Halo 2: Difference between revisions

| align=center colspan=2|http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/9043/halo2boxart5fz.jpg

|[[wikipedia:Microsoft Game Studios|Microsoft Game Studios]]

|November 9, 2004

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. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/10/19/news_6110893.html] The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to $125 million US in its first 24 hours on store shelves. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/11/10/news_6112915.html]

'''Spoiler warning''': Plot and ending details follow.

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

The damage system in ''Halo 2'' is much different from what 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.

There are two types of normal powerups available in ''Halo 2''.

* '''[[Active Camouflage]]:'''  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.

 

More unique powerups known as [[skulls]] exsist in the game, as rewards for completing certain difficult tasks.

*[[Battle Rifle]]

 

*[[Delta Halo (Level)|Delta Halo]]

 

*[[Elongation]]

The game starts with a probing [[Covenant]] attack on [[Earth]].  [[Master Chief]] begins on one of the many space defense platforms which orbit the 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 which destroys the city, and a [[UNSC]] [[In Amber Clad|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 [[Brute|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 [[Delta 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, when she does not want a remote detonation of ''In Amber Clad'', [[Cortana]] becomes separated from the Master Chief and is left within a computer on [[High Charity]].

The [[Halos]], 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]] leader [[Tartarus]] activates the ring in preparation to fire, to bring about - in his 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 [[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.

 

There is no novelisation of this game yet. It is possible that a novelisation that follows the canon laid down by the previous three novels might differ somewhat plotwise from the game, due to various plotholes in the game.

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