Napalm Riot

Intro
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Halo 2 is the sequel to the great game Halo: C.E., and it contains many of the same elements that made the original so good. It expands on multiplayer, perfecting what Halo had started, but unfortunately it loses a bit of the greatness in the campaign that Halo accomplished.

Graphics 9|10
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This game has great graphics, coming out towards the end of the XBOX's lifespan. The characters are very well modeled, the weapons looked great, and the scenery was awesome. There were some great views of earth, and the new Halo ring, and especially of the Covenant holy city, High Charity, where a lot of the story takes place.

Sound 10|10
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Martin O'Donnell returned with Michael Salvatori to continue work on the Halo soundtrack, and were joined by some famous other groups such as Incubus and Breaking Benjamin. The score continues the mark of excellence set by the first Halo game and is marvelous. In addition, all the other sounds in the game were well placed, with some more funny dialogue to be heard from both the marines and covenant.

Controls 9|10
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The game maintains the same controls from Halo C.E., and they are very well balanced. It is easy to run around and shoot, and it's also easy to exploit the controls to go looking around outside of the levels, one of the most fun things to do in multiplayer (although, not competitive multiplayer, because that would be cheating >.>).

Story 10|10
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The Halo story continues in this game, as you've made it back to Earth (you'll have to read the books to find out how ), right ahead of the covenant. A ceremony is interrupted by a Covenant invasion, and it's up to you to stop the Covenant from destroying Earth, activating another Halo, and releasing the flood into the galaxy. In addition, you play as a Covenant Elite known as the Arbiter, which helps to gain an insight into the Covenant hierarchy.

Fun 10|10
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This game is even more fun on multiplayer due to the addition of xbox live play, but the campaign suffered a bit. For multiplayer, it has one of the best collection of maps I've seen on a game's multiplayer, and is just as fun as it was in 1. The campaign on the other hand is shorter, the enemies are not quite as satisfying to kill as in C.E. Overall, the game is very fun though, and is definitely worth playing.

Replay 10|10
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The multiplayer aspect of this game is very fun, and easy to repeatedly play for years. As I type this in 2008, about 4 years after it came out, there were still over 44,000 games played in the last 24 hours (according to Bungie's website bungie.net). While the campaign may not be as replayable, the multiplayer definitely makes it a 10 out of 10.