Halo 2
Posted July 15, 2007
Revisiting a title on a new platform can revive the nostalgic feeling once felt years ago, but one has to wonder if the ancient game can hold its own against the latest releases. Halo 2 for Windows Vista is an odd pairing considering most Microsoft loyalists who adopted Vista early in the life cycle have probably already played other Microsoft products such as Halo 2 on the original Xbox. Still, it is a fairly solid choice to kick off the Games for Windows campaign as well as integrating PC users in the Xbox Live user base.
The presentation of Halo 2 remains unchanged with the exception of a few new selections in the main menu. For those living under a rock for the past 1000 days, Halo 2 picks up after Master Chief blows up the first Halo homeworld. Master Chief is heading back to Earth to hook up with the main fleet and get some much needed rest. In a surprise attack, the Covenant forces attack Earth and the onslaught of fighting begins. The mirror half of the story revolves around a Covenant enemy who is being punished for his failure to take down the Chief. The stories parallel each other for most of the game until the final act. It’s the same cinematic narrative that Bungie debuted years ago.
Gameplay:
The single player campaign still incorporates the same weaponry, vehicles, and A.I. tactics. Master Chief has a variety of human and Covenant weapons at his disposal and plenty of grenades. The warthog is back in action as well as the tank and various Covenant flying machines. The enemies will work together to swarm your position and it becomes increasingly tough to stay alive on the Legendary level of difficulty.
The main differences in this new version of Halo 2 come in the achievement set, mutliplayer options, Live integration and optional Xbox 360 controller support. The achievements are split into 41 different tasks totaling up to 1000 gamerscore points. For those PC users unfamiliar with this system, it’s basically a way to measure your progress in a game versus your groups of friends. Most of the gamerscore points are awarded for completing the single player campaign. Beating the 10 to 12 hour campaign on the medium level of difficulty will rack up about 60% of the points. The rest are split between multiplayer and various miscellaneous tasks. It’s a fairly uncreative grouping of achievements that could have used much more development time.
The multiplayer modes vary between deathmatch, ctf, and team options over a spread of 23 maps. Finding a quick match is pretty simple with the matching system or just the server browser. Multiplayer rounds are entertaining, but lack the thrilling feeling that was prevalent on the Xbox. While voice support is supplied for all users, few people seem to take advantage of the option. This puts a damper on the majority of matches, especially since the Xbox and Xbox 360 are filled with talkative users. It’s tougher to communicate with a team on the Vista version due to a general aversion from mics.
Sadly, the Xbox Live interface within Vista is riddled with bugs and connection errors. Personally, I was never able to log into my main Xbox 360 account and was forced to create a silver account to even play. The sub-par implementation of the Xbox Live interface does not entice any PC user to upgrade to a gold account. It’s much smarter to stick with a silver account until Microsoft / Bungie works out the problems. Gold users have more options when searching for multiplayer matches, but silver users aren’t excluded from multiplayer like on the Xbox 360.
Lastly, the addition of Xbox 360 controller support seems to be a double-edged sword. While keyboard / mouse users would likely have the edge in multiplayer, the slow pacing of Halo 2 actually benefits a controller instead. Also, the auto-aiming function of the controller gives players an unfair advantage over the mouse. While I can appreciate the inclusion of the controller for Xbox 360 owners, it doesn’t offer much comfort to keyboard / mouse loyalists.
Graphics:
Visually, the engine really shows quite a bit of age. The textures appear bland and a bit muddy in any resolution. The color scheme is muted and the animations are limited at best. Oddly, I also ran into quite a bit of slowdown on my machine. What thrilled our eyes back in the days of the Xbox doesn’t fly for any modern machine.
Audio:
The score still pops out as the main benefactor to Bungie’s genius in the audio department. The moving chants and melodies still stack up against any recent release in terms of quality. The sound effects are on par with the Xbox version as well as the voice work. I still get a kick out of David Cross screaming at the Covenant in the opening Earth level.
Overall:
Is Halo 2 for Windows Vista worth investing in if you’ve already played the Xbox version? I’d have to say no. Even the lure of achievements can’t entice me back into a game I’ve played far too much. The multiplayer doesn’t add much of a thrill either, although playing with the keyboard / mouse puts a slightly different take on the experience. Honestly, the only people that should considering picking up this title are Vista users that are completely new to Halo 2 and Xbox Live. Assuming you can get the Live interface to work correctly, it’s the same experience Xbox 360 owners have felt for the past year and a half.
The presentation of Halo 2 remains unchanged with the exception of a few new selections in the main menu. For those living under a rock for the past 1000 days, Halo 2 picks up after Master Chief blows up the first Halo homeworld. Master Chief is heading back to Earth to hook up with the main fleet and get some much needed rest. In a surprise attack, the Covenant forces attack Earth and the onslaught of fighting begins. The mirror half of the story revolves around a Covenant enemy who is being punished for his failure to take down the Chief. The stories parallel each other for most of the game until the final act. It’s the same cinematic narrative that Bungie debuted years ago.
Gameplay:
The single player campaign still incorporates the same weaponry, vehicles, and A.I. tactics. Master Chief has a variety of human and Covenant weapons at his disposal and plenty of grenades. The warthog is back in action as well as the tank and various Covenant flying machines. The enemies will work together to swarm your position and it becomes increasingly tough to stay alive on the Legendary level of difficulty.
The main differences in this new version of Halo 2 come in the achievement set, mutliplayer options, Live integration and optional Xbox 360 controller support. The achievements are split into 41 different tasks totaling up to 1000 gamerscore points. For those PC users unfamiliar with this system, it’s basically a way to measure your progress in a game versus your groups of friends. Most of the gamerscore points are awarded for completing the single player campaign. Beating the 10 to 12 hour campaign on the medium level of difficulty will rack up about 60% of the points. The rest are split between multiplayer and various miscellaneous tasks. It’s a fairly uncreative grouping of achievements that could have used much more development time.
The multiplayer modes vary between deathmatch, ctf, and team options over a spread of 23 maps. Finding a quick match is pretty simple with the matching system or just the server browser. Multiplayer rounds are entertaining, but lack the thrilling feeling that was prevalent on the Xbox. While voice support is supplied for all users, few people seem to take advantage of the option. This puts a damper on the majority of matches, especially since the Xbox and Xbox 360 are filled with talkative users. It’s tougher to communicate with a team on the Vista version due to a general aversion from mics.
Sadly, the Xbox Live interface within Vista is riddled with bugs and connection errors. Personally, I was never able to log into my main Xbox 360 account and was forced to create a silver account to even play. The sub-par implementation of the Xbox Live interface does not entice any PC user to upgrade to a gold account. It’s much smarter to stick with a silver account until Microsoft / Bungie works out the problems. Gold users have more options when searching for multiplayer matches, but silver users aren’t excluded from multiplayer like on the Xbox 360.
Lastly, the addition of Xbox 360 controller support seems to be a double-edged sword. While keyboard / mouse users would likely have the edge in multiplayer, the slow pacing of Halo 2 actually benefits a controller instead. Also, the auto-aiming function of the controller gives players an unfair advantage over the mouse. While I can appreciate the inclusion of the controller for Xbox 360 owners, it doesn’t offer much comfort to keyboard / mouse loyalists.
Graphics:
Visually, the engine really shows quite a bit of age. The textures appear bland and a bit muddy in any resolution. The color scheme is muted and the animations are limited at best. Oddly, I also ran into quite a bit of slowdown on my machine. What thrilled our eyes back in the days of the Xbox doesn’t fly for any modern machine.
Audio:
The score still pops out as the main benefactor to Bungie’s genius in the audio department. The moving chants and melodies still stack up against any recent release in terms of quality. The sound effects are on par with the Xbox version as well as the voice work. I still get a kick out of David Cross screaming at the Covenant in the opening Earth level.
Overall:
Is Halo 2 for Windows Vista worth investing in if you’ve already played the Xbox version? I’d have to say no. Even the lure of achievements can’t entice me back into a game I’ve played far too much. The multiplayer doesn’t add much of a thrill either, although playing with the keyboard / mouse puts a slightly different take on the experience. Honestly, the only people that should considering picking up this title are Vista users that are completely new to Halo 2 and Xbox Live. Assuming you can get the Live interface to work correctly, it’s the same experience Xbox 360 owners have felt for the past year and a half.