It’s disappointing, because Combat Evolved Anniversary gave you the option to choose the soundtrack you wanted, and there are some sections, like the Banshee section, where the music feels wildly out of place, to the extent that I had to switch to the old graphics to get music that felt right. The remastered soundtrack plays when you’re using the new graphics, and the original plays with the old, and there’s no way to change that. The first is that there’s currently no way to switch between the original or remastered soundtrack without changing to the appropriate visuals. As incredible as all of this is, however, there are a few downsides. Special mention has to go out to new cutscenes done by Blur, which still look incredible four years later. I prefer to play Combat Evolved with the original graphics, but I spent most of my time in Halo 2 Anniversary with the remastered look, which is a testament the work Saber has done here. The remaster does have areas that look a little off, or where things are darker or harder to see, but these moments are rare, and more due to the game’s lighting than any issues with the new art design. Like in Combat Evolved, you can switch back to the classic graphics at the push of a button. This remaster hews much more closely to the original game, updating textures, but keeping much of the visual styling intact. While the game looked better because there was more detail, much of the art looked out of place or busy. Combat Evolved Anniversary’s redone graphics took what were simple, elegant designs and made them far more complicated than they needed to be. Saber Interactive did similar work with Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, but what they’ve done here is far more impressive. The graphics overhaul doesn’t hurt, either. Halo 2’s plot is still interesting, and the snappy script and impressive voice acting make it easy to forget that this game was made in 2004. Both stories evolve into much bigger things (namely the Covenant Civil War), and they do eventually converge. The campaign splits its focus between the two as the former tries to halt the Covenant invasion of Earth and the latter is sent to stop a group of heretics in open rebellion against the Covenant.
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Its apparent from the first cutscene, which alternates between an awards ceremony for the Master Chief and the trial of the Elite who will become the Arbiter. The ambition that marks Halo 2’s weapon set also extends to its campaign. Like in Combat Evolved, you can switch back to the classic graphics at the push of a button." "This remaster hews much more closely to the original game, updating textures, but keeping much of the visual styling intact. Halo 2’s weapon set is one of the best in the series, and it manages to add a lot of new things that change the way the game plays without bloating the arsenal, something neither Halo 3, Halo 4, or Halo 5 managed. It’s great mechanic that allows you to personalize your playstyle and create interesting combinations.
You’ll have to drop the weapon you’re dual-wielding to use grenades or switch guns. Halo 2 also introduces dual-wielding, so you can pick up two smaller weapons at a time – say, two SMGs, or a plasma rife and an SMG, a plasma pistol and a pistol, and so on – allowing you double the firepower, but at a cost. The game also dramatically expands the original arsenal, adding the Covenant carbine, brute shot, particle beam rifle, and sentinel beam, and makes the fuel rod cannon and fan-favorite energy sword available to players for the first time. The absurdly overpowered M6D magnum and the assault rifle, which are essentially the default weapons in the original game, are gone, replaced by the SMG and Battle Rifle. Halo 2 reworks almost all of Combat Evolved’s weapons set. It’s not a stretch to say that Halo 2 had more features than several multiplayer shooters releasing now, and it’s less of a stretch to say that it’s almost impossible to overstate how much influence the game had on online multiplayer as a whole.īut Bungie wasn’t content to just slap some online play on an updated version of Halo: Combat Evolved and call it a day. It featured clan support, online custom games, an easily accessible in-game friends list, and had robust multiplayer stat tracking via. The systems Bungie built for Halo 2 would go on to become integral parts of Xbox Live, which would in turn influence other online services. It popularized online gaming for consoles and created much of the backend of what would become skill-based matchmaking as we know it. Halo 2 was an event, a legitimate phenomenon that extended beyond gaming and captured the attention of the public at a large. I came home from school, and played it for the rest of the day. I typical don’t remember video game release dates, but I remember Halo 2’s.