I’m still regretting my decision to play through all of the Halo games before Infinite comes out. It’s mostly been a struggle so far. Will Halo 2 stop the struggle?

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Reviewed on Xcloud

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The short answer is no, the struggle has not stopped, it’s definitely continuing, but it has gotten better. n

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A lot of the problems I had with Halo CE are still here. The characters talking to you are still very low and easy to miss, the levels seem like mazes designed to get you lost. There are very few waypoints, which is not always a bad thing but here it is for me. When so many paths look the same and I miss the audio queue on where I need to be heading I would appreciate a waypoint to put me in the right direction.

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The story is a huge part of the Halo franchise and the story here, just like in the first one is a little hard to follow. The cutscenes are great and do a great job but the storytelling when you are moving around the levels is really lacking. Most of this is from the poor audio I mentioned. A character will be talking and adding context to what’s going on and it will be playing at the same time bullets are flying everywhere and the epic Halo music is blasting. It doesn’t make any sense to me why they would blast music while characters are talking. n

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The actually shooting in Halo CE felt good and it’s actually ramped up a bit here with the ability to dual wield certain guns. This was a great addition to the gunplay which I really enjoyed. n

Halo 2 is in the history books as a game with a controversial ending. Without spoiling the ending to this old game I will say experiencing the game, knowing more will be made I thought the ending was terrific. It’s an ending that gets you pumped up to jump into the next installment. I know my experience may be different since the next Halo game is already here when I concluded Halo 2 but I do have to think, if I played this when it was initially released I would have loved it.

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Verdict

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Halo 2 was slightly better than Halo CE but making my way through this aging series to prepare for the new one continues to be a chore. Hopefully, as the games become more modern they continue to improve. This was a step in the right direction for me.

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Final score 6/10

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Halo rankings so far:

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1. Halo Spartan Assault 8.5/10

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2. Halo 2 6/10

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3. Halo CE 5/10

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4. Halo Reach 3/10

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