E3'2003: Halo 2 - First Impressions Preview

Funny story to tell before we get on to our opinions and impressions from the hugely anticipated Halo 2 demonstration. Seemingly on a ‘hired’ path of destruction around the Microsoft stand, Anna Nicole Smith complete with her entourage of PA’s and cameramen decided that she’d quite like to see what people were queuing for up to five hours to witness – either that or she’s a big Halo fan!<br><br>Queued up outside the theatre and standing in the VIP to miss the queues, we were a little concerned by Smith’s ‘celebrity’ demands to check out the film on her own; surely we couldn’t wait another 30 minutes even if it was Halo 2, we had a tight schedule to fit to. Whilst the Microsoft staff seemed worried about how to please her heavy demands and ensure no more riots were caused on the Halo 2 stand, smiles beamed across our faces when an unsuspecting lead designer at Bungie emerged from the theatre and refused her demands flat – there’s nothing quite like seeing a women scorned for videogames!!!<br><br>Anyway on to the demonstration - Halo 2 needs no introduction, so it’s straight on to what we actually saw. Opening where the Halo 2 <a href=http://www.totalvideogames.com/tvgadmin/content/moviedata/news/2304-0.wmv>announcement trailer</a> left off, we see the Master Chief aboard a jumpship above the East African Protectorate city of New Mombassa. As expected a degree of Halo 2 will be played on a war-stricken planet Earth, as Covenant forces begin their invasion; radio transmissions throughout the opening cut-scene filled us in with the details and it certainly wasn’t looking good - like all good action heroes step-up Master Chief and cue the music…<br><br>As the jumpship drops closer to land and the cinematic draws near to a conclusion, the game moves seamlessly into actual gameplay and boy were we in for a surprise. As the doors open the effect was quite simply like a movie, forget ‘cinematic’ and ‘movie-like’, this had it all and left us gasping for more; showing an unbelievable amount of action and chaos, Halo 2 captures the essence of war in a similar nature to the best war movies such as the opening D-Day sequence on ‘Saving Private Ryan’. A large degree of the effect is created through the sheer amount of scripted events that are occurring - limping soldiers helping others to walk, medics treating casualties on the frontline – however the effect is truly mastered through the obscene level of dialogue that was belching forth, you could hear soldiers talking about previous conflicts, radio chatter describing the battle from other locations, whilst another guided you to your first objective.<br><br>Trying to find the location of the Sergeant in command, the demonstration let us on to the next BIG feature set to impress everyone in a BIG way - destructible environments. OK the technology may not be new, however there was something different about seeing a whole building explode and collapse within the first two minutes of the demonstration. Whilst it’s still unsure as to how much this will feature in the game, Bungie have assured us that the final effect will be mind-blowing and that vehicles will also suffer damage – so no more indestructible WartHog’s bouncing around the environment.<br><br>The demonstration then focussed on the Master Chief as he attempted to dish out some covering fire from a sheltered location; using the scope on his machinegun to take pot shots at the Covenant forces below, the Master Chief chucked a grenade at a group of them, which grabbed a collective gasp of surprise as the resulting explosion scattered not only the troops, but also the debris and objects that were involved with the blast in spectacular fashion. Having dished out the dirt the Master Chief took the position at a fixed machinegun point; surprisingly the camera switched to just over the Chief’s shoulder and not the first-person perspective that we were expecting – the effect is truly fantastic and aptly displayed the visual improvements being made to the graphics engine.<br><br>The objective during the opening sequence appeared to be to take out a monstrous Covenant missile launcher that was dishing out some severe punishment; you wouldn’t have wanted to be sitting on the seat after us when we saw the Chief look up and check out an air-strike that had been called upon to deliver the knockout blow to the missile launcher. Once again staff at Bungie and Microsoft were being coy, so it’s not known at present whether you’ll be able to call upon air strikes or whether these are purely scripted events – either way we’re happy…<br><br>Having made the first strategic move, a helpful yet war-wounded soldier offered the Chief a second machine-gun to show off the second major new feature – dual weapons. The silence at this point was quite frankly amazing, as the Chief looked the business wielding two guns in classic John Woo manner. We’ve been told that both shoulder buttons fire the two weapons independently, offering the scope for some fantastic possibilities; however we’re unsure as to how you’ll throw grenades during these moments and whether you can wield two different weapons at once – our guess is that you’ll be limited to a handful of weapons that can be used in tandem and that you can’t throw grenades whilst wielding two weapons, however we’re almost sure that Bungie will prove us wrong.<br><br>Having impressed us with his shooting skills and sheer prowess, the Chief assumes a vantage point to witness two Warthog’s arriving just in time to crush a pack of advancing covenant troops. This aspect of the demonstration showed the enhancements made to the vehicles, as it is now possible for a computer team-mate to drive whilst the Chief hopped in the back and assumed the gunner position. From the demo this enhancement appears to have worked well, the driver tinkered on the edge of a platform to grant the Chief a better vantage point, stopping whenever the Chief needed time to take out larger covenant vehicles, crushing covenant troops under it’s wheels and even crashing to a spectacular finale when a Covenant troop jumped aboard and took out the driver!!!<br><br>By now we thought there was nothing else that could amaze us, however when the Chief knocked an enemy from an oncoming Ghost hover vehicle and jumped aboard it in a similar manner to stealing a bike in GTA: Vice City, we were left bewildered and actually doubting what had unfolded in front of us – surely it can’t be this good.<br><br>Taking control of the Ghost for the last few sections of the demo appears to control exactly as in the original; however it did leave us questioning the linearity of the ‘real-time’ demo as this led into the games concluding cut-scene, which featured the Chief involved in a high-speed chase atop of the hover vehicles – what would have happened if he never mounted the Ghost in the first place???<br><br>Taking severe damage from a gargantuan Covenant ship following the Chief from the rear, the cut-scene showed off an impressive piece of shooting as the Chief knocked out a sign which dropped down and destroyed the pursuing Covenant forces; once again it’s hard to decide whether you’ll actually be able to do this in the game, or whether it was simply knocked up to bring the demonstration to a suitably impressive climax.<br><br>Ending in a truly film-like manner, we notice the flashing ‘Highway Access Denied’ sign and closing doors that threaten to turn the Master Chief into a crash test dummy; sliding alongside the Ghost hover ship, the Chief narrowly scrapes through as he’s chucked off the Ghost and sent flying down the highway. Finally the cut-scene pans to an impressive shot of the whole city in flames, as Covenant pods drop from above and surround the Master Chief; encircled by a group of vicious Covenant Elite, the Chief makes a wry remark and switches one of his machineguns with a Plasma grenade – game on…<br>