- mrtyman123
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- Exalted Member
Developmentwise, nobody can say Halo 2 was the "best" game. But I WILL say it was sure as hell the most fun.
Bungie and the community and all my friends always -blam!- about how unrefined and "poorly made" it was, but in reality, that's what made it so good.
If the game was "perfect", there would be no map glitches in the campaign. No superjumps, no scarab guns, no crazy cool launches, nothing so awesome that the thousands of fans could make sweet YouTube videos of them and speculate about them for hours. If it were "perfect", the player skill vs the amount of fun had vs the K/D ratio would be homogenous. Everyone would have a good time, everyone would get a good amount of kills, it would be all fine and dandy.
But especially for the twelve year old noob -blam!-es who can't -BLAM!-ing play a video game and just run for the rocket launcher and overshield and drive warthogs like -blam!-. Same goes for the players who take the game seriously. They would get a satisfactory amount of kills and always try to stragegize for maximum effectiveness.
Since it wasn't "perfect", we never had those noob -blam!-es or wannabe 1337s in our games. The noobs got frustrated and left, and the stat-blam!-s got r@ped because there's something unquantifiable in the way Halo 2 was made, some flaw that made the game so unpredictable. Maybe it was the weapon balance that was "terrible" or the SMG starts. Who knows? But the stat-blam!-s couldn't find a footing, got frustrated and left, the noobs got r@ped and left, leaving people who really don't care about stats and ranks and stuff and who really just want to have a good time. And that's what made the Halo 2 community so great.
The game wasn't perfect.
And because there was no theater mode, only the dedicated and professional modders could make machinima, making all the machinima AWESOME.
Because the skulls were so crazy -BLAM!-ing hard to get (and because there was no YouTube), it made getting them take some real skill and was truly rewarding.
And because the rocket launcher had lock-on for all vehicles, it kept the vehicle-blam!-s away, and it made the rocket-blam!-s save their rockets for when they were needed.
And because the sword was so new and exciting and because it ran out of battery so fast, and because it was instakill in an enemy's hands, it made it a worthwile challenge to try and kill the sword elites instead of just running or just killing them with an overpowered weapon.
And because of the BXR and other combos, it made those who truly loved the game and who were truly good at it able to show their skill and improve beyond the average player.
All these things and more were "fixed" in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, so now we have the stat-blam!-s back, we have the noobs back, we have the terrible machinima, we have the WAY easy skulls, we have the homogeneous skill level and K/D, we have all the weapons fully "balanced", we lost all the crazy cool YouTube vids and speculations, and all that sort of stuff.
Somehow all these imperfections and unrefined parts of the game really actually came together and made this game -BLAM!-ING AWESOME!
See, because the gaming industry and the Halo engine has made what some would call "progress", it has actually become worse. Which is why I believe that Halo 2 is, always was and will always be the number one best video game in existence.
Such a shame it's never EVER going to be the same as it was in its Xbox LIVE prime. Red and blue flags everywhere should be hung at half-mast.
And to all you who think Halo 2 should be remade with better graphics, I LIKE Halo 2's visual styles. They're so dark and dramatic without super high-contrast explosions or neon-colored elites running around.
And to all the trolls out there, you are ENTITLED to your opinion, but you don't have to whine and argue about EVERY LITTLE THING someone says!