Remembering Halo 2

April 14th, 2010 was the final full day that original Xbox titles would be supported using Xbox Live.  This means that games like Conker: Live and Reloaded, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, and of course Halo 2 will no longer have access online.  No updates, no DLC (downloadable content) and worst of all no multiplayer.  I figured that since Halo 2 is going offline for good, now would be a great time to give my retrospective on this 5 year old title.  I know this isn't a review, but it pertains to video games and to be honest, you don't have to read it if you don't want to. 

November 9, 2004 was the day that Halo 2 released.  My friends and I used to host LAN (Local Access Network) parties for Halo 1 and were obviously excited for it's sequel to land.  Aside from the N64's Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, console gamers never really got too much in the FPS department (at least, compared to computer gamers).  In fact, most of us never even thought of being able to connect 4 consoles and having 16 total players playing together at once.  But that's exactly what we did.  We'd pull out our ethernet cables, scramble to find our controllers, and pray that we had enough tvs big enough to support the players.  I actually met some of my closest friends through these LAN parties like Paul and Rico.  My friend Paul used to put his xbox in a backpack and take the bus from burton all the way to virgils house just so we could all play.  Many of the nicknames that we had came from Halo (*cough Sexy-Bob).  Sorry..getting off track. 

Now while Halo 2 released on the 9th, me and my friend Clyde actually beat the game on the 7th.  We went to a youth nite at Virgils house and one member of ours worked at gamestop.  He had access to an early copy and let us check it out.  After youth nite Virgil turned his xbox on and we played some four player split screen halo 2 for the first time.  We were so excited for the big (at the time) changes like dual wielding, riding the banshee, and the new weapons like the Battle Rifle.  I took the game home and beat it that weekend.  Of course, the cliff hanger ending had me pissed, but that wasn't the reason why we played Halo!  I returned the copy of Halo 2 to my friend and eagerly awaited getting my own copy.  In fact, me and two other friends went to the midnite launch at serramonte to pick our copies up (our first time doing that).  Halo 2 was epic and we spent days playing LAN parties...until Virgil got Xbox Live..

I remember me, Paul, and my brother going to Virgils house to hang out when Virgil showed us Xbox Live.  He put on one of those old flimsy mic sets and showed us how to play online.  I was so excited to play random people online and Virgil (original Xbox Live Name "HaloPrince415") signed all of us in.  We started playing against random people and we thought we were this amazing group who couldn't be defeated because of our many LAN party wins against anyone who played us.  I even took the mic from Virgil one time to talk smack against someone.  From that point, me and my brother were convinced that we needed xbox live.  Unfortunately, my family only had a dial-up internet connection and online gaming could only be supported by broadband.  Also, Xbox Live memberships cost money, which me and my brother had none of.  I don't know how but we convinced our parents to get broadband and my brother got a membership.  The xbox was in my brothers room (don't really remember why) and we would play online there.  I got an account also and saw my friends list grow with odd names like Crilloner415, ART Basick, and Fastestterror.  Eventually I began to grow tired though of having to huddle in his room and wait for an opportunity to play online so I invested in my own console and copy of Halo 2.  Finally, the brothers were both on live!

Many, many, many days were spent playing Halo 2 online.  Come home from school, play Halo 2.  Free time on the weekend, play Halo 2.  Bored and nothing to do, Halo 2.  Don't get me wrong, I still had time to play basketball, work out, and have fun with friends, but if there was a free moment, I'd be on Halo 2.  We learned those maps like the back of our hands (favorites being Lockout and Midship) and loved every minute of it.  Matchmaking was where it was at though playing against randoms and earning ranks.  Of course though with any type of competitive atmosphere, there rose cheaters.  The first time we got standby'd we had no idea what was going on, seeing our enemies running into the walls, screen would turn blue, then we'd pop up again waiting to respawn.  How about modders?  Remember them?  There'd be matches that we would start up and people would be flying across the map at lightning speed, killing us with one BR bullet, and spawning us in front of them.  Some of the mods were creative with one of them actually using the Scarab to shoot a huge green beam at us to kill them, but more often then not it was just irritating.  I guess though that given the amount of time we played the game, our teams developed great chemistry resulting in us beating some of those modders (which was no easy task).  What was great about constantly playing with the people on our friends list, was that many of these people became actual real life friends.  I met Sonu through xbox live and became closer friends with others like Paul, Roel, and Jon.  Of course, this segwayed it's way to the current Xbox Live where I could say the same for people like Loki, Isaac, and Rico.  As nerdy as it sounds, Halo 2 helped me develop some of the closest friends I have today. 

With the integration of Xbox Live, many patches were made to "improve" the game.  For example, BR's got stronger, minor bugs were removed, and some glitches cheaters used were attempted to be reduced (looking at you super bouncers!)  Unfortunately these "improvements" also added some glitches like the BXR or Double Shot.  Live also gave us content like new maps and more matchmaking options.  One of our favorite matchmaking types was Hardcore which attempted to give us rules similar to those in the MLG (Major League Gaming).  Some of us even entered tournaments (my brother, Jay Jaye, Kirck, and Sonu).  Most of us were content with just playing online with our friends though and that's just what we did.  We used to play popular created games that Bungie themselves took and integrated into Halo 3 like Zombies.  Other fun game types were Cops and Robbers, Jaws, or Storm the Beach.  Sigh..I'm getting all nostalgic here..hah..

Unfortunately, as Halo 2 started to die down, so did the relationships with some of our online friends.  I stopped playing with some friends like Drummerboy916, Kikoman, and Grapler2k.  Halo 3 was fun and there were tons of improvements from Halo 2, but many of us moved onto other fare like COD4.  However, when our 360s got the RROD (you know that yours did), back to our original Xboxes and Halo 2!  I played Halo 2 the past two days and I have to say that the game is still tons of fun.  The controls still felt natural and I slowly started to get warmed up again.  Its funny because as much as I loved Halo 2, Halo 3 wasn't doing it for me.  I guess that's why I sold Halo 3 yet still have my copy of Halo 2. 

Halo 2 was great..scratch that..Halo 2 is great and still tons of fun to play.  The excitement of upcoming maps, new matchmaking types, and friends getting new accounts is still burned into my memory.  Whether you were playing competitively or just messing around you had a blast.  I remember trying to find super bounces in custom games so we could get crazy perspectives of maps and the giant spartan glitch.  I know some of you are probably laughing and/or think i'm square for waxing nostalgic about a video game, but it wasn't just the video game that I enjoyed, it was the people.  One of the main reasons Halo 3 isn't in my disc tray, but COD4 was, was because that's what my friends were playing.  Thanks Halo 2 and thank you Bungie for a great game and experience that I, as well as millions of others, will never forget.

*Sorry that this may seem rough and rushed, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out while they're fresh in my mind*

**If you have any memories or something to share, feel free to comment and thanks for reading!**