Say Halo and wave goodbye... again. (Halo 2 (PC))

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	Halo 2 (PC)
Date:	31/01/08 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb story, excellent music, decent gameplay

Disadvantages: Feels like a console port, mouse sensitivity issue, Vista only

I had some problems with the original version of Halo on the PC, though I loved the storyline. I'd even read a few of the related books that added further depth and back story to the game's plot. When Halo 2 was announced for the PC, albeit on Windows Vista only, I didn't think that I would be interested enough this time around to play it.

However, with Christmas cash burning a hole in my pocket and few A-list titles in my genre of choice (first person shooter or FPS) unplayed, Halo2 was the only real option.

Halo 2 is a game that offers a quick play method called "Tray and Play" which means that, in theory, you can stick the DVD into your PC and being playing within seconds, should you choose that installation method. I chose the traditional installation method, which is probably just as well...

Usually, I can install a game, tweak the options to suit my system and gameplay needs and be into the game within fifteen minutes. With Halo 2, this was nearly forty five minutes. You are required to create an account with which to play then create your profile which involved setting up the system as any other game. It's this process that slows everything down by being completely unintuitive. If your preferred keyboard set up doesn't match any of the ones offered by Bungie/Microsoft, you have to use the custom setup, which is definable. The message that appears onscreen here is: "Define your own settings if you think you're better than us".

I fancy myself as being computer literate and reasonably intelligent, but after twenty minutes of trying to set up the keys in my preferred configuration, I had to give up due to frustration. In the end, I was forced to search the internet for a solution which didn't help improve my mood. What you have to do is create a set of dummy keys that don't clash with any keys already in use by the custom configuration THEN re-create your desired configuration, obviously avoiding any clashes with the dummy keys. How or why Bungie thought this was a better solution than the same system used in practically every other FPS on the market where you can simply delete key assignments is beyond me. Suffice to say, by this stage, steam was coming out of my ears!

Spartan 117, the Master Chief, hero from the original, is on a space station orbiting Earth, collecting a medal alongside Miranda Keys whose father perishing during the original Halo episode. As luck would have it, the Covenant chooses that moment to arrive at Earth, launching an attack on the orbiting space fleet and sending ships groundside for purposes unknown. The Master Chief, always ready for a scrap, repels the attacking Covenant and follows them to the surface with the help of Miranda Keyes. Again, the Master Chief helps fight the Covenant who begin to retreat. Before the Covenant mothership can escape with enemy VIPs onboard, Miranda Keyes picks up Spartan 117 in her ship "In Amber Clad" and they follow the Covenant to a destination unknown. As they come out of slipspace, they realise that they've arrived at another Halo, a huge, planet-sized device that the Master Chief knows is a weapon and has to prevent being fired by the Covenant who look upon it as a holy relic.

Getting into the game itself makes things better, though by how much is arguable. Microsoft used Halo 2 as the flagship gaming product for its new operating system, Vista. In order to restrict the game to Vista, they made Halo 2 use DirectX 10 (Direct X is Microsoft's way of handling tasks related to multimedia). Older operating systems do not have DirectX 10. For me the implication was that, due to DirectX 10 being used, the game would be graphically superior. It is not. OK, the game is nearly a year old now even though I've just bought it and I've recently played Bioshock and Crysis which are astounding to look at, but Halo 2 looks like a two year old game (which it is, effectively being a conversion of an XBox game from 2004).

While not being up to date, the game still manages to be fairly nice to look at (though still suffers in comparison to other recent games such as Crysis and Bioshock) and, for the most part, the game designers have avoided one of the major flaws of the original where sections of the game were so similar looking, it was easy to get lost while hordes of monsters attacked you. Gameplay is also "improved" through the use of a double edged story. During the game you play both the Master Chief and his Covenant opposite number, the Arbiter. This adds a little intrigue and expands the back story somewhat, but playing the two characters is far too similar to be really worthwhile.

Despite the update in plot and gameplay, it's hard to pinpoint other upgrades. The graphics and sound, while having a minor polish, don't seem to be terribly different from the original. Additionally, the fact that the game is a port from an older Xbox game means that the PC is not adequately supported. Mouse support is limited, for example, and the ability to make sweeping changes in mouse sensitivity as in any other FPS is severely limited to something like four distinct options. With sensitivity set to maximum (i.e. meaning there should be little mouse movement on the desk translated to corresponding movement in-game movement), the Master Chief/Arbiter still feel as if they have the turning circle of a supertanker. I found myself making huge sweeps across the desk with the mouse when moving my character around corners or gently curved passageways. I found this extremely annoying and something that I never fully got used to through the entire game (playing the odd game of Bioshock and Crysis in between didn't help matters either).

Where Halo 2 does shine though, is the audio. For starters, the music is just breathtaking and surprisingly covers quite a lot of genres including choral and rock and is extremely easy to listen to even away from the game (though still does that soundtrack feel to it). The sound effects, although still extremely similar to the original, still fit the game really well and the voice acting is top notch too with some well known names lending their voices to the characters (including Ron Perlman and Michelle Rodriguez amongst others).

The single player game offered a reasonable challenge and that wasn't on the most difficult setting, but overall the game was satisfactory. Multiplayer was slightly different. I couldn't find too many different game types (unlike Half-Life 2, for example, where you have free-for-all games, team games etc.) and most were the same maps with different default weapons (e.g. one game would have rocket launchers and the next would be the same map with shotguns). Plus the mouse sensitivity issue was even more of a problem in multiplayer which is more fast-paced thant he single player game. There seemed to be other game types out there, but features were locked due to my Silver level "Live" membership (i.e. the free one). I could pay a monthly fee for a Gold membership (which unlocks both single and multiplayer features at a fiver per month), but quite frankly I don't play online often enough to warrant the payment (and I can play better games for free with my copy of Half-Life 2) and it's annoying to have the game tell you what you're "missing" every time you access a new menu without a gold membership.

For me, Halo 2 on the PC is everything that typifies the reputation Microsoft has (though not one that I usually share with the majority). It's over-rated, other people have done similar things a lot better and it's designed to suck money out of you. The control system is clunky at best, multi-player is horrendous if you don't want to give Microsoft yet more money (and there are plenty of better games out there where you can play everything for free) and value for money is poor, compared to Valve's recent Orange Box. The only real redeeming feature is the story, which remains excellent and the core game is above-average but not outstanding.

It's also typical of FPS games that are ported from or designed specifically for consoles (see Deus Ex 2, for example). They typically don't make the best use of the PC as a gaming platform and the controls and interface are usually dumbed down.

Oh, and did I mention that the game "ends" on a cliff-hanger? It's as bad as 'Back to the Future Part 2' or the second of those terrible 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movies that are nothing more than glorified film trailers. Unforgivable.

Summary: Halo 2 on the PC - not as good as it could have been.