As I settled again into the day-to-day work routine at IGN to start out 2024, it randomly occurred to me that Halo 2 will flip 20 years previous later this 12 months – particularly, on November 9. That bought me reminiscing about one of my favourite video games ever – and possibly my single favourite multiplayer recreation ever – just a little bit early, so I assumed I’d put these ideas to digital paper and share them with you as a result of, fairly frankly, there’s by no means a nasty time to speak in regards to the glory days of Halo 2 multiplayer.
I am so grateful I bought to be in the appropriate time and place in my life, professionally and personally, to have soaked up that have to absolutely the fullest. I used to be 24 with no partner, child, or canine, thus permitting me to spend most of my free time taking part in Halo 2 multiplayer on Xbox Dwell. My life could be very completely different now, in an equally good way, and I wouldn’t want it any otherwise. And as additionally been identified to me, in 2004 there was no Name of Responsibility as direct competitors to your on-line gaming time, to not point out the shortage of social media, smartphones, and Netflix. Halo 2 was The Factor™, however it will’ve earned the lion’s share of my consideration even when these different issues had existed again then.
Should you had been too younger for Halo 2, I promise you it was THAT GOOD. Not simply the sport, which was unbelievable (extra on that in a bit), but in addition the Xbox Dwell ecosystem. You would ship recreation invitations with voice messages, which was neat. Even higher, get together chat wasn’t a factor but, so folks COMMUNICATED in-game. Proximity chat was used as a complement to group chat. Which means you would broadcast to simply your group or to anybody round you, which had each enjoyable and strategic functions. And its then-revolutionary “digital sofa” on-line foyer and matchmaking system was mild years forward of something we’d seen on console and even PC, making it simple and enjoyable to get video games along with your mates. Not solely was there not a single dud [map] in your entire lot, they had been all really superior.
However of course, probably the most wonderful on-line infrastructure on the planet (which Halo 2 had!) wouldn’t have mattered a lot if the sport wasn’t unbelievable. And holy cow did Halo 2 ship within the multiplayer division. It took every part nice about Halo 1’s multiplayer and constructed on it. Extra autos, improved physics, dual-wielded weapons, the power to board (learn: carjack) enemy autos, and a group of maps that I might put towards any on-line multiplayer shooter in historical past. Bungie’s map designers had been completely within the zone for Halo 2: Lockout, Midship, Ivory Tower, Ascension, Zanzibar, Colossus, Burial Mounds, Waterworks, Basis, and the outstanding remakes of two nice Halo 1 maps: Beaver Creek and the evolution of Blood Gulch, identified in Halo 2 as Coagulation. Not solely was there not a single dud in your entire lot of them, they had been all really superior. That Bungie allowed simple customization of the maps within the kind of tweaking weapons, autos, and many others. allowed each Halo 2 match to be no matter you wished it to be.
Halo 2 in 2004 actually was an ideal storm. In actual fact, if I may journey again in time to re-experience any gaming “eras” which can be gone without end now, it will be the Halo 2 Period (i.e. the 12 months between its launch and the Xbox 360 launch) and the Rock Band Period (2007-2009 or so – however that’s one thing to jot down about one other day…). Sure, these video games nonetheless exist and are nonetheless playable, nevertheless it isn’t and may by no means be the identical. So blissful early 20th anniversary, Halo 2, I don’t suppose there’ll ever be one other multiplayer recreation such as you.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, in addition to our month-to-month(-ish) interview present, IGN Unfiltered. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.