AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Halo 2 campaign1/20/2024 If there's one identifiable area where Bungie have really ramped up Halo 2 over the original it's here. As we've touched upon already, one of the first things you'll notice about Halo 2 is that much more effort has been put into the story side of the game, with around some truly lavish and hugely impressive cut scenes regularly interspersing the action to deliver one of the most rounded Sci-fi tales ever to feature in a videogame. And this isn't us cussing your favourite game - this is exactly what Bungie makes of the Halo series. A game that is, once again, "30 seconds of fun over and over" and a "game about guns where you don't have to think". Things are going to get heavy over the coming weeks. The same old arguments that have been trawled out over the last three years as to why people did or didn�t 'get' Halo are about to be revived, so get ready to don those flame retardant suits once more. In short, if you liked it then, you'll lap this up - but if the original left you cold, so will this. What it won't do, however, is do anything to convince the doubters that anything significant has happened over the intervening three years to make them any more interested in the Campaign side of the game than they were before. In calm, logical, rational hindsight, it's a high quality game that feels like a refinement of the original a crafted, well-thought out evolution of the series that will satisfy the millions of fans around the world that they've got their money's worth. Visually more impressive, a few more impressive set pieces than before, slightly less boring repetitive parts (although, yes, they're still there), a few minor gameplay tweaks (which we'll go into in a moment), quite easy most of the time (on Normal), a more expansive storyline but overall not something that will have you leaping out of your chair screaming as if you've just seen the very future of entertainment. As far as the offline, story-based Campaign mode is concerned (as we're not reviewing the multiplayer until later this week) it's a bombastic first person sci-fi shooter not hugely different to the original. Let's try and defuse the hype bomb for a moment and bring some sanity to the whole ludicrous Halo 2 expectations and simply talk about it as if it was just A.N Other game and stop pretending its launch is in some way akin to the second coming of Christ. It can't ever be as good as anyone wants it to be. But aside from all this, the expectations are simply too high. Some people will think it's the best thing ever, the 'too cool for school' crowd will scowl about it being 'just another shooter' in a determined effort to pretend they don't care, while millions rush out there and part with their cash regardless. The millions of pre-orders are proof of that, not to mention those that would happily spend hundreds of dollars on eBay just to play it a few days early. Regardless of what we or anyone else thinks about Bungie's long-awaited sequel, Microsoft's job is already done. Then, if things haven't quite worked out, there's this psychological crash as people pick over what went wrong people divide up into camps - the 'defend it to the hilt' faithful, the 'slag it off anyway' cynics, and the massive silent majority that go and buy it anyway, regardless of what anyone says. The cultural obsession with building things up disproportionately (while simultaneously taking our eye off the ball elsewhere) seems to snowball with every passing year - and yet almost every single time a movie/album/game lets us down we still get suckered into the same cycle of buying into the frenzied hype. Expectation is such a double edged sword.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |