Halo 2 Was Broken: How Bungie learned from it & made Halo 3

Halo 2 was broken. Two years later, has Bungie applied their lessons learned to its sequel?

Two years ago, 1UP published an editorial entitled Broken Halo: Five Ways Bungie Can Fix Halo 2. Speaking for the collective hearts and trigger fingers of legions of serious Halo fans worldwide, author Luke Smith laid out precisely what fans felt was wrong with the series' multiplayer elements and offered some constructive ideas for fixing it in future releases.

That hazy future is now.

[jackdoe]

They didn't really fix the broken narrative though.

[Bnet343]

does that even make sense and it's just your opinion not a fact.

[Lacarious]

it's a proven fact that the storyline is str8 garbage.

[Prismo_Fillusion]

in before fanboy comments?

(in my wildest dreams)

I wouldn't say Halo 2 was broken though...it just wasn't as much fun as the original.

[jackdoe]

I agree. The gameplay still felt pretty good. As I said in my above comment, my main beef was with the broken narrative.

[Prismo_Fillusion]

Yeah, the narrative had its problems. The single player campaign was still a hell of a lot of fun though. I couldn't tell you how many times I played through it - I don't even know why it was so replayable for me. Even playing on Easy or Normal being a freaking wrecking crew was as much fun as playing it safe in Heroic or Legendary. The story and dialogue were lacking though. The multiplayer, again, was a lot of fun; especially with 10-16 friends or online, but we still had more fun when we went back and played the original.

[Ri0tSquad]

glad to see they did more work perfecting the game then trying to make it look better then any other.

[Xi]

a dying breed, specially in this day of graphic wh0res.

[BloodySinner]

Bungie also needs to fix those damn melee attacks. I'm tired of players who happen to "jump" from meters away and kill you after riddling you with bullets.

On their screen, it would appear that they were close enough to you and finish you off. However, on yours... Read above paragraph.

Usually, whenever I check the replays, and zoom out, it shows the player punching thin air and you dying from the melee tack.

[wageslave]

Halo 2 95 / 100 on Metacritic.

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3 are TERRIFIC games in every regard. Sell well, still played and loved today, and were UNIVERSALLY PRAISED by the gaming press.

[Big Jim]

The Halo series is a retarted attempt at a space opera and it's target audience is 12 year olds. In fact, now that I remember all of those PINK vehicles and weapons, I think the Halo series was targeting gay 12 year olds. The "grunts" and their stupid little kid voices made me cringe every time. The graphics were sub-par, the voice acting was horrific, and the story was idiotic. The fact that the Halo series got high scores from the critics just proves that all those gaming magazines are getting money hats from microsoft. Damn that stupid series.

[The BS Police]

1. Those PINK vehicles and weapons.

"Actually, the correct colour you are refering to is purple, which symbolizes "Royalty"."

2. I think the Halo series was targeting gay 12 year olds.

"Seeing as how you are acting like a homophobic 12 year old, I can see that Halo has not reached that target audience yet."

2. The "grunts" and their stupid little kid voices made me cringe every time.

"You fail to understand comic relief/humour, nor do you realise that since Grunts breath methane through an air tank it causes thier voices to sound like that."

3. The graphics were sub-par

"In my humble opinion the graphics always impressed me, let alone the gameplay still kills any other FPS game to date."

4.the voice acting was horrific.

"Keep telling yourself that, because bar none Halo 1, 2 and 3 have some of the best voice acting in any game franchise to date."

5. and the story was idiotic

"Like your idiotic comments? I think not."

6. The fact that the Halo series got high scores from the critics just proves that all those gaming magazines are getting money hats from microsoft.

"The fact is your just making idiot assumptions with no merit because you are blinded by your own damn fanboyism."

7. Damn that stupid series.

"Damn your stupid posts."

[Big Jim]

The BS Police- If you think Halo 3 has good graphics and voice acting, then clearly you have never played Bioshock. If you think Halo 3 is funny then clearly you have never played a Grand Theft Auto game or Portal. As for me being a sony fanboy, I constantly get called an "xbot" because I constantly insult Heavenly Sword. As far the pink weapons in Halo go.....I could be wrong about that because I'm color blind. I get pink and purple wrong all the time. So never mind.

[The BS Police]

I ahve played Bioshock, and yes the voice acting is great in it, but the game did nothing for me, Halo has huge environments, brilliant lighting, and the voice acting (combined with the soundftrack) brings out real emotion, Bioshock really doesn't do that.

I will; admit I ahve not played portal, but I have played three GTA games and Saints Row and I know those game are funny at times, but to say halo isn't funny is jsut stupid.

Sergeant Johnson in all three Halo games has some of the msiot funniest lines in videogames I ahve ever heard that are not complex, but are straight forward.

Alos, not oncve did I call you a Sony fanboy... but I did call you a fanboy.

[mccomber]

is that even as a decent gamer, when dropped into a map or mode that I don't know at all it's incredibly hard to learn because I just spend the whole game getting killed. Sure you can learn as you go, and it just takes a lot of practice and sticking it out, but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating along the way. I've said it before about the game; it's built entirely for the people who eat, sleep and breathe Halo.

I'd love to see a set of bungie.net films that basically walk a player through the maps and game types; with the theater and film options, this shouldn't be too hard for them to do, and would make a big difference for people trying to learn to compete in the brutal multiplayer.

[Daxx]

...Or you're just a noob.

Me being a level 39 I pity you but Halo 3 is much more noob friendly than Halo 2.
http://www.bungie.net/Stats...

[mccomber]

yeah, that's basically what I was saying. You've played well over twice the games I have in Halo3, and played about 2437 more games of Halo2 than myself. Assuming each of those games lasted an average of 10 minutes, you've played Halo2 and 3 for nearly 18.5 days straight. That's right, I'm a geek as well as a noob.

Like I said, this is a game that caters to people that have played a lot of Halo. And with the theatre options, there's an any easy way for Bungie to help those of us that haven't out so we can make for more interesting cannon fodder for players like you.

[andy001]

I am not sure they fixed Halo 3, as it is still broken. Many reviewers gave it high scores because of the overall package, not because it was fixed.

Epic will be fixing Halo 3 when Unreal Tournament is released.

[Daxx]

Halo 3 is much more balanced than Halo 2.

In Halo 2 some weapons were nerfed, like the needler. And others were to powerful. The noob combo was a bit much and the sword was pretty much unstopable. Plus people in Halo 2 "BXR"ed like there was no tomorrow. Also the SMG was the weapon you started out with in Halo 2's multiplayer and you always had to rush and find a stronger weapon or find something to duel wield with the SMG. But in Halo 3 I can now go the entire game with just the AR.