Halo 2

From the moment the shooter exit Halo The Xbox (2001) does not subside disputes about what it is: a bloated soap bubble or a really outstanding game. Halo opponents give convincing arguments at first glance: with such a publisher as Microsoft , And it was possible to make a hit from a dimensionless advertising budget from anything, especially since there were few good games on Xbox. This position has the right to exist, but it is only partially true-with the proper budget, you can sell dummy games for a long time. However, such a trick is possible only with projects designed for the most massive, illegible and most disagreing audience like fans of hunting simulators. Shooters are not the genre where you can sell air. The competition here is very high, and for the most part people play in them who know what about what. Of course, they can be fooled by advertising, but the forgery will quickly be disclosed and then nothing will help. If you look at the Halo indicators, we will see that it has been held in the sales charts for years, not only on Xbox, but also on the RS with good equins. The soap bubble would not achieve such results.

What happened

To begin with, we refresh the memory and recall the events of the first Halo. The disposition is as follows. Between people and carpets, the all -alien races alliance, there is a war. It has been going on for many years, and luck is by no means on the side of humanity. Nevertheless, the Covenants have not yet been able to detect the land, and so that this does not happen, the UNSC command (United Nations Space Command – the UN space troops) is developing the so -called The Cole Protocol. Its essence is that, with the threat of detection of land and other worlds inhabited by people, any warship should destroy all databases, navigation maps and AI, and in the most extreme case, self -destroyed. For the same purpose, the military strictly banned the escort of the captured ships of the carpets to the inhabited planets and return to their bases with a direct course-it is first necessary to perform several distracting hyperproductive jumps in random directions.

The game itself began with the fact that after a series of such jumps, a warship of earthlings called Pillar of Autumn found himself in an unknown area of ​​space next to the strange object of the ring -shaped form (it will subsequently find out that this is Halo). After the attack of superior carpets from Pillar of Autumn in the direction of the ring, a rescue capsule with the main character on board is discarded by the special forces master of Chif (the code name Spartan-117), dressed in ultra-modern armored vehicles. Before leaving him, artificial intelligence is hooked in his head Cortan. Pillar of Autumn, meanwhile, falls to the surface of Halo, and part of its crew, led by the commander, is captured.

Further it turns out that the ring is a powerful weapon and the ancient race built it as the last salvation from the infection of The Flood. After a long adventure, Master Chif, on the advice of Kortana, blows up Halo and removes. The last scene: the camera, moving away from the ship, shows how the Spartan takes off his helmet, but his face still remains behind the frame. What the Savior of mankind looks like, we never recognized.

Despite the destruction of Halo, the second part begins with not the most optimistic news. Covenants still find the ground and attack it. Breaking through the defense of earthlings, they rush into the vicinity of the city of New Mobas, which in Kenya. But the capture of the planet is clearly not included in their plans-instead, the flagship of aliens makes a jump into the hypermrospatity near the New Mobasa, thereby destroying the city. A few seconds before the jump, the UNSC ship with Master Chiff on board manages to attach to him. Upon arrival at the place, our heroes find another ring in front of their nose – Delta Halo, it is also Installation 05 (the first ring was called Alpha Halo or Installation 04).

Meanwhile, in the camp of Alienes there is a demonstration trial over a military leader who allowed Alpha Halo’s death (the second main character, his storyline develops in parallel). It is declared a heretic, deprived of all ranks and regalia and branded before the eyes of thousands of fellow citizens. But immediately after this, the hierarchs call the unclenched commander to himself and in a private conversation admitted that the process was designed for the public, and they themselves, of course, do not consider it a heretic. Hierarchs are prescribed by an arbiter (a special agent intended for special, most important tasks) and send with a command of special forces to pacify the true faiths who are hidden at the station near the destroyed Installation 04. In fact, these heretics know what other carpets do not know, but hierarchs are silent about this. Later, this circumstance will lead to a full -scale civil war between different groups of carpets, and the referee itself and other representatives of the elite (these are such lizards of a noble species) will conclude an alliance with people.

Perfection and simplicity

Plot plot, but they love Halo primarily for gameplay. And for a reason: it is very interesting, thought out and, most importantly, versatile action. Unlike many other games, there is no one outstanding detail on which the whole game would be built, it is well literally here All.

First of all, it is very simple (in the sense of game mechanics, not the difficulty of passing), an unloaded shooter. There are almost no puzzles and running around in search of scutures, there are no mini-games. There are not even running in the first -aid kit for the first -aid kits – Energoshchita acts as Lifebar: if the indicator is close to zero, just sit in the shelter for a couple of seconds, and it will recover itself. There is only the main thing – a continuous, incessant action. Moreover, the action, without exaggeration, is a first -class.

This is also a very tactical shooter. Not in the sense that the flight of each bullet is calculated here by dozens of parameters, but in the fact that it is very similar to a real battle, at least as we usually imagine it. Unlike Brothers in Arms With his far -fetched tactics, you don’t have to command anyone here, but you yourself instinctively You behave as you would behave in a real battle: you go from the flanks and into the rear, you advance and retreat to make a break, change your position.

A good shooter creates a variety of game situations, and usually all of them are directed by developers, but in Halo there is no such need – the game itself regularly generates them.

Well, at least enemies: smart, emotional, every variety with www.nadcascasino.co.uk its own character. Grants (infantry of the lower level, usually like dirt) make a lot of noise, but it is worth filling up the strongest in the detachment, how they take to flight. Elites, aristocratic lizards, strong and insidious. If they are pretty to get them or very wound, they are able to sink in earnest and sometimes continue to shoot on the corpse, even when their enemy has long let out the spirit (just from anger). Brutes, eraseing bears and long -standing rivals of the elite, dull and prefer to go ahead. Fight with these comrades, unlike grants and elites, is not so interesting – they are too strong to enter into open clashes with them, and this affects the dynamics. Stronger than Brutes, only The Flood falls out of the general nomenclature of enemies. They have no brains and take them exclusively by the number. Fighting with them is completely uninteresting, and they somehow do not pull on the role of the All-Galactic threat.

In addition to enemies, Halo has a very successful weapon: it is perfectly balanced and well felt. In the first part, the weapon was generally perfect, in Halo 2 – a little worse, but still better than in most other shooters. The famous machine gun with an indicator of cartridges replaced it with a simplified modification with less lethal force (why it is not clear), several stupid trunks were added to the carpets. The energy sword is magnificent, but its charge ends too fast. Grenades, however, are used as intensively as before, and fall out of each first corpse, so that there is no deficiency in them. Taking this opportunity, we will once again give honors to the inventor plasmogranate, which are glued to any surfaces, including enemy asses: without them, Halo would not be halo.

With technology (in the presence of jeeps, tanks, hovercraft, as well as banners – aircraft of the carpets) is the same story as with weapons: it is easily controlled and behaves exactly as you expect from it – it is impossible to get enough. Banshi were especially successful: on the one hand, they fly quickly enough so as not to cause irritation in the player, and on the other, slowly enough to remain maneuverable and convenient to manage.

New and not yet forgotten old

Halo 2 was the first game, fully using game capabilities Windows Vista and under any sauce that does not recognize other operating systems. This is expressed in the following.

Firstly, the game is not necessary to install, it can be launched directly from the disk-however, it will be loaded a little longer. This is, without a doubt, a revolutionary change: you do not need to clutter up the hard drive with gigabytes of gaming data, you do not have to wait for a tiring long installation.

Secondly, in Halo 2 you can play not only with the help of a mouse and keyboard, but also on the Xbox 360 gamepad. This is done rather for those who have already played Xbox 360 and are used to the control there, because on the keyboard the layout is already comfortable. The only complaint is that the switching of the weapon was now hanged on Q (it used to be on TAB), and grenades were assigned to the Tab itself. At first it is very annoying – it’s hard to get used to. In the multiplayer, it is better to play on the keyboard – on the gamepad everything turns out slower.

Thirdly, immediately after the launch of Halo 2 connects to Live , an online system, originally designed for Xbox 360, but now available on RS. If you have a Xbox 360 and you connected it to the network, then you already have a ready -made account, it remains only to log in. If not, you have to create a gamertag.

There is another nuance on the Xbox 360 with Live: all services are available to players with free (Silver) subscription, except for the network game, and to play multiplayer, you need to draw up a paid account ($ 50 for the United States and 60 euros for Europe). In the Halo 2 RS version there is also a division into Silver and Gold, but the rules are more liberal. You can play on the network on a free account, but the Quick Match button will not be available. Why this is done – it is obvious: it is not accepted to take money for multiplayer in computer shooters, and make it Microsoft paid, it would hit the game sales.

In general, the release of Halo 2 only under Vista is a solution in some way strange. It is clear that Microsoft It is necessary to somehow stimulate people to acquire their operating system, but … to promote new technology using the technology of the old? Halo 2 came out in 2004 – is it necessary to explain how unpresentable it looks now?

Orientation to the “whist”, among other things, also cuts off a significant part of potential buyers. The operating system is not a new prefix, people are not particularly eager to buy it. So if Halo at one time was one of the main bestsellers on the RS, then Halo 2, most likely, will be more modest. And it’s a pity – this game has aged externally, but not internally.

In Windows Vista, a separate folder is highlighted for games, which is called “Games”. The games themselves are not installed there, only icons appear there, system requirements are displayed (not in the usual form, but the form of numbers, which, in theory, should be more understandable to users, but in fact they are even more confused) and age ratings with explanations. The ratings are given for parents so that they can limit children’s access to games with blood, violence, obscene vocabulary and so on.

Reigracy – Yes

Cool plot – Yes

Originality – No

Easy to master – Yes

Evidence of expectations: 80%

Gameplay: I.0

Graphics: 6.0

Sound and music: I.0

Interface and management: 8.0

Waited? One of the best shooters of 2004 reached the RS to become one of the best shooters of 2007. This game is an old body, but a young soul.