Review: Halo 2 (offline) (XBX)

OFFLINE: Life after Halo: Combat Evolved... is there such a thing? Days blend into months, months into years. You sit looking at your Xbox hoping one day it will all start again. The dust settles and builds as time passes and everything gradually loses its importance; after saving humanity nothing else seems to matter that much. Then it happens: after a few years of silence the threat is back. Time to suit up and save the world once more - the life of a super soldier is never an easy one.

That day has arrived (cue the angelic choir and the orchestra). Halo 2 is here.

If one word describes Halo 2 it is 'impact'. The title screen casts its powerful spell as soon as it comes up. The moving sounds of the orchestral score that floats broodingly across the menu screen immediately draws you into the Halo world. Even those not grabbed the first time around will gasp at the sense of atmosphere created by the truly outstanding musical score.

Creating an epic is obviously something Bungie put considerable thought into. Cut scenes are now of a much higher quality - revealing far more of the Halo fiction than the prior chapter. While they can be a little over-the-top and catchphrase heavy, they succeed in turning Halo 2 into a grand experience. The first-person shooter transforms into something much more, and with it comes the push to move forward through the narrative.

Many influences for the set pieces and cut scenes have clearly been taken from films. While playing through the title players will often find themselves in situations influenced by Star Wars, Black Hawk Down, Predator, Tomb Raider, Starship Troopers, Aliens and many others. This familiarity adds to the overall enjoyment of being right there in the middle of the action. A few more fresh Bungie inventions, though, rather than Hollywood movies re-created with a Halo twist, would have been nice.

Familiarity is present throughout the title; after all it is still a first-person shooter at its heart. Graphics employ all the latest high-tech tricks to deliver the sort of stunning detail first seen earlier this year in The Chronicles of Riddick. Like that game, however, there is still room to improve. Problems remain such as textures appearing to fade in and out as the level of detail swaps and indoor areas repeating themselves to reuse resources (though to a much lesser extent than Halo: Combat Evolved).

New weapons have also been added. However, though there are more tools for the job this time around, the similarity between many of the weapons offers less reason to use everything at your disposal. For example, do we really need so many different variations on a rifle? While there are a few brand new weapon types, most fall into the standard first person shooter mould. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but like the set pieces a bit more originality would have been welcome.

The crux of any problem you may have with Halo 2 lies here; we have seen it all before. Everything is presented exceptionally. The core gameplay dynamic is tight and the dual wielding does add a new aspect of strategy, but there is nothing here that innovates or pushes boundaries beyond the lofty heights of its forerunner. It could ultimately leave the feeling that the title is more 'Halo 1.5' than Halo 2, but again this is not necessarily a bad thing. We waited 3 long years for another game to finally come close to delivering that Halo feeling again: the sound of dropships overhead; the frantic charge of vehicles ploughing through Covenant forces; the feel of an intelligent battlefield running its (seemingly) unscripted course. We can't complain.

Though there are faults, to dwell on a few minor issues is to sour the feel of an epic title. The journey through the next chapter of the Halo universe is highly entertaining. Although some levels can test your patience and others turn into checkpoint dashes, when Halo 2 works (which is most of the time) it truly is a thing of beauty. Numerous highlights show the evolution of the first Halo with everything we loved about it given more screen time. Concepts and features are expanded, fleshed out and more tightly focused than before.

Halo 2 faced unprecedented expectations. Many looked for a transcendent experience as ground breaking as the original. Maybe when Bungie has a platform more capable for their undoubtedly ambitious vision of the next installment we can all be truly blown away once more. It might be hard not to feel a little let-down in the meantime, but based on its own merits Halo 2 has been more than worth the wait. It stands up as the biggest, loudest, most highly polished and adrenaline-pumping shooter ever played on a console.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Gareth Chappell