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Preview of: Halo 2 | By: Justin Fenico |
14 May-2004 |
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Behind closed doors in a darken room lay something so superb, so addictive, it can only be described as pure unadulterated enjoyment. With the grace of God I was able to get into a private multiplayer session of Halo 2. The room was dimly lit and the only light seen was from the shine of the surround sound setup of the speakers at each of the eight stations. |
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To begin the demonstration, I and seven other lucky bastards were given a brief introduction to the multiplayer demo in a sort of story telling mode that gave me goose bumps. Being that this map, called Zanzibar, was just a demo, I can’t be for sure whether or not it’ll be shipped when Halo 2 hits shelves November 9th. Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you; November 9th is the set date for Halo 2 to WOW the world.
The multiplayer match was setup to be a simple CTF demonstration. Though CTF isn’t anything new, Bungie has created some new features that’ll make it, and other multiplayer modes, much more addictive (if it wasn’t addictive enough already). For starters, one new feature is the ability to wield two weapons at once. Dueling wielding two machine guns is just too much fun. Or, if you like, you can combine a machine gun with another weapon, such as a alien blaster to mix things up a bit. Something else that makes multiplayer even more fun is the ability to precisely pick apart vehicles. Picking off a wing of a banshee or shooting off a tire from a warthog might be easier than concentrating all your firepower on destroying a vehicle; not to mention, it looks pretty damn awesome from a visual standpoint. If however, a vehicle is destroyed, you’ll witness two separate explosions. At first you’ll see a primary explosion, which is sort of like a few pops. Afterwards you’ll notice a bigger, louder, and damaging explosion that will annihilate the vehicle completely. Another facet of vehicles is the ability to dismount and overtake an opponent’s vehicle. The knack of jumping onto a slow moving banshee and kicking off an enemy seems like something that’ll catch on very quickly. Hopefully this move will help keep vehicle hogs in check.
As far as the actual match went I can only say one thing…November 9th. Ok so it might be two words but you get the point. I’m not sure exactly what will be more popular; single player or multiplayer. Even with just eight people, CTF was fast and fun. The map had multiple modes of exit, entries, and other routes that could be unlocked by blowing up walls or pressing triggers. Each round was set for three minutes and both teams switched back forth from offense to defense until one team captured a total of three flags. Though I’m not one to toot my own horn, I was able to capture the flag twice for my team as we pushed forward with some great defense and were able to capture three flags out of four tries.
After leaving the Halo 2 booth, I was pondering what makes the multiplayer so much fun. Could it have been the map? Maybe the weapons? How about the vehicles? I suppose it’s a blend of all these factors and more importantly, the pick up and go controls that make it so easy to familiar yourself with. Regardless of whatever reasons you might have for loving Halo’s multiplayer, Halo 2 is going to up the ante in many, many ways. |
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