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Developer: Bungie Software
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Genre: FPS
Region: NTSC
Format:
Release Date: 05 Jul 05
User Rating
7.7 (6 votes) -
- Bungie unveils an expansion pack for the celebrated Xbox FPS, which has enough features and values to extend your gaming experience.
Overview
Who reading this has not played or heard of the game Halo 2? Well, if you are one of the few who have not, it's a very popular and fast paced first person shooter that places you in the role of Master Chief, a marine who really means business. Well with the success that Halo 2 had both online and offline, the game now has a new Multiplayer Map pack to enhance your Halo 2 experience. So is this map pack worth the upgrade? Read our full review to find out.
Gameplay
This is one of the more difficult reviews I have ever had to write because it deals with an expansion that just caters for a very specific group in mind. So therefore writing this was a little harder then many may expect. So the big question on most of your minds still is, is this a worthwhile upgrade?
Microsoft has released this multiplayer map both on Xbox Live (for half the price), as well as via the CD that does give you a few extra features. Those features include some behind the scene footage and things of that nature, but nothing overly major to make you want to go run out and buy the CD over the download.
The packaged deal includes nine new maps, which is a very welcome addition since we all know that you can only have so much fun with those original maps. Well nine maps is a great start at getting some new fresh air into your Halo 2 experience, but are these nine maps all that great?
You can see that Bungie went for a few things to try and make this a worthwhile purchase. First off the new maps definitely try to be much more creative then the maps that we saw in the original game. Each level you can see has a clear cut purpose and a really distinct feel to it that was not found in the original Halo 2. All of the maps have these little changes to the game that really make it even more enjoyable and you can see that there was a lot of time and effort put into the creation of these maps.
With that being said, I must admit that none of these maps really made me that much more excited to play Halo 2. If you have played Halo 2 and are going crazy wanting more maps, you're going to like these new nine maps. But if you're like me and more of a casual player, you will probably just find these nine new maps to be a nice new breath of fresh air but nothing more exciting then that.
Graphics
Halo 2 when it was released a little while back, was in my opinion, one of the best-looking games to hit the Xbox. Now quite a few months later, these map packs once again reminded me of how great this game looks. This map pack does have some improvements from the original game, but those improvements are very minuscule. You really have to look for this added detail to really notice any real difference.
With that being said Halo 2 is still a great looking game, which holds true even when we're getting closer to the next generation Xbox platform. The definitive title to showcase the graphical power of the Xbox.
Fun Factor
Although you are probably getting the impression that I didn't have much fun with this map pack I have to say that it was because of this map pack that I got excited to play Halo 2 again. In fact for whatever reason it has been quite sometime since I have played the game and now I have found some new maps in this package deal that I really had some of the new maps that I just fell in love with and I can truly admit that you will be seeing me play some of these new maps for quite some time to come.
Overall
Well for $9.99 online I would definitely go with the Xbox Live download if you don't care about the extra features, which for me weren't all that necessary. With that being said, if you are a fan of Halo 2's multiplayer, then go pick up this map pack. You're really going to enjoy all of the new maps that this game has to offer.
- Gameplay
8.0 - Graphics
9.0 - Fun Factor
9.0 - Overall
9.0
