game with at least 6.3 million copies sold in the United States and 8.46 million copies in total.

Reception

Halo 2 received acclaim. On review aggregate site Metacritic, the Xbox version has an overall score of 95 out of 100. Critics judged it a worthy successor to Halo. GameSpot's Greg Kasavin wrote that it successfully built on its predecessor's foundation, and despite shortcomings, its breadth of content made it one of the best action games available.

The audiovisual presentation was praised. Multiplayer especially was noted in being the best on Xbox Live at the time. Game Informer, along with numerous other publications, rated it higher than Halo: Combat Evolved, citing enhanced multiplayer and less repetitive gameplay. Most critics noted that Halo 2 stuck with the formula that made its predecessor successful, and was alternatively praised and faulted for this decision. Edge's review concluded that Halo 2 could be summed up with a line from its script: "It's not a new plan. But we know it'll work."

The campaign mode received some criticism for being too short, and for featuring an abrupt cliffhanger ending. GameSpot found that although the story's switching between the Covenant and human factions made the plot more intricate, it distracted the player from Earth's survival and the game's main purpose; while Edge labeled the plot "a confusing mess of fan-fiction sci-fi and bemusing Episode-II-style politics".

Halo 2 won multiple awards at the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, including "Console Game of the Year", "Console First-Person Action Game of the Year", "Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay" and "Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design", as well as nominations for "Outstanding Innovation in Console Gaming", and "Game of the Year". It received more than 38 individual awards. It received runner-up placements in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Shooter", "Best Sound Effects" and "Best Original Music" categories across all platforms. It was listed in Electronic Gaming Monthly's "The Greatest 200 Video Games of Their Time" in 2006.

Post-release

Updates and DLC

Halo 2's multiplayer suffered from widespread cheating on release. Some players used "standbying" or "lag killing" to cheat, whereby the player hosting would intentionally pressed the standby button on their modem. This resulted in all other players freezing in place and allowed the cheater to kill other players or capture objectives. Another exploit called "BXR" allowed players to cancel melee animations and quickly attack for an instant kill. Rather than rely solely on user reports of misbehavior, Bungie leveraged its game statistics collection to proactively find cheating players, creating an automated banning system.

Bungie released several map packs for Halo 2, adding new environments for multiplayer matches. The Multiplayer Map Pack, released July 5, 2005, made Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players. The disc contains the software update, nine new multiplayer maps, a making-of documentary, and a bonus cinematic called "Another Day on the Beach", among other features. The Blastacular Map Pack contained two additional maps and released April 2007. On July 7 Bungie made the Blastacular Map Pack free.

Halo 2 was one of the Xbox games that was backward-compatible on the Xbox 360. On the newer console, it runs at high-definition 720p with scene-wide anti-aliasing. The ability to download DLC for Halo 2 was discontinued when support for original Xbox Live games was terminated in 2010.

Ports and rereleases

In February 2006, Microsoft announced a PC port of Halo 2, exclusively for the Windows Vista operating system. Like the Xbox version, the release of Halo 2 Vista was repeatedly delayed. The May 22, 2007, release date was pushed to May 31 after the discovery of partial nudity in the map editor—a photograph of Charlie Gough, one of the lead engineers, mooning Steve Ballmer during his visit to the studio, was presented as part of the ".ass" (amalgam scene specification) error message, displayed in the level editor when attempting to non-uniformly scale level geometry. Microsoft offered patches to remove the nude content and revised the box ratings. Halo 2 could be enabled to play on Windows XP through an unauthorized third-party patch. Halo 2 Vista was ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios (codenamed Hired Gun) who worked closely with Bungie. As one of the launch games of Games for Windows – Live, Halo 2 offered Live features not available in the Xbox version, such as Guide support and Achievements. The Windows port also added two exclusive multiplayer maps and a map editor.

In January 2013, a blog post on Halo Waypoint indicated that online services for Halo 2 for Windows Vista would shut down on February 15, 2013. This date was pushed back multiple times, and the servers finally ceased operations in 2015. A high-definition remaster, Halo 2 Anniversary, was released as part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection on November 11, 2014, for the Xbox One. It was later released on PC for Steam and Windows Store.

Legacy

Halo 2's release was part of a shift towards blockbuster gaming releases. In 2004, the video game industry was estimated to gross $7.76 billion in the United States, behind the $9.4 billion gross of the domestic box office. Halo 2's success was seen by the press as evidence of a generational shift in entertainment. The CBC's Greg Bolton remarked that prior to Halo 2's splashy release, "the video-game industry hadn't yet found a recognizable public face, a universally acclaimed megastar." The Ringer called Halo 2 "the birth of the video game as we know it today: a mass shared experience," and credited it with birthing modern multiplayer infrastructure and popularizing American esports.

Halo 2's matchmaking technology was one of the turning points in the gaming industry during the 2000s, setting a new standard for other games. G4's Sterling McGarvey wrote that "Bungie's sequel was a shot in the arm for Xbox Live subscriptions and previewed many of the features that would set the standard for Microsoft's online service on the next machine". Critics credited it with bringing online multiplayer to the console masses, and as serving as Xbox Live's killer app. The Province's Paul Chapman wrote that games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 would not be enjoyable if not for the ground Halo 2 broke.