A Look at HALO 2 - Level design

Tyson Green, my hat goes off to you. The level design is absolutely amazing. Once again we find ourselves running through a carefully designed maze that was created with the utmost attention to detail. This time around, however, the levels are not as repetitive as in HALO. Then you had to fight the Flood for hours and find your way through the mother ship, getting frustrated by the minute. Now the environment has improved dramatically. Alien landscapes, mystic buildings in the distance, even the reflections on different objects-–it’s all improved.

Single player maps are bigger than ever and have a number of new additions such as new bridges, floating movers and of course a dozen and a half elevators that now even go underwater.

Although still very linear, things are more interesting with more time spent on designing the enemy placement on the map itself. Enemy now take more strategic positions, forcing you to think how you would beat the stage instead of running around shooting everything that moves. Hands down, my favorite levels are the Outskirts and Metropolis. Covenant forces are wisely planted around the city area, mainly the higher ground, and that makes it real tough to whiz past the levels when playing on legendary.

Generally a lot more maps have outdoor action. Bungie designers obviously learned their lesson from the first game. The levels in HALO were carefully designed, but you spent most of the time fighting in close quarters. Now it’s all about the open space, big guns and sniper rifles. Although most HALO2 levels were more than satisfactory, there was a select few quirks that took away from the experience. If you have ever played “Serious Sam,” you’ll know what I mean. I did not expect to fight some “Big Boss” creatures that have 400% overshield and ability to kill me with one shot.

To me, the game is about strategically fighting your way to the victorious ending. You have to be quick, resourceful and know the weak spots of the enemy. Throwing a big invincible alien in the mix was not what I expected. The idea of having another big alien shooting an enormous cannon while sending a legion of guards to get you was not a HALO-like experience either. But for the exception of those two, the rest of the game was fun, exciting and kept you on the edge of your seat for the most part. There are 15 levels in a single-player mode, and 11 multiplayer maps with one more hidden map. According to the sources, this is what you have to do to unlock that secret map:

1. Complete single-player on any difficulty.
2. Create a new profile.
3. Begin a co-op game on the last level with the newly-created profile as the second player.
4. When you reach a section where you fly a Banshee, the new profile must perform a barrel roll and a loop-the-loop.
5. Finish the campaign and the new profile can access the new map when playing split-screen, System Link, or Xbox Live games.

Sound is better than ever, and if the HALO1 soundtrack gave you the chills at times and left you humming the melody for the next day, HALO2 is no different. The familiar tune is back and has a bit of a rock remix to it. Dolby digital is at its best here and all the effects come out exactly the way they were meant to be.

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