Slashdot Mirror
A Negative Review of Halo 2
KaiEl writes "An avalanche of glowing reviews has already made Halo 2 the second-highest ranked game of all time on GameRankings.com. Looking for an alternative viewpoint? The Video Game Ombudsman has gathered the bad points from nine separate Halo 2 reviews into the only negative review of Halo 2 you're ever likely to read. Useful as a cautionary tale about out-of-context quoting and as a reference manual for rampant Microsoft haters who might want to make the Halo 2 argument a little less one-sided."
On Slashdot?
Next thing, you'll try telling me that the Earth is round.
Here's a not-so-great review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
It's the Fahrenheit 9/11 of the Halo world.
//Still thought the movie had a good message
Funny how marketing will pump up games to a god like status that people will blindly follow. When the game is actually released it never seems to be as good as the marketing make it look. It's a setup for disappointment everytime. Halo 2 is subject to the eyes of the beholder problem. Take drinking beer for example as marketing. If I have enough beer, almost any girl is hot. Apply that to Halo 2 and you have one ugly girl under all that marketing.
--- its to bad about the monkey, I kinda liked them
The Slashdot prime directive is:
If it's mainstream, we hate it.
HALO is popular? I hate it. I think it's boring. Millions of people watch network TV? All the shows are crap. Thousands go to a Britney Spears concert? She sounds like a banshee. 90% of the people use Windows? God I hate Windows, it crashes all the time.
See how it works? Now that you know the prime directive you can mentally discard all the messages that fit this mold and find the *real* conversation in the thread hidden underneath... good luck!
Now let's try to fill this discussion up with better comments than "HALO 2 *does* suck," ok? We can make the world a better place.
Comment of the year
Its kinda funny really how much you can take things out of context with a bit of agile snipping here and there.
Halo 2 is a good target, you'd think it was the next coming of the party trick bloke from what you heard. I mean, people calling it game of the year before its even been released (ok, they might have a grabbed it off a torrent a bit early), wierd.
all you are, is all you are, i'm so sorry for you.
Can someone explain what is so great about this game, or for that matter, Halo 1? I played it on the PC and it struck me as just a repetitive, bland, run-and-gun shooter with better-than-average graphics, a dull plot, and mediocre AI.
Is the state of console games really so bad that this one, as moderately entertaining instead of godawful, is the best currently available?
This space intentionally left blank.
The only thing good that came out of Halo was Red vs. Blue. I'm honestly not trying to troll; I just really don't understand why it made such a big impact in the gaming world, aside from the fact that it was a launch game for the XBox.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I thought that came out of the Nov. 2 election map, a mere few days before the official release.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I picked up the game at midnight, went home, got a good night's sleep, and since I took the 9th off from work in order to beat the game, started the game around 11:00am.
I beat it at 5:30pm. I loved the entire game...except for that ENDING.
Mein Gott, it's one thing to have a cliffhanger ending when you know that you'll only have to wait a few months for resolution. It's another when you know you'll have to wait for an additional 3-4 YEARS.
Especially since the end boss battle is a bit anticlimatic. I didn't even get in the killing shot...my AI teammates did.
RomSteady - I came, I saw, I tested. GamerTag: RomSteady / http://www.romsteady.net
Linear campaign - open-ended campaign
Less weapons - More weapons
Less than 10 vehicles - 200 vehicles
Microsoft/Bungie - Rockstar
Dedicated soundtrack - Rage Against The Machine, Cypress Hill and Dr Dre.
Sexy aliens - Girlfriends
Green armour - More clothes than Final Fantasy X:2. And tattoos. And haircuts.
Excellent multiplayer - Fun multiplayer
Great graphics - Good graphics
6 hours gameplay single player at least - 40-50 hours at least
No sex - loadsa a sex
Warthog racing - Monster truck racing
No stats increase - Starts increase
Just my initial notes
Yet another 3D shoot-em-up. Wake me up when there's something new. Mod me down if you wish, but can you honestly say that there's anything new in this game over all the other 3D shoot-em-ups save for different graphics, different sounds, and some type of thin plot?
I've been saying it all along..Halo 2 is nothing compared to when Half-Life 2 will be released. The Halo kids will be bowing in awe of the might that is HL2. ;)
I heard Halo 2 was going to be a huge game...but it disappointed me when it's gameplay was almost identical to Halo's...
IMHO, Halo 2 is a repackaged and recycled Halo 1, deep-fried and soaked in seaquins to make it appeal to the pathetically un-educated Xbox audience.
blog: http://www.commorragh.org/ radio: http://www.undeadradio.com/
I've enjoyed the game so far, and some pretyt interesting parts to the game, but as some have said there are some big beefs.
For starters, there are graphical hicups in the cut scenes, where the textures or even the models take a second to load. There is no excuse for letting that through, and really gets annoying. The AI around allied vehicles kind of stinks too. It takes some time to get into a vehicle if the AI is controlling it, and if you are the shooter, sometimes it's movements stink. I've also had it where the AI takes off for battle before me in a vehicle, so I miss part of the action.
As for multiplayers, I haven't tried it fully yet, but one thing I can say is I wish that they put in some AI for multiplayer games.
I didn't read any of the Replies to this thread and I have never heard of somethingawful, so I thought it was a legitamate review (before I clicked on the link, I assumed it was the same thing as the Halo review). I read the review, suprised at how the reviewer let his own personal gaming preferences influence his review. I even thought about sending him an email, but to be fair, I clicked on TruthMedia [Reviews] to see how he reviewed other games. Thats when I saw it was all fake. So they almost got me! Thanks for the link!
First of all: I hate Microsoft's software. They purposefully don't use or support open standards. But the XBox doesn't need to support open standards, so who cares? And I use their keyboards and mice because I think they're good products.
Second: I like Halo 2. I already beat the game, and everything that the reviewers disliked about the campaign was true. It's short (~10 hours of playtime), repetitive, there are recurring graphical glitches, and the ending is flat-out awful. But I have found some problems with it being a little buggy in other areas. Like giving me a checkpoint as my warthog was flying off the side of a cliff. I had to restart the level because the checkpoint was just me and my partner dying over and over. Or when I respawned next to my partner, except I was placed off the side of the gondola thing we were on --- I fell into an abyss, and my partner was killed by the next wave of baddies.
Halo 2's a good single-player game. I have yet to see for myself whether it's a good multiplayer game, or if it's a great game overall.
Ok, let me say up front I never thought Halo was that amazing. It was missing things that I had grown used to in games like Perfect Dark, but I did enjoy playing multiplayer Halo with some friends and co-op. My friend got Halo 2 yesterday so I went over to play some multiplayer.
Ok, I'll start with what I liked:
The vehicles are more fun.
The banshee and ghost have a boost now.
The ghost has a gun that can actually kill someone as opposed to just stunning them long enough to run them over(though running them over is still far more fun)
Some jeeps have a cannon instead of the machine gun.
Vehicles can be detroyed and damaged, but they respawn.
You can jump higher.
The way Master Chief looks can be customized more.
You can play as the lizard thing(I never pay attention to the names) None of us used him yet so I can't comment on if that changes game play dynamics or not.
The rocket launcher can't be outrun quite as easily.
You can always zoom, though weapons without a zoom automatically retract if you fire while zoomed(It is like binocs embedded in your visor)
Dual weapons.
More than two teams.
It tracks more stats such as hit percentage and who killed who.
Ok, now dislikes:
It seems to take an hour to kill anyone.
Most of the weapons seem weak. Even saw a friend take a direct hit from a rocket with no overshield and survive.
The sword(lightsaber) is too powerful in close quarters. One direct hit and you die and it gives you super human speed when you are close to your target.
He throws grenades like a sissy girl.
When you melee you lose one of your dual weapons.
In order to throw a grenade you toss down one of your dual wepaons. (Why not put the second weapon away for a moment instead?)
If you have two weapons and you could dual wield them, you have to toss one down and then pick it up to dual wield instead of just switching to dual wield.
Can't play Xbox live in a rated room unless everyone has a Live account.
Picking your profile before multiplayer is a one at a time ordeal instead of everyone choosing at the same time.(Not sure how that got ruined from Halo 1, but it is horrible and slow and you have to do it log off as well.)
No fall damage
Still only two team multiplayer ctf.(though it seemed like you could play more. Maybe we just missed the option.)
Still doesn't track favorite weapons. Doesn't track where you shot most often though it does tell you how many head shots you had.
It added "catch phrases" to let you know how your enemy killed you. (You were assassinated means someone meleed you from behind), but they don't seem very funny or original.
Still no bots.
To play 16 player on live you have to have friends to invite or everyone has to have a live account.
Anyways, it is about time for class. That is most of what I can think of off the top of my head. I am not impressed, but I am going to give it a chance still. I haven't played single or co-op so I can't comment on that.
But not THAT great. That's the thing most "critics" around here are astounded by. As a big gamer it puzzles me how just yesterday it averaged 98% from 134 reviews. That put it right into the "second coming of Christ" category. I can see how Zelda: Ocarina Of Time got up there, but not Halo 2. It's not described as leaps and bounds better than the first, which many gamers outside of Xbox circles consider woefully overrated.
The new Gun sucks, give me back the pistol,
takes forever to kill someone.
cant drive with the flag in ctf, COME ON!
cant run people over with a car, YOU FUCKING Bounce off.
Every weapon feels weak.
Things feel rubbery and have truer physics (yes that is a bad thing)
But come on, its a sequal, couldnt they have made the game better?
keanmarine.com
Apparently, when running in 480p the game overscans the HUD right off the screen on roughly 90-95% of all HDTVs on the market. Grenade
info, Radar and Shield information are all lost from the left part of the display.
There's a large discussion thread about it on Bungie's forums.
This post sponsored by Ninja Burger. "
After jumping on a hostile morter tank beating the hatch open and tossing a grenade in.
I'm going to go ahead and call that a drastic change.
The website in which that review is located has bugs and errors... Want to talk about irony?
I've played the game. It's decent. I won't go on about "omg itz suuuu gr8!!!1" Because it's not. It's not worth the price it's sold at, and it's not worth what the media and hype makes it out to be. Of course the AI is flawed, I'm yet to see any AI that isn't scripted, or perfect. AI is supposed to learn, No game thus far has AI that will learn. The storyline I can't comment on much, but it is decent thus far, not too bad... The problem with people is that everyone expects the best. If you think the game is lacking in something, then you try to create that aspect, much less the video game itself... I'm tired of seeing media reviews on video games and any other entertainment that is making it out to be not as good as it is... or if the media reviews are inflating it to be "The best thing ever." I'm tired of media reviews all together. Halo itself was a good game, of course it wasn't the greatest of all time, but the graphics, storyline, gameplay, and engine were excellent. Halo 2 isn't the greatest game of all time, though it doesn't live up to the expectancy of it's bigger brother, Bungie's job on this game has been an excellent work. It is a sad time in developers eyes to see such a hatred for their product. If you don't like it, you don't have to play it. Just like why one wouldn't play the sims.
It wasn't an official review like the other 9 places the negative comments are taken from, but PA did say bad things about Halo 2's story and ending (or lack thereof) and has a huge readership...
Hey, didn't everyone say that Killzone wasn't going to be a Halo killer, because of basically all the things that were negative points in the Halo review?
AI glitches, occassional graphical glitches, somewhat dissapointing story.
Oh well, it's all about marketing and IGN reviews I guess.
I am not anti-mainstream.
But, I have to say:
In my opinion, Halo 1 sucked. It was difficult to play (even more so than most 3d FPS are with those damnable junky controllers that game systems have these days), the graphics sucked, the sound sucked, and the levels sucked even worse. It was like playing Doom 1, trying to imagine it was Doom 3.
I've only seen Halo 2 in play in stores so far, but IMO, it's more of the same. Garbage.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
Apples and Oranges. Seriously.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
... Halo2 hasn't really caught up.
Fewer weapons, fewer weapons fire modes, fewer vehicles, fewer game types, no multiplayer bots, slow movement, (not quite) "destructible" vehicles...
I'll be trying it out at a friend's, to see if destructible walls, etc, work well enough to justify scoring it as "surpasses UT2004" in at least one area.
Halo 1 had you feel like a "special forces" merc.. Yeah, you could flip a tank with your bare hands, but in firefights you are about the same as a grunt because you are using the same weapons.
In Halo 2.. I feel special, but not SPECIAL in bold text with astrisks.
There have been enough glowing reviews.. but let me argue for a while about what was NOT in the game, that should have been.
Things I would have liked them to add:
1. Special Moves. Give me special abilities to do truly super-human things. I really REALLY wanted a dodge to the left and right (I get run-over a lot by vehicles in Multi-player). Give me a super jump. Give me a dash-run. Give me more melee attacks (and melee attacks should HURT.. I flip tanks remember?).
2. I would have rather had the "boarding" ability be more "positional". Right now anyone can board if they are near your vehicle for 1.5 seconds... I would have rather had bording work in 0.5 seconds, but you had to be near the vehicle *in the correct spot*. Also the bording animation should be shorter and do damage the the person who gets ejected.
3. They should have never lost the health bar.
4a. The battle rifle does not do enough damage. You only have a max of ~108 bullets, which is like 36 triple-shots (It only fires in bursts). At normal difficulty, it still takes 3 bursts (9 bullets) to kill an elite with HEADSHOTS. Normal people will run out of ammo after one encounter. If you are perfect you will run out of ammo in 2 encounters.
4b. Even dual-weilding, It takes 2/3s of a clip of either two submachine guns or two Needlers to kill an elite with a shield. That is two-weapons going full auto into him takeing a full 2 seconds to kill it. Dual-weilded energy pistols are even underpowered when over-charged. One overcharged shot does eliminate all shields, but a seconds overcharge shot (from the second pistol) does not kill the now shieldless opponent.
4c. There is too little ammo for human weapons (At least in normal difficulty), and the maximum capacity for ammo is way too small.. I can flip a tank, but heaven forbid I take more then 4 clips of any ammo.
4d. Vehicle weapons (except for jeeps) have all been increased (or stayed the same) in damage. Expecially the banshee and Ghost which are now brutal. Jeep rear-mounted weapons seem horrible underpowered, and still lack a secondary weapon for the driver.
4e. Energy swords are fun in multi-player, but horrible for the single-player campaign due to lots of enemies with swords coming up behind you and 1 shot killing you.. and who decided to give the sword a depleating ammo counter? crap.
4f. Pistols suck. My beloved shotgun has been reduced in effectivness. The Flood are now pretty much immune to bullets and needles.
4g. Grenades are underpowered..and act weird. Land a plasma grenade at the feet of someone and their shields are gone, but still alive. Stick a plasma grenade to someone and they die. Both Plasma and Fragmentation grenades have almost NO blast radius. The timer for grenades are too long Should be 1.5-2.0 seconds, not 3.0. We should be able to carry more grenades, but at least they are available in large supplies on all missions.
5. Multi-Player options... So many options that could have been added with VERY LITTLE PROGRAMMING TIME REQUIRED... Options like:
1. Unlimited grenades.
2. Unlimited Ammo.
3. No Personal Shields.
4. Individual Weapon inclusion or banning.
5. Gravity Manipulation. (Zero Gs.. or 6 G no jumping)
6. Vehicle Respawn timers (instant - never)
7. Active Camo on demand (timer for reuse and timer for how long it lasts)
8. MORE ARMOR CUSTOMIZATION.. MORE COLORS, more decals, More helmet/armor styles.
9. More maps.. How about track for vehicle races.. More use of dark/shadow.. More weather conditions..
10. More powerups like invulnerability, quad-damage, Vision Enhancer (makes enemies easier to see). These should also have been in the single players.
---
In the end.. Halo 2 is very good... But like all very good things, it could have been great, but didn't go all the way.
I just picked the game up (pre ordered, but was sick) and haven't played a single minute yet... but drawing from what i've read of the reviews, previews, halo 1 impressions etc.. Game of the year is a bit far fetched... I don't think it's a bad game, actually I had a lot of fun in Halo 1 in Co Op mode with a friend on my projector, which removed the split screen headache since it was a 70ish inch display. But compared to FPS's on the PC, this game doesn't hold a candle... D3's graphics, to me, are much much better, the physics in HL2 are amazing, etc. To me Halo 2 is a more simplistic FPS, which isn't a bad thing, but is hardly earth shatteringly amazing. Frankly I think MS is overhyping this since without Halo.. well.. i'd really pitty the XBox. Sure, maybe the best FPS on XBox or other consoles, but I would draw the line there. Good game yes, best game EVER... no. my 2 cents..