[quote]The thing that surprised me in Halo 2 were the boss fights. I just did not get into them.[/quote] [quote]Yes, they sucked. Halo 2 seems to have a lot of "failure of imagination" moments, and this is one of the worst, along with bringing back the Flood.fact that the Flood magically returned[/quote] The boss fights added a new type of strategy to the game and made it more interesting. And brinign back the flood was great idea. And the flood didnt, magicaly return. The flood is present at all the Halo rings and other instalations like the gas mine. [quote]Also, I think it is harder to immerse yoruself in the fight, from a human perspective, when you play half the game as an alien. This is especially true given that the entirety of Halo 1 tells us that Covenent (especially Elites) are heartless monsters. Removing the mystery about the Covies also removes the mystique. This really blurs the line between good guy and bad guy.[/quote] [quote]I know that blurring the line between good and bad is supposed to be all cutting edge and kewl but it's just tired now. Sometimes it's more tantalizing to hint and conceal than reveal[/quote] Well, now we find out in Halo 2 that they arnt heartless monsters. And thats great. Otherwise it would have been folowing the traditonal video game style where all the aliens are mindless kilers and we have to kill them. And its great that we finaly learn more about the covenant. All we heard before was about the humans, humans this human that, blah blah blah. Who cares, now its time to reveal the covenant and let them take the spotlight. [quote]Plus it confuses the hell out of FPS newbies when you get to the Arbiter level. In general Halo 2 is a terrible game to try and introduce newbies to gaming with. Nothing beats Halo 1 in this area, although Timesplitters FP comes close[/quote] No, Halo 2 explains well who the arbiter is and what has happened to lead to these events and Halo 2 is not a terrible game. [quote]Finally, playing as the Arbiter is essentially the equivelant to playing a WWII game as Himmler. The Arbiter is directly responsible for glassing all those human colony worlds, killing hundreds of millions of non-combatants. How the hell am I supposed to connect or empathize with a genoicidal monster?[/quote] Because he and all the others were being deceived. They were lied to by the prophets that the humans are the worst enemy out there and that they will be rewarded with the great journey to kill them and to prevent them from stopping the great journey. And the humans had no choice to defend themselves, and then later when the humans realized what Halo would do, they thought the elites and other would never realize the great journey would actually kill them all. But now, the elites, grunts and hunters realize the truth, they now have no reason to fight against the humans. [quote]If we had to play as an Elite, why the hell not make us the Heretic? It makes for a much better storyline, you still get the Covenant backstory, and the Heretic IS the Covenant equivelant of the Master Chief. He's also trying to save his people from destruction at the hands of the Prophets..[/quote] Because then we would end up getting killed by the arbiter and his squad. Besides, the arbiter is much more interesting to play as then a heretic. And playing as the arbiter opens up a much more bigger storyline [quote] I love Halo 2. Don't get me wrong. But boss fights and the points someone made earlier about big environments with few enemies are totally true. What's wrong with small confines and tons of enemies? If you think about it, the majority of Halo 1 is in tight quarters. This adds to the tension, and to the excitement. You have no escape. [/quote] [quote]It's awesome. I never felt that relentless heart pounding pressure in Halo 2. In fact much of the game encourages you to camp and snipe like a little coward. On Legendary you have no choice. Halo 1 you always had a variety of ways and means to finish any level, Halo 2 you're spoonfed and conveyered along. Just like Matchmaking. You Play Bungie's Way And Like It.[/quote] I hated the tight quarters and so did everyone else. You felt so confined and cramped. Thats why they created massive outdoor and indoor areas. And thers plenty of pressure in Halo 2, maybe you camp and snipe like a coward, that because you cant play well because you spend so much time playing Halo 1 with the pistol. Halo 2 allows a variety of fighting options and ways to finish the level Ive had it, im so sick of you Halo 1 fanboys coming here and trash talking Halo 2. We dont care what you think. We dont want to hear about Halo 1. We dont want Halo 2 or Halo 3 to be anything like Halo 1. Halo 1 is dead. Its now Halo 2 that is in the spotlight. This forum is for Halo 2 disscusion ONLY. Its says nothing about comparing why Halo 1 is better than Halo 2 and why it sucks. Go back the the Halo 1 forum and stop posting this crap.