Halo 2 Game Reviews
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Halo 2
Rankings:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews for each game.
Overall Critic Score:3.8468
Halo 2 Critic Reviews
Warning, this is probably going to be long, it’s probably going to rant.. rave and in general waffle. Why? BECAUSE WE WAITED THREE YEARS for this game and we’re SO GLAD it’s now here! In addition I have to add that this is the hardest review I have...read the complete Halo 2 review at ThumbBandits
have many memorable scenes, including a Covenant assault on Earth. Vehicles play a bigger role and hijacking alien transport is a crucial tactic. Driving a Warthog through a chaotic battle is spine-tingling. Many weapon combinations are possible thanks to...read the complete Halo 2 review at Sydney Morning Herald
From the deep stat tracking to the games ability to match you up with people your own ability,the clan and party support, and huge number of game modes, Halo 2's multiplayer is definitely a revolution for console multiplayer games....read the complete Halo 2 review at Extreme Gamer
First of all, the Campaign mode is a vast improvement upon that of Halo with dramatically changing landscapes and a myriad of thrills to satisfy even an extreme sport junkie. Halo 2 picks up right where the first left off, with the destruction of Halo...read the complete Halo 2 review at Games First!
I'm not going to go all organ-grinder's monkey about the sound and graphics. You knew they were going to be gorgeous, and they are. The score is tied to the original, but with some great progression and it doesn't get in the way. The familiar voices are...read the complete Halo 2 review at GamerDad
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It really is hard to pin down any one thing that makes Halo 2 so much fun. Enemies with keen A.I., organic well-designed levels, an array of finely balanced weapons, an engrossing story, exceptionally high production values--a lot of games have these...read the complete Halo 2 review at Games are Fun
After a seemingly endless wait, the highly anticipated Halo 2 has finally arrived on the Xbox. As the sequel to what many consider the best console FPS of all time, Halo 2 has a lot to live up to. Fortunately, the developers at Bungie have proven...read the complete Halo 2 review at The Laser
Advanced weapons, such as the one-hit-kill Plasma Sword, make slaying aliens more fun than new nipple clamps. And the sleek, sprawling designs of the year 2552 will sizzle your retinas—that is, when the newly destructible environments aren't crumblin...read the complete Halo 2 review at Stuff
even remotely as popular as it did. People spent lots of money to buy new Xboxes, TV\'s, and copies of Halo so they could get people together and have Halo parties. This phenomenon grew into tournaments where contestants have won up to $50,000. Halo has d...read the complete Halo 2 review at XboxAddict
This game goes where no Xbox Live enabled game has gone before....read the complete Halo 2 review at DarkStation
Halo 2's Campaign mode is a luminous experience and testament of Bungie's rare talent for mixing gorgeous cinematics with captivating and fun gameplay segments, but it also serves as the concrete foundation for the game’s multiplayer, making simple...read the complete Halo 2 review at Thunderbolt
And what a story it is. Bungie has been pretty tight-lipped over the single-player campaign in Halo 2 since the game was announced with a teaser trailer a few years ago, and then last year at E3 with an eight-minute rolling demo shown of the Covenant...read the complete Halo 2 review at Gameplanet
From the huge gameplay twist early on, to taking down a giant walking tank, to way late in the game when you team up with certain...teammates, all the way to an end that'll leave you with the same breathless feeling you had when you first watched "The...read the complete Halo 2 review at Electronic Gaming Monthly
Bungie took the world by storm with the release of their hugely successful first person shooter, Halo. A majority of Xbox owners have the game, and many have gone through it a sickening number of times, never tiring of the action. What made Halo so good?...read the complete Halo 2 review at UnderGroundOnline
Like the original Halo, this sequel offers extremely polished and highly immersive first-person shooting action. Surprisingly, Halo 2's graphics look pretty much the same, causing many to wonder why this game took three years to produce. The first stage...read the complete Halo 2 review at The Video Game Critic
Halo was the game that put Xbox on the map and let's face it, every game in between Halo and the inevitable release of Halo 2 was filler. Not that any of these titles you played were bad - it is just that Halo was so damn good it was in its own class....read the complete Halo 2 review at Xbox-Evolved
Microsoft first launched its bid to take on Sony and Nintendo in the lucrative gaming console market, the original Halo was its AAA game made exclusively for its new Xbox format. While three years ago Halo was an entirely competent blockbuster, it was als...read the complete Halo 2 review at Times Online
The new "Dual Wielding" option allows you to pick up two guns at once and use them together, which provides a feeling that again, other shooters just don't come anywhere near....read the complete Halo 2 review at RewiredMind
Earth Marines fight to save our world from the Covenant, an imperialistic/religious alien army...read the complete Halo 2 review at USA Today
Halo 2 starts by showing the differing fates of two of the combatants in the battle on Halo. ...read the complete Halo 2 review at GameCell UK
Halo 2 online is not total perfection, but it's miles better than anything out there right now, by a long long way... It's a genuine milestone in online console gaming....read the complete Halo 2 review at Boomtown
With the wild success of the first Halo, a sequel was inevitable....read the complete Halo 2 review at Cyber Gaming Net
Three years ago Bungie developed a game that was worthy enough to go out and buy an Xbox. Halo: Combat Evolved, to give it its full title, took the first person shooter genre to another astonishing level. With a jaw-dropping graphics engine and a near...read the complete Halo 2 review at Science Fiction Weekly
More weapons and vehicles are added to the pile. It's possible to hold two guns at once and fire them at the same time to great, and greatly destructive, effect. New maneuvers allow vehicles to be hijacked while in motion, and certain craft possess the ab...read the complete Halo 2 review at Xbox Nation Magazine
The problem is that the ending feels more like a mission briefing than a conclusion. Secrets are revealed, the final battle is set, the music swells and then bam, credits....read the complete Halo 2 review at Gaming Age
Unlike October's blockbuster "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," Halo's masses of content have been tossed in a strainer and all serve to make the main game better, rather than simply providing more for the player to do....read the complete Halo 2 review at 1UP
Christmas 2001 – We’re getting an Xbox for Christmas and my brother and I have agreed to buy each other games as gifts. We walk into EB and look at all the extravagant games lined up along all the walls and we proceed to the game section marked...read the complete Halo 2 review at Game XC
all of the different game modes (fiesta, juggernaut, and swords are some of the best) will keep people playing until the next game comes out. Halo 2 offers the best selection of multiplayer options in a console shooter since Perfect Dark. Of course, on a...read the complete Halo 2 review at GMR Magazine
Halo 2's a winner, but it's also a set-up for Halo 3. Compelling online gameplay may well be its ultimate legacy....read the complete Halo 2 review at GamePro
It's here. The long wait is finally over, as Xbox owners will be able to stroll into their local game shop on Tuesday to pick up what might be the most highly anticipated game of all time. For the last three years, speculation and rumors have been...read the complete Halo 2 review at GameSpy
The combination of a great campaign mode along with a goldmine of multiplayer options makes for an unbeatable gaming experience....read the complete Halo 2 review at GameShark
Despite a genuinely better plot this time around, the short, linear campaign and unresolved ending will certainly aggravate those hoping for a more evolved single-player game. But make no mistake – what Halo 2 lacks in its single-player it more than...read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Revolution
I can say with complete honesty that no other first-person shooter can touch Bungie's epic in terms of level design, gunplay, sheer action or multiplayer entertainment....read the complete Halo 2 review at Adrenaline Vault
Enemies will change what they say based on what’s happening too, so if you go in guns blazing they may scream like a little girl, but if you duck behind an object they will taunt you for being a coward. All of this adds to the total immersion that you...read the complete Halo 2 review at VGPub
While feature-packed, Halo 2's Live interface will take a little getting used to. It's not that it's laid out poorly or anything like that. It's just that the sheer number of options you have available to you for Live play are staggering....read the complete Halo 2 review at XGP Gaming
Halo 2 has delivered and conquered every front it set out to take. No other game is as cinematic. No other game sounds like Halo 2 does and no other game plays as fantastic as Halo 2 plays. You will not find a better multiplayer game on any platform....read the complete Halo 2 review at Talk Xbox
The storyline this time around brings us to an Earth being torn apart by a raging battle with the Covenant. After the human race and the Master Chief struck first blood in the first game, the Covenant have vowed to make them pay. At the game's outset,...read the complete Halo 2 review at Digital Entertainment News
A graphical and audible masterpiece on so many different levels. I don't even know where to begin. Halo 2 has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. This is NOT Halo 1 with new textures. The graphics are simply stunning and the draw-in distance is...read the complete Halo 2 review at Next Level Gaming
Like the first game, you will be talking about the end of Halo 2 for a long time to come, perhaps for the wrong reasons though this time and many gamers will feel maybe a bit ripped off? But the fantastic moments in Halo 2 far outweigh the few flaws....read the complete Halo 2 review at Xbox World Australia
Get ready for the ride of your life, the greatest Xbox game of all time has arrived....read the complete Halo 2 review at IGN
Each level is of a perfect length as the player finishes just as he or she feels they are getting bored yet has an addictive quality to them which makes you want to play it again and again....read the complete Halo 2 review at Da GameBoyz
Sound is another strong point of Halo 2. Voice work is some of the best around, and the music is top notch. After watching the “Making of...” feature on the special DVD that comes with the Collector’s Edition, its rather impressive to see that...read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Vortex
Halo 2, possibly the most anticipated game of all time, is finally here. Bungie and Microsoft have done their part to make sure everyone sees and knows what Halo 2 is, and they've done a good job of it. But with increased hype comes high expectations....read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Rankings
Anybody ever come across a real angry dog? I mean that kind of dog that just grabs hold and isn’t letting go for nothing at all? That’s how Halo 2 kicks off. It would seem to pick up very shortly after the end of the first game. And just like in the...read the complete Halo 2 review at Gamerz-Edge
Coming off of Microsoft's Fable, an ambitious action RPG that would ultimately disappoint due to the very hype that made it instantly famous, I approached Halo 2 with a certain amount of caution. There was a part of me that knew it would be the most...read the complete Halo 2 review at GamersMark
Halo is regarded as one of the greatest first person shooters ever and as one the greatest games ever made with good reason, Halo brought a fantastic and believable storyline set in an original science fiction universe which you fought through as the...read the complete Halo 2 review at NZGamer
For the first time ever, I was actually dumbfounded when I found myself standing on a large wasteland area, surrounded by rocks and rolling hills. I was actually intimidated by the dusky skies over head, and the burning cityscapes in the background, and...read the complete Halo 2 review at PGNx Media
will beat this game on the "Heroic" difficulty level, it's an absolute imperative, because if I don't, I will be disgracing the legend of the Master Chief, and I'm not about disgracing the Master Chief....read the complete Halo 2 review at GameZone
Every single aspect of the whole package that is Halo 2 seems to have been considered, reconsidered, improved and then looked at from a new perspective to see if it can be made better...It really is a case of running out of superlatives when it comes to...read the complete Halo 2 review at IC-Games
A fantastic example of pure artistic vision coupled with serious technological know-how....read the complete Halo 2 review at Gaming Target
To me, the most important part of Halo 2 is the single player campaign. Yeah, I loved the multiplayer element of Halo, but I spent my fondest memories with it in single player. Unfortunately, Bungie has failed to deliver this time. Halo 2 has a good...read the complete Halo 2 review at Gamers Wanted
On November 14th, 2001, after a lengthy development process, Bungie Software released the highly-anticipated first-person shooter Halo: Combat Evolved for the Microsoft Xbox, on the console's first day on the market. It was met with some of the most...read the complete Halo 2 review at Amped IGO
One of the best console first-person shooters ever made, with multiplayer that is way ahead of anything else on any console....read the complete Halo 2 review at Xbox Advanced
One of the strongest FPS offerings of the season in campaign mode, and one of the best internet-enabled FPS games for any platform....read the complete Halo 2 review at Worth Playing
with the impressive selection of new weapons the control system allows for some truly exhilarating gaming experiences. Wait until you've thinned out a pack of Covenant with the new Covenant Beam Rifle (a plasma sniper rifle), lowered the shields of massed...read the complete Halo 2 review at Computer and Video Games
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except my dear wife. She snuck into my ManRoom all clever and sly, to plant a gift certain to catch my eye. An Xbox! Oh, what a magnificent site. And Halo too,...read the complete Halo 2 review at TheManRoom
is dying to know about the story. Has the story gotten better? Is it still a sore spot like it was in the original game? Well, the bad news is that it hasnt. It still sticks out like a sore thumb, much like in the original Halo. The good news (I guess), ...read the complete Halo 2 review at WHAM! Gaming
For a game funded by the World's richest corporation and developed by one of the most talented developers about, it will come as little surprise to hear the word PALGN most associates with Halo 2: polish. Everything on display here - the stunning...read the complete Halo 2 review at PALGN AU
Despite what the other companies will tell you, Halo 2 was simply the biggest game release of 2004. No game matched it in the level of pre-release hysteria, and Microsoft is surely reaping the...read the complete Halo 2 review at Team Fremont
Perhaps not as groundbreaking as we were led to believe or even hoped for prior to release but an immense and masterful game all the same, as they say if it’s not broken don’t fix. The original Halo become a benchmark title in the console world of...read the complete Halo 2 review at MS Xbox World
Worth the hype it received? Well, it definitely is worth it for the multiplayer, for the augmented gameplay features and for the vocal delivery by the Hollywood talent in the title. It isn’t, however, thanks to the weakly developed storyline,...read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Over Online
It's good to see you, Master Chief....read the complete Halo 2 review at GameSpot
Bungie have added new weapons to the game along with more vehicles, but have kept the revamped Scorpion tank and players will remember the Warthog for the very last part of Halo very well. Along with the new weapons comes the option to Dual Wield....read the complete Halo 2 review at Club Skill
The A.I. is amazing this time around. It was good in Halo; it is great in Halo 2....read the complete Halo 2 review at ActionTrip
As a multiplayer experience, however, Halo 2 is simply unparalleled. No other game provides the sheer amount of variety, both in terms of game types and opponents, as Halo 2 currently offers....read the complete Halo 2 review at Netjak
Controls are extremely tight and responsive. You are in complete control of Master Chief's movements, so any loss or mistake is completely your own....read the complete Halo 2 review at GamingTrend
The gameplay seems to be the same as the first game. The controls are a no-brainer, and Master Chief responds crisply to your input. Enemies crumple or fly, depending on how you kill them, and I swear I even saw one or two twitch. The levels seem pretty...read the complete Halo 2 review at GamePlasma
You name it, Halo 2 does it at an A+ level: wonderfully improved visuals, a solidly engaging and well-scripted storyline (with an unexpected sense of humor intermixed with the strong religious overtones), good voice-acting, splendidly ear-pleasing...read the complete Halo 2 review at Armchair Empire
It’s certainly not the game to convert anyone from one camp to the other. It delivers a new story, new features and kick-ass multiplayer functionality, but still has exactly the same gameplay as we’ve all seen before....read the complete Halo 2 review at Jolt Online Gaming UK
As the follow up to the Xbox's most popular title, Halo 2 needs little introduction. Besides, I've got a lot to say and only 500 words to say it in -- well, 470 words now....read the complete Halo 2 review at Jaded Gamer
To being with, the game disappoints. The first level is poor and unexciting until around half way through the level, so don’t be concerned when you first start to play. Where things really start picking up is when you commence the second level. Its...read the complete Halo 2 review at DarkZero
The arrival of such a sequel goes hand in hand with the usual media attention. A release party should be the ideal introduction and so the Halo 2 launch party was born in the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. A trendy D.J mixing the coolest dance tracks...read the complete Halo 2 review at Frag Land
Halo 2 is an amazing game. The negatives are by far overshadowed by the positives....read the complete Halo 2 review at Gaming Horizon
It's technically accomplished, wonderfully diverse and ridiculously fun. It's the sort of game that you want to quit work or dump the girlfriend to play....read the complete Halo 2 review at Ferrago
The sequel to developer Bungie's best-selling Xbox launch title returns for more first-person shooting action against a host of new alien races. Players once again assume the role of a genetically engineered soldier known as the Master Chief as he...read the complete Halo 2 review at AllGame
Halo 1 sparked a revolution for console first-person shooters and changed the way friends play games together en masse. The game’s legacy was a direct result of perfect control, engaging and emotional storytelling, vast and inspired architecture,...read the complete Halo 2 review at Lawrence
The Master-Chief returns to save the planet Earth in a sequel to the superlative Xbox FPS....read the complete Halo 2 review at TotalVideoGames
The truth is, for every hour our blood was pumping like a turbo charged locomotive through our adrenaline scored veins, there were an equal number of hours where we were bored with the unimaginative repetition of formulaic corridor based FPS trawls....read the complete Halo 2 review at Eurogamer
Halo 2 screen
I never cared for Rainbow Six. While the idea of leading your own personal squad through an unrelenting series of skirmishes was right up my alley, Ubi Soft's acclaimed series focused far too much on nitty-gritty details and meticulous...read the complete Halo 2 review at HonestGamers
The most notable change is the lack of health packs. Reliance is now focused on the shield and once this is down you can only take a couple of shots before it's game over. It does mean there's more call for duck and cover, but it also means that you...read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Industry News
Three years ago Bungie developed a game that was worthy enough to go out and buy an Xbox. Halo: Combat Evolved, to give it its full title, took the first person shooter genre to another astonishing level. With a jaw-dropping graphics engine and a near...read the complete Halo 2 review at Silicon Fusion
Let's be honest. Sequels are made to continue the success of a game that is both extremely commercially and creatively successful. That is, the fiction created by the game is strong enough to supply another title with adequate material to create an...read the complete Halo 2 review at XBox Exclusive
But despite such overwhelming expectations, Halo 2 is essentially a bigger, badder version of the first—nothing more, nothing less. It refines and expands upon many of the original's strongest concepts, stumbles over a few repeated missteps, and offers...read the complete Halo 2 review at Gamecritics
The best game on its system. The best of its kind. The best this era. The Best Game Ever. While the sound bites rolled on, once the dust had settled on the hype train of the original Halo, we were undoubtedly left with a title that changed perception for...read the complete Halo 2 review at Pro-G
The functionality of Halo 2 online is unequaled and there is something here for everyone. Before you even step into a Live arena, the amount of configuration options, both cosmetic and mechanic are almost overwhelming....read the complete Halo 2 review at Cheat Code Central
For the comatose few who don't know… Halo starred the Master Chief, an armor-encased cyborg soldier who, when not chilling in a freezer beside a case of Baskin-Robbins, was saving humanity from the ass-whooping Covenant and the less friendly Flood. The...read the complete Halo 2 review at ESC Magazine
A significant step forward from the original but hardly revolutionizes the genre or even the series. The game starts off playing and looking like the original and slowly evolves into something slightly new and improved....read the complete Halo 2 review at Game Chronicles
The problem is that these improvements come across more as refinements than groundbreaking changes since they do not dramatically alter the overall game playing experience....read the complete Halo 2 review at Loaded Inc
A fun, fast paced shooter with lots of multiplayer action. It is not, however, the be all and end all of gaming that the hype machine has unfailingly claimed....read the complete Halo 2 review at My Gamer
Graphics are about as good as they're likely to get on the Xbox... But close-ups, particularly textures in some of the outdoor environments, are jarringly ugly when juxtaposed with the many areas of sheer beauty....read the complete Halo 2 review at Cincinnati Enquirer
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