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."

Comments

While we're on the subject...

[vasqzr]

Here's a not-so-great review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Re:While we're on the subject...

[Kick the Donkey]

I haven't played GTA:SA, yet, but I have to say, that entire gaming style doesn't excite me anymore. It was fun in GTA3. Vice City was cool, too. But isn't it a little played out?

And no online support?!?! Come one. It doesn't take a rocket scientest (just a computer one) to do this. In GTA, you can just walk around the city, and rape, pilage, and murder to your little hearts content. However, no one ever attacks YOU out of the blue. Imagine a massivly networked came of GTA. You'd never know who in the city was AI or another real person. You could just be walking down the street, and BAM! some fool knocks you upside the head with a baseball bat.

That, I'd pay $50 for. Just a re-hash of GTA:VC, no thanks. I'll pass.

Re:Explain, please?

[laard]

People seem to love it or hate it... with the majority loving it.. Halo had a decent sci-fi plot and fun though sometimes repetitive action. But the probably the biggest accomplishment of the first game is this:

It brought the LAN party to the masses.

Joe Fratboy doesn't know squat about networking PCs and making sure each one has the same revision of the game and are all on the same subnet (or routed appropriately). But anybody can plug in an Xbox.

Halo was also arguably one of the best FPS to grace a console. There were a few titles that shined before (such as Goldeneye 007 for N64) but Halo had for its time had great graphics, great sound, decent story, innovative enemy A.I. and an enjoyable multiplayer that was a blast with your friends. All those things may have been surpassed now, but remember the first game is now 3 years old.

That being said, Halo 2 is the "second coming." There really are no drastic changes in the sequel. They simply took a good thing and they made it better. Tweaked the engine for better graphics, bump mapping and such. Larger more expansive level design. These sound like shallow things to the more critical slashdotter, but to the masses this is what they want. And don't forget the big addition that is probably responsible for selling a lot of units... online play.

Basically Halo and now Halo 2 offer a fun single player campaign with good graphics and above average A.I. They take the experience of a LAN party and simplify it enough for average joes to be able to do it without tech supervision. They allow people to have fun together. And I haven't even mentioned Co-Op mode.

Write me off as a fanboy, but you asked.

Halo 2 vs GTA:SA

[Dusabre]

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

Halo 2 shipped with progressive scan bug.

[Trunks]

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.