Not the Promised Land

Manny ordered the game and had played the whole thing through in a day before I had a chance to come over and play with him. I think the poor boy was in shock. He didn't know what to think. He really wanted to like it, and the hype, and his faith in bungie (and even Penny Arcade) said he should. But multiplayer only confirmed what he already knew, Bungie had taken a step back with Halo 2. It felt like instead of the promised land we'd been given forty years in the desert.

After I played the game through for myself, plus some multiplayer, I wrote a letter to Bungie which listed all our grievances in the most respectful way possible. Since sending that letter I have played a lot more Halo 2, specifically the multiplayer, and my views have changed significantly.

It begins:

I am a huge fan of your work. I love the original Halo. I actually really enjoyed the missions especially playing Co-Op and I still play the missions every now and then for fun when I've got no one to multi with. To be honest if you'd just released Halo again exactly as was with new missions and new multiplayer levels I probably would've been more than happy. My best mate pre-ordered Halo 2 and was totally pumped about playing it. He was so sure it was going to be the best game ever. I had my reservations but was still fairly excited as well.

There are a lot of things you have done right. And I respect that and thank you for it. But basically this is an email from me to you to try and explain some of the mistakes I thought you made. I don't know how many of these emails you get or how much of them you read. I hope you'll read all of this or at least skim through my points but I understand if you cant find the time or inclination to do so. I also understand that I'm probably one of the few people to criticise your game as it is held in much high regard so this probably wont have much effect. But I feel like maybe it's worth trying anyway.

It stands to reason that no game can be perfect and that you cant please everyone all of the time. But on purchasing your game I must admit I felt that in a lot of areas you took a substantial step backwards from the first game. There were of course elements I really approved of. Such as the duel wielding system and the fact that movement is much faster and characters jump much higher. But suffice it to say the things I don't criticise in this email are great and shouldn't be changed. Which is a lot of things, so over all you're still doing very well in my opinion. But the aim of this email is constructive criticism not ass kissing so forgive me if I don't highlight your achievements at every possible step.

I was trying to be polite and explain what I was gonna do in such a way that they would continue to read the letter and take it in the spirit it was intended. Helpful criticism. And yes I respect that I probably come off as arrogant, sending them my criticism of a game which was well recieved almost universally. Meh.

I love the vehicles in Halo, I like the way they drive, the way they look. They were just about perfect in my opinion. I liked the addition of destructibility and boarding in Halo 2 but I think you made major mistakes playing with the way the vehicles drive. To put it bluntly the warthog drives like arse, you removed a whole lot of the fun of driving a warthog. The Banshee was mutilated even more savagely. It can't hover properly any more, the view is terrible now, and it drives really, really poorly. Overall the control of vehicles has been changed to the detriment of enjoyment. Also standard movement in the game has also been changed, I can't quite pinpoint what it is that has changed but it's just a little awkward. This isn't the biggest problem and is fairly easy to get used to.

I still love the vehicles in Halo, but I've also gotten used to the vehicles in Halo 2 and I appreciate the new Warthog a lot more now (the Ghost too). The Banshee didn't need to be fixed and I still can't drive it anywhere near as well as I used to. But I've gotten used to it as well. And by gotten used to I mean I stay on the ground. Manny still bitches about the new Warthog but only because he was pro at the old Warthog and now I'm a better driver than him.

There are a few interesting additions to the weaponry, to be honest none really spark my interest that much except perhaps the Rocket Launcher upgrade. But there have been a lot of changes to the weapons, none of which appeal to me. The original Alien Assault Rifle is even more useless than in the first game. The Shotgun looks and feels worse, why anyone would change that gun is beyond me. And my beloved Pistol has been mangled, I understand why that gun was changed but I'm still not happy about it. The melee has been changed, it feels a lot slower and crappier and it seems to do less damage. Again I don't understand why anyone would change the melee system. Also the grenades have been messed with, they don't throw as far and they far less impressive.

Most of this I still agree with. I never really liked the alien weapons so I don't really care that much about the assault rifle, the plasma pistol or the needler sucking and I still mostly play human weapons. I've gotten used to the shotgun and the melee but I still get a bit annoyed when four punches fails to kill someone. The pistol I miss, but I accept that it was very good and double wielded it would be unstoppable. At first I thought that double smg's was too good and now I think that the smg is the most useless weapon of all the human guns. I'm used to the grenades now but I still think they're too weak. The chance of killing someone outright with a grenade has dropped significantly and it shits me.

To be honest I knew I wouldn't like the new look of the game, I saw pictures and screenshots and fairly quickly accepted that the game wouldn't look the same. I also accept that a lot of other people think the game looks infinitely cooler. And I think I may even be growing to like the new look. One thing that you changed that I just can't accept is the flood. I think they look shit. Obviously the old flood wouldn't entirely fit in with the new Halo 2 but surely they didn't have to change so much. Again I'm sure a lot of people disagree with me so I wont argue the point more than that.

I still think the flood look shit, but I've warmed to the rest of the new look.

You went halfway with the physics engine. One thing I applaud is trying to improve the death animations they weren't terrible in Halo but they definitely needed some work. But you definitely didn't go far enough. By making the physics engine kick in only after the models hit the ground you made the whole thing look a little half arsed. Why not just have physics engines for the whole death? If there's a legitimate reason for not doing that then forgive my impertinence.

Seriously... Why?

When it comes to multiplayer I'm in a fairly awkward position. I don't have Xbox Live and only one of my friends has an Xbox and it's too hard for us to move televisions around and link them together. So really I play with a maximum of four people at a time. Which means we mostly play Slayer or Juggernaut. I expected multiplayer to be a significant improvement from Halo to Halo 2 considering this time multiplayer was more than an afterthought. But it seems I was wrong. To be honest I'm not really sure why. A lot of the weapons in Halo 2 are fairly ineffectual in multiplayer. It seems like to win you just need to find a second SMG. I was going to say that I didn't like the levels much either but they really aren't terrible they just aren't as good. I hate Battle Creek so when you included that level I can't say I was particularly enthused. Another thing that disappointed me was the fact that there were only two models for multi. Why not more? Why not brutes? Or Flood? Just a thought. But really it's more the other problems with the game that ruined the multi for me. The ruination of vehicles and weapons.

Like I said since then my view of smg's has changed as has my view of the levels. Generally I like the smaller levels and find the large levels boring and empty. But then I still don't play with more than one box very often. The models thing? I would've liked to see more and still would but in the end I don't care that much.

The Game levels were boring. The story was boring. The ending was pisspoor. Need I say more?

Amen brother.

My best mate got really angry when he found out you guys were already working on a third Halo. I think his exact words were "Why the fuck are they making another one when this one needs so much work?! Fucking Sellouts." Now I understand that you guys are trying to build a franchise. But a large part of me agrees with him. You could have done a lot more with the game but instead you start working on a new one. But more than that, it's almost as if you bairly advanced the storyline to leave you room for another million sequels.

I think we were just angry. Except for the storyline part, that is so true.

My biggest complaint isn't the fact that I didn't like the missions, it's the fact that you changed so many things. And so unnecessarily. Things that worked fine. On one hand I don't expect you to pull a GTA 3 and release the same game three times with a few improvements each time. But on the other hand if it ain't broke don't fix it. I'm not sure why I didn't like the missions as much or why I found the storyline boring. I think in actual fact they weren't that bad, I just expected so much more.

I could take or leave this one, if they hadn't changed so much I would never have written this letter. But I do actually like Halo 2 now and I have gotten comfortable with a lot of the changes.

Yours sincerely and respectfully Horus.

Also the main boss is a total arsehole on Legendary congratulations on making hard, now if you could let me know how the fuck Im supposed to beat him?

I still haven't beat him. I only tried a few more times before giving up. If there's some obscure tactic required to beat him I can't be fucked to work it out. I'm more than happy to just play multi.

My view right now of Halo 2 is that the singleplayer is crap but more importantly... the multiplayer is not. I don't think it's any better than the original multiplayer, however, I did say that if Halo 2 had basically been a rerelease of Halo 1 with new levels that I would've been happy and I am.

I wonder how long it will take me to enjoy Halo 3?