Halo 2

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1

So I bought and beat Halo 2 last night, without using the strategy guide. It took two pots of coffee, one pack of cigarrettes, a half quarter of kind bud, and one pizza. We gotta 36in flat screen TV with surround sound. The experience was nothing short of being there.

I proclaim myself to be the master at Halo and am creating this thread to give tips and advice. Any questions?

Some things to keep in mind:

Be liberal wth grenades, you don’t have to save them. If your attack is aggressive when you kill a Grunt or an Elite(the only classes that carry plasma grenades), you might likely retrieve two grenades as opposed to one or none. I think the program runs like that. What you get from a kill depends on your efficiency and precision during the kill. The game rewards you for being a skillful player in that respect. Also, if you are at a part where it would seem logical to use grenades, most likely there is a cache nearby. For example, when fighting a Hunter, who is a large and slow moving target, you would want to stay away from him and attack from a distance. Look around between obstacles and in rooms for a cache. There is probably one very close.

Enemies don’t seem to notice frag grenades as much as plasma grenades, obviously, they are not glowing. But you notice how quickly the enemies will jump away from a grenade if you throw it, but only if they see you throw it. If you are entering a place where the enemy is closely grouped together but doesn’t yet see you coming, hide for a moment and get your bearings. You can probably sneak around to a point where you could throw one frag grenade and kill five or six soldiers. Stealth is mandatory, and stay squatted down. Do this by pushing the left joystick down and hold it.

If you are moving about and walk over a battery powered weapon like a Needler or a Beam Rifle, for example, it will not appear unless it has a greater charge than the one you are carrying. So always switch weapons for one that is highlighted as the blue X button.

When moving with a team, you should have a plan for each soldiers position. Notice that in an average squad such as six soldiers, each soldier is carrying a different weapon. There will be a sniper, a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a couple assault rifles. You can walk up to a squad member when he is squatting stationary and take his weapon. Let’s say you wanted to make an aggressive attack and run into a scene, but you wanted to be covered by your men. Set each member up with a sniper rifle and he/she will automatically stay at a distance and prover cover fire. Likewise, giving each of them a shotgun or assault rifle will make them run into the scene and attack directly, while you cover them with a rocker launcher or sniper rifle. One thing I have noticed is a disadvantage. If you equip your squad with sniper rifles, they won’t necessarily seek higher ground, and this will limit their shot potential. Though they will stay ay a distance if they can.

Protect your team mates. Find the guy with the weakest weapon and stay near him during combat. He’s most likely the first to get killed. Your squad will move with you throughout the entire level if they don’t get killed. Use them to your advantage and arrange them according to your plan of attack.

With Halo 2, you can take ememy craft from them. While near a vehicle you will momentarily have the option to take it. Buts its only a split second. You will have to press and HOLD the blue X button. But keep in mind that an Elite, if knocked off a Ghost of a Banshee, will try to get back on by knocking you off. Get away quickly and shoot him, or else. Taking a tank is simpler. But don’t drop a grenade into it if you plan on taking it. You’ll destroy it.

If you see aa enemy squad, you should try to take out the Red Elite first. They are the most powerful and the rest of the squad will fight to protect him. In other words, if you are engaged in a melee attack with a Red Elite, the rest of his squad will focus on shooting you and ignore everyone else. So try to snipe the Red Elite from afar, or kill the rest of the squad first.

When using a energy sword, wait until the sword is glowing red at the tip before you swing it. Press R to make the lunge attack, a swift single stroke. Kills most in one swipe.

I find the sniper rifle to be better than the beam rifle. For one thing, the beam rifle will reveal your position. Its shot glows. The enemy can get a bearing on your position if you are using it. Also, it over heats. You can’t fire two rapid shots in succession without it over heating.

If you are hiding behind a box or something and trading shots with an enemy, don’t take your next shot from the same side you took your previous shot from. He will be expecting you to poke your head out again at the same side as before, and get the jump on you.

If you are approaching a stonghold you should take as many sniper shots as you can before getting close. Use your scope or binoculars to find patrolling units around the area. A head shot is a kill. A body shot is not necessarily, depending on the constitution of the enemy target. Elites, Hunters, Brutes, often require more than one or two shots in the head. The idea is to clear as much of the area as you can before entering.

Use your motion detector radar. If you are pinned behind a box and you know the enemy is on the other side, don’t let him get behind you. Watch the red dot movement on your radar to determine which side to face when expecting him.

These are just a few things I noticed while playing. Try the game on legendary and you will see how this game requires stratagy and patience. You can forget about the Duke Nukem days. He wouldn’t last a second in Halo.

You don’t just run in there blazing and brag if you win. Chances are you lucked out if you won.

2

I thought of something else. When you are playing the Arbiter character you have the ability to camoflauge yourself. It only lasts for about ten seconds and requires about twenty seconds to charge back up for another use. I don’t use it when engaged in a melee battle. Why? Because if I am about to be killed I will use it then, so they don’t see me while I’m healing. Then I go back in.

Aha!

3

The more I play Halo 2, the more I think it’s no-where near as good as the old one.

You spend about a quarter of your time in damn near invulnerable vehicles (the scorpions and the wraiths, as long as you’re a half decent shot), most parts of the game you can run past without the enemy having any chance of you doing serious damage, e.g. you can just run round the back of all the guards for the Prophet, jump on him, 6 wacks, bye bye.

It feels, I dunno, a bit too setup. Recently I’ve gone off the mentality of ‘needing’ to kill all enemies in FPSs and with Halo 2 it’s too easy to run around enemies or just get someone else to kill them. I’ve not really played it on the harder level settings yet as I always play it with my house mate who says it’s too hard, maybe that’s the problem.

I think it’s the flood battles, you only come across one sequence where they just keep coming (and you can get out of shooting a single bullet or taking a single hit by going straight to a piston) , the rest are almost always setups where they’re always in the same positions. There’s no sense of desperation in this one.

Another annoyance is that there are huge chunks of the game you sit about doing nothing, e.g. those stupid underwater lifts, the boring gondolas, the idiotic piston slides, both sequences where the big four limbed robot appears (forget its name now), well you get to jump on the first one, but you can wipe out that lot inside it with 4 rockets. And plenty more I can’t think of now.

And what is the point of the banshee level, which you can skip by going straight to the landing zone to the right instead of following big mumma ship around?

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a damn good game, it just definitely does not deserve the 10/10s it’s been getting, it’s nothing like when you first played Half Life (the old one, not played the new one yet) or Quake 2. It’s just too damn small.

Anyway, did you really prefer the human sniper, I far prefer the beam one, just to keep on sniping constantly and there are far more around. I think it fires faster than the human sniper as long as you regulate your shots so they’re not too fast. The carbine rifle’s also pretty good once you get used to it, I avoided it for almost the entire of the first time I played through the game.

Oh, my tip, in levels past the first time you’re the arbiter, the sentinels spawn from the walls, you can shoot the spawn points to make them stop. Or just run past those parts of the game to the next piston as it’s a pretty boring sequence. Oh! Not another Sentinel!

4

I disagree. There are twice as many weapon options, the possibility to wield two weapons simultaneously, and the ability to commandeer vehicles. Not to mention you get to play the Arbiter character. You must be kidding.

Well, how far from that is reality? There’s not much that can destroy a tank. Do you expect a plasma pistol or a ghost to do any damage? Let the Banshees get a few good shots, you’ll see how vulnerable the tanks are. Other than that, only heavy artillery will do any damage.

Not on legendary level, my friend.

It is. Try having him set his ‘look sensitivity’ at one. This makes the crosshairs easier to control which will enhance his aim.

Oh come on. That’s part of the plot, dude. The story line moves gracefully because of these segways. I mean the gondola ride is only a minute or two, relax and enjoy the graphics.

The Sentinel Major, or ‘Enforcer,’ as the Covenant call it.

That’s part of the mission, chief. You’re supposed to defend the Phantom(infantry drop ship) from the oncoming Banshees. Obviously you don’t have to because the Phantom cannot be destroyed by the Banshees…but you’re not supposed to know that, see. Part of the fun is not skipping those objectives and finishing them, don’t ya’ think?

The sniper rifle has a twenty shot capacity while the beam rifle only has sixteen. The sniper rifle is generally a more powerful gun. I can kill an Elite with one head shot, while the beam rifle often requires two. And I mentioned before that the beam rifle will reveal your postion. Try it and see when you are faced with enemy snipers.

Yes and no. The human Battle Rifle is its rival, and for good reason. It delivers quick spurts of three bullets as opposed to the carbine’s single shot. Although the carbine is more powerful, it can be useless when fighting Drones and other airbourne enemies. You need a hail of bullets to be affective, or be a damn good shot.

What I really like about Halo is that the enemies are smart. They don’t just walk into walls as if there were a glitch in the program. Many ‘first-person’ games have this problem.

Yeah, its in the difficulty level, Matt. Playing on Legendary is a completely different game.

5

Why are you wasting your time on Halo2! When Half Life 2 is out!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

6

On the X-Box?

7

Yes, I believe that it’s ment to get released on that system, as it’s just a PC.

8

I dont know why everyone acts like the addition of weapons and the inclusion of the ability the commandeer vehicles makes the game better. A game is made better by expanding upon the plot, heightening the level of realism, or implementing old ideas in creative new ways. I have to agree with Matt, Halo is better than Halo2. Of course everyone knows Nintendo owns you.