Halo 2: A Legacy That Has Stayed Legendary

November 9th, 2004, is a day that will go down in history forever. Bungie released a monumental game for the Xbox called Halo 2. Little did anyone know at the time, but this game would change the gaming industry and even pop culture forever. Twenty years later, that impact can still be felt today. 

Blowing Everyone Away

To discuss Halo 2’s impact and legacy we need to start at the beginning, the build-up to the games release. Halo 2 was announced in September of 2002 and the general gaming community could not be more excited. This was only a year after Halo: Combat Evolved came out, a game that revolutionized and popularized first-person shooters on console. Along with a great story, amazing gameplay, and a well-written cast of characters, it was no wonder why Halo was considered the Xbox’s killer app and put the brand on the map. So a sequel to a game with that prestige, saying people were excited was an understatement as for the midnight launch thousands upon thousands of people waited outside essentially any store that sold video games so they could get a hold of Halo 2. When Halo 2 was released it was met with critical and commercial success, selling 2.4 million copies and making $125 million within 24 hours of release. It became the highest-grossing entertainment product of all time at that time, breaking records and receiving a score of 94/100 on Metacritic and a 9.4/10 from Gamespot. Halo 2 was a smash hit and there’s no denying it. Not to mention its amazing soundtrack, featuring songs from iconic bands, such as Breaking Benjamin, and popular American guitarist, Steve Vai, helped create this game’s rendition of the legendary Halo theme song. However, the game did have some controversy surrounding it, mainly with the “Smoke and Mirrors” essentially faked demo at the expo E3 2003, the game’s nightmarish development and insane amount of crunch that was later revealed, and of course, the incredibly challenging legendary campaign difficulty just to name a few. 

No Regrets

Nonetheless, this has hardly tainted the game’s legacy as many still hold its campaign and multiplayer in high regard. Speaking of the campaign, the story and plot are incredible, and despite the insanely hard difficulty, Halo 2 is still widely regarded as having the best story in the entire franchise. From its expansion into the world of Halo to being able to play as the Arbiter, a member of the Alien Covenant that the player barely knew anything about except for a few minor details because they were the enemy in the first game. It follows up immediately after Halo: CE as you see the consequences that Master Chief/the player caused. The player destroys the halo ring at the end of the first game and the arbiter is punished for not keeping it safe. You also get to see the inner workings of both factions including humanity and the U.N.S.C. how they work, the chain of command, and the similarities between the two. How Lord Hood of the UNSC echos the leader of the Covenant the Prophet of Truth, how the Arbiter is the Covenant’s super soldier/vessel for the player equivalent of the Master Chief, and how Sgt. Johnson is the companion to Master Chief much like how the alien brute, Tarturus, accompanies the Arbiter on his missions. You also get to familiarize yourself with the character traits and goals of all the characters, allowing you to better understand them and, for some, relate and grow attached to them. Considering the incredibly quotable dialogue and a compelling and complex plot with many twists and turns as well as character development (specifically for the Arbiter), it’s no wonder why a majority of people hold the story in such high regard. That is on top of the changes and expansions made to the multiplayer which include the weapons, sandbox, movement, gameplay, health system, new and revised enemy types, maps, and even the updated and jaw-dropping new highly advanced in-game cutscenes. This game set the bar for not only future Halo game campaigns but also how you properly make a video game sequel and build upon the original. 

Match Starts in 5..4..3..2..1 

While Halo 2’s campaign was incredible, it was through multiplayer that Microsoft and Bungie ensured that they would change the gaming world forever with just two words: Xbox Live. At the time of Halo 2’s release, online multiplayer didn’t exist for consoles, and it was something that required a good amount of technical know-how and specific equipment to achieve on PC. But with Halo 2, all you needed was a decently priced online subscription, the game, an ethernet cord from your Xbox into your router, and boom you were good to go. This meant you could now easily talk to and play with anyone across the world, leading to friendships forming that would last forever and most importantly, would never have been possible before. On top of that, Halo 2’s multiplayer was a huge step up over Halo: Combat Evolved due to multiple factors, chief among them being building upon and improving the original. Halo 2’s multiplayer was just like its campaign, a masterpiece. 

The impact Halo 2 had on gamers and the gaming industry as a whole would continue long after the eventual shutdown of the original Xbox Live servers in 2010. The game’s online matchmaking systems and multiplayer mode would go on to influence popular extremely commercially successful franchises of today, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. Thus demonstrates Halo 2’s influence as it showed the world back in 2004 that First Person Shooters not only can work on console and have online multiplayer but are extremely popular and profitable. There are millions of people all over the world who play multiplayer games on their consoles, and it’s all thanks to Halo 2. 

The Spartans Rise

Halo 2 would also go on to influence the creation of console Esports, as well as popularizing the entirety of esports in North America. This is, once again, thanks to the game’s refined multiplayer and state-of-the-art online functionality. Along with its addicting gameplay, well-designed maps, competitively tuned sandbox, fantastic smooth mechanics, and perfect skill gap. The game was incredibly easy to pick up but difficult to master making it extremely widespread but also hyper-competitive. This led to the start of many Halo 2 tournaments and eventually, the creation of Major League Gaming (MLG) an esports organization that ran Halo 2 on its circuit and served as a professional league along with allowing the games to be broadcast on television throughout the U.S. Thanks to the path that Halo 2 paved, esports is now an extremely popular multi-million, almost billion-dollar industry in North America.

Remembrance

To commemorate Halo 2’s 10th anniversary, 343 Industries along with Microsoft Studios, Saber Interactive, and Certain Affinity released a high-definition remastered version of both the game’s campaign and multiplayer called Halo 2: Anniversary. As a part of the game Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a game collection which includes the original Halo trilogy, along with the side game Halo 3:ODST and sequel Halo 4 for Xbox One in 2014 and later for PC in 2019 with the introduction of the prequel Halo Reach were added to the collection. Since its release, Halo 2 is still a highly regarded game, as many consider it not only to be the best game on the original Xbox but also one of the greatest First-Person Shooter games ever made. To commemorate the game’s 20th anniversary, 343 Industries (now Halo Studios) released a new weapon based on Halo 2’s iconic dual-wielded SMGs, Halo 2-themed paid cosmetics, a Halo 2-themed multiplayer playlist with classic gameplay, and remade iconic Halo 2 maps in the Halo Infinite map creator, forge to the most recent game in the franchise, Halo Infinite. As well as a playable version of the 2003 E3 Halo 2 demo and two cut levels and content from Halo 2’s campaign to Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Two decades later, it is safe to say that this game still retains its crown and that its influence can still be seen throughout the video game industry. Bungie did nail or rather “stick it” with this masterpiece of a game all those years ago. 

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