Editor’s Note: This is the second part of our week-long review of Halo 2: Row as well as the entire Master Chief Collection! Stay tuned for more during the week, as we give our final decision on the game.

The effort has ever been closest to my heart, filled with complex characters whose motives and intentions (and affiliations) are not understood until the action-packed final action of this game. Two great warriors should sacrifice everything by game’s end in order to complete the fight against the Covenant. Better days loom over them only beyond the darkness of space.

Back in 2004, Halo 2 had some very big shoes to match. Following the blockbuster that has been Halo: CE, it had the tough job of one-upping its predecessor. Whether you believe it did or did not, if you think Halo 2 is the most important entry in Halo canon or a pass, that is irrelevant. 2014 is about celebrating the title, and what a grand reception it’s been thrown.

Truly, I am just giving you full disclosure here. Let’s get the review-y components out of this way before I return to telling you this game is really a masterpiece. Be aware that Halo 2: Anniversary will not be receiving a numbered score out of us. We’ll save this for the complete Master Chief Collection review on Friday.

Much like Halo: Anniversary before it, Halo 2: Anniversary is quite decked out — even a graphical update, an entirely re-recorded score, and re-done cinematics that perfectly complement the game’s excellent narrative. For all intents and purposes, Halo 2 is still the game you know and love — all of the familiar things continue to be theredown to the initial controller settings (which I have to confess is a little too dated for me to work with ) — and that is a good thing.by link halo 2 rom website

And of course Halo 2 does not show its wrinkles at times. It absolutely does. Not only are the controllers blasphemous to today’s standard shooting controllers, but action sequences sometimes often move a little too slowly. Chief does not always react when you need him and the AI is much worse. Actually, I had completely forgotten exactly how bad the AI was again back in 2004. Or was it only Halo? The point is that you never want to get trapped in a firefight with Marine NPCs covering your back. They’ll be dead in seconds, and you are going to be left to fend for yourself pretty much the whole game. But that’s how you like it?

Halo 4 and 3 (especially the latter) were an update to gameplay than I ever remembered. Halo 2 occasionally feels stiff. Mobility wasn’t exactly what it currently is. I do recall feeling as though Chief was overpowered by the time that the next installment rolled around. He was versatile, faster, stronger. Basically untouchable. Beating that game on Heroic was no perspiration.

After spending hours using Halo 2: Anniversary, ” I feel like maybe today’s console FPS fanbase is overly pampered. The dawn of Call of Duty did really decorate enemy AI to the point at which it’s all become a shooting gallery. However, the enemies at Halo 2 seem intelligent, swarming you at just the perfect moments or hauling back and picking me off in long distance. The hierarchy in control is always apparent through a firefight. Shoot down the Elite and the Grunts shed their minds, running in circles like loose chicken until you’ve struck them to departure. It is more than I can say about Rodriguez and Jenkins over there.

Maybe today’s lazy enemy AI is a symptom of terrible storytelling and world-building. But the ancient Halo games, particularly the first two, also take a whole lot of time creating the Covenant out of hierarchy to culture to spiritual beliefs — done so sparingly, in actuality, together with cues during gameplay and Cortana’s remark. I know why Bungie decided to once again use an AI companion to feed one little tidbits concerning the enemies in Destiny. Too bad that it doesn’t work as well.

Maintaining your way throughout the ravaged Cario roads is ten times more fun than any other world city level in the current modern shooters. The roads are claustrophic and spin and turn as a maze. You will find snipers at each turn, inconveniently set where they will certainly get a good chance on you. The squads arrive in little packs as well as the stealth Elites look for the killing blow when you’re overwhelmed by plasma . There is no sitting cover in these close quarters.

Every new area, the majority of which provide bigger spaces to move around in than Cairo, is overrun by the Flood, who will chase you all the way back to the beginning point of the degree when it means they could feast upon your flesh. There are numerous falls in”Sacred Icon” which make you feel as if you’re plunging deeper into the flames of Flood-filled Hell. It’s done so unbelievably well.

Ah, but I won’t review the oft-reviewed. Everything that looked and felt amazing in 2004 feels and looks even better in 2014. It’s a fantastic remaster. There are even a few additional melodies inside the new and improved score which deliver their very epic moments. Needless to say, I think Halo 2 has one of the greatest video game scores ever made.

Couple of technical things: Apart from stiff motion, there is the occasional graphical glitch. Nothing game-breaking, but you can tell the source stuff has really been pushed into the graphic limit. Driving vehicles remains sort of the worst. There’s nothing about doing what with one joystick that really irks me. It is better than allowing Michelle Rodriguez (she is actually in this match as a spunky lady Marine) push, however.

Oh, and the BIG ONE. You’ll notice that I haven’t even bothered mentioning the multiplayer component. Even though Halo 2’s great old multiplayer remains my favorite at the pre-mastered series (I hope I just coined this expression — does it make sense?) , the whole multiplayer experience from The Master Chief Collection is fairly broken. For this write-up, I abstained from trying to join a match playlist in the other matches. Trying to acquire a game in any of these Halo two playlists is a huge disappointment. Next, I will try another playlists, but I do not anticipate any of those matchmaking to get the job done. In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft understands about the matchmaking problem and is attempting to repair it. Sit tight.

I did play a little bit of co-op using a Den of Geek pal, however, it took us forever to setup online. Maybe I’ll update this Halo 2: Anniversary’s multiplayer is up and functioning. But likely not. I’ll be too busy blowing your head off in Team SWAT.

Yikes, now that you have gotten your inspection, perhaps I can go back to speaking why Halo 2 is the best installment in the series.

I wonder if it was with the identical confidence that Bungie plunged forward into the evolution of Halo 2…Just like I said previously, the programmer had to follow to a video game happening. So I am sure that they were panicking only a little between popping new bottles of smoke. 1 thing is for sure, Bungie took much larger risks with Halo 2. And that is commendable in the current formulaic play-it-safe strategy to first-person shooters.

We will not get too deep in the background of the development of Halo 2 (although that’s coming later in the week), but some details deserve a mention: Bungie had more narrative and concepts than would fit in Halo: CE. Needless to say, after making Microsoft a bazillion bucks, they had the leeway and publisher service to find a little more difficult with the sequel.

And that is how you get a tale of two towns, one half of this match starring a ultra great man fighting to get a militaristic society that wants to spread out to the world and the other half starring a ambigious alien who belongs on suicide missions from the name of a mislead theocratic authorities. Today, we understand that both of these societies pretty much suck, but back thenwe had just found the tip of this iceberg.

By being able to glance at both sociopolitical surroundings, we’re ready to actually unfold the entire world of Halo. We understand the rulers of this Covenant aren’t guided by the gods but by their own desperation. By the beginning of the second act of the match –“The Arbiter” to”Quarantine Zone” — we know that the Covenant does not know what the Halo rings are effective at, or rather the Prophets won’t reveal the truth. Things get way grayer as the story progresses. Whether you want it or not, being in the Arbiter’s sneakers permits you to take that initial step into uncovering a living, breathing galaxy on par with all the Star Wars universe.

Bungie were daring enough to tell the story of either side, and it pays off incredibly well. While Halo: CE’s narrative is in large part an adventure storyline, Halo 2 is some thing more. You could say that the real story in Halo 2 is all about the Arbiter and his trip to reclaim his honor. Even a 15-level epic about one character’s location in his decaying society and that societies set in the world.

Most importantly, it answers the thematic questions posed in the start of the match. Does the Covenant have to proceed to the Fantastic Journey? I think all of us know the reply to this by game’s end. Is your Arbiter an honorable warrior fighting for the better? The Arbiter and his culture have shifted. That is the story arc of Halo 2.

I know that many fans of the first game did not like the Arbiter plot, preferring the adventure feel of the Master Chief parts of the game, and that’s fair. It did not help that the Brutes, the faction which could ultimately topple the based Covenant arrangement, were seriously rushed out during development. However, it was a risk worth taking. A logical person for programmers that are utilized to adapting large concept theopolitical science fiction into their games. I would dare say that around the stage, (since Destiny does not really have much of a story at the moment) Halo 2 is the biggest leap in storyline Bungie have ever performed. That is why it takes its position as the best game in the Halo series.

After Halo 2, the subsequent two major installations (sandwiched in the middle is the excellent and daring ODST) were the normal sci-fi shooter fare. Nothing was ever quite like this game again.