- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
OK. This is gonna be in depth.
So, details on Halo 2... where to start. Before I get to the game, I'll talk about the event. We met the other team from California in the lobby. After that, we saw the E3 walkthrough of all the new features. Then we all had to go to a makeup artist, and get all done up. This was around 12:30. We started playing right after the makeup went on. Then they took about 2 1/2 hours of pictures with different setups and plenty of playing and messing in between. The offices were badass; trophies all over, Halo kiosks everywhere, foosball, couches, and crazy halo 2 stuff (including a lifesize master chief sporting 2 SMGs). We met a bunch of different people from Bungie, Microsoft and Mountain Dew. Everyone there was wicked nice.
We were set up on 6 45"-50" (give or take) high def plasmas with Bose surround sound. Giant bean bag chairs and couches to sit on. After all the photos, we ended up playing non stop for about 3 hours. I'd say all in all I had about 4 hours of intense play, and maybe an hour of tinkering around.
So the game begins. The majority of the games were Single Flag CTF in Zanzibar. It was the E3 build, or at least something close. One team starts on the beach, the other in the base. The team from the beach tries to steal the ever so important flag, and run like hell back to the beach. We also tried out slayer one time. The build we played had most older game modes on it, and 4 modes simply listed as *classified*.
The rules of single flag CTF (for those that don't know) are as follows: One team starts in the base and defends the flag, the other team starts on the beach and needs to get it. The timer starts at 3 minutes. The attacking team has 3 minutes to get the flag back to their little base on the beach. If the flag is scored before 3 minutes is up, the round ends. If time expires the round also ends. Then the sides are switched. Attackers become the defenders, defenders become the attackers. This alternates in 3 minute rounds until one team has captured 3 flags.
When it came time to pick a stage, we tried to pick something other than Zanzibar, and it would show an overview picture, but would not tell a name or details, and they weren't selectable. I didn't witness this first hand, but one of the players in my group, Conrad, told me about it after we left. I wish I coulda seen some of the other stages pics. Anyway, there is a 10 second start time, and then the action begins.
Some notes about Zanzibar: This stage is sweet. The people on the beach start opposite a large wall. There they can pick up the 2 ghosts or Rocket Hog. The beach players then proceed through a giant wall, with 5 or 6 different paths and weapons waiting in the wall. About 200 yards in front of the wall is the Giant windmill, with the Plasma sword cubby. On the left of the windmill is a raised platform which holds the Sniper Rifle. On the right side is a tower which is two stories. On the second floor, a small platform leads to the base of little bridge dealy. You actually have to blow up a connector on the bridge to make it accessible, giving you full access to the plasma sword. On the other side of the windmill is four pillars, and inside rests the levels only shotgun. By the sniper platform, there are 4 rocks with Rocket ammo in between. Past the rocks is a closed gate into the middle of the base. The front of the base is two stories. There are machine gun turrets on the top of either side. There are two doors if you approach the base from the front offset to the left and the right. By both the doors, there are both explosive and non explosive crates and barrels. On the far right, there is a large ramp with scattered rocks that leads to an entrance on the second floor. Outside the base on the second level, there are two recessed doors that lead to a corridor. From the corridor you can access the level with the gate opening switch, the upper level gallery above the flag room, and a staircase to the flag room. Finally, the flag is stationed between four giant pillars. Thats pretty much it. Without opening the gate, its wicked hard getting a vehicle in the base. None of us could do it, at least.
When play starts there are a few things you'll notice right away. The health bar is different. There is a shield, with no health blocks under it. Once the shield goes down, you don't know how much health you have left. I personally liked it. Bottom right was the old HUD. Nothing new. OK, other new features. At any time, you can click the right stick, and zoom in either 2 or 5x. With any weapon. Problem is, unless the weapon has a scope, you have to zoom back out to fire. Grenades bounce a lot more. Jumping is a LOT higher, and LOT farther. You can quite easily jump right over a ghost. The jump/duck technique still works for higher jumps. Another change is how close you are for a melee. You need to be much, much close to melee. Another change which worked out for the best. Also, carrying the flag has changed a bit too. Gone are the days of grabbing the flag, hopping in a Ghost, and streaking back to victory. When you have the flag, not only do you walk about half as fast, but you can't pilot or man any vehicle or turret. The only way we found to move faster was jump, throw the flag, and chase it down. From the pause menu there is a lot of stuff people would have killed for last game. Team swap, entirely edit your control scheme, set handicaps, and so forth.
OK, so here's a funny story. While I was playing there were all these onscreen indicators. They were kinda like the green arrows in Halo, except above the arrow there were these weird boxes with symbols in them. Occasionally they would change color. There was one indicator, with giant red X which appeared to me to be an indicator which showed where a weapon that was dual wield compatible weapon was. It took me about 2 hours to realize that it was actually my teammate indicators. They boxes were all green, and the symbols inside the little box matched the symbols used to customize characters. The arrow was green when the player was not in a conflict, yellow when the player was firing a gun, and red when the player took damage. The red X remained for a short bit to tell you where your teammate had fallen. It's funny because, typically wherever a teammate died, there was a weapon there to dual wield with, so for a long time my theory made sense. Anyway, after arriving at the hotel and telling my buddies how long it took me to figure it out, they all told me that all day that had been wondering what the indicators were for, and none of them could figure it out. They are sweet though, and not as distracting as they sound.
One of the biggest changes, which affected everything, was the destructible environments. While not every wall was able to be obliterated, walls in high action areas and strategic positions were definitely not permanent. Grenades, rockets and gunfire were all good ways to turn your buddies hiding spot into an early gravesite. The cement barriers around the turrets melted away under fire, and most of the cement around high action areas blew apart at the constant grenades and rockets. I actually think that you might be able to sustain damage from the debris. One time, I guarding the flag when a rocket hit the pillar above my head. It did a little bit of damage at first, then a second later, I died and my body was under a few large chunks of rock that had fallen off the pillar. My death looked like the same animation getting run over with a warthog looked like. I might have died from being shot, but I'm fairly confident the falling cement did me in. Besides that, the exploding canisters littering the level proved to be interesting. A few times I found it better to shoot the canisters as someone approached them on Ghost, only to watch as they all went up in a fireball. This proved far easier than tagging someone on a turbo ghost. There were crates and barrels around the level that didn't explode, but they could all be moved and used for cover.
Vehicle damage is Bungie's gift to me. When we LAN at my house, I'm the guy that always -blam!-es about someone waiting by spawn points in a ghost. Or by teleporter drop-offs. Or really doing anything in those crazy indestructible vehicles. Things have changed. In our build, you had two Ghosts, and one warthog. If you lost them, good luck carrying the flag back on foot. All the damage took place in the spot it was hit, as promised, and it's sweet. I cannot express the joy of watching my rocket obliterate my friend Chris and his precious Ghost. That sight alone was completely worth the cost of the trip. A close second was watching some poor sucker get in a badly busted warthog and start driving, only to have a secondary explosion wipe him out.
Another gameplay change was the approach to the flag. The defending team did not return the flag simply by touching it. There was a set time until the flag returned to the base. The twist on this is a little status called a contended flag. Anytime a player of the opposite team was near the flag, the message "The flag is contested." would appear at the bottom of the screen. As long as the flag was contested, the timer for the flag return would not go down. So rather than worrying about the keeping the flag in from returning when it was 5 feet way, you could focus your attention on wrecking the suckers trying to stop you. It worked out very nicely. Also, you have to hold X to pick up the flag, which took some getting used too. Also, if the attacking team had possession of the flag in the last 4 seconds, the round timer would freeze. It would only start counting again when the flag was no longer contested. This made for some crazy last second struggles.
Next: Vehicles, Weapons, and neat observations.