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X04 HALO 2 PREVIEW

08.22.04

We recently had a chance to play the hotly anticipated shooter Halo 2 at X04 - an annual Xbox gaming preview event held in Toronto. There were no formal speeches to sit through and no unplayable demo videos to get bored watching - there were just lots of cool upcoming games to try out, Halo 2 chief among them.

Peter Moore, VP of Marketing for Xbox was on hand to answer questions. We had a brief chat with him about this holiday season's upcoming titles - and specifically Halo 2...

We asked him about a rumour that circulated the web last week when one of the official Halo 2 beta testers posted some inside info on the Xbox.com forums - that Halo 2 would support 4 players on one console, all connected to Microsoft's XBox Live! service at the same time. When we brought this up, Peter could neither confirm or deny it - he merely stated that Halo 2 was in beta, and testing things like this is what they do during the beta process. So it could very well be a feature that makes it into the retail version (our vote), or it could be pulled from the next build of the beta.

Shortly after our intimate chat with Peter we made our way to the Halo 2 area. Talk about a sweet setup! 8 HD plasma TVs put together to form an octagon, each accompanied by an Xbox running the latest build of Halo 2. After a lengthy demo, which was almost identical to the multiplayer demo shown at this year's E3, we were rocking some single-flag Capture The Flag.

We played a series of quick, 3 minute rounds on a map called Zanzibar. It gave us a chance to try out some of the new features built into the game including dual-wielding weapons, destructible environment and destructible vehicles.

First off, the weapons and destructible vehicles are great. It's very satisfying to see a Warthog blow up into several pieces after you stick a grenade to it while dodging someone who's trying to run you over. Dual-wielding is a great new feature - gives you a lot more punch when you're going up against multiple enemies and the brilliant new 'homing' rocket launcher only takes one good shot to send you or an enemy flying.

For those of you used to the original Halo's gameplay and control, you'll be glad to know that Halo 2's gameplay is almost identical to the first Halo but still has that sleek, new feel to it. The character models have also been greatly improved and now feature specular lighting effects. Oooo, shiny!

When playing as the offensive team, we were given a few vehicles to help ease the invasion. Surprisingly, they proved to be less effective to breach the base with than if you went in on foot, but they've still balanced the gameplay between vehicles and foot soldiers fairly well. More often than not, though, upon re-spawning, we often chose to bypass the Ghost and run in with dual weapons drawn.

By the looks of things, Halo 2 is shaping up nicely. We think it's fair to say that the wait won't leave many disappointed.

Halo 2 hits the shelves November 9th.

~ Matt Brett


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