Short, unimpressive, less than original: a total 'sequel'

Jan 24, 2007 08:05 GMT  ·  By

Halo 2 is a science fiction first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the sequel to the critically-acclaimed blockbuster Halo: Combat Evolved. From the day of its initial release, Halo 2 had been the most popular video game on Xbox Live, holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later. To this day, Halo 2 still remains one of the most played FPSs on Xbox live.

However, Halo 2 doesn't seem to have succeeded in proving it has potential, in fact, as TOR Thorsen at GameSpot reckons, it "all but screamed sequel." The main two reasons are the short single-player campaign and to top it all, the ending lacks a great deal of originality as a very typical angry boss awaits at the end like in a Jean Claude van Damme movie.

Bungie developer admitted the game's faults saying: "We had about four to five weeks to polish Halo at the end...[but] we had none of that for Halo 2. We miscalculated, we screwed up, we came down to the wire and we just lost all of that. So Halo 2 is far less than it could and should be in many ways because of that. It kills me to think of it."

"Even the multiplayer experience for Halo 2 is a pale shadow of what it could and should have been if we had gotten the timing of our schedule right," he said "I ****ing cannot play Halo 2 multiplayer. I cannot do it."

As far as the next installment is concerned, Halo trilogy, Butcher is confident it will be much better, having more time to polish up than they had with Halo 2.