Halo 2

:For the Nine Inch Nails halo, see Pretty Hate Machine.

Criticism

While Halo 2 has won many awards and raked in colossal profits, debate has risen over the merits of such success.

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1>2

Some players do not consider Halo 2 to be a good game at all. A large chunk of this group consists of disgruntled Halo CE fans who feel that certain changes have made the game unbalancedhttp://halo2sucks.com/keypoints.htm. A main rallying point for these fans is Halo2sucks.com whose slogan is "1>2" (Halo CE is greater than Halo 2). The site maintains a hostile relationship with the Bungie.net forums, and a contemptuous disdain for inexperienced Halo players.

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Several complaints registered by members of this movement:

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• Increased "autoaim" & "magnetism," which evens the playing field for casual gamers. Magnetism guides the aiming reticle towards an enemy character, the autoaim allows hits to be registered over a wider area around the target.
• Toned down pistol. In Halo CE the was an exceedingly powerful sidearm that rewarded precise aim with massive hit damage. In Halo 2, however, the pistol appears to be a support weapon of dubious functionality.
• Host advantage due to new network code.
• Addition of the plasma sword, an over-powered mêlée weapon with a lock-on feature.
• New respawn scheme limits the amount of powerful weapons in play.
• A narrower field of view of 70 degrees.
• Minor gameplay differences when compared with Halo CE (deletion of fall damage, inclusion of vehicle lock-on feature for rocket launchers, shorter fuse times for grenades, lock-on for melee attacks, etc.).

It should be noted that many of these gripes deal merely with stylistic preference. For instance, the role played by the M6D pistol in Halo CE has been taken over by the Battle Rifle.

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Matchmaking

A number of players take issue with Xbox Live Matchmaking. One frequent complaint involves the default weapon settings used in multiplayer gametypes, situations where the player starts off with the relatively underpowered and inaccurate SubMachine Gun. These players feel that a starting weapon such as the Battle Rifle would make much more sense in the competitive environment of matchmaking, allowing for a greater emphasis on aim and strafing techniques. Bungie has since responded to these demands by including the Battle Rifle as a default weapon in several playlist scenarios.

Related Topics:
Weapon - Multiplayer gametypes - Strafing

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Many members of the Major League Gaming league share similar gripes. Fans of the strict policies and gametypes endorsed by MLG routinely posted on the Bungie.net forums arguing for these to be included in matchmaking, often proposing the compromise of an MLG-style playlist. These complaints escalated until Bungie.net moderators eventually banned all talk of MLG related proposals.

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Technical

Conflicts also arose because of Bungie's Halo 2 game engine. This engine used a rather unique on-the-fly rendering style in an attempt to create a game without load times, a goal that they ultimately succeeded in. The downside was that the graphics were rendered as gameplay progressed, often resulting in pop-in or objects being displayed before they were properly textured. Nearly all of this happens in the cutscenes used to seperate levels and level segments. Some feel that this gives the game a dirty and unpolished look, unlike the impressive fidelity promised by the 2003 E³ trailer http://www.gamershell.com/download_2157.shtml. Some even wish that such implementation was optional and are willing to sit through loadscreens in exchange for presentational consistency.

Related Topics:
Game engine - On-the-fly - Pop-in - Cutscenes - 2003 - E³ - Trailer

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Story

Other disputes concern the creative liberties taken with the story. Fans felt that the game's plot was too different from what the previews suggested. They felt that the struggle to defend Earth should have been the centerpiece of the story rather than a preface to the reiteration of the first game's storyline. This was most likely due to Bungie's policy against the divulsion of spoilers prior to the game's release, a move reflected in Halo's advertising.

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More controversy was generated by the game's abrupt cliffhanger ending. Many players (and some reviewershttp://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/halo2/review-2.html) were dissatisfied with the apparent lack of climax and some claimed that Microsoft forced Bungie to cut the last level. However, according to the Collector's Edition supplemental DVD, Bungie's decision to resort to a cliffhanger ending was necessitated by time constraints - a common problem in game development.

Related Topics:
Cliffhanger - Game development

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Players also lamented the demystification of the Covenant enemies. In Halo 2 Bungie decided to further anthropomorphise the alien enemies by translating their speech and including cutscenes that shed light on their socialization, compromising the ominous and threatening appearance of the Covenant. Further, the decision to include a playable Covenant character (The Arbiter) proved to be a risky move that was not universally supported. Jokingly referred to as an instance of the "Metal Gear Solid 2 syndrome," it seems to shift focus away from the franchise's main character (Master Chief).

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