This does contain spoilers; for all you people that actually give a shit about the story I highly recommend that you don't read the single player section
Single Player
I'm still not sure why Bungie has been so adamant about not releasing info about the campaign. Did everyone really think the story in Halo was that good?. Do we all own the book and care about the universe? Halo to Halo 2 reminds me a bit of Riddick: Pitch Black had an effective, simple story; Riddick expanded on it and said, "Hey, there is a universe behind this story - take a look!". Some people dig it; some people don't.
Halo 2 will probably have the same effect.
Halo 2 has two story arcs that run parallel to one another to a certain event happens. There are a few "twists" - I guess - but it is bloody given away in the first cutscene, unless forshadowing is beyond you. I'm not going to spell it out for you, but I will hit you with it: SPOILER
.Spoiler:
That's probably my main problem with the story so far: the twists and turns aren't very original. In fact, they're completely ripped from other sci-fi ventures. The additional history of the bad dudes is cool, but Halo 2 has been playing out like RotJ so far. "But George, we already had the Death Star - we don't need it again!" But George doesn't listen, and his buddy leaves. I dont' know if something like that happened at Bungie, but retreading sucks.
In regards to pacing everything has been top notch so far. The level design on Earth has been uninspiring but effective, and the pace is excellent. There has yet to be a dull gameplay moment, and no level has repeated itself...yet. A particular moment on a station similar to that of Cloud City was most excellent. Though I'm not entirely pleased with the story, I'm enjoying how it is handled via gameplay, and that is the most important part.
Graphically the game is similar to Riddick with lighting and bumpmapping, with the artistic feel of Halo of course. After playing Doom III and CS: Source and what have you, it is hard for me to get excited about anything on a console, but Halo 2 looks purdy enough. It isn't a crazy ass jump though. I feel if people go in expecting the next graphical messiah they're going to be disappointed. But everything is nice and clean and streamlined, with a solid framerate.
Sounds are bloody awesome. Top notch here. It is hard for me to allude to what exactly everything sounds like; kinda like describing a T-Rex roaring in Jurassic Park. Who the hell knows what it sounds like, but dammit, it sounds right. All the alien weaponry have beefed up sounds; Ghosts and other alien vehicles just sound great. Really cool stuff.
And the music; man, someone realized that one of the reasons why Halo was so effective was because of the dynamic soundtrack, and Halo 2 completely outshines the original. The soundtrack is genre extensive and always appropriate. More great stuff here.
To conclude for now, Halo 2 is excellent. And it is different. Die hard Halo fanatics will more than likely be upset with Halo 2. Jumping feels different, there is no fall damage, grenades have a different arc, the pistol sucks, etc., but just because it is different doesn't make it bad. This game has been hyped to hell for some reason and it simply cannot deliver on its enormous expectations, but it does deliver a solid FPS. Just don't expect the second coming.
Feeling lazy right now; I'll brush up on multiplayer later, but if anyone has any questions feel free to field them.
