Halo 2

Halo 2
Halo 2 box art
Developer(s)	Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft
Engine	Unknown (uses Havok physics)
Platform(s)	Xbox, PC (Windows Vista only)
Release	Microsoft Xbox: November 9 2004 November 11 2004 November 11 2004 PC: Will be released for Windows Vista the new operating system for microsoft 2007/2008
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer, Xbox Live

Halo 2 is a first person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. The sequel to the blockbuster and critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 features a newly built game engine and the Havok physics engine, new weapons and vehicles, new multiplayer maps, and a storyline that continues the story begun in Halo: Combat Evolved. Released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004, Halo 2 and its predecessor are both compatible with the Xbox 360, including its Xbox Live functionality. From the day of its initial release, Halo 2 has been the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360. Halo and Halo 2 are some of the most played games for the Xbox console.[1]

The game will also be available for the Windows Vista operating system sometime in the future.

History

One note regarding the release of Halo 2 was an estimated one million dollar Alternate Reality Game project titled I Love Bees. For those who are not familiar with the "ARG" premise: a story is put forth on webpages and other media devices. Players are invited into a part of the story they might not otherwise see.

On the morning of October 14, a leak of the French version of the game was posted on the Internet, and circulated widely. Microsoft, the parent company of Bungie Studios, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version . The leak failed to have a significant effect on Halo 2 sales.

The first official release of Halo 2 was in Australia, New Zealand and the United States on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered . This was followed by releases on November 10 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Spider-Man 2 as highest grossing release in entertainment history. As of November 9 2005, exactly a year after its release, Halo 2 had sold more than 7 million copies worldwide . Some observers saw this as another milestone in the emerging dominance of the video game industry. Halo 2 won "Game of the Year 2004" at GPhoria, among other awards (Best Boss Battle, etc.), including different award shows.

Since Halo 2 was a successful killer app for the Xbox and its Live online service, Microsoft took advantage of Halo 2 to ban modded Xboxes from the network when they tried to log on for online gaming.

On February 9, 2006, Bungie Studios announced that Halo 2 would be released exclusively for the Windows Vista operating system. The game is to be ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios who will work closely with Bungie Studios.

Versions

1.0 - Shipping version
1.1 - Map Download/Cheat Fix

Halo 2 is currently on version 1.1. There have been multiple updates, as well as optional downloadable content via Xbox Live, but the main screen still states 1.1 in the lower right hand corner.

Plot

Template:Spoilers Halo 2 opens following two juxtaposed ceremonies. The Master Chief is being awarded at the Cairo station orbiting Earth while the former leader of the Covenant fleet is being judged and tortured for his crimes. Both for the same event: the destruction of the Halo in the original Halo: Combat Evolved game. These rings are sacrosanct to the Covenant, but presented a great galactic threat, notably The Flood and the rings' ability to destroy all sentient life in the Galaxy. Their prophesied discovery signals the beginning of what the Covenant call the "Great Journey". Upon activation of the rings, the Covenant believe their Journey will begin.

The action begins following the Master Chief's ceremony. A Covenant fleet jumps out of slipspace and sends boarding parties towards a battlecluster of stations. These boarding parties carry plasma explosives designed to take out the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon) guns which threaten the Covenant flagships. The Master Chief finds and disarms the bomb located on the Cairo with the help of Cortana. The pair joins In Amber Clad and heads to earth where the Covenant are attacking the city of New Mombasa. The UNSC Marines successfully repel the invaders with the help of Master Chief. Upon fleeing, the remaining Covenant carrier jumps to a new ring world (in the process, destroying New Mombasa), Installation-05, dubbed "Delta Halo", with In Amber Clad and the Chief in pursuit. The crew of the vessel land on Delta Halo in an attempt to discover the reason for the Covenant's incursion. In Amber Clad's crew learn more of the Halo's significance to The Covenant in the process. Finally, in order to disrupt the Covenant leadership, the Master Chief kills the leader of the Covenant fleet, the High Prophet of Regret.

The action switches to the condemned Covenant fleet commander assuming the role of the Arbiter. His first mission, to silence a heretic who doubts the Prophets' teachings, starts him on a path which ultimately has him doubting his beliefs. Seeds are further sown for discord within the Covenant when the Prophet Heirarchs decide to grant the Brutes control of the military instead of the traditionally favored Elites after the loss of the original Halo ring. During his missions, The Arbiter realizes the danger that the rings represent: their activation is intended to destroy all sentient life in the Galaxy, in order to cleanse the Galaxy of Flood and their potential hosts.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter meet upon the release of the Flood from Delta Halo. A mysterious Flood creature called the Gravemind sends the Arbiter and Master Chief in separate directions to prevent The High Prophets from activating Delta Halo.

The Master Chief finds himself in the nearby Covenant Holy City, High Charity, a gargantuan space station, and pursues the remaining Prophets. During his mission, The Chief must battle his way through an erupting Covenant civil war between Brutes and Elites. After capturing the In Amber Clad, the Flood, led by the Gravemind, arrive at the city and begin to consume and infect the populace. The only remaining High Prophet, Truth, escapes on a Forerunner vessel hidden in the core of High Charity. The Master Chief manages to stow away on board while Cortana stays behind in order to detonate the In Amber Clad's engine reactors to destroy Delta Halo and High Charity, stopping Tartarus from activating Halo.

The game comes to a close as The Arbiter and a force of Elites aided by surviving members of In Amber Clad's crew pursue and kill Tartarus and his Brutes on Delta Halo as he attempts to activate the Halo System. However, despite the Arbiter revealing that the Covenant have been betrayed, Tartarus inserts the Index and Delta Halo becomes fully operational. With aid from Johnson taking out Tartarus' shield, the Arbiter defeats Tartarus. Keyes manages to snatch the Index out of the control panel and halt the impending destruction, but Delta Halo sends a signal out to the other rings so they can be remotely detonated from the Ark.

Meanwhile, the Forerunner ship that Master Chief has stowed away on approaches the human fleet.

After the game credits finish rolling, a scene appears in which Cortana and Gravemind are conversing. This appears to be a teaser for Halo 3.

Gameplay

Campaign

In-game screenshot of Halo 2

The game's "Campaign" mode offers options for both single-player and cooperative multiplayer participation. When playing in this mode the player must complete a series of levels that encompass Halo 2's storyline. These levels require the player to alternate between the roles of Master Chief and a Covenant Elite called the Arbiter, who occupy identical but diametrically opposed roles in the story's conflict. Aside from variations in storyline the Arbiter differs from Master Chief 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 gets shot.

In Campaign mode there are five levels of difficulty: Easy, Normal, Heroic, Legendary, and a secret mode called Mythic. Legendary has been described as "suicide" by the game developers, and Mythic is only available by activating the "Mythic" Skull. An increase in difficulty will result in an increase in the health of opponents, an increase in their accuracy, a reduction of duration and an increase in recharge time for the Arbiter's active camouflage, and a reduction of health in the player. Hidden skulls also appear, which enacts special game conditions.

Multiplayer

See also: List of multiplayer gametypes in Halo 2

File:Halo2 multi 4 1094806526.jpg

Xbox Live automatically matches players based on criteria such as skill and ping. The screenshot is from a Beta version of the game.

File:Halo2 multi 2 1094806396.jpg

Halo 2 multiplayer screenshot from press kit, featuring the map Template:Halo2map

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other via the Xbox Live online service, in addition to the original's support for split-screen and System Link multiplayer. Halo 2's Xbox Live mode offers a unique and, some would say, innovative approach to online gaming that is intended to alleviate some of the problems that have plagued online first-person shooters in the past. Traditionally, one player sets his or her computer or console up as a game server (or host), specifying the game type and map and configuring other settings. The game software then uses a service like GameSpy to advertise the game to the world at large; other players choose which game to join based upon criteria such as the map and game options each host is offering as well as the ping times they are able to receive.

In Halo 2, Xbox Live players do not choose to host public games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players select "playlists" that are geared to different styles of play. For example, the "Rumble Pit" playlist offers a variety of "every man for himself" game types, primarily Slayer or variations thereof; "Team Skirmish" offers a number of 4-on-4 team games, which are primarily objective-based games like Capture the Flag; "Big Team Battle" is similar to Team Skirmish but allows teams of up to 8 players. Other playlists allow matches between different clans. Bungie updates these playlists every once in a while, deleting the unpopular gametypes and adding new ones. The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have chosen each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host (being the host is generally a desirable position to be in, as the host experiences no latency. This results in damage and destructive objects being created and recognised instantly, and increased accuracy at long ranges due to enemies apparent location and their actual location being the same. As such, it is becoming increasingly common to manipulate the system to forcibly obtain host by a method termed 'bridging'). If the Xbox console hosting the game drops out, the Xbox Live service automatically selects a new host from among the remaining players so the game can continue.

Players can create small parties with their friends and enter games together as teammates in Team based games. Players may still choose to set up games for their own party to their own specification, and invite others into that game from their Friends and Clan lists, however these games are not made publicly available.

Bungie.net records every single statistic that is displayed on-screen in the end-of-game "Postgame Carnage Report."(if modifications were used in that game and were reported the game will not file correctly) Anyone can visit Bungie.net and look at any Xbox Live player's stats. If a player logs in with a Microsoft Passport, they can also access the "Gameviewer". This presents an image of the level that was played from the player's choice various angles, superimposed with a summary of the crucial game events. For example: for each kill, the attacker and target's locations and the attacker's weapon are displayed, and the paths taken by flags in Capture the Flag games are shown. Bungie keeps the stats for each game for 7 days, before purging them to save space. The stats are also used as evidence when banning suspected cheating players (see "Xbox Live updates").

Damage system

File:Shieldhalo2.JPG

The shield's new placement lets the player check damage and motion detector simultaneously.

The damage system in Halo 2 is slightly different from that in Halo: Combat Evolved. The player has a regenerating shield, but now cannot see the health bar included in the original game.

• Shields: The shield in Halo 2 is much stronger, and recharges at a higher rate than the ones in the original Halo. It covers the player's entire body, and slowly decreases in power as it sustains damage. After it takes damage, it starts to recharge 4 seconds after the last time damage was sustained. The power is displayed above the motion tracker in the bottom-left of the screen. Like in the original Halo, once the shields become low, an alarm informs the player that they are out of power.

• Health: In Halo 2, once the shields run out, the player also has a buffer of health. Unlike the first Halo, the amount of health left is not visible to the player, but is marginally larger than in the original game. If a player is wounded, his health will start to slowly regenerate once the shields recharge. However, a wounded player will remain wounded until he either dies or his shields begin to recharge, stressing the need to use cover to remain alive even more than the original game.

Powerups

There are two types of powerups available in Halo 2 Multiplayer.

• Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which is three times the strength of the normal one (not including normal shield that is 'underneath' it) which adds a strong glowing effect to the user. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield – when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In addition, when an overshield is picked up, the player is invulnerable until it finishes charging, which takes a second or two. In multiplayer Halo 2, the overshield gradually depletes over time, can be used as a default shield that recharges and can be completely taken out along with the normal shield with a charged up plasma pistol shot. The overshield is no longer present in the campaign mode of Halo 2. However, the Black Eye Skull will enable the player to charge his/her shield into the overshield range. In certain Multiplayer gametypes, one or more players start with a regenerating overshield.

• Active Camouflage: Essentially a device used for stealth by The Covenant, active camouflage drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him invisible and producing a lensing effect as they walk. This effect (which is almost identical to that of the alien armor in the Predator movies) is reduced if the player is hit by weapon fire, or if he fires a weapon. The stealth camouflage also removes the auto aim players usually receive when targetting an enemy. In addition to this, plasma weapons and some other weapons will be easily visible even if not fired, with or without active camouflage. The ability to use active camouflage is included in the Arbiter's part of the campaign, although its effect only lasts a few seconds and suffers from the same problems as noted above. The power-up is not available in the Halo 2 campaign as it was in the first; it is only given to the Arbiter to use as the Master Chief uses his flashlight. The Envy skull, only accessible on the Legendary difficulty, gives Master Chief access to the built-in generator, and has an even shorter duration than the arbiter's version. During multiplayer, active camouflage is acquired as it is in the first game, and is located often at a relatively hidden or remote lovation on the map. This ability also reduces the effectiveness of enemy weapons as when the camouflage is activated, enemies' targeting reticles will not turn red, thus making it more difficult for enemies to snipe or otherwise target the invisible player. Anything that requires a red reticle to function properly, such as the tracking ability of the needler and plasma pistol, and the lunge ability of the energy sword will not function against an invisible target.

Gametype Settings: In some gametypes, the overshield and/or active camo are always active on one or all of the players, and if disabled, will recharge over time. One common mistake for new players is to mix the overshield and the active camo; the overshield creates a faint halo around the player, rendering the active camouflage useless.

Main characters

Main article: Halo characters

• Master Chief SPARTAN-117 John
• Cortana
• Sergeant Major A.J. Johnson
• Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keyes
• Arbiter, former Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice
• High Prophets of Truth, Mercy and Regret
• Brute Chieftain Tartarus
• 2401 Penitent Tangent
• 343 Guilty Spark(Oracle)
• Spec-Ops Commander "Half-Jaw"
• Gravemind
• Heretic Leader

Music

The Halo 2 soundtrack was mostly composed by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, the team that had also composed the music of Halo. Steve Vai provided guitar backing for many tracks, including the album's signature piece Halo Theme- MJOLNIR Mix, which also serves as the theme song for Halo 2. Additional tracks included various outside musicians, including Joe Satriani, Incubus, Breaking Benjamin, and Hoobastank, who are all featured on the official soundtrack and to a certain extent, in the game.

The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack: Volume Two was released on April 25, 2006 and features Incubus with special guest appearances by Kirk Johnson and Steve Vai.

Additional content

Xbox Live updates

A common complaint regarding Halo 2's online play has been the widespread cheating which occurred almost immediately upon the game's release. Users exploited bugs in the game and vulnerabilities of the network to win ranked games and thus increase their matchmaking rank. In response to these complaints, Bungie released an automatic update for Halo 2 (a mandatory patch) on Monday, April 18th, 2005, which fixed many of the various bugs and cheats in the game (though some inevitably persist, most of the time among the MM levels i.e. 30-50, reducing the number of players who play matchmaking at that level), slimmed down split-screen HUD information, and rebalanced various weapons to promote use of single-wield weapons, grenades, and melee attacks. For example, the melee attacks and grenades are now far more powerful. The battle rifle is now more accurate. A full list of changes can be seen here. This brings Halo 2 up to Version 1.1.

Halo 2 also supports downloadable content, with Bungie making various new multiplayer maps available. Four maps were made available to download on Monday, April 25th, 2005. They are now all completely free. On the 5th, 5 new maps were made available for free on Xbox live. The Map Pack disk (below) was also released on that date. For further information on the map packs and their contents, see the list of downloadable maps.

Another update was added in July, 2005 (a week or so after the release of the map pack). The update added a detection tool that would automatically detect and ban 'modders' using modified content on their Xboxes. Modified versions of the downloadable maps would allow people to use cheats such as 'autoaim' and 'automatic reload' during matches on Xbox Live. Any players who are detected using modified content would be automatically banned from Matchmaking on Xbox Live. The update also fixes a teleporter glitch on the map, Template:Halo2map. The players who use 'modded' content to have an unfair advantage over other players now resort to using 2-month free trial accounts to cheat on Xbox Live. Many players hold their rank (or level) in high regard, and these people will give 'modders' 2-month free trial cards so their rank can be 'boosted' up from winning unfairly. Playing with 'modders' can get one kicked off the Xbox Live service.

Recent Updates

Global Changes

1. Template:Halo2map is being removed from playlists due to having a poor FPS on the Xbox 360.
2. Rumble Armory is being removed
3. Rumble Hardcore is being added
4. Big Team Battle will no longer use large squad restrictions

Rumble Pit

1. All objective games are being removed from the Rumble Pit
2. Rumble Rockets is being removed from the Rumble Pit
3. Rumble Duals is being changed to Rumble Slayer on Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map

Rumble Training

1. Objective games are being given an increased weight
2. Rumble Duals is being changed to Rumble Slayer on Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map
3. Rumble Fiesta on Template:Halo2map is now Rumble Fiesta on Template:Halo2map
4. Rumble Showers on Template:Halo2map is now Rumble Showers on Template:Halo2map
5. Rumble Swords on Template:Halo2map is now Rumble Swords on Template:Halo2map

Double Team

1. 2v2 Duals Only is now 2v2 Slayer on Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map
2. Template:Halo2map is being removed from Double Team
3. 2v2 Rockets is being removed from Double Team

Team Slayer

1. Team Duals is being changed to Team Slayer on Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map
2. Template:Halo2map is being removed from Team Slayer
3. Team Rockets is being removed from Team Slayer
4. Team Snipers is being removed from Team Slayer

Team Training

1. Team Duals is being changed to Team Slayer on Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map
2. Team Plasma Wars on Template:Halo2map is now Team Plasma Wars on Template:Halo2map
3. Team Showers on Template:Halo2map is now Team Showers on Template:Halo2map

Team Snipers

1. Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map are being removed from Team Snipers

Team

1. Template:Halo2map is being removed from Team
2. Team Snipers are being removed from Team
3. Team Slayer Covenant on Warlock is now regular Team Slayer
4. Team Slayer (No Sniping) is being added
5. Team Ball on Template:Halo2map is being removed
6. Team Crazy King on Template:Halo2map

, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map are being removed

1. Multi Flag on Template:Halo2map will now have Flag At Home To Score OFF
2. The No Duals weapon set will now be used on Team Slayer, Team Ball, Team Crazy King, CTF Classic and Neutral Bomb gametypes

6v6 Team Battle

1. Team Slayer and Team Slayer BR will now be 100 kills to win

Multi-Team

1. Team Plasma Wars on Template:Halo2map is now Team Plasma Wars on Template:Halo2map
2. Multi Team Ball on Template:Halo2map is now Multi Team Ball on Template:Halo2map

Clanmatch

1. Team Duals on is being changed to Team Slayer on Template:Halo2map and Template:Halo2map
2. Team Duals on Template:Halo2map is being removed
3. Team Snipers is being removed from Clanmatch

Team ActionSack

1. Shotgun based gametypes have had their weight reduced
2. Pit of Joy is now 5 minutes to win and has a weight increase
3. Brutality will no longer have damage resistance turned on
4. Dodgeball on Template:Halo2map is now Dodgeball on Template:Halo2map
5. Brutality on Template:Halo2map is now Brutality on Template:Halo2map
6. Laser Blasters on Template:Halo2map is now Laser Blasters on Template:Halo2map

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack

Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack
File:Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.jpg
Developer(s)	Bungie Studios
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Game Studios
Platform(s)	Xbox
Release	July 5, 2005 (NA)
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

The Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack is an expansion pack for the video game Halo 2, intended to make Xbox Live content and updates available to offline players. The disk contains the game's automatic update, all nine new multiplayer maps, a documentary about the making of the maps, and a cinematic called "Another Day on the Beach". It was released on July 5, 2005. At release, it cost £15 in the UK and $19.99 in the U.S., available at par in Canada. It contains 9 levels: Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, and Template:Halo2map.

Information on the new maps can be found here.

The new multiplayer content can be used on Xbox Live, System Link and Split-Screen modes.

Five of the new maps (Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map) were released online through Xbox Live's downloadable content service on July 5, the same day as the map pack. The other four maps (Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map, Template:Halo2map) were released earlier in the summer.

All of the multiplayer maps are now available as free & mandatory downloads on Xbox Live.

Criticism

Despite the critical and financial success of Halo 2, there continues to be heated debate as to whether the title is superior or inferior to its predecessor, Halo: Combat Evolved. Arguments are mainly directed at the multiplayer aspect of the game, and include claims that the game's learning curve has been simplified too drastically, and that there may be deep-rooted problems within the games's online matchmaking modes via Xbox Live. The game's Campaign mode has also received some criticism, including dissatisfaction with the abrupt, cliffhanger ending that sets gamers up for Halo 3. Some players were also dissatisfied with the inclusion of a second playable character, the Arbiter, because they felt it drew away focus from the series' main character, Master Chief.

There is also some criticism of the game's on-the-fly rendering technique, which can sometimes result in textures or models being loaded into a cutscene in full sight of the player (or less frequently, during gameplay, though these incidents tend to be less obvious). Bungie has stated that this issue has been fixed for Halo 3 Additionally, this "texture popping" problem is noticeable to a much lesser extent while Halo 2 is being run on an Xbox 360.

It should be noted that much of the criticism of Halo 2 is voiced by competitive online gamers, and that, despite the criticism, Halo 2 continues to be the most-played game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360.[2]

Awards

2005 Spacey Awards

• Favourite Video Game

2005 GameFly Q Awards

• Favorite Game of the Year
• Favorite Xbox Game
• Favorite Shooter Game

2005 Game Developers Choice Awards

• Excellence in Audio
• Game Innovation Spotlights (I Love Bees)

Game Revolution 2004

• Best Console Game of E3 2004

E3 2004 Game Critics Awards

• Best Console Game
• Best Action Game
• Best Online Multiplayer Game

1UP, 2004

• Best Visuals of E3 2004
• Best Xbox Game of E3 2004
• Best Shooter of E3 2004
• Best Game of E3 2004 Nominee
• Best Multiplayer/Online Game of 2004
• Best Shooter of 2004
• Game of the Year 2004

Gphoria, 2005

• Best Shooter
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best Sound Design
• Best Original Soundtrack
• Best Male Performance (David Cross)
• Best Boss (Scarab Battle)
• Game of the Year

Webby for best "Games Related Website" (I Love Bees)

Future developments

Template:Future game Halo 2 is being ported by Microsoft Game Studios, with the help of Bungie, to Windows Vista. On February 9, 2006, it was announced that Halo 2 PC would be in stores before the end of 2006, but this now seems unlikely due to the push of the Windows Vista launch into 2007. There will be a map editor included that will be made by Microsoft (in cooperation with Bungie Studios). The extent of the map editor's capabilities have not yet been made available.

Halo 2 for Windows Vista also will not link with the Xbox Live network. It is totally incompatible; however, Bungie has stated that it will have networking features of its own, resembling Halo PC's inclusion of free Internet for mega capabilities.

See also

• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Halo (video game series)
• I Love Bees
• List of Halo 2 changes
• List of multiplayer gametypes in Halo 2
• List of multiplayer maps in Halo 2
• List of vehicles in the Halo universe
• List of weapons in Halo 2
• Halo 2 Original Soundtrack
• Red vs Blue
• The Codex Series

External links

• Bungie's Official Halo 2 site
• Xbox.com's Official Halo 2 site
• Halo.Bungie.org, Halo news and associated productions