Halo 2 delivers an electrifying narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat with its unexpected twists and turns, all of which hit the mark flawlessly. Playing the campaign in co-op mode proved to be a wise choice, as it provided both thrilling action and moments of frustration, even on normal difficulty. However, the tight gameplay mechanics ensure an immersive experience throughout. With an ending that leaves you pumped and eager for more, Halo 2 sets the stage perfectly for the next installment in the series.

It was good to see them not following the trend set by Combat Evolved of backtracking the same area multiple times. Also they really cooked with the cutscenes, the CGI/animation of the cutscenes definitely felt movie calibre. They could've actually made an animated series/movie out of those cutscenes instead of the live action Halo.The actual game looks good too but then doesn't really match the visual tone/quality set by the cutscenes, so it felt like watching 2 different things. The gameplay was really fun, had a lot of diverse setpieces/encounters but it did feel hard to navigate stuff on heroic difficulty, also frustrating at times with the poor checkpoint system and bullet sponginess. I can't really vouch for this being the best among the series, so far Reach and 3 are tied at that for me.

Before I started playing Halo 2, I decided to look up its development history, and I found out some pretty interesting stuff.
The folks over at Bungie wanted to not just improve on what had been established with the 1st game, but also to bring in a lot of new ideas and concepts to the table. To triple everything!
But the devs bit off more than they could chew, and the game went through a bunch of changes during its dev time, with a lack of focus during most of it. The game suffered many delays as a result.

With all of that being said, it's a fucking miracle Halo 2 turned out as great as it did!
Now, it's not free from issues, but I had a lot of fun with this title, and it improves on everything that Halo 1 offered!

The plot tackles many more themes than last time, ranging from politics to religion. We see more of the Covenant alien species this time around, and hear them interact with each other.
And this also adds to the fact that there's a 2nd playable character who's from the Covenant, the Arbiter!

And that leads me into the gameplay. You'll alternate between Master Chief and the Arbiter throughout the game, especially when you pass the first third of the game. They don't play much differently from each other, except Master Chieft has a flashlight, and the Arbiter has a temporary camoflauge system.

The biggest new addition to the game, however, is that you can now dual-wield weapons! Of course, if you wanna use a grenade, you will have to put down your left weapon to throw it, but you can easily pick it back up afterwards. Not all weapons can be dual-wield, but many of them do.
It's crazy how such a simple addition can make a game more fun!

There are also some new weapons like the Spartan Sword, which are really fun to use! And the vehicles are also back, and they control better too! The Warthog didn't feel as slippery as before, and the new vehicles are just fun to use... except the tank, that one was a bit too slow for my liking.
At least you only use it in one level.

The overall level design has also seen a significant boost! I criticized Halo 1 for having a lot of empty space, and Halo 2 fixes that by being very no non-sense.
Sometimes you do have to stop for some enemies to appear, and at the beginning of the game, it was a bit annoying. But as you go through the game, you find less and less of those situations, which I appreciate.
The variety of environments, too, is also a big step up from last time! There's a lot to see and to explore, and there were some part where I found the game to be gorgeous!
And this is from 2004!

On the topic of presentation, this game also very much improves on that. Human character models are way more detailed and expressive, and don't feel as dated as last time. I will say that the Alien character models weren't super great, but I do appreciate some of the detail on their models.
The voice acting is also stellar, with the Arbiter being voiced by Keith David, who does an excellent job!

I do think that the game's lighting system is not the best. Like, most places that have light in them are just fine, but when it's dark, it's really dark. The few times that I did get lost, it was because I couldn't see shit. The Arbiter not having a flashlight made it worse.

Although since I was playing Halo 2: Anniversary, I could temporarily go to the modern graphics, and see that the lighting was better. Then I would switch back to the old graphics, once I found my way, so that the game would run smoother on my PC.

All in all, while Halo 2 is not perfect, it was a really fun first-person shooter, that I'm glad I got to play!

Not sure if I'll be able to play Halo 3, but I want to, one day, finish the fight!

its better than halo 1!
way more diverse and less "where the fuck do i go" moments
also the arbiter is cool, nice change of pace and it actually made me kind of sad when i couldn't go into invisible mode when i was master chief
although i do find it funny that the arbiter is basically just some guy in plate armor
in this game, cortana has become blue (this is good)
im pretty sure the entirety of the development team ceased existence right before they could finish the ending because the game just ends
just like this!

Halo 2 campaign is all over the place in a different way to CE. While CE's 1st half is amazing and the 2nd half is only ok Halo 2 flip flops in quality level to level. Halo 2 has some of the best and some of the most forgettable missions in the franchise. The enemies also feel quite spongy in comparison to other entries. The story continues to be compelling and through the arbiter a new side of this universe is explored. The campaign lacks the strong the ending of its predessor and its successor but pumps you up to finish the fight.
The gameplay itself is much improved with the addition of dual wielding making you feel like a certified badass and new weapon types had to the sandbox brilliantly. The multiplayer sweet retains the Arcady fun of its predecessor but refines it in such a way that it's near indistinguishable from modern shooters.
While its clear that its a bit rushed the size of it's ambition is undeniable and the impact of its awesome multiplayer can still be felt all these years later

Kinda funny how this game is simultaneously more and less complete than Halo, like they ran out of money and time but in a totally different way.

Anyways this campaign is longer than the first one's, yet doesn't have as many memorable setpieces. Lots of just walking through cities/hallways and Playing Halo, which isn't bad but is missing some bigger moments to punctuate it. Weapon balance has always felt off in this one to me, melee-ing isn't satisfying anymore and all the weapons from the first game are noticeably worse than they used to be. Between dual-wielding, vehicle hijacking, and the whole wack of new weapons though (at least 2 or 3 of which are iconic) the game's mechanics feel much more "complete". And as much as the plot is kinda dumb and the game doesn't have an ending, it does have The Arbiter, so I can't complain too much.