I feel it almost a moot point, an effort in vain, to write a review for Halo 2. It's not that I feel there are too many articles on the subject or that it comes just over a week after it's November 9th release. It's just that anyone with any interest in the game likely already has it or has at least heard that it is the biggest grossing video game of all time, breaching $125 million on it's first day when coupled with pre-orders and midnight marauders, clammoring for their copy at retailers brave enough to make an attempt at crowd control. (breath). Even so, I tend to like to spew my opinion whether its warranted or not.

For those living in the dark, still playing Outlaw or Combat on their Atari 2600's, let me bring you up to speed. First person shooters reached a peak with a little game called Halo, a joint project between Microsoft and Bungie that opened gamers' eyes to a new console and a new way to play. Halo's single player storyline was familiar, though epic, regailing the tale of special operative space marine Spartan 117. Master Chief's mission is to protect the human race from destruction by a group of alien species who believe the destruction of the humans is by order from their gods. The Covenant forces continually plague outerlying human colonies, one by one, but when a mysterious giant ring appears near a colonized planet, the aliens recognize it as a massive weapon foretold by their ancestors and intend to use it against the humans. It's up to Master Chief to prevent the weapon from being activated and, unbeknownst to the aliens, destroy everything in a very large radius without bias. Beyond the enguaging, and challenging single player, was the vast multiplayer options. Halo remained the number one Xbox game, and continued to receive awards for over 3 years.

High anticipation and even higher expectations from gamers worldwide precede it's successor and for once, this sequel isn't a complete downer. In fact it's downright fantastic. It's clear that Bungie and Microsoft went back to the drawing board to recreate the textures, models, sounds and story that made the first so addicting in the first place. The story picks up after Master Chief's succesful campaign destroying the weapon and returning to Earth. Unfortunately, the Covenant is pissed and headed to Earth to eliminate the filth that destroyed their religious icon. The story that unfolds reveals a new side of the tracks, placing players not only in the shoes of Master Chief, but in the hooves of the Covenant Elite warrior originally tasked with defeating Master Chief and now blamed for Halo's destruction.

I'll avoid spoilers, but say that although the single player story line is good, it's ending is a disappointment. Even so, the action compliments the story nicely and the dialogue, cut scenes and general path will keep you moving and involved. Marines will interact with you, the environment and the enemies better than the first game. Some of the dialogue is especially funny, like the banter by the lesser alien grunts. Then there's Boarding (car-jacking) and Dual Wielding (weapon double fisting fun). Players can now, with a timely jump and press of the X button, kick an opponent out of their ride and use it to their own means. It's easily the most satisfying move in the game, because it does come down to timing and skill. For larger vehicles, like the Scorpion Tank, a pedestrian player can hop up to the cockpit and punch his way to the driver. To add insult to injury, you can drop a grenade in driver's lap to coax him out (use a sticky grenade, that way theres no escape). Dual wielding lets Master Chief take matters into both hands, combining the stopping power of two seperate weapons. Experimenting with different combinations will be key to the enemy you are fighting. Don't expect to lug around two rocket launchers on your shoulders though, only smaller weapons can be doubled up. There really is nothing about the single player to completely turn you off from playing, even if you're a multiplayer juggernaut.

Which segues nicely to where Halo 2 really shines. Bungie and Microsoft added the one thing gamers felt Halo truly lacke: online multiplayer. There had already been several Xbox Live games at launch, and for whatever reason, the code had not been built with online play in mind. Fans had to resort to lugging the behemoth systems around and connecting locally to get in on good multiplayer action. Some coders went to the next level and created tunneling software that allowed you to play on the net, provided you had a PC and a decent connection. Otherwise, players had to go back to playing with themselves. Not anymore though! Halo 2 is Live and nothing could be better.

All the modes are back: Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Juggernaut, Slayer, and Oddball. A few have been added like Assault (grab a bomb and plant it in the opposite team's base) and Territories (zone control, similar to Battlefield 1942). Each mode is augmented by voice communication via Xbox Live headsets. During LAN parties, screaming from room to room has been all but eliminated, not to mention the immense improvement of online play via the Xbox Live! service. It would be impossible to properly review the game without involving the upgrades and enhancements the Xbox Live! service has gone through to accomodate for Halo 2 and it's rabid players.

Players compete online as either single, lone wolf types, or as a team. Join into or create a party in order to participate in the larger battles. Regular run and gun deathmatch, Slayer in Halo 2, takes place in The Rumble Pit, a series of matchmade games whose rules are randomly chosen by Microsoft servers. Players' skills are tracked using a fairly simple formula of kill ratio weighed against the skill of the opponent. Matches are made based on skill level, so in general level 4 players aren't gonna get plastered by level 12 players.

Team play is weighted similarly, but easily more fun and competitive is the ability to form organized clans. One overlord acts as team leader to pull and manage members, then lead his army to the clan battlegrounds to compete against others for dominance. All of this is tracked online at Bungie.net in a very impressive statistics system that allows, at least for now, gamers too see a visual representation of the games they've played and the blow by blow of who killed whom with what and how many times. To top THAT, medals are handed out after each match to players completing certain achievments, like double and triple kills, sniping or turning opponents into roadkill.

The game is certainly excellent, but there are a few duds in the chamber. Many people felt that the pistol was unbalanced in the first game and it appears that Bungie has reversed it's effectiveness, essentially killing it's lethalness UNLESS you are dual wielding it and a sub-machine gun. It's scope has also been removed, but once you've played, you won't miss it. Out of the box, the game has problems displaying on certain HDTVs. Although Bungie and Microsoft have implemented a fix for the issue, only Xbox Live! subscribers have the ability to download it. Initially matchamking during online play was incredibly slow, taking 10-15 minutes at times to find equal players, but this has also been resolved. Co-op gameplay is available, but only on the same machine, alienating online and LAN players. We assume this is due to bandwidth concerns, though the levels in single player / co-op seem shorter and more confined than it's predecessor. The single most popular team map, Blood Gulch has been recreated as Coagulation, but the single most popular Slayer map, Hang Em High, has not. It's suspected that the map will be available in one form or another via content download, but we also speculate that it will be something you must purchase seperate from the game and your Xbox Live! subscription. Grenades can no longer be infinitely equipped for custom games, which will be missed and some of the online matchmaking lacks variety unless you play private, untracked games.

In the end though, its cons are nit-picky and the game's addictiveness overshadows its little speed bumps. New weapons, new vehicles, new abilities and a giant community with which to play against make Halo 2 a must have, as was it's older brother, for any Xbox owner.