O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
I found Halo to be respectable for when it was released, but ultimately tedious and frustrating as a single player FPS by today’s expectations. Its story was primitive, characters flat, levels a horrible copy-paste and even though its music was still memorable and the size and open nature of the levels (and the use of vehicles) was still impressive, it just wasn’t an enjoyable game to play. From my Halo 2 Vista memories, I knew that the sequel was a very different game, so I was hoping that it, in the new Anniversary version under Master Chief Collection, will be much more fun. And in many ways it is. But it has its flaws.
What makes Halo 2 very different from the original game is its huge focus on storytelling. Where the first game story was basically just “halo is a pretty cool guy” and the rest was just filler, in Halo 2 every aspect of the game universe is hugely expanded upon. The human side, the alien side, the ancient history side. Heck, you even get to play from “the other side” in several missions, as a character from the Covenant side, who has a good story of his own and a proper character arc. All of that is emphasized by a huge amount of cinematic cutscenes (turned into really high quality CGI cutscenes in the Anniversary, though still retaining the top notch voice acting of the original), an even more bombastic score and the level and location variety unlike what you could see in the first game.
Yet, the original scope was even larger which is where one of the biggest issues of the story lies – the infamous “finish the fight” ending, that was basically a “to be continued”. This game’s story is incomplete without Halo 3. It isn’t as much of a problem now, that Halo 3 (and far more) exists, yet it still puts Halo 2 as a game and a story on its own in an awkward place. Personally, I don’t have as much of a problem with it as I feel that the game tells a good enough story arc on its own, but again – I’m saying this from 2020, when I know that Halo 3 definitely exists and definitely ends the story. That said, I was absolutely fine back in the day with Soul Reaver which actually said “To be continued” as an ending, so take this as it is. I do appreciate the characters and the story of Halo 2 in its way, even if it is still rather simplistic.
This story-driven approach, however, changes a lot about how the game flows. And again, I like the change. The levels tend to be far more focused, far easier to understand what is expected of you as a player and where to go next. The whole “fighting as part of an army” feel is even better here in those levels where you are accompanied by friendly AI. It really is unlike even later titles that focused on this type of “cinematic military experience” and plays really nice. The vehicular combat is retained, despite the scope of most levels being far less expansive and there are some of the later levels that are closer in size to those that you could find in the first game.
The combat feels tighter too. Most of the human weapons were swapped for new ones and personally I like them more. The ability to dual-wield is a bit weird in how it behaves, but with certain weapons feels really fun. The health points were removed entirely – this is the game that basically canonized the regenerating health as we see it to this day. Yet, in many ways, it feels better than most of the games that copied this idea. The controls and the flow is still closer to Unreal than to later “cinematic shooters”, with more floaty feel to everything, ability to jump over enemies, fast movement, yet there are still ways to almost immediately die, unlike a lot of the classic FPS titles. And the checkpoints have been somewhat redesigned, so far more levels can be, essentially, ran through without being afraid that you’ll have to restart it all. And avoiding combat and just going for the goal is a really fun way of playing on its own too.
When checkpoints start screwing you over, it is infuriating, though. Later levels in the game have lots of spots like that, where you can, if you want, run through a huge amount of rooms without killing enemies, but then hit a room where you need to do something specific or kill enemies to progress. And if you die there, you might have to redo several minutes of gameplay. That is because, the checkpoint logic is still relying on the player being “safe” before the game decides that the checkpoint can be done. Which means that you might need to meticulously clean up every room and then, in every room, you will get a checkpoint. It’s really weird, because in other spots the game can decide to checkpoint you 3 times as you’re riding an elevator, and then it can decide that you’re not safe enough to get a checkpoint after you went halfway through the chapter without getting a single checkpoint.
Otherwise, though, it is a game that aged surprisingly fine. It’s not a title that I loved playing, and the last levels did get annoying, but overall the game still holds up rather fine as a singleplayer FPS. And the Anniversary changes, to cutscenes, sounds and visuals, look great. I suppose to some hardcore fan they might not be great in every way, but I found the changes to be amazing and elevating the experience overall. Heck, even the “terminals” with some backstory that were added in the remaster this time feel like they actually belong the game they’re in and don’t spoil the story or feel extremely confusing as they were in Halo Anniversary. Though the additional intro cutscene is bizarre – as I understand it won’t come into play for many games so to new players it’s just several minutes of confusion.
Would I call Halo 2: Anniversary on the PC release of MCC a great singleplayer or coop game? Probably not. But it’s a solid title that aged pretty well. It’s a cool FPS experience that mixes the “classic” ideas of an FPS with what would become the “cinematic FPS” in a really smart way and playing it on PC is extremely enjoyable.