I never bought Halo 2, and now that I've owned a 360 for awhile and I have the year of Live and everything I'm wondering if I should get Halo 2. I am definitely wanting Halo 3 when it comes out, and I really enjoyed Halo 1. However, here are my questions.

1) Is the single player really that bad? I really liked the single player of Halo 1, and found it to be really fun to play through. However, I have heard that it is really no where near up to par with Halo 1's, but I really would not like to have any plot holes between Halo 1 and 3.

2) How is the multiplayer? This is what I've heard great things about. But I've also heard that people tend to cheat a lot on Xbox Live.. I remember playing Halo for the PC at a friend's house and it definitely had a lot of cheaters on the Windows version.

3) Is it a game that has replay value, or do most of you think it should just be rented?

The game is $30.00 new.
Please only post if you have played the game.

go, buy
or even better
buy it for Vista and try it out

No Vista

So currently just for Xbox 360 only.

it still worth the money

Halo 2 is a good game but not something I would rush out and buy. Its not as good as the first one. There are some fun parts but the ending was a real let down because it leaves you hanging . If you really enjoyed the first game, I'm sure you'll like this one. I haven't played the MP because my brother-in-law doesn't have xbox live and there are no bots to play with. My brother-in-law was also in Iraq when I last played Halo 2 so I can't comment on the MP.

1) Single-player was terrible. The Flood got old. Fast. The Covenant was uninspired and brought almost nothing new to the game.

2) Sucks compared to the original Halo. Auto-tracking rocket launchers nullifies the vehicles. The firearms are sub-par in comparison.

3) No. I got about 10 minutes away from finishing it, stopped playing, and haven't picked it up since.

I think Halo is a boring game and am not sure why it caught on like it did with anyone at all, really.

Same here. It was a pretty damn mediocre game.

Playing with friends can be rather fun sometimes. Other than that, I am in full agreement.

It's worth getting just for multiplayer with buddies and if you want to get pwned online, but the single player was so repetitive. It had scattered fun parts, but mostly was the same 5 minutes over and over again.

Definitely a fun game to play with a few beers and a few friends.

Why in the Hell would "because it leaves you hanging" be a spoiler? If anything that is the opposite of a spoiler!

Halo 2 was enjoyable on the XBox. If you enjoy the storyline then buy it. If you liked the first and anticipate Live play, buy it. Either way buy it used or on sale or if you are not a huge fan buy something else.

Personally, I am not a huge fan however I like sci-fi and the storyline and books are very good. I'm contemplating actually buying the Legendary Edition of Halo 3.

Buy for PC. It's a horribly bland FPS otherwise.

Buy it on Xbox. You loose so much by going to PC. Mainly all the feedback from the controller. Which for me, at least, was a huge part of playing. On PC it was never the same without it.

If you're not a person that likes to whine and complain about cliffhangers (Christ people, you realize Empire Strikes Back was a cliffhanger, right?) the campaign is FINE. A bit blander than the first game, but if your worried about plot holes come Halo 3.... yeah... you'll miss alot if you don't play Halo 2.

Gameplay over Live is pretty decent. Yes, you run into idiots and morons. Mute them and leave feedback. Cheating is taken care of quickly, and not tolerated. There's only so much Bungie can do, and they can only ban people so fast, but if cheating is discovered, the person is banned without question. Glitching on the other hand, is something they can't do all the much about. They attempt to minimize it as much as possible, but it still happens, and it makes things very unenjoyable at times.

You take the good with the bad. As you do with anything in life. But the game can hardly be dubbed "bad" when it just passed something like 700 MILLION games played and 5 MILLION unique players. It's STILL selling, and it held the honor of being most played on Xbox Live until Gears of War appeared, which is arguably more broken in many respects than Halo 2 is.

Buy it, enjoy it or don't, but it's a system seller for a reason. At the very least you get an expensive coaster for drinks, or a fun Lan game. Assuming you know more people that live nearby that have an Xbox and Halo.

Because I wanted him to experience the same sorrow I felt when I beat the game, that's why!

Fixed.

I agree with Vinny.

Me too.

Halo two isnt that great for the 360. I myself own a 360, although it is a broken down peice of microsoft and Halo 2 was nothing more than a few extra textures and advanced lighting, i mean sure theres online and lots of killing and driving but if you want a game that you WONT get bored with after about a week then maybe wait for halo 3, or even get the new starwars game coming out sometime soon. If you dont wanna wait that long I would suggest Saints row (rated m) or gears of war. Gears of war was by far the best game ive ever played, picture halo but instead of that pussy marine in the green armor, youve got ex marines that look like they could bench press 900 pounds. Not to mention you get a saw on your gun and with a touch of a button your enemy is on the floor in about four peices. But like i said my xbox died so good luck on yours.

I enjoy Halo 2. It was never groundbreaking, but it was and still is a fun little shooter. Besides, if you're going to get Halo 3 you should get 2 so you'll at least know what the hell is going on. And no, single player was not that bad. People didn't expect it to end on a cliffhanger and it very suddenly and abruptly ended on a cliffhanger. I'd buy it, had it not been bought for me this past Christmas.

I played it on original xbox, played through most of the single player. It was fine. Played MP a few times over xlink kai, since I didn't have Live. It was fine, but not the best experience since it was laggy and there were many cheaters.

Now I have a 360 and the disc has never even entered my system. I'll probably try out MP on live eventually, but I've been too busy with other games.

The only good part about Halo 2 was the multiplayer. Just wait and get Halo 3.

It's a fun game. And the storyline is well done. It's just too bad they ran out of time and didn't get to complete the last level.

That's my only worry about Halo 3. The storyline was supposed to come to an end in Halo 2. They just ran out of time and decided to put some lame cliffhanger ending in there after a really sub-par boss fight.

It's ok. I don't own it I've only ever played it at a mate's house.

One thing about MP, what the hell is up with those amazingly overpowered sword things?

they're supposed to be balanced by lag.

I always thought it was supposed to be balanced by the fact that you're like 2 feet away from someone to use it.

You fly 10 feet toward the nearest enemy when you use it.

While Halo ws nothing spectacular, it was a solid FPS with no major flaws (which is what led to it's popularity), and had a pretty good MP, which was it's selling point.

Halo 2, on the other hand, is pretty lame. You're better of playing Gears, Rainbow Six, waiting for Halo 3, or looking for another sort of game.

I only played the original Halo for PC. It was OK, but nothing spectacular. I guess it's just that it apparently was the first decent FPS available for consoles...

I'd like to say that if any of you who own Halo 2 and don't intend on playing it wish to sell it to me for less than the current used game price, I'll take it off your hands.

I'd prefer that if you PM me please post in here, as I will most likely forget to check my PM.

you realize 99% of the people here are young enough where after they watched empire they simply switched tapes and watched RotJ...

not much of a cliffhanger when you can watch the next one right away

Just go get it.
People say "it's not as good as halo 1."
Well the truth is it's a VERY VERY good game, the plot just gets a little haywire at points. Graphically it's amazing, the gameplay is very fun. The story isn't BAD, it's just...in comparison to halo 1, it's just not great :P.

I think you will be a little lost if you don't play halo 2 before halo 3.

And halo 2's focus was ON MULTIPLAYER, so yes, the multiplayer is great. Granted, I only beta-tested it, but its was still fun as hell, and it's the #1 played Multiplayer game on X-box live (I think).

Summary: Think if it as halo with a little misdirection in terms of story but a bump up in gameplay and graphical stunningness.

Halo 1 was hardly anything spectacular in the SP department. It was basically, go here, press use, come back. Kill everything in between. Ignore those guys in grey, they won't last long. Rinse, Repeat.

I suppose what made it stand out were the pretty textures on a console, sub-ragdoll death animations, and the idea that conventional automatic weapons in space are cooler than lasers.

A "bump up in gameplay?" Which part of the gameplay was bumped up? The even-more-repetitive level design, the 'new' enemies that were just elites and grunts with more HP and new skins, the 'new' weapons and vehicles that were all in the PC version of Halo 1 or the amazingly boring Arbiter levels?

Absolutely everything good about Halo 2 is going to be in Halo 3 - the multiplayer. The only thing you're missing out on by not playing Halo 2 is an unfun slog through mind-numbingly soulless levels so you can catch a fleeting glimpse at a story that goes nowhere. Skip it unless it's free.

I liked Halo 1 because it had atmosphere. It really did feel like the game look place on an ancient, alien, incomprehensibly advanced space station.

Halo 2 had absolutely none of the atmosphere. It never even really tried to capture any of it, and what the hell was up with the surface buildings? Stone blocks? Why would the forerunner build a space station out of stone blocks? I dont understand

The sword is balanced out easily by someone with a shotgun and decent reflexes.

Not as great a game as its hyped up to be.

Either rent it or borrow from a friend. Try out Xbox Live and return it.

Then cross your fingers and hope Halo 3 is better...:tinfoil:

Save your money for Hellgate London!

Holy CRAP do I ever agree with jonc.

Yeah. They did actually explain that if you paid attention.



The concept still applies.