This game is utterly ahead of its time. I refuse to believe it came out in 2004. When I first put it in, from the graphics to the presentation, it felt like an Xbox 360 game.

It takes everything from the first game and just dumps steroids into it.

The amount of lore and the sheer quality of the storytelling. I’m awestruck. The way they took something as generic and featureless as The Covenant and turned them into an actual faction with pathos, different interests, hierarchies, and character is extraordinary. Every FPS I’ve ever played always makes the enemy into a featureless big bad. By giving the game two main characters of different factions it gives the Halo universe a rich tapestry to play with.

I am a massive fan of games that tell a story of different factions like Suikoden III, which came out in 2002/2003, which is a jrpg that allows you to pick between various factions, some of whom are enemies. So you might play as a hero one chapter whose best friend gets killed by the “enemy”. Any other game would make her come across like a faceless monster. But then you get to play as her and see her side of things and how it impacts her. I’ve always loved stories with multiple characters telling one whole story that shows that life isn’t black and white so color me shocked when Halo 2 not only does this but does it better than Suikoden III and other games I’ve seen used before it. Not only that but it does it so seamlessly while making you sympathetic to both. And the way the contrasts Chief with the Arbiter and the culture of humanity versus the culture of the Covenant is chef kiss. Fuck yes! I can’t think of a single fps that humanizes its enemies like this. COD, System Shock, Bioshock;etc. all make their enemies into ultra evil people worth killing. Halo is a completely different category it seems.

The presentation is out of this world. Not only the graphics but the overall art design is utterly timeless. I’m salivating just thinking of a big budget Halo film with this art design. The second Halo world with the pillars of light everywhere is stunning in the visual department. The Brutes with their red samurai like helmets. The Prophets with their fur and ET like necks. The animation of high jacking a Ghost in mid-flight! The animation when you pick up a plasma sword. It’s all so good! Then there’s music. Fuck yes!

I haven’t even touched on the gameplay. It’s so good. I can take just one element of the gameplay: shields. Unlike other fps games I feel like Halo benefits from having no health packs. I think the health packs in Halo CE are actually a negative while playing 2 because you’re so reliant on it. If you’re playing on legendary and you’re down to 1 hp and you have no health pack you’re fucked. I feel like shields make the game more fair and unlike, say, a game like Call of Duty which has regen health for whatever reason, the regen health in Halo makes sense within its world. The shields necessitates an in out, in out offense-defense game loop that is utterly fun even on single player. Other games with regen health don’t know how to take advantage of the mechanic and it’s clear it was deliberately designed for Halo because despite regen enemies still come after you. In other games they just stand there as you heal but Halo 2? They’re aggressive and want you dead. So when it’s time to heal up you have to play offensive WHILE getting defensive a lot of the time by getting better positioning or having a better weapon rollout. It’s fucking genius!

I’m not even done yet nor have I even touched multiplayer yet and this is easily the best FPS I’ve ever played. I can only imagine 3! For years I heard hate aimed at Halo 2. You guys have a lot of very vocal whiners and complete and utter fucking loud bitches in your ranks because this game is a fucking classic top to bottom.

What an incredibly forward thinking, revolutionary game. I think it’s better than Half Life 2.