If I might time-travel again to any gaming second, it could be the discharge of Halo 2 again on November 9, 2004. I’ve by no means in my complete life, each personally and professionally, skilled such hype and anticipation within the run-up to a significant sport launch – after which in some way additionally seen that sport truly stay as much as all of it. However Halo 2 did! It was the long-awaited (and delayed) sequel to the very motive the Xbox established itself within the console area at all, and thus it carried the load of your complete Xbox world on its shoulders. Should you had been in or across the Xbox group in 2004, you little question bear in mind it. I used to be fortunate sufficient to cowl Halo 2 for Official Xbox Journal earlier than, throughout, and after its launch, and so I believed I’d take this particular anniversary second to share just a few behind-the-scenes reminiscences from what’s, to me, the only biggest Xbox sport ever.
Masking Halo 2 Earlier than Launch
The primary time I noticed Halo 2 operating – kind of – was its then-jaw-dropping and now notorious E3 2003 behind-closed-doors single-player marketing campaign demo. I say “kind of” as a result of the demo Bungie confirmed by no means made it into the ultimate sport. But it surely was consultant of what we might anticipate from the sequel, together with twin wielding weapons and boarding (learn: hijacking) autos. They performed it stay within the room for us, and I went again and noticed the demo just a few occasions throughout that E3 week. Visually, it was beautiful for the time. And the aforementioned pair of latest gameplay mechanics appeared delectable. Like most who noticed it, I couldn’t wait to play it…
…However wait I might for a whole yr extra. Halo 2 made its playable debut at E3 2004, with its November 9, 2004 launch date actually (*2*). Whereas not on the present flooring, media members with appointments might play a spherical of single-flag CTF on the Zanzibar map behind closed doorways. I bear in mind a few issues: first, I used to be floored by the way it regarded and felt the primary time I put my hands-on it. Boarding an enemy automobile was an absolute thrill, and the gameplay was a lot extra refined than what we’d spent each single day at 5pm taking part in at OXM with Halo: Fight Advanced.
Simply this week, Halo 2 lead multiplayer designer (and architect of the groundbreaking “digital sofa” on-line matchmaking system I’ll speak extra about in a bit) Max Hoberman instructed me this little anecdote about Zanzibar: “We deliberate this and executed on it in report time in preparation for E3, after we discovered that we had been going to have to hold the present, and we did not have something we felt was spectacular sufficient.” Mission achieved, Max.
Evidently, I politely begged the Microsoft PR crew to sneak me in for just a few extra classes all through E3, and I gladly devoured up each second of hands-on time with Halo 2 that I might. I used to be hooked.
Reviewing Halo 2
By advantage of the lengthy lead occasions that month-to-month magazines have (to not point out day-one patches not likely being a standard factor again then), I discovered myself at Bungie in late September of 2004 to overview Halo 2 for Official Xbox Journal, alongside my editor-in-chief, Rob Smith. Rob pulled rank and truly wrote the overview (I’d have executed the identical in his place), however I received to come back alongside for the journey. The Bungie crew gave us our personal tiny workplace – it was extra of a storage room, actually – the place they arrange two Xboxes and two TVs.
We had been there for 3 days, with the primary two being devoted to the marketing campaign. Clearly that meant we received to expertise the play-as-the-Arbiter shock earlier than anybody else did – and couldn’t speak about it for weeks! I ended up ending the marketing campaign earlier than Rob did, and, I child you not, I believed the credit rolling was a bug. Absolutely the final degree was presupposed to have began as a substitute! It’s a shaggy dog story now, however I virtually embarrassed the heck out of myself by telling Bungie I’d hit a bug. Fortunately, I didn’t, and naturally we later discovered that the final level was cut because the development team ran out of time. As an alternative, three years later Halo 3 would choose up the place Halo 2’s monumental cliffhanger left off.
The multiplayer classes had been merely a blast. Getting to tear by means of each one of many now-classic multiplayer maps – plenty of them which hadn’t been revealed at that time – was an absolute deal with. Actually, one of many then-unknown maps was Coagulation, a remake of what was arguably Halo 1’s most well-known/in style battleground, Blood Gulch. Rob and I lobbied Bungie president Pete Parsons to allow us to speak about Coagulation within the OXM overview, which was going to succeed in subscribers earlier than the sport got here out. We compromised: we might embody it, however it could be in a sealed fold-out web page that you just needed to bodily reduce to entry. Naturally, we assumed everybody that picked up the journal did simply that.
On the finish of the go to, Rob and I deliberated in his resort room. We had been each miffed by the marketing campaign’s sudden cease, however however strongly felt that it deserved the best rating OXM had ever given: 9.7 out of 10. It beat out the earlier prime rating of 9.6, given to each Halo: Fight Advanced and the unique Splinter Cell.
Halo 2 Is Launched
Within the final first-world drawback, the weeks between spending three days with Halo 2 at Bungie and the ultimate launch of Bungie’s superb sequel had been agonizing. Gaming-wise, all I might take into consideration was taking part in it once more. And when November 9 lastly got here, the OXM crew and I performed each. Single. Evening. This isn’t an exaggeration. Whether or not it was matchmaking, non-public matches, or a mixture of the 2, Halo 2’s elegant Xbox Stay digital sofa system was the inspiration for hundreds of hours of enjoyable – again earlier than stay service video games had been monsters that demanded hundreds of hours of your time.
When the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Packs had been launched, it solely prolonged the enjoyable for a lot of extra months. Not solely that, each map was – this isn’t an exaggeration – superior. There have been no duds within the bunch. Bungie was merely at the height of its powers with Halo 2, and to this present day you’ll be able to identify a Halo 2 multiplayer map and I can describe it in nice element. This week, I requested Halo 2 multiplayer lead Max Hoberman (now the top of veteran developer Sure Affinity) to rank all 12 of the maps that shipped with Halo 2. He graciously did so – with a twist – telling me, “Here is a rating of my favorites, particularly from after we had been in improvement. That is how I bear in mind liking them, 20 years in the past.” And he left notes on every:
12) Basis. “We remade Thunderdome, a multiplayer degree from Marathon, and added it as an Easter egg, unlockable. I want we would remade Mars Wants Girls as a substitute – that was my favourite from Marathon.”
11) Colossus. “Gravity lifts are enjoyable, however this map by no means actually did a lot for me. I actually cannot consider a time I had a blast taking part in it throughout improvement. Apparently it was additionally superbounce loopy after we shipped, who knew?”
10) Headlong. “We slammed this in late, after the success of Zanzibar at E3. We felt we would have liked extra asymmetrical single flag CTF maps that supported autos and enormous groups. and had an enormous dynamic ingredient (the crane). It actually wanted extra time in paper design, and extra tuning, than we had been in a position to give it, so it was by no means my favourite.”
9) Battle Creek. “I felt we needed to remake the long-lasting Beaver Creek from Halo. Then working to enhance it was fairly a problem – eradicating ladders, and including teleporters behind the bases. I feel it labored out okay, however actually, I used to be already bored with it by the point we received it playable throughout improvement.”
8) Burial Mounds. “We actually needed a map that highlighted the ATV/Mongoose, earlier than we came upon it was reduce, and this was presupposed to be that map. We tried to salvage it, and it had just a few moments of enjoyable on base protection video games because of its excessive asymmetry, however it could have been a lot better if we would designed it for that. Because it was, it was nothing however untapped potential.”
7) Waterworks. “I preferred the ambition on this map, however I feel the simplicity of the bases and the shortage of canopy out within the open actually damage it. It is a straightforward candidate for enchancment, in my sincere opinion. If solely we would had extra time and assets! We had been a tiny multiplayer content material crew (simply me and [Halo 2 multiplayer designer Chris] Carney initially, then [Halo 2 multiplayer designer Steve] Cotton joined us midway by means of).”
6) Ivory Tower. “This map was a mosh pit of types, the place we examined out a number of Assault video games particularly, and that is what I recall most. However we had enjoyable Slayer and Oddball and different video games on it too. Plus I named it after our nickname for Marty’s audio area/workplace, which was a relentless sore level for him, so it received additional factors.”
5) Midship. “I designed this map for 2v2 CTF video games, Carney helped enhance it massively (Covey curvey!), and it took on a lifetime of its personal, particularly in aggressive circles. In fact it was at its greatest when it had extra gamers on it than it was initially concentrating on.”
4) Ascension. “A map that blends tight quarters fight with distance sniping and Banshees? Why not. This was positively a singular map, and whereas it had some points, I’ve very fond reminiscences of playtests on it throughout improvement. Plus [Halo 2 narrative lead Joseph] Staten and [Halo 2 animator John] Butkus went face to face on it with snipers each single day, on the kiosk, for at least a yr. They had been clearly having enjoyable.”
3) Coagulation. “Sure, this can be a remake of Blood Gulch, however we remade it for a motive. The unique was merely probably the most iconic huge open automobile sandbox, mildly symmetrical and with two bases in addition, for giant crew CTF battles. This complemented our smaller, tighter, no automobile maps completely. Plus I feel we did a very good job of staying true to the unique, whereas nonetheless enhancing it.”
2) Zanzibar. “We deliberate this and executed on it in report time in preparation for E3, after we discovered that we had been going to have to hold the present, and we did not have something we felt was spectacular sufficient. I doubled down on single flag CTF, with this devoted map that helps each shut quarters fight and autos, and plenty of of my fondest reminiscences in Halo 2 playtests had been on it.”
1) Lockout. “Our first and our greatest. The undisputed king. We performed this constantly all through improvement, and I by no means received bored with it. Ever.”
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of each IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked. Swords-only no-radar matches on Lockout are his favourite. Speak Halo 2 with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.