Halo 2

Halo 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox video game console. It is the sequel to the game Halo: Combat Evolved, and features a newly built graphics engine and the addition of new elements to the game. Like the Marathon series, the game will further develop the struggle between the human race and a religiously zealous and technologically superior foe (The Covenant from the first Halo).

The release date of Halo 2 was November 9, 2004. This is one of the most highly anticipated games on the Xbox. 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, tried to contain the spread, and pledged to bring legal action against anyone who spread the leaked version. Regardless, Microsoft later touted that there have been 1.5 million preorders for Halo 2 in the United States alone and that this guarantees it to have the largest first-day revenue of any game or movie ever. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves. 

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

Gameplay
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/250px-Halo_2_800600_MP_E32004.jpg

Halo 2 screenshot from press kit

Campaign
The game is playable in campaign mode either single-player or cooperative. When playing in this mode the player(s) must complete a series of episodes. Some of these episodes require the player to compete as a Covenant hero called The Arbiter, while the majority are still played as Master Chief. Aside from variations caused simply by switching sides in the conflict, most notably The Arbiter is different from Master Chief in that his armor lacks a flashlight and is equipped with a short duration rechargeable form of Active Camouflage that will drop if an action other than movement is taken.

There are four levels of competition: Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary.

Multiplayer
There are a variety of multi-player competition modes, several of which have returned from the original Halo game. A typical melee game called Slayer, a team based Capture The Flag game, an offense/defense version of capture the flag called Assault, a more esoteric free-for-all form of capture the flag called Oddball, and a game extrapolated from a child's game of "it" called Juggernaut, as well as others and the ability to create one's own variations. Of the preset variations present in the original game, only Race is missing, replaced by a similar but different game.

Unlike its predecessor, Halo 2 allows players to compete with each other over 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 Xbox Live or 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 games, and they do not get to specify individual maps and options to search for. Instead, players sign up for "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 head-to-head play and matches between different clans. The Xbox Live servers create games automatically from the pool of players that have signed up for each playlist, choosing a game type and map automatically and selecting one player to serve as the game's host. Players can create small "parties" with their friends and enter games together as teammates or, in Rumble Pit, adversaries. 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.

Since launching in November 2004, the service has been very popular with gamers. While some players resent the loss of individual control inherent in Halo 2's approach to online gaming, others feel it provides a significantly improved gaming experience compared to more traditional online first-person shooters. Bungie's servers match players up by skill level, which tends to eliminate the kind of severely imbalanced games that less-skilled players often consider unfair and unenjoyable. The automatic host selection process also eliminates the ability of the host to exert outsized control over the parameters of the game.

Halo 2 players with Microsoft Passport accounts can log on to bungie.net and obtain extremely detailed statistics on their performance, including level maps for several hundred of the player's most recent games that indicate graphically where and when the player scored a kill or was killed him- or herself.

Damage system
The damage system in Halo 2 is much different than it was in Halo: Combat Evolved. The player has a regenerating shield and regenerating health.


 * Shields: The Shield in Halo 2 is much stronger than it was in Halo: Combat Evolved, and recharges at a higher rate. It covers the player's entire body, and slowly decreases in power as it sustains damage.  After it takes damage, it starts to recharge 2 seconds after the last time damage was sustained.  The power is displayed above the motion tracker in the bottom-left of the screen.


 * Health: In Halo 2, once the shields run out, the player also has a buffer of health. Unlike Halo: Combat Evolved, the health in Halo 2 regenerates after the shield.  The amount of health left is not visible to the player.

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


 * Overshield: An enhanced, non-regenerating shield which is three times the strength of the normal one. The overshield functions on top of the regular shield - when it is active, the normal shield does not take damage. In the single player game, the overshield is reduced only when the player is hit, while in the multiplayer game, it also weakens gradually with time.


 * Active Camoflauge: Drastically reduces the player's visibility for a period of time, making all but a faint outline of him transparent. This effect is reduced if the player is hit by weapons fire, if he or she fires a weapon or throws a grenade, or in some cases if he or she switches weapons.

Weapons
See List of weapons in Halo 2

Storyline
The game starts with a probing covenant attack on Earth. Master Chief begins on one of the many space defense platforms which orbit our planet. After repulsing the covenant boarding parties, the battle shifts to Africa.

The player engages in urban combat in the city of New Mombasa. Meanwhile a Covenant ship makes a slipspace jump above the city, and a human ship with Master Chief aboard gets swept up in the warp field in an desperate effort to follow it.

The player is transported to the vicinity of another Halo ring - the Delta Halo - perhaps many tens of thousands of light years from Earth, on which they land. Also, a power struggle within the Covenant is revealed, with Brutes usurping the role of the Elites. Furthermore, there is a movement, regarded by the Covenant leadership as heretical, which argues that Covenant teachings aren't true. Lastly, we are introduced to an (apparently massive) creature called the Gravemind, which appears to be the controlling mind of the Flood. The creature is obviously highly intelligent and gives the impression of knowing a great deal. It appears to live deep within Halo, out of sight and yet its actual size, although not revealed, may occupy many of the entire hidden underground caverns that encircle the ring.

At some point, (by accident or more interestingly, by her own design) Cortana becomes separated from the Master Chief and is left within a computer on Halo.

Halo, we learn from 343 Guilty Spark, was built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy, and that the Forerunners who built it were wiped out when they fired it as a "weapon of last resort" at some point in the remote past. In spite of this, the Brute leaders activate the ring in preparation to fire, to bring about - in their eyes - the Great Journey. The player must fight to retrieve the Index and deactivate the ring before it fires and destroys all sentient life in the Galaxy.

The Index is retrieved and the Delta Halo cannot fire. 343 Guilty Spark reveals that although the Index was removed before Delta Halo had time to complete it's firing sequence, it sent signals to other Halos in the Galaxy, putting them into standby mode. Now, they can be activated remotely from the Ark (assumed to be on Earth). The game ends here and the credits roll.

Main characters

 * Master Chief
 * Cortana
 * Sergeant Johnson
 * Miranda Keyes
 * Arbiter
 * High Prophet of Truth
 * High Prophet of Mercy
 * High Prophet of Regret
 * Tartarus
 * 343 Guilty Spark
 * 2401 Penitent Tangent
 * Chips Dubbo (The Aussie)
 * Gravemind

Future developments
It is revealed that all other Halo rings in the galaxy have been activated and put into standby mode, and that only a device known as the Ark has the capability to shut them all down. Sergeant Johnson, Captain Keyes' Daughter, Guilty Spark and an Elite Commander known as the Arbiter (whom the player plays through much of the Game) ponder this in the Halo control room. It is inferred that this device was sequested away by the forerunner, probably somewhere on Earth in remote pre-history. The Master Chief, meanwhile, returns to Earth in a spaceship he stowed away on when he left Cortana behind at her insistence. The ship that the Chief is on is a Forerunner ship and it is occupied both by the last prophet and it's AI, which Cortana said she had great difficulty with as it fought her, both are probably trying to head to the location of the Ark on earth. The stage is therefore set for a sequel in which a climactic battle between the Covenant and the Humans on Earth to find and gain control of the Ark, which has the power to either shut down or recommence the firing sequence for all of the Halo rings throughout the Galaxy.

After the credits, we are treated to a small cinematic. The short movie reveals the omnipresent nature of the controlling intelligence behind the Flood - the massive Halo-wide creature that lives within its depths known as the Gravemind. He recites a verse:


 * Silence fills the empty grave now that I am gone,
 * But my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on.
 * I will ask and you will answer.

Cortana appears above a console, it's tentacle reaches out to her but she raises her hand to halt its grasp - "alright, shoot" is her response.

This also leaves open the possibility that Cortana may have become - or may be becoming, Rampant, and either giving some information to or forming some sort of alliance with the Flood.

It should also be noted that Cortana is not a biological lifeform, but a computer program and would likely be unaffected should Halo actually fire. It is likely that Cortana is aware of this, so people should factor that into her reasoning.

Cortana going rampant would also be in keeping with the tradition of other rampant AI's in Bungie games - ie: the Marathon series. It appears at least that Cortana has motivations that aren't entirely clear and may in fact be above and beyond her programming.

The "Haunted Apiary" Alternate Reality Game (ARG)
The website ilovebees.com (interestingly, the domain ihatebees.com also points to this website) is currently being used as a publicity site for Halo 2, with the site being pointed to by adverts for the game during movie trailers. Ostensibly a site about bees, the server appears to have been taken over by some mysterious force, which is "counting down to something".

The frontpage had a counter counting down to July 27], 2004 (when it says "network throttling will erode"), August 10, 2004 (when "this medium will metastasize"), and August 24, 2004 (at 8:06 am, when it will be "wide awake and physical") - many thought something big would happen related to Halo 2 on these dates. Other messages relating to the Halo story are hidden throughout the site.

This style of publicity is similar to that which surrounded the movie A.I. which featured a grand Alternate Reality Game. The Halo ARG has been dubbed The Haunted Apiary.