Halo 2
Halo 2 is the second first-person shooter of Bungie Studios, for the Xbox and sequel to the popular Xbox game Halo. Like the Marathon series, the game will further develop the struggle between the human race and the religiously zealous & technologically superior Covenant, with a newly built engine and the addition of new elements to the game. As of this writing, Halo 2 is expected to be released on November 9th 2004.
Previous plot details from Halo: Combat Evolved
The Pillar of Autumn, making a blind jump to a random location away from Earth, has discovered a large construct of unknown origin known to the Covenant as Halo. Chased by the Covenant, they are forced to land on the construct and fight for their survival. Towards the end of the game, the Master Chief destroys Halo to prevent the destruction of all life in the universe.
Previous plot details from Halo: First Strike
The Chief finds surviving UNSC personnel in the remains of the destroyed ringworld, as well as incoming Covenant ships to investigate the destruction of their holy relic. The survivors determine that they must return to Earth and infiltrate the Covenant ship Ascendent Justice and make a jump to Reach for survivors.
After finding and picking up surviving Spartans as well as Doctor Halsey, they make a jump for Earth. While at Reach, it is discovered that the Covenant have discovered the location of the human homeworld and are gathering their entire fleet for the ultimate battle. To buy the unprepared Earth some time to prepare for a massive Covenant assault, the Chief and his surviving Spartans plan an operation to disrupt the organization of the fleet.
Known details
As with any other game developer, Bungie has stayed quiet with details on the game prior to release. But from various interviews, speculation, and video trailers, the community knows so far..
Weapons
- The new Battle Rifle is capable of semi-automatic fire when zoomed, and burst fire otherwise.
- The new sub-machine gun performs the inaccurate spray fire function of the previous game's MA5B Assault Rifle.
- The needler is stated as "now actually worth picking up".
- The rocket launcher is capable of limited homing by maintaining your aim in the zoomed mode.
- Any single handed gun can be duel wielded. The weapon in each hand can be the same or different from each other.
- The Covenant energy sword is now available to the player. It is capable of simple melee strikes or a powerful lunge attack.
Vehicles
- All vehicles are prone to damage from gunfire or crashing. Damage is cosmetic, can reduce vehicle performance, and eventually result in the total destruction of the vehicle.
- The operators of vehicles can be knocked off their vehicle by another player.
- There is a new gun turret that can be equipped onto the Warthog that appears to function as a precision laser. The laser is very similar to the laser developed by Cortana in the third book.
- The rocket launcher warthog, featured in E3 2000 long before the game's switch to the Xbox, is added. This is different from the black triple barreled variant in the PC version of Halo.
- There is a new Covenant aircraft known as a Phantom, which appears to have a large cannon as well as capable of dropping Covenant troops.
- There is a new Covenant hovercraft of unknown name that appears to be a troop transportation vehicle with a Shade turret on top.
- All vehicles has been given a boost function to allow faster moving.
Miscellaneous
- The E3 2003 trailer has shown the game to take place largely on Earth.
- There is a new Covenant alien race known as the Brute, which appears gorilla like with its wild behavior, strength, and hairy appearance. It is quoted from the third book as capable of tearing apart a Hunter.
- The player will be able to customize their Spartan's MJOLNIR Mark-VI battle armor.
Multiplayer
- Support for 16 players in multiplayer, on XBOX live or system link.
- Both Spartans and Covenant Elites are playable in multiplayer.