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Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Planet X Posts: 3,339 | Everything We Know About Halo 2
Contributed by: Gyroxide Gamespy
Every console has its must-play franchises. Sony's got Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy, while Nintendo has Metroid and a little plumber by the name of Mario. On the Xbox, however, there's only one game that really matters, and it ain't Blinx, folks. When it was released in 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved was immediately recognized as the killer app Microsoft needed to get its new console off the ground and into the homes of hardcore gamers everywhere. Combining an exciting single-player experience with an intense multiplayer fragfest, Halo managed to bring just about everything that made first person shooters great from the PC to the console world.
If you're reading this, chances are you've already played through Halo multiple times. However, for the sake of any newbies who might not know the backstory, Halo puts you squarely in the shoes of the Master Chief, a member of an elite fighting force known as the Spartans. You see, mankind is locked in battle with an invading alien force called the Covenant, who'd like nothing more than to wipe any evidence of our fine civilization out of the galaxy. After your ship crash lands on the mysterious alien artifact known as Halo, you must use weapons, vehicles, and your wit to get off the planet before you destroy it. Yeah, I realize I'm selling the game short with that basic description, but I don't want to ruin the story for the 2 or 3 Xbox owners who haven't played it yet. Needless to say, the game was a huge hit, and a sequel was planned almost immediately.
So, what is Halo 2 going to be about? Well, we don't really know yet. In fact, that's the whole reason for this article. We're going to try to put together everything we know about Halo 2 into one giant information buffet for all of the budding Spartans out there. If you don't feel like reading the article, however, we think Jason Jones, co-founder of Halo developer Bungie Studios, summed up the Halo 2 experience best when he said, "Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas. And, the ninjas are all on fire, too." If that doesn't sound like the greatest game ever made, I don't know what does.
So, without further ado, let's take a nice long look at everything we know about Halo 2, starting with some of the new additions and upgrades.
Without an arsenal to rival a Montana milita, first person shooters would be nothing more than a bunch of characters running around and slapping the hell out of each other. Not a pretty picture, is it? Halo featured many of the mainstays of the shooter genre, from pistols to shotguns, as well as a few alien weapons that you could pick up while playing, including plasma rifles and a interesting little tracking weapon called the Needler.
One of the biggest things that the developers at Bungie wanted to do was to balance the weapons a bit. If you've played the original Halo, you'll know that there are few things more frustrating than being stuck with the wimpy assault rifle while your opponents are all sporting shotguns or pistols. Before, you could empty an entire 60 round clip into your opponent, only to see him charge at you and cap you in the dome. Now, while the assault rifle (or the battle rifle, as it's called in Halo 2) still isn't one of the strongest weapons in the game, it's got the added advantage of having a scope that can be enabled by clicking the right analog stick. If you want to take out an enemy from afar, all you have to do is zoom in and fire some slugs into his head, rather than just fire wildly from across the level.
However, the battle rifle isn't fully automatic anymore. When you're zoomed in, you can only fire one round at time, although pulling the trigger rapidly will make it seem like it's a rapid-fire weapon. When you are in your regular view, you'll be able to fire quick three-shot bursts, perfect for dropping some of the weaker enemies in the game (damn you, weasely little Covenant foot-soldiers!).
Remember our little buddy the Needler? For many players, it was more of a hindrance than a help, since you'd have to fire nearly all of the rounds into your enemy, then wait until they exploded. This wait could mean the difference between life and death, as your enemy still had free reign to fire upon you. Just about the only reason to pick up the Needler was that its rounds could follow an enemy around corners and behind cover. Now the Needler is not only stronger, it fires much faster than it did in the previous game, so players don't have to fear being stuck with it anymore.
Another weapon that has received a serious upgrade is the rocket launcher. Of course, you're probably thinking the same thing I was when I heard this news: why did the most powerful weapon in the game get an upgrade? Well, while the rocket launcher was great for taking out tightly clustered groups of enemies or slow moving vehicles, it really didn't help much against quicker vehicles like the Warthog or the Banshee. Unless you were a master at leading your enemy and anticipating where they'd be, chances are you'd just be wasting your ammo.
Now, however, you can lock on to a moving vehicle, and your fired rocket will follow your enemy until the point of impact. In order to lock on, you must be zoomed in, and the reticle must be red. While it isn't known exactly how long the rocket will track for, or what sort of angles it can overcome, it looks like the tracking missile will change the dynamic of many multiplayer games. However, just because your vehicle is hit by a rocket doesn't mean that you'll die, or even that your vehicles will be incapacitated. I don't know if the power of the rocket has been lessened, but it seems like it doesn't necessarily destroy vehicles or their passengers anymore.
Not all of the weapons in Halo 2 are upgrades, though. There are some new deathbringers that we can all look forward to, and not all of them fire projectiles.
The first new weapon that we got a chance to see was the submachine gun that the Master Chief was sporting in the E3 2003 single player demo. You might remember that at one point he was holding two of them, either choosing to alternate fire between the two, or just laying on the triggers and spraying everywhere. While the submachine gun isn't terribly powerful, two of them can put your enemy in a world of hurt. We'll get into dual wielding a bit more tomorrow. One of the coolest things about the submachine gun is the sounds. It's akin to the brrrapp! brrrapp! that an Uzi or a Mack-10 would make, and it's definitely one of the most badass sounds in the game.
Perhaps the new weapon that everyone is most jazzed for isn't really new at all. If you've played the first Halo, you'll remember the invisible Covenant Elites that would only be detectable by the plasma sword they carried. Of course, you usually wouldn't see these guys until too late, as they would slice and dice you before you could even react. Well, you'll be happy to hear that not only will the plasma sword be making a return, but you'll actually be able to pick them up and use them as a melee weapon.
One of the most satisfying things you could do in Halo was sneak up behind your buddy (or a Covenant soldier) and cave his head in with the butt of your rifle. Not only did it usually kill him instantly, but it also gave you a great excuse to talk some serious smack. Well, the producers obviously enjoyed doing that too, so they included the ultimate melee weapon. Using the plasma sword is pretty easy, too. Hitting the B button will swipe the sword back and forth in front of you, and a few good whacks will take an enemy out. However, if you line your enemy up right and your reticle turns red, you can pull the right trigger to do a devastating lunge attack, guaranteed to kill him instantly. You can be sure that there will be quite a few people who will master the plasma sword, and I wouldn't be surprised to see people setting up plasma-sword-only multiplayer matches.
Weapons aren't the only things that have gotten a major overhaul in Halo 2. Vehicles were one of the best parts of Halo, although they didn't always behave realistically. You could blast a Warthog all you wanted, but it wouldn't really affect the handling or physics. Eventually it would explode, but the developers wanted to make sure that there was more of a gray area between a working vehicle and a destroyed one, so they've implemented a lot of location specific damage.
Let's take the Ghost, for example. Previously, all you could do was shoot the Ghost (or stick grenades to it) until it exploded, rendering it unusable for anyone who wanted to take it for a drive. Now you can shoot one of the small wings off, making it very hard to control correctly, or take out the engine to incapacitate it completely. Shooting a vehicle enough will cause an explosion, killing whoever might be driving it. However, that's not the only thing to worry about. After a vehicle has let loose with a primary explosion, it will sit on the ground, sparking and shaking for a few moments before blowing up for real, killing anyone unfortunate enough to be within the general vicinity. This adds a bit of strategy to the choosing of vehicles, as you can actually board a ride and turn it into a rolling (or flying) bomb, perfect for ramming into enemy strongholds.
Explosions are nice and everything, but many of the vehicles have actually gotten a major upgrade, as well. The Ghost now has a boosting feature, in which you can accelerate extremely fast, making it perfect for running down the enemies in front of you before they can react. Of course, when you're boosting, you can't steer very well, so you have to be very careful when you do it. The plasma cannons appear to have been upgraded as well, firing much faster than they did in the previous game.
Our old friend the Warthog is back as well, and it's sporting a new toy in the back seat. While the last game had a powerful machine gun, Halo 2's version of the all terrain vehicle has a rocket launcher that blasts out an unlimited supply of quick moving rockets. In the single player demo from E3 2003, this came in very handy against the heavily armored Covenent flying tanks that were swarming all over the city. It's not known if there were any acceleration upgrades for the Warthog, however, so we'll just have to wait and see.
In addition to all of the new physics and damage to the vehicles, they've all gotten a serious makeover in the graphics department. The Ghost sports some nifty looking energy effects underneath the chassis, and the textures on the Warthog look simply beautiful. While those are the only two vehicles we've really seen in action so far, screenshots indicate that we'll be seeing a few other old favorites as well.
There have been a lot of pretty big changes to the core gameplay of Halo 2, but none is as big as dual wielding. In the previous game, you were constantly being forced to choose between the two weapons you were carrying at any given point, or would have to decide which one to toss if you came upon another weapon lying on the ground. Now, however, you've got even more choices.
Certain weapons allow you to carry one in each hand, John Woo-style. As you'd expect, this seems to be determined by the size and weight of the weapon. Sure, it would be nice to double-fist a rocket launcher and a shotgun, but that's not exactly realistic, is it? The only weapons that can be dual wielded, from what we've seen so far, are the Needler and the submachine gun, although I wouldn't be surprised to see the pistol and plasma gun added to the list.
Dual wielding is pretty easy, for the most part. Simply walk up to a weapon on the ground and stand over it. If you have the option of dual wielding, you'll be instructed to hit the Y button, and you'll pick it up to add to your other single handed weapon. If you've got a heavier gun, like the sniper rifle, equipped, you'll automatically switch to the alternate weapon when you try to dual wield, putting the heavier one away for use later. It's not known yet if you'll be able to carrying four dual wield weapons, as opposed to one single wield weaon and two dual wield weapons.
There are a lot of potential benefits to dual wielding, but there are also plenty of drawbacks, too. You can fire each weapon separately using the right and left triggers for the corresponding hand, so it may allow you to unload one clip into your enemy from one gun, then blast him with the other before his shield builds back up. Or, if you're the brutish type, just hold down both triggers and go to town on him.
You can also use a little bit of strategy when dual wielding and pick up two different types of weapons, depending on the situation. Since some of your enemies are more susceptible to plasma fire or hot lead, you can pick up one Covenant weapon and one Human weapon, giving you the best of both worlds.
So what could possibly be bad about dual wielding, you ask? Well, there are a few things. For one, you can't throw any grenades, since they are mapped to the left trigger. This tends to make things interesting, as it's sometimes nice to toss a grenade into a group, then charge in with guns a-blazing to finish off the survivors. So what's a Spartan to do? Well, I found that it was pretty easy to quickly put away one of my weapons, toss a few grenades, then re-requip the gun before charge in to kill any stragglers. Some people chose to use up all of their grenades first, then pick up the extra gun. Isn't it nice when everyone has their own strategy?
Unfortunately, you also can't perform melee attacks when you're dual wielding, although I'm not really sure why. It's too bad, because the double fisting technique seems like it would be perfect for stunning an enemy before moving in to to perform a coup de grace with the butt of your SMG. Again, you can probably just switch to a single weapon for a quick melee attack if needed.
You've also got to worry about your aim when dual wielding. Since you've got a gun in each hand, it's much harder to keep them steady when firing. If you hold down the triggers, your reticle will bounce around a bit and quickly move upward. This can be remedied by firing in short burst, or by simply alternating between the two weapons. No matter how you look at it, though, dual wielding may just be the coolest new feature in Halo 2.
Hitchin' a Ride
Everybody seems to love the open-ended crime games nowadays, but what's the best part of the game for most people? Is the ability to live in the skin of a common street thug for a few hours? Or maybe that you can do whatever you want without repurcussions? For me, the best thing about games like Grand Theft Auto and Driv3r is being able to run up to a car you like, yank the door open, and pull the unsuspecting soul out before hopping behind the wheel and taking off. If you've ever been waiting for the bus when a smug yuppie drives by in his Porsche, you know what I'm talking about.
Well, I'm happy to tell you that not only can you jack vehicles from other players, there are several different ways that you can do it. So far, the only vehicle that we've actually seen get jacked by a player is the Ghost, although it's probably pretty safe to assume that other transports will be jackable. In fact, in the single player demo shown at E3 2003, a Covenant Brute hopped on the hood of a Warthog and knocked the driver and passenger out before jumping off himself. It's no stretch to imagine the Master Chief climbing up on the side of a Scorpion and killing the driver before taking over behind the wheel.
There are a few ways to successfully jack a vehicle. All you need to do is hold down the X button when you're ready to catch a ride, and it's all yours. Well, it's actually a little more complicated than that. As in most video game related activities, timing is everything. Pressing the X button a little late or a little early can be the difference between being the proud owner of a Ghost and being a street pizza. Throw in the bullets and rockets whizzing by your ears, and it makes it all the harder. While it's not what you'd call easy, once you master the technique, you won't have to worry about being run down ever again. Unless, of course, your enemy catches you with your back turned.
Once you successfully board the vehicle, you'll be treated to a few different animations. If you board from the front, your character will swing around to the seat, kicking your enemy in the face and onto the ground. Jumping on from the back will allow you to hold on with one hand while you punch the baddie with the other. From what we've heard, there will be some different animations in the single player game, depending on the context.
After you're on the vehicle, you can zip away and join the rest of the battle. Well, that's what most people might do, but I highly recommend backing over your fallen enemy a few times, just to add insult (and death) to injury. Just as a well place rifle butt to the skull can be cause for some delicious smack-talk, so too can the jacking of your enemy's ride.
And the Walls Come Tumblin' Down!
Everyone loves destroying things, right? I mean, we wouldn't be gamers if we didn't get a certain amount of satisfaction from blasting an enemy into a pile of meat or knocking down a building with a few well placed rockets. That was one of the few things missing from the last Halo: widespread destruction. Now, in addition to shooting and destroying anything that moves, you can destroy plenty of stuff that doesn't move, too.
In order to create a more realistic game environment, the developers decided to add walls that chip and crack apart when shot, abandoned cars that explode (as seen in the single player demo), and the ubiquitous exploding barrels seen in so many of our favorite shooters. While the destructible walls don't really add a whole lot to the gameplay, it's really cool to see a war zone that actually looks like it's been through a war. The battlefield is not only littered with the bodies of your enemies, but also with chunks of debris caused by the fierce firefights. It's a nice little touch that's sure to make Halo fans a lot happier.
One thing that helped to make the original Halo great was the way the game looked. As one of the launch titles for the Xbox, it really showed gamers what could be accomplished when developers utilized the full power of the console. Of course, when looking at Halo 2, the first thing that you'll realize is that while Bungie made a nice looking game in Halo, it simply can't hold a candle to the visual feast that will be unleashed upon gamers on November 9th.
Possibly the biggest visual change has been the introduction of new lighting effects. While it doesn't utilize light in the showy way that a game like Splinter Cell might, it's easy to notice the effort that went in to making the lighting as realistic as possible. If you watch the multiplayer demonstration, you'll notice that there is a tremendous increase in quality of the reflections off characters and objects, from the armor on the Master Chief's arm to the hood on the Warthog. The lighting, of course, is all real-time, too. If you fire a rocket from the launcher on the Warthog, the light will be reflected by nearly every surface it passes.
The textures in the game have been kicked up a notch, as well. In the previous game, while everything looked nice, it all had a very flat, boring appearance. With the addition of a new bump-mapping engine, every object in the game has the illusion of depth. When combined with the lighting effects, nothing in the game looks flat. Metal surfaces are slightly pitted and bumpy, and look so real that you almost want to reach out and touch them. The same goes for the rock walls, as well as the weapons that you'll come across.
Character models look much more detailed, as well, thanks to the increased use of light and shadows. The animation appears to be a lot smoother, too. In the previous game, when characters ran, it sort of looked like they were a little too light on their feet, almost as if they were sliding along the ground rather than stepping on it. Now when characters run, they look like real soldiers would, slightly weighed down with gear and weapons. The jumping animations also look smoother, especially when jacking a vehicle. While a jumping character appears a little more floaty than before, they don't keep the same pose while in the air.
One of my personal favorite parts of Halo was the great use of sound. The Xbox is the only console to utilize Dolby Digital 5.1 technology, so the team at Bungie was able to create a totally immersive soundscape that really enhanced the gameplay. If an enemy was shooting at your back, you'd be able to tell what general vicinity he was in and take him out. Even the environmental sound was great, as evidenced by the waterfall in the first level on Halo.
So how did the engineers improve on this already great audio experience? By putting you even deeper into the game. This might be the first Xbox game to really push Dolby Digital 5.1 to its limits, and it's a wonder to hear. Bullets whizz by your ears, and you can tell almost exactly where they are coming from, allowing you to take cover or hunt your enemy down. Slower projectiles like rockets get louder as they approach, and if you're lucky enough to dodge it, you'll notice that they doppler sound is in full effect. All of the sound effects are really cool, too, from the whining sound of an about-to-explode Ghost to the moment of impact when a plasma sword hits your enemy. Words simply cannot do the audio justice, you'll just have to hear it for yourself.
All My Rowdy Friends Are, um, Staying Home Tonight?
Quick, what was the one thing that sucked about the original Halo? Chances are, if you were a multiplayer junkie like I was, you didn't have to think very long before answering that question. The lack of online play was one of the few elements that many people didn't like about Halo, and for good reason. While it offered arguably one of the best multiplayer experiences on any console, the only way you could play against your buddies was if you unplugged your Xbox, carried it over to a friend's house, and played system link games. Even then, you needed another TV for the best possible experience. No extra TV? Well, looks like you'll be stuck playing split-screen multiplayer, not exactly the worst thing in the world, but certainly not the optimal experience.
Of course, with Xbox Live being the premier online gaming service for all of the console gamers out there, it was no surprise that Halo 2 would be able to be played online. The only thing that people wondered about were the details. How many teams could play at once? What will be the maximum number of players? Would we be able to use voice chat?
At this point in time, Bungie is promising that up to 16 players will be able to battle on any given map. Keep in mind that at this point, this is a base number, and can be subject to change at anytime. We might be seeing 16, or we might be seeing 32. We won't really know until the game is released. However, one really cool thing that we've learned is that the number of players on each team (and consequently, number of teams) can vary. You might have eight teams of two, two teams of eight, or any combination in between. There have even been some reports that the teams don't have to be even. If two players are a lot better than everyone else, you might see two teams of seven taking on their two man team. The possibilities simply boggle the mind.
Another new addition, thanks to the new Xbox Live 3.0 release, is the ability to set up clans. If you've got a bunch of buddies, and you can all kick some serious ***, you can gang up to take on the world. The clans are highly customizable, too. Not only can you pick a color for the team, you can actually create an emblem for everyone to wear on their armor. Players also have logos over their heads in the multiplayer game, but whether this is a clan thing or a player thing still remains to be seen. It's also not known yet if there will be a scoring or ranking system, but there's a good chance that there will be. There have been some rumors that Bungie.net will be utilized for something, but we don't have any details on that yet.
Some details that we do have, however, are some of the different maps we might be seeing. Everyone's seen and heard a lot about the Zanzibar map that was the centerpiece for the multiplayer demos. Zanzibar offers a lot of sniper spots, defensive positions, and hidden goodies like the plasma sword. In fact, unlike the last game's multiplayer experience, all signs point to the fact that you'll need to rely on your teammates more this time around. Gates need to be opened and turrets need to be taken out, and chances are you won't be able to do everything yourself. Or can you?
So what other maps can we expect? Well, a few weeks before E3, Bungie conducted an alpha test of the multiplayer function, and there were some reports of other maps that might make it into the game. Like Halo, there are small, medium, and large maps to battle on, with the numbers of players dictating the type of game you'd like to play. The first map is called Lockout, and it's a small, narrow level that's perfect for two to four players. There are a lot of catwalks and high areas in the map, so you've got to worry about falling to your death almost as much as being fragged by an enemy.
The next map, a medium level called Burial Mounds, featuring a raised base surrounded by a desert wasteland. The medium maps are generally good for six to eight players, but can also be a lot of fun for more or less. The testers seemed to enjoy playing a game of Assault on the map, in which one team must move a bomb into the opposing team's base, at which point the teams switch sides and do battle again.
Finally, there was word of a large map named Waterworks. From the description, it sounds a bit like Blood Gulch, with two bases on each end of an enclosed area. Unlike Blood Gulch, however, there is a giant alien machine in the middle (presumably it's something having to do with water), and the entire map is underground, with only a hole in the roof providing light. This seems like it could be a very interesting map, especially if there are areas that are covered in darkness.
So, what's the biggest change in the multiplayer game? For the first time, players will be able to play as not only the Spartan soldiers, but also as Covenant Elites. These badass aliens are the equals to the Spartans in every way, so you'll be kicking butt no matter which side you pick. Some people thought that the Elites didn't jump quite as high as the Spartans, or that they didn't run quite as fast, but I really didn't notice a difference when playing the game at E3. Are there any benefits to picking an Elite over a Spartan? It doesn't appear so, but you never know, things change.
We've told you everything we know about Halo 2, but there's still a lot to learn, especially in regards to the single player game. We all know that at least part of the game takes place on Earth, as the Covenant invades and the Master Chief and friends must come back to save the day. The only stuff we've seen so far of the single player campaign is the demo from E3 2003, in which the Master Chief lands in the East African protectorate of New Mombasa, a bombed-out urban area that's crawling with Covenant baddies.
This level is a lot different from the large outdoor areas and sprawling underground bases seen in Halo, and it looks like the gameplay will change quite a bit, as well. There appears to be a lot more interaction with the NPC Marines around the city, and you have to wonder how much this will actually change the gameplay. Will you have to protect your men? Will you have to follow orders to a T? It's not known yet if the other Marines will play a big part in the game, but their AI appears to be a bit better.
Also unlike the last game, we got to see the Master Chief manning the rocket launcher in the back of the Warthog, blasting enemy ships out of the sky. It's not known yet if these parts of the game are scripted, like the rail shooting levels seen in so many other games, or if you have other options. Could the Master Chief drive? Could he walk all the way if he wanted? Do you notice that I'm asking more questions than I'm answering?
A lot of people (myself included) had a lot of fun playing through the single player campaign with friends, thanks to the magic of split-screen cooperative play. We've been guaranteed the ability to play co-op in Halo 2, but Bungie representatives have been silent when asked about the possibility of playing through the game with a friend using System Link or Xbox Live. Hopefully we'll be able to, but if not, I'm sure I'll live.
One thing that we can be fairly sure of is that the game will have a variety of levels. In an interview with our pals over at IGN, Bungie Studio Manager Pete Parsons mentioned that many of the multiplayer maps and single player levels will be representative of each other, so chances are we'll be seeing a desert level (like the multiplayer Burial Mounds map), as well as some underground levels. One of the things that was great about Halo was the variety of environments, including beaches, snow covered outdoor areas, and labrythine underground passageways. Hopefully there will be a lot of variety in Halo 2, as well.
Well, that's it for our big Halo 2 roundup. Thanks to all of the people who've been reading every day, and to all of the people who noticed mistakes or omissions. There's a ton of info to sift through for a game that's going to be this big (and believe me, it's going to be HUGE), so things are bound to be left out or forgotten. If you notice anything we missed, have any nice things to say, or have any great new info on Halo 2, definitely let us know!
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