Halo 2 single player was a "disastrous flaming turd of failure"

OXM UK: Bungie's ambition "led us into some very, very scary places".

[math]

Halo 2 had a great story. Shame how they left us hanging, but it was still pretty epic.

[darthv72]

halo in general has a great story. It may not be what others would like but to some (like myself) I really enjoy it. The main storyline involving the MC as opposed to the offshoots or even the prequel.

Both ODST and Reach are fine additions but when your main focus is centered around a single character and their efforts through the series. You just cant help but gravitate more towards that then other games in the series. It is similar with movies. Many would say that the only real star wars is 4, 5 and 6. That is what we started with and grew up with.

I didnt have any issues with Halo 1, 2 or 3 as far as the story goes. I look forward to 4, 5 and 6 when they come out. I also hope they go into more of the forerunner and the search for what happened to them. Discover an even worse enemy of both the covenant and humans and possibly even the flood.

As far as Halo 2...some things are done not by design or committee (as they say) but intentional. Content removed that didnt add to the mechanics of the core design are generally removed to keep the flow consistent. It happens in movies all the time. That is when we see the deleted scenes and think, yeah that should have been in the movie and we really dont know how much of the perception would have changed with them included.

But i can see them wanting to really pack it in but realistically they couldnt. If you are intending to make a story worth multiple entries then you MUST hold back and put the effort into what you will be putting in. Saving some for later and then capitalizing on that. Not to mention new ideas to add to that surpluss of content.

I think they did a great job.

[Takoulya]

Master Chief's... struggle? He's like a bloody robot the whole series; no emotion at all. That's why I loved ODST and Reach, because it actually felt like you were part of something bigger, not some invincible messiah of death.

[JellyJelly]

@Takoulya - Invincible Messiah of Death. That would be the most epic title for a game ever.

[Anon1974]

And that's why I hated Reach. I liked being the "invincible messiah of death" as you so eloquently put it. I hated just being a nameless grunt running from point A to point B (I know, I know - he probably had a name. I just can't recall anyone from that game)
And the end of Reach was just the final insult. Yeah, I like playing games to only get kicked in the nuts right at the end. "Thanks for playing! You fail!"
I really liked 1, 2 and 3 - but Reach for me felt like it was phoned in. No story. Same weapons we've seen in countless other shooters. What the hell?
And why were Scarab's suddenly deadly? I took out dozens of them as Master Chief. Let me at it. Oh, wait. You're going to crash into it? That's ok too, I guess. Wait, these things don't have ejections seats?

Ugh.

[The Great Melon]

I thought the ODST and Reach were the most enjoyable. I couldn't really ever get into the Halo trilogy because Master Chief nearly a demigod. Sure the story was epic, but what do you expect when you have a cyborg that was destined to make the Covenant quiver in fear. The characters in Reach and ODST struggled more and the losses and sacrifices kept things interesting. Spartans aren't gods packing assault rifles and armored suits.

While I never got into the story, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the single player. I have gone through Halo 1, 2, and 3 numerous times because of its enjoyable co-op. Whatever Bungie makes next we are sure to get a great co-op and mulitplayer experience that will never go stale.

[NewMonday]

Halo 2 is actually my favorite, didn't like the cliffhanger but set-pieces were the best.

[WANNAGETHIGH]

lol..what a head line.

[Blaze929]

Halo's storyline just kept going downhill after the first. For some reason, they were just never able to capture the same magic Halo: Combat Evolved had as far as story mode went.

Multiplayer kept getting more amazing after each game though. Maybe that's what split their attention when Xbox LIVE launched.

Halo 2's story was....well, I can't remember it sooo yeah there you go.

IMO, Reach by far is the worst Halo game...period. Story, gameplay, multiplayer - all that.

[Unicron]

I have to agree. I love the mythology/universea ton, but hate where the "story" went. Especially with the lame promises of "finish the fight" that were never really followed up on.

[kaveti6616]

I loved Halo 2's story. Because it had a dual storyline, it allowed the player to understand the Covenant culture through the eyes of the Arbiter. Plus, the Quarantine levels and the Library level were legitimately creepy because of the flood infestation. We got to see how the flood infected the elites and turned them into those ghastly forms.

I never understood why anyone complained about Halo 2's story. The single player campaign had way more variety in terms of locations, enemies, and weaponry.

Halo CE actually sucked compared to Halo 2 in my opinion.

[The Great Melon]

@kaveti6616

While I agree that there was more variety in the enemies, locations, and weaponry, that doesn't necessarily translate to a great story. I hold Halo CE's story higher because their sense of struggle and urgency to prevent the activation of Halo. Master Chief in the first game didn't feel as godlike either. Halo 2 felt like "oh yeah, we have Master Chief -- problem solved," so the Gravemind was created to balance out the absurdly powerful spartan. It was just hard to connect with the Master Chief in 2 and 3.

[Cmpunk]

they spelt , ""halo is a disastrous flaming turd of failure"" wrong

[Jocosta]

Just a tip, if you want to be taken seriously, regardless of subject matter, do not include the word "turd" in the title, mkay?

[Grip]

what is that even mean ?

[SixZeroFour]

if you are asking what turd means, its basically the immature way of saying feces

if you dont know what feces is, you should
a) look feces up in a dictionary
or
b) look turd up on urbandictionary

[MidnytRain]

It's OXM; people already take them seriously.

[dirigiblebill]

Just a tip: you lose the right to pontificate about the headline shortly after you click through to the comments thread, alright chuck?

[Jocosta]

For your info, the title turned me off to reading the article at all, put 2 and 2 together genius.

[chriski333]

oh god yes it was

[HaloSpartan]

To me it was good and i actually liked that ending.

[KillerPwned]

I wont say it was horrible but it was my least favorite one, I just could not get into the story but i still beat it and had fun. But i mainly just played online or 4 player split screen, had some crazy 30 minute fire fights in that game.

[joeyjoeyjoejoe]

I liked it...way better than halo 3 single player,......what a load of shit that was

[cervantes99]

I enjoyed Halo 2's story quite a bit and the ending made me eager to play 3.

I did not care for ODST or Reach's story as much because I liked being the "Demon" that nobody F's with as opposed to so-so soldiers that were pretty weak by comparison. Reach was better because your character was a Spartan, but they paled in comparison to the "The Chief". Maybe I just missed Cortana in Reach even though she was the basis for the story.

[marioPSUC]

I would like to see an ODST 2 game. I found it pretty neat idea playing as a normal soldier fighting against enemies that were much tougher than you. Playing as a Spartan is cool but I liked seeing how the normal guys fought in ODST, though ODST's are tougher than just regular soldiers as well.

[TheDivine]

Yea im with you. I loved odst. It had a very metroid prime feel to it, very lonely and desolate. The music was haunting and beautiful. I liked being the normal guy alone in a destroyed city trying to stay alive and find clues to what happened. The way everything glowed was cool and i always felt very weak and kind of helpless. Thats what made odst and reach great to me, the hopeless feeling and reach had the best ending ever imo, EPIC. I would love a sequal to odst especially if they added cover and stealth into the mix it would go well with bieng weak and outnumbered.

[Infernostew]

I remember seeing the e3 first gameplay vid of Halo 2 and that stage looked so awesome. Then when it came to the retail release they cut most of the stage out. I was so disappointed. All in all Halo 2's single player wasn't as bad as most people make it out to be. The only problem was that it didn't really come close to touching what Combat Evolved did in terms of story.

[da_2pacalypse]

I'm glad they can admit it at least. The other Halo's all had pretty good campaigns in my opinion, specially 1 and reach.

[A7XEric]

I'm glad Bungie can at least admit it. If only they hadn't had to scrap their engine and the e3 demo had made it into the game. The e3 2003 demo is so legendary, and no game even Halo 3 nor Reach, has had a level that epic.

[Fishy Fingers]

Probably the low light of the campaigns. But Halo 2 seemed all about the multiplayer and pushing Live (which it did very well).

[Eiffel]

Well the singleplayer was rushed, what did you expect? Even Bungie have been open about the lack of polish they saw in Halo 2, despite it's shortcomings, the multiplayer sealed the deal and made the game a positive.

[T3MPL3TON]

Lol.. some one watched that video and took only the headline out of the entire thing. It wasn't just in the video that Bungie said they thought Halo 2 was bad. Interesting that someone would start a topic with news about a game that came out for the original Xbox.

[kaveti6616]

I don't get how Bungie is disappointed with Halo 2. It had so much to offer in way of level design, enemies, atmosphere, music, and dual storyling progression.

Now Halo Reach on the other hand was disappointing. During interviews prior to Reach's release, Bungie employees said that they had added an element of mystery to the game. When the game came out and I played it, I was shocked to see that the element of mystery they had added was not mysterious at ALL, not at all. Basically the mystery was "Who killed all these villagers?" Well, duh!! The covenant did, obviously. This is a prequel. We already know everything.

The player is supposed to be a party of the mystery. They can't just be watching their ignorant characters trying to solve a mystery, which they solve just a few minutes later.

Halo 2 was great. Halo Reach was not.

Halo 2 had great mp maps. Halo Reach did not.

Halo 2 made the player feel like a badass. Halo Reach made the player feel like he was fighting for nothing. Especially since the player already knows that this is a losing battle and that his character will not actually be remembered or talked about in future games.

In conclusion, regardless of how Bungie felt about Halo 2, it was still a lot better, in my opinion, than Halo Reach.

[Raider69]

Halo CE was de beginning of an epic journey that evolves story driven greatly to the three chapters,but i have to say that Halo 2 is just amazing in the way it shows the player the covenant side using the eyes of the Arbiter.The way the Arbiter story links with Master chief is very well script . And for people that Master chief dont have emotions just because he does not speak i call this BS. Watch the FMV theres obvious emotion been shown in the way Master chief and Cortana interact on the missions its very obvious.He does not need to speak to have emotions,the actions Master chief made to Cortana orders are a form of showing emotions its all there in the FMV .

[Psychonaughty]

Speaking soley of the campaign, Halo 2 was truly dreadful and was my biggest entertainment disappointment ever alongside the Matrix sequels. The MP on the other hand was good, but it's a shame mp is only a side distraction for me though.

ODST on the other hand, now that is how you do a campaign, truly excellent and memorable and cruely underrated.

[Gran Touring]

I liked Halo 2's campaign for the most part, the first four levels up until Delta Halo were the ones I enjoyed the most. I just didn't see the point in making us follow the arbiter. I mean, you spent all of Halo:CE fighting the covenant; the Elites the more dreaded of the bunch, and in Halo 2 you're suddenly supposed to sympathize with their situation... didn't really make much sense.

[spicelicka]

thats a bunch of bullshit, halo 2 was the first halo i played so it has the most memories for me even though halo 1 had a better campaign.

[VictoriousB13]

I thought Halo 2's campaign was excellent. A lot of awesome set pieces and an interesting story that introduced the most badass character next to Master Chief -- The Arbiter.

[NewVegasTroop]

chief brute: arbiter what you say is heresy!!
arbiter: is it? tartarus....the prophets have betrayed us!
chief brute:.....NO arbiter the great journey soon will begin..and the brutes..not the elites should be the prophets escort!!!

(EPIC BATTLE)

this is the most memorable part from halo 2, IMO halo 2 is better then halo 1

[laxbeav]

I thought Halo 2 was a really good game. I feel the story was good, the levels and the designs were really good, and I enjoyed playing as the Arbiter. While I felt the story was good, I thought they didn't do the best job telling it. I remember when I first played and thought to myself, "Ok what is Gravemind?" I wasn't too impressed with the final boss fight with Tartarus. I would have rather finished the game playing as Master Chief too. The series focuses on him and his campaign to save humanity. I did like the ending though, but that's because I really like cliffhanger endings. In my opinion, Halo 1, 2, and 3 all have great stories but could have done better in telling them. Loved all the games though, had a blast playing. I liked ODST and Reach, but I'm sticking with the main trilogy for this.