That is an IGN opinion piece from Ryan McCaffrey, who labored at Official Xbox Journal from 2002-2012 throughout the authentic Xbox and Xbox 360 period earlier than becoming a member of IGN, the place he stays “the Xbox man.” In the run-up to Xbox’s twenty fifth anniversary, he’ll be sharing his recollections from the platform’s first quarter-century.
Again in 2004, Halo 2 was the most anticipated online game of all time. I was at the tip of the spear for Official Xbox Journal’s Halo 2 protection again then, which meant I had one of the most enjoyable alternatives a video games journalist can get: I was one of the first folks in the world from exterior of Bungie’s partitions to play the landmark sequel. And I did so in a storage closet.
This story begins again in 2002 with the original Halo 2 announcement trailer. I suppose many of us can collectively agree that it stays the single biggest online game trailer ever made. I nonetheless – nonetheless! – get goosebumps when I watch it. Grasp Chief calmly and coolly will get able to leap out of a spaceship in the direction of a Covenant cruiser hundreds of toes away (once more, in outer house), arming himself as alarms blare round him. Cortana, with real curiosity in her voice, asks, “What in the event you miss?” And the Chief, with out hesitation, solutions, “I gained’t.” After which he leaps out of the airlock and the Halo theme performs. I obtained chills simply typing that.
That trailer arrange about 18 months of tough ready. Halo 2 was delayed from its preliminary Vacation 2003 window to the following yr. To reassure followers there wouldn’t be one other setback, then-Xbox boss and grasp showman Peter Moore pulled off the unimaginable publicity stunt of “tattooing” the Halo 2 emblem and November 9, 2004 launch date to his bicep at E3 that yr. That very same E3, I went hands-on with Halo 2 for the first time, enjoying spherical after spherical of single-flag CTF on Zanzibar behind closed doorways at Microsoft’s sales space.
A pair months later, I flew as much as Bungie for a whole day of multiplayer. It’s most likely the most enjoyable I’ve ever had at a recreation preview occasion.
After which we get to September. November 9 was quick approaching, and again then video games needed to be finished when it was time to press them on disc and manufacture tens of millions of copies forward of the avenue date. Every thing was bodily, nothing was digital, and there have been no day-one patches for builders to depend on. Moreover, print magazines had lengthy lead instances – roughly two months. That meant that OXM needed to evaluate Halo 2 in September so as to have our evaluate on newsstands and in subscribers’ mailboxes in time for November 9. We’d labored the logistics out with Bungie; we’d get an unique evaluate (a commonplace follow again then), and in late September, our editor-in-chief Rob Smith and I would fly as much as Bungie to spend two days enjoying the recreation at the Bungie places of work.
It had already been a privilege to play Halo 2 multiplayer on two separate events main as much as this, and now Rob and I can be the first two folks exterior of Bungie and Microsoft’s partitions to play and full the feverishly anticipated marketing campaign. Holy. Cow. After we arrived, Bungie set us up on separate Xboxes in a storage closet (which, mercifully, had home windows) in order that nobody from Bungie might interrupt our vital journalistic duties, and most likely extra in order that we couldn’t hassle them. Rob and I every had headphones and we organized ourselves in order that neither of us might see the different’s display screen, lest one of us fall behind the different individual and peep a spoiler.
I don’t bear in mind how far I obtained on the first day, however on the second, the end line was in sight. The story had already shocked me – bear in mind, the Arbiter being playable was saved fully secret till launch, simply as the Flood had been hidden from public information previous to the launch of the first recreation – however what occurred subsequent got here perilously near being the most embarrassing second of my younger skilled profession. The marketing campaign had been constructing in the direction of Grasp Chief coming again to Earth and ending the struggle. When I took down Tartarus – as the Arbiter – I was so amped.
“Lastly,” I thought. “We’re gonna swap again over to Grasp Chief and have a loopy final battle on Earth!”
However as an alternative, of course, after Tartarus dropped, the credit rolled. I appeared round in confusion. I appeared over to see the place Rob was – I’d handed him a bit in the past, so he hadn’t encountered this “bug”. Sure, I genuinely thought that the credit rolling was a bug and that the final degree hadn’t triggered correctly.
I debated with myself. “Do I go say one thing to somebody?” I began to face up a couple of completely different instances, however someway managed to maintain my mouth shut and my butt planted firmly in my seat and I watched the credit roll. After possibly 20 or half-hour previous the level the place the credit ended and I obtained dumped again to the predominant menu, Rob accomplished the marketing campaign and certain sufficient, the identical factor occurred to him. He wasn’t fairly as shocked as I was, however he was bowled over for certain.
At dinner that evening, we someway managed to deliver it up with somebody from Bungie. I don’t bear in mind precisely what we stated or how we stated it, however I do not forget that we managed to broach the matter delicately. What I do vividly recall is that Bungie individual saying, “That is our Empire Strikes Again.”
We completed the journey by enjoying a ton of multiplayer the subsequent day and then, from the privateness of Rob’s lodge room, we debated the marketing campaign we’d simply performed and the rating we’d give it. Rob can be the one writing the precise evaluate – being editor-in-chief had its privileges, of course! – however I obtained to be closely concerned in the course of. We landed on a 9.7 out of 10, the highest rating the journal had ever given at the time, topping Halo 1’s 9.5 and the authentic Splinter Cell’s 9.6. (It wouldn’t stay the highest for lengthy – I awarded one other recreation a 9.9 the following yr.)
It’s possible you’ll do not forget that, years later, Bungie admitted that there was certainly a ultimate Earth mission deliberate, nevertheless it was lower so as to make the November 9 launch date. As such, Halo 2 didn’t a lot finish because it simply stopped. It’s the solely blemish on an in any other case unimaginable recreation that, in hindsight, has aged relatively properly. The parallels between Chief’s journey and the Arbiter’s was simply rattling good storytelling, and it had enormous moments like the Scarab struggle and the tank battle on the bridge, amongst others.
However thank God I by no means obtained up and instructed Bungie its recreation was damaged earlier than anybody else in the exterior world had ever performed it. Typically, the smartest thing you possibly can say is nothing in any respect. Anyway, I nonetheless love you, Halo 2. You’re my favourite one of all of them.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s government editor of previews and host of IGN’s weekly Xbox present, Podcast Unlocked, and a co-host of Subsequent-Gen Console Watch. He is a North Jersey man, so it is “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.