Halo. A video game series that pulled me right in from the get-go.
I never was a strictly Nintendo or Playsation gamer, but leaned more towards the former. Luckily, my father always had the latest consoles. When the Xbox came out, I was privileged enough to have the chance to try out. Having been used to platformers such as the Super Mario franchise, I was a little skeptical at first. Once I got my hands on the first Halo, though, I forever preferred Xbox over anything else and stuck with them through the tough times, especially during that Xbox One reveal.
Halo: Combat Evolved had me hooked from Master Chief’s introduction. After playing through the whole story, my friend and I were instantly excited for what was to come next in Chief’s journey. Our excitement only grew after watching Halo 2‘s debut trailer, especially with online being thrown into the mix. With the first Halo, a group of my friends would system-link our Xboxes in my house so that we could play local multiplayer for countless hours. The idea of playing Halo with people from all over the world was astonishing to us.
Have you ever loved a game so much that you literally wake up, get on said game and your only breaks would be to eat, go to the bathroom and take a shower? Well, sadly (or not sad at all) that was my relationship with Halo 2.
Editor’s note: This is not sad at all.
I remember the day Halo 2 came out, dreading going to school and wishing my father would let me stay home. But I got through it and ran to put the disc into the Xbox. Isn’t that the best feeling by the way? Sheer excitement for a video game, it finally comes out, you put the disc in the console and watch the
title screen pop up.
Anyway, I actually played the campaign for a few days before I started multiplayer. I wanted to see what where things picked up after the ending of the first Halo. Once I started that golden gem of online gameplay, I was hooked. I mean, for real; No other Halo multiplayer afterward compared for me. Maybe it’s just nostalgia speaking, but it was simple, well balanced, and had such a great selection of maps. My personal favorites include Headlong, Waterworks and Ascension. Everything seemed to add to its amazing predecessor. The inclusion of duel wielding, boarding of vehicles and more aided to that.
Editor’s note: I am not responsible for the author leaving out Lockout and Tower.
One of the highlights of Halo 2 was its uniqueness to any Halo game that came after it. It seemed that everyone had a mic and talked and (mostly) everyone was nice. I don’t think trolling existed yet, and if it did, it came in rare doses. From the beginning, Halo always felt like a community, more so than other game I’ve played. Because of this, I met some great people, some of which I still talk to daily and two of which even started a relationship after meeting each other on Halo 2 m
ultiplayer. They are actually now married. This sense of community resulted in some extremely fun custom games. Anyone remember Hide and Seek on Lockout? Or Tower of Power on Ascension? Or who could forget Zombies? Any custom game seemed to result in hours of fun with no boredom ensuing.
To add to this, I’d like to give a big thank you to developer 343 Industries for leaving the game untouched and allowing glitches to stay in there. Who remembers using the sword and rocket launcher glitch or super bounces to get out of maps? I always found them to be fun with a group of friends.
While the Master Chief Collection is a dream come true to any die-hard Halo fan and even new Xbox fans, I hope to relive this great time in my life in Halo 2 Anniversary portion of the game. November 11 can’t come fast enough.
