HALO2 Multiplayer Review – The Weapons – things that hurt you and Glitches removed.

the weapons of HALO2 multiplayer
HALO and HALOPC glitches removed

HALO2 is here with new weapons, new maps, new vehicles, online multiplayer with XBOX Live, and other new features. Some old weapons and old maps made it into HALO2, however, all have been tweaked. All of these equate to a new style of multiplayer gameplay that does not necessarily give a veteran HALO player much of an advantage over those new to HALO.

First off, let’s talk about weapons. When you talk about potent weapons in HALO, you think of the Pistol. In HALO, the Pistol was the most dominant weapon. With the Pistol, it only took 3 shots to slay an enemy, you could fire the weapon while zoomed (to 2x), and you could shoot 12 rounds before having to reload.

In HALO2, the Pistol is a lot different. As a matter of fact, it isn’t even called a Pistol. It is called the Magnum (I’m still going to call it the Pistol during this article). The Pistol in HALO2 is drastically weaker (or is it that Master Chief’s armor is stronger?). It now takes 9 shots to kill an enemy. 9 shots! That is 3 times as many as needed in HALO. You carry 12 rounds per magazine, but just 2 magazines (24 total bullets). You can not fire the Pistol while zoomed. You can forget about using the Pistol to take down an enemy at a long distance. No more teleporting through at Blood Gulch (yeah…it’s back with some new geometry and texture maps and known as Coagulation) and taking down the enemy at the other teleporter with a 2x Pistol. As a matter of fact, this weapon is now only effective at close-to-mid range since there is no zoom. I will not be carrying it at my secondary weapon, let alone my primary weapon.

Exception: Dual wielding the Pistol. Wow. Talk about fast. Like I said, the Pistol has a higher rate of fire and increase accuracy. If by chance you are packing a Pistol, try to find another to Duel wield if you are out of options. The Pistol’s high rate of fire and high velocity rounds then make this weapon effective when you fire two at once. I have to admit, this is a deadly combo, however, since the zoom is taken away, this weapon is only effective in close to near-range combat situations.

Bungie has made the gameplay in HALO2 such that you need to use an arsenal of weapons during a normal game. In HALO, you could camp all day with the Pistol. In HALO2, with weaker weapons (or stronger shields), you’ll find that you will be using your secondary weapon a lot more often. Let’s look at the rest of the weapons in HALO2 multiplayer.

The Battle Rifle: The Battle Rifle is probably your best bet when it comes to choosing a primary weapon. The Battle Rifle shoots in bursts of 3 rounds when you pull the trigger. It only takes 4 bursts to the enemies head to kill him. You can fire 12 bursts before having to reload. The Battle Rifle also fires while zoomed (2x) and carries plenty of rounds in a clip giving you time to kill before having to reload. This makes the Battle Rifle a very effective weapon, especially when ammo for this weapon is found throughout all maps. The Battle Rifle is the closest weapon to being as dominant as the old Pistol from the original HALO. Carry the Battle Rifle as often as you can. It is effective at short and long range.

There is no Assault Rifle in HALO2, however, there is an SMG. The SMG is basically the Assault Rifle from HALO with a new look and feel. Just as HALO started you with an Assault Rifle at the start of a game, a lot of the gametypes in HALO2 start you with an SMG as your primary weapon. The best part of the SMG is that it can be dual wielded (you can fire two SMGs at the same time). SMG’s are littered across all the maps. Expect to see many people dual wielding this weapon. It will take a full clip to unload onto someone at close range to take them down. 2 SMG’s will get the job done in half the time.

Dual wielding is an effective way to take down an enemy. In close combat a dual wielder will have a huge advantage over someone with only one weapon. So, do not go near someone who is dual wielding unless you have a weapon that can quickly kill that enemy. Bottomline: they will but more bullets in you faster than you can put bullets in them. Plasma pistols, plasma rifles, Magnums, SMG’s and needlers can be duel wielded and in different combinations. For instance, a plasma rifle + SMG combo can be lethal. Use the plasma rifle to quickly lower the shields of the enemy. Then use the SMG to finish off the enemy. If that isn’t enough, revert back to your plasma rifle (which should have recharged) while you reload (using only one hand) your SMG.

The shotgun is a stud in close combat combinations. The blast-melee combination is a bit slower in HALO2, yet it is still effective. The shotgun is found in several spawn locations throughout all the maps making it a useful secondary weapon. I recommend carrying a Battle Rifle/Shotgun combo. The only weapon more powerful in close combat situation is the Energy Sword.

The Energy Sword is a beast! Let me put it another way: the Energy Sword pwns. If you know anything about the sword-carrying Elites in the HALO campaign, you know that one swipe with the blade can kill. In HALO2, there is just one sword spawn location per map, so finding a sword is rare. I have not found an instance where there are two Energy Swords in a standard slayer gametype. HALO2 seems as if it is smart enough to know how many Swords (just one) are on the map. If a dropped Sword goes untouched it disappears (like dead bodies do) and will eventually respawn. If the Energy Sword gets blown off or under a map, it will respawn at its spawning location. (This rule goes for normal slayer gametypes, not the ALL Swords gametypes). So, it looks like there is only going to be one Sword on the map.

Once you have a sword, lock on to an enemy by placing the reticle on the enemy’s body, wait for it to turn red, and then pull the fire trigger. This will send Master Chief lunging toward the enemy. Don’t forget to think in 3D!

These all Swords slayer gametypes are growing on me. Swordball is fun to play on Beaver Creek (yeah, Battle Creek, now known as Beaver Creek, made it into HALO2 with some sweet new texture maps). Unlike in the Campaign, you can not run out of energy in the Energy Sword in the multiplayer.

Snipers: The human sniper rifle is practically the same as before except for the recoil that shakes your screen when you fire. The Human Sniper still kills the enemy in one headshot or two body shots and holds 4 rounds per clip. If you are in a big map, you’ll want to carry a sniper rifle so that you can kill enemies from a long distance. This thing has 10x zoom!

But, the most powerful sniper rifle in the game is the Covenant’s Beam Rifle. The Beam Rifle is just as deadly as the Human Sniper Rifle (one shot to the head = dead) however, the Beam Rifle does not need to be reloaded. It can overheat, though, so don’t pull the trigger too fast. Still, not having to reload this weapon gives it a huge advantage over the Human Sniper and should be your long distance weapon of choice. Heck, I’ve been using the weapon at mid-to-close range. The Beam Rifle is the best long distance weapon. Never pass up on this weapon if you are in a mid-to-large sized map…unless you are in a party with me.

There are also a couple more Covenant weapons worth mentioning: The Carbine and the Brute Shot. The Carbine is basically the Covenant’s Battle Rifle. I am not too keen on this weapon. You can fire it with a 2x zoom. But I haven’t found the trick out to this weapon yet. I have yet to find it near as powerful as the Battle Rifle. Maybe I’m doing something wrong. Meh.

The Brute Shot is a grenade launcher. It can be effective at close and long range. The Brute Shot sends the grenade out at a high velocity. In HALO2, grenades explode at a set time after initial impact. This means, as in the case with the grenades from the Brute Shot, that you want to aim the Brute Shot so that the grenade lands before the enemy and explodes as the grenade arriving at the enemy. In other words, if you fire the Brute Shot directly at your enemy’s feet in front of you, the grenade will impact near his feet and then bounce past the enemy. So, when using the Brute Shot, make calculations for the initial ricochet as the grenade will not explode on impact, but some time after. Brute Shots bounce. Play the bounce!

The blast radius of the frag and plasma grenades is also smaller. You are going to have to stick that frag grenade right under the feet of your enemy to cause damage. But, just like the Brute Shot rounds, these frag grenades explode at a set time after impact. This means grenades will explode wherever they are…even in the air if they have bounced high enough. Plasma and frag grenades aren’t thrown on the same trajectory they were in HALO. HALO2 plasma and frag grenades don’t seem to be thrown as far and it will take you several games to get used to throwing the grenades. Death grenades seem tougher to pull off. Grenades are still a great to lower an enemy’s shield. You’ve just got to be a bit more accurate.

The Rocket Launcher is weaker. The blast radius of the rockets is slightly smaller and the rockets travel a lot slower. I played an all rockets gametype just now. Someone shot a rocket from above me and for a frame or two, I was able to see the rocket’s full body as it passed in front of me. The decrease in velocity makes this weapon less effective on moving targets. However, this weapon can lock on to an enemy vehicle. Once locked on, the rocket will track the vehicle until impact unless the vehicle does some insane maneuvering or has moved behind cover.

The Sentinel Beam is a weapon that shoots the beam from a flying Sentinel (you know, like during the campaign). I haven’t found a multiplayer map that spawns this weapon, but you can start the game with it if you configure the gametype so. The Beam is found during the campaign several times and is an effective weapon. I haven’t played with the weapon during multiplayer, so I’ll let you decide if you like it. I like it. The Beam shoots out in a straight line and is effective at any range. This weapon is especially good when attacking a vehicle.

The rest of the Covenant weapons: The Needler, Plasma Rifle, and Plasma Pistol are a little more powerful. They all shoot at a higher velocity with makes them more effective. Remember how slow the Needler rounds were in HALO? Needlers shoot a little faster now and being taken down by a Needler is no longer a shameful thing.

Blowing weapons to you: out the window. In HALO a blast near a weapon would send the weapon flying across the screen. This made for interesting tactics during online gameplay (think blowing the Rocket Launcher or Sniper Rifle in Hang Em High to either base or knocking the Rocket Launcher down in Chill Out). Weapons in HALO2 appear to have extra gravity (or seem heavy). As a result, if you throw a frag grenade near a weapon in HALO2, the weapon will only travel a few feet. So, in HALO2, you could not use a grenade to blow a weapon from a great distance to you. To get ammo or new weapons, one is going to have to walk to the weapons’ spawn point. No more clever grenade tricks to make weapons come to you. Speaking of grenade tricks. Grenade jumping isn’t easy.

Unlimited ammo: out the window. Bungie quietly fixed this problem in an update (I lost track, was it version 1.03?) to HALO PC. Yeah, it was left over from the port of HALO to the PC. What am I talking about? In HALO, there was a glitch that allowed for unlimited ammo in weapons that reloading clips with a magazine. This trick wasn’t well known and was hard to pull off anyway because you needed to have a third weapon near you. No big deal here. This technique was lame anyway. Well, I say lame. Most people didn’t want to spend the time and effort to set the unlimited ammo glitch into effect. It can be fun to snipe all day long on the light ridge in Blood Gulch, though.

Double melee: out the window. In HALO and HALO PC, you could melee twice by quickly throwing a grenade between melees. People with keyboards and mice could easily pull this stunt off in close combat. Even gamers with controllers got this glitch down pat. It was lethal…especially if the enemy’s shields were lowered. No more double melee in HALO2.

Quick invis: out the window. In HALO and HALO PC, walking over an Active Camo power up turned you invisible in about 2 seconds. But, if just after acquiring the Camo you fired a certain weapon (most often the Assault Rifle) you would instantly turn invisible. This actually made the Assault Rifle worth carrying. Imagine Hang ‘Em High. You are down near the Rocket Launcher at the invisy spawn. You have a Pistol and Assault Rifle. Switch to the AR, pick up the Active Camo, fire a short burst turning you instantly invisible. Switch to the Pistol. Hop up on the “tomb stones” to pick up the Rocket Launcher, dropping your Pistol. Now that is a deadly combination. Rocket Launcher and Assault Rifle. Fire a Rocket with the RL then switch to the AR. You’ll become instantly invisible. If you are already have the Active Camo, just switching to the Assault Rifle will turn you instantly invisible. No more unveiling your Active Camo after firing a weapon. You could fire all 4 rockets and never uncloak. Sneaky!

Backpack reloading: out the window. In HALO it was possible to always have a weapon loaded with ammo. For instance, you could run out of ammo with the Pistol, hit the reload button twice, switch to your secondary weapon, fire that weapon, double reload that weapon, and then switch back to the Pistol to continue firing. This allowed you to keep a steady stream of fire on an enemy without having to spend the 2 seconds needed to reload a weapon. Essentially, your secondary weapon was being reloaded in the background while you fired your primary weapon.

I’ll let you figure out if there are any more glitches that didn’t make their way into HALO2.

In HALO2, backpack reloading is a thing of the past and this makes the Pistol nearly useless because it takes so many shots to kill someone. You are going to spend precious time reloading the Pistol during the heat of the moment, which leaves you defenseless. Had I been able to double reload the pistol, I might consider carrying it since in HALO2 it has a higher rate of fire with increased accuracy. To reload a weapon in HALO2, you must wait for the reload animation to complete before you get ammo. There’s going to be a lot of reloading to do in HALO2. I suggest double-teaming your opponent and make the most of an opportunity to reload your weapon while an enemy is at bay.

It looks like Bungie is making a more realistic game in removing some glitches and altering the physics of the game. You will need to regulate your ammo and reload times. You will also have to be able to effectively use more than 1 or 2 weapons. This will make for more balanced gameplay. Gameplay that people of all skill levels will enjoy. Gameplay that doesn’t tilt the scales in the favor of those “in the know”…

until new glitches are found…

…which might get updated by Bungie in a patch distributed over XBOX Live.

See you on XBOX Live. My gamertag is EA.