Halo 2

Things to consider about the Halo series:
Halo is important in that it was a game that brought new light on the console fps and the world of shooters in general. Not since Goldeneye 007 had a fps graphically blown us away, it also was the first I'd seen to use the Havok physics engine.

Your character was not superman, he had 2 options for weapons so you were constantly switching out so you wouldn't get pinned down, that made for very tense moments where strategy came into play; same with nades. Controls were fluid as were animations.
Multiplayer brought the term co-op to new heights (still unmatched imho) and the split screen action brought lan parties to the console world. Also, though they are obviously flawed, the graphics were excellent as well as sound.

Ok now Halo2.
To be a successful (in terms of a player critic) this sequel had to be on par or greater then its successor. To me what it had to have was an interesting story, an intense single player, great sound, great gfx and stability, and a multiplayer of greater or equal value to the original.

Story:
You've heard whining about the story, this is why retailers need to enforce the 17+ rating because we all hate kids. This story can't be the same as Halo but it can't be so far outstretched that its not familiar or overblown; and somehow Halo 2 accomplishes this.

As I've said I beat it in 12 hours, I bet I can do it in 9 or less but I had college that day. Now people say that's not long enough and that KOTOR takes over 30 hours to beat. Only an idiot thinks you can only do every quest in KOTOR in 30 hours, I've done all of them in 8ish hours so the time is not important -the significance is whether the game keeps you focused those few hours your playing.
It does just this, this is the Aliens of the franchise, all out balls to the walls action (1/3 the total time, 3x the action, 100% the same quality).

Though I must admit the only real issue I have with the story is the ending, as with the first its a cliffhanger which makes it evident that this cash cow is gonna be back just in time for the Xbox2.

Single Player:
Near perfection. This is a game with emphasis on action as I said before. This game has moments which made me scratch my head and beat my punching bag because what it lacks in length it makes up for in oomph. The all out war for most of it, even surpasses Halo in scope.

Mechanics:
As I said countless times I was worried about the stability of the game, but this game shows that 80% of the games on Xbox are barely scratching the potential of the beast. To give you a comparison think of this:

Doom III focuses on superhero character types with ultra realistic environments.

HL2 goes for life like realism with large outdoor environments (thus I consider it graphically superior).

Halo2 is taking the slightly cartoonish characters, combining them with the rediculously large environments of the first Halo and still making it seemingly impossibly beautiful at times. (I'd say its just under HL2's gfx power)

Keeping up the gfx of this game (its seriously scary how reallistic it can be at times) on 2-4 screens on a console and NEVER dropping in fps is one hell of an accomplishment. I applaud Bungie for pulling it off, the choppiness of the first game is nowhere to be seen in a game that is putting out at least 2.5 times the gfx.

As usual sound is superb:
All weapons and voices are revamped. Personally I noticed the black guy from the first game is back and voiced by the same actor (the man is a pimp -only Samuel L. Jackson could make this guy more badass), Michelle Rodriquez (Resident Evil, S.W.A.T) is the female voice of marines, David Cross (Mr. Show, Arrested Development) slings out the goofy one liners the marines are famous for in addition to the classic Aussie guy and others from the first game that give it that hill billy appeal.

As for multiplayer I'd say its the same to me atm, but I haven't gotten Live yet (I am leaning towards it soon as I get a router) and I only retried the revamped BloodGulch [Coagulation] with my sister's boyfriend as well as co-op. As I said before co-op gave no drop in fps, neither the split screen DM we played full with all, yes ALL, vehicles.

Weapons:
Last thing I'll mention, they are revamped. The sniper rifle, pistol, shotty, pulse charger, and pulse rifle are all weaker. Needler is godly as well as the 2 assualt rifles which replaced the old assualt rifle that sucked.

In short, the vehicles and the weapons blow the first Halo out of the water. Anyone complaining about these has no skillz in Halo cept the pistol, and there will be no more pistol sniping for whiners.

If you own an Xbox you will own this game or it'll own you, if you don't own an Xbox accept that PS2 is reliant on Japanese RPGs to survive and take the dive for that Xbox this season. This game is not meant to be ground breaking, not too inventive, just an improved version of perfection.

To this it succeeds, its a 10, *****, its the killer app of the FPS world and its callin you.

And for IQ's ratings, dek is giving this a well deserved 5.
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