I'd be surprised if EDGE will hand out a 10 for Halo 3, unless that is the game is truly ground breaking. The Bioshock review might have seemed harsh but after playing the game you could see that the few criticisms they leveled at the game were valid. Halo2 got a 9/10 and i wrote this an age ago,
The EDGE HALO2 review is bigger than this but this is a pretty good overview of it. Any gramatical errors (which will many) are mine.
The review does mention the untied ending. Live options are covered in that one line except for little side snippet where EDGE says that Halo2 had only just gone Live prior to review. There short time playing it but it reckons Clan support was lavish the only downer being no co-op.
Jason Jones said Halo2 its a lot like Halo, only its on fire, going through a hospital at a 130mph being chased by helicopters and the ninjas are fire to
Its a great quote and its true up to a point. That point being the first coma. Anyone expecting more- expecting the hyperbole, expecting the spoilers will be disappointed.
The dual wielding system works well, not least because the potential damage gain in training two streams of fire on an opponent comes at the price of hampering your access to grenades, melee attacks and gun emplacements. Less tangible are the changes that have been brought to the familiar, Weapons you thought you knew reload slower and fire faster. Ghost fly more deftly and fire more furiously. These are not changes that throw your rhythm off. Its hard to point to a single one which isnt a fundamental improvement on the first game. Players mourning the evolution of old favorites will miss out on exploiting the full weapon set which has expanded without making any of its components redundant.
The much touted visual upgrade such has improved lighting, realistic physics etc, much of which will pass players by because the combat itself is so involving; except for when the cracks in the world snap you back to reality. Halo was impeccably solid, perhaps because it attempted to do so little and ended up do it all so perfectly, absorbing you completely. Here those richer environments, those more elaborate characters, the playful physics that all add to the experience- its hard not to coo with delight when a Hunter swipes a crate away with a furious sweep of his armour plated arm. But they also stress the game engine to the point where sometime, just sometimes it just cant cope. Models pop in and out of detail and level scripting fails to kick in or starts too early.
The combat however continues to amaze. Really. Two years after Halo and its yet to be surpassed as the standard for FPS combat. Halo 2 at the very least builds on that. This game builds squarely on the combat of the first game and not only strengthens it but changes how it should be played. If you have mastered Halo the game should be played through on Heroic even though the battles are much more vast and densely populated the air thicker with lead and laser that your first instinct will be that this is much tougher. This isnt the case pitch the game on heroic and you will enjoy all the battles much more.
The Multiplayer options are tremendous as expected.
If the plot is Halos 2 worst aspect, then, perversely the dialogue is the best. There are funny lines here, things that will make you laugh out loud. Your fighting colleagues who incidentally are far stronger than in Halo but not to the point of doing everything for you chat amongst themselves with wit and candor. No game does this better.
For the critisisms above few games do much better than Halo2 and its fitting we are able to steal a line from the script to sum everything up. When Cortana turns to Master Chief and says Its not a new plan. But we know it will work
