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HALO 2: Secrets Thread (Spoilers)

post #1 of 106
Thread Starter 
I beat the game on normal and unlocked nothing that I could notice. Any ideas? Perhaps I need to log onto LIVE to get them?
post #2 of 106
How long was the single-player? Any particular highlights you'd like to share? Low points?
post #3 of 106
Thread Starter 
It's short with a SERIOUS cliffhanger.

Quickies:

SINGLE PLAYER -

I love Arbiter, the Covenant guy you play. KEITH DAVID! You play him more than you'd expect.

There's a bizarre mid-game thing that's just too weird to make sense, but kind of neat.

I don't think I like the in-game bump mapped cutscenes and would have preferred more traditional computer animation. The mouths are just wrong, especially with the "creature" in the mid-game thing. There's also a soldier who has complexion that'd make Robert Davi vomit.

There are some great weapons in the game CURRENTLY not in multiplayer. Fuel Rod Gun, Sentinel Beam, one more I think. No other vehicles to pilot.

Music is good but I wasn't as blown away as the game reviewers. Steve Vai's stuff. Poop.

It's gorgeous.

I was rushing through it this time, hoping to open up new maps/weapons so the locals could get the most out of our weeklong living room assault. Singer, give me a buzz if you'd like to come.

MULTIPLAYER -

Swords are great. I fear some people will bitch because of how dominant they are is close quarters. FUCK those people.

The new vehicles are wonderful, though the Banshee doesn't have its little missile. I really like the peppy new variant on the ghost.

All in all, the alien weapons are finally fun to use.

Only maps I'm not SUPER in love with are BEaver Creek (not a Battle Creek fan) and Ascension (I think, too many fall to your death moments). All of the others are incredible, especially Waterworks, Burial Mounds, Zanzibar, and of course, Coagulation.

The stat tracking is nice, and will be amazing on Bungie's site.

I don't like how you have to log in and out to change the settings.
post #4 of 106
How about that supposedly lame ending that everyone is getting upset about?
post #5 of 106
Thread Starter 
[B]SPOILER ABOUT THE ENDING IN BLACK TEXT/B]

Basically the Arbiter and the Master Chief end up on the same side and Master Chief is on the alien ship heading to THE ARK (dunno what it'll end up being) to "finish the job".
post #6 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick Nunziata
[B]SPOILER ABOUT THE ENDING IN BLACK TEXT/B]
Thanks.

So, everything will be wrapped up in Halo: Revolutions in May?
post #7 of 106
As far as unlocking things, I think that you have to beat it on legendary in order to get new levels and such.

Nick, did you stay past the credits? I really liked the cinema, even if it was a bit confusing.
post #8 of 106
I'm a decent ways in and just wanted to point something out about the Prophet, since this is a SPoilers thread here goes..... When you fight the Prophet you can do the move where you try and take over another vehicle. You can't take it from him but you can hang off it and punch the shit out of the guy! I had so much fun doing that!
post #9 of 106
Goddamn, obviously Bungie took 'ending' tips from Valve.

Great game, just wish the ending felt more worthy of having to stand in line until 2 in the morning.

Oh well. MULTIPLAYER TIME
post #10 of 106
When you are the Arbiter, use the invisibility and walk slowly while crouched and then whip out the sword at the last moment. Works well. The same thing can be done in multiplayer. You won't show up on a person's radar.
post #11 of 106
Something just occured to me. I just landed on the new Halo and I haven't seen a Brute in action yet. I'm playing or normal difficulty, are they gonna show up soon ? I've only fought 2 hunters as well, seems I faced waaaay more of them this far into Halo 1.
post #12 of 106
I just finished it. The story was amazing while it lasted, but having an ending like that left a bad taste in my mouth, I mean this is worse than Shenmue's endings because it seems that all they had to do is get more or two more levels in there to tie this shit up. I don't know what to do now, I mean absolutely nothing was resolved. I feel like I just played through a bunch of levels while great, ultimately lead me back to where I started.
post #13 of 106
I'll state the obvious: FUCK "THE FLOOD." I hate the fact that I have to fight the annoying bastards in the sequel - "Ooh, look at us. We're mutated and have weapons, and when we get pissed, we run full speed at you and smack you!" Most irritating enemies in the game.

Other than that, a great improvement over the original. The dual weapon system is awesome, the level design is better, and the story is fantastic and more involving. I'm surprised to say the least, speaking as I wasn't a big fan of the original.

And the game is too pretty for words. Not Half-Life 2 quality but a nich example of getting your Xbox's polygons pushed.
post #14 of 106
Just beat the game on Normal last night. It was quite the experience while it lasted with my favourite moments being those little parallelisms between Chief's and the Arbiter's journeys.

In my eyes, however, the Brutes were very challenging with their suicidal charges and unbelievable resilience to any weaponry (especially the Brute Captains). But, it felt very nice to be a part of the action (as evidenced in Master Chief's tour of the Covenant city) rather than the focus of it. Just makes the game that much more of a step up both in story and gameplay than Halo.

Halo 2 was a great game that has a sequel I'm looking forward to even more so than the anticipation I felt just after I beat its predecessor.
post #15 of 106
I just beat this last night as well on Normal (also playing co-op with a buddy on Heroic - MUCH tougher). I really gotta hand it to Bungie as far as the story is concerned. Much improved over the first Halo. That being said, the cliffhanger ending was a slap to the face that I didn't see coming at all. Not a bad thing really, but like Ryo said a few posts up, it felt like something that could've been resolved in perhaps a couple of more missions. In any case, the missions (thanks to the story) were involving as all hell and kept me wanting more. Very good thing. Bring on Halo 3... or would Halo 2.5 be more accurate?

Loved the subtle improvments in graphics, and though far from perfect, I dug the look of the cutscenes (especially the Covenant related stuff). I thought the sound was phoenomenal and incredibly immersive (this needs to be played on at least a DD 5.1 setup). There were probably 3 or 4 music tracks that I absolutely loved (Impend being my favorite). The rest were pretty good and suited the game well.

As far as multiplayer is concerned, all I can say is that it's a blast to play with a group of friends in the family room. The new maps are pretty damn fucking good (if a bit more geared towards larger groups). I'm not on LIVE yet (hopefully you gents will still be at it towards the end of the year when I sign up) so I can't say how that is. From the sounds of it, it seems to be more fun than tossing dwarves. I'm glad.

Overall, great fucking game. It's lived up to the hype (for me anyways) and if you don't like it, then you're some kind of robot (and not one of the cool ones mind you).
post #16 of 106
By the way...

Nick, you unlock Foundation when you beat the campaign in Normal. Don't know what's unlocked (if anything) if you beat it on Heroic or Legendary though.
post #17 of 106
I actually finished this yesterday. That's record time for me. It was tons of fun and I must admit I was a little confused here and there along the way, but it all came together pretty well. I'm going to go therough it again... and again. I've already done the Cairo level again and it seems clearer already.

The end is a bit frustrating of course and here are my hopes on that. It's obvious that Bungie has a plan for all of this, story wise. They don't need a new engine, they don't need to add more stuff, they need to just continue the story. Is it too much to wonder if they're already working on it and have it pretty far along? They could pull a fast one on the whole gaming world and have developed it at the same time they developed the sequel we're all playing and nobody would know. Halo 2.5, Halo Revolutions, Halo 2 Expansion Pack, whatever... I think it's out there... at least I hope so. I don't want to wait 3 years. Here's to hoping we won't have too.
post #18 of 106
Hey guys, dunno if you've seen this already:

http://bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=1038259

It sounds as if there's a glitch that can prevent you from unlocking Foundation if you complete all of the in-game tutorials as you come to them (like "Do a barrell roll by pressing this button!"). Apparently the work-around is to save at least one of those tutorial actions for the final level, in which case you will unlock Foundation. Reading around, it seems like this has in fact been confirmed.

Lys

==============
Gamertag: Lysander86
post #19 of 106
I beat the game yesterday, and truely, it rocked my cock up until the ending. They've got to have something in mind, but I remember reading all over about how Bungie was "done" with the universe after Halo 2. Maybe they'll get a third-party (Wideload maybe?) to come on and finish it up. That's what they did with Marathon Infinity all those years ago.

So this "Ark" thing, it's Earth, right? Am I the only one who got that out of the ending? This would explain why the Covenant didn't seem to think that it would be the Human Homeworld, and why Guilty Spark seemed to recognize the humans.

Also, when I beat it on normal, I got jack.
post #20 of 106
I finished up the game last night. I was surprised by some of the voice acting cast. David Cross?

The Flood were annoying at first until I realized that the plasma sword works GREAT on them. Most of the time they take one hit, then they vaporize. Also, the annoying little popcorn parasite things that used to just be a distraction in the first game are MUCH more nasty now. Did you notice that if one of them comes up to the body of a dead Flood critter, it'll bring it back to life? They burrow into the corpse and reanimate them. However, if you destroy the body (either by blowin' it up real good or usin' that nifty sword), they can't reanimate them.

The Brutes were great. It was neat that if you got a head shot on one of them they'd just lose their helmet, then you'd have to hit them again to get the kill.

Love the vehicle damage. Great stuff.

The Banshee DOES have missiles, but only in single player campaign. Use the B button to fire the missiles (called a Banshee Bomb, I think).

Does the Wraith have a secondary weapon apart from the big cannon? I couldn't find one.
post #21 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by hughbot

So this "Ark" thing, it's Earth, right? Am I the only one who got that out of the ending? This would explain why the Covenant didn't seem to think that it would be the Human Homeworld, and why Guilty Spark seemed to recognize the humans.
That's what I got. It seems the Covenant singled out Earth, not knowing it was the human homeworld. Regret went there and it was said that the covenant forces were confused and it was also mentioned that the forces that destroyed reach were about 50 times larger than those that appeared in earth's orbit. The Forerunner Arc has to be there and that's where Truth is going on the Forerunner ship. All that foreshadowing... Bungie definitely has stuff in mind, but WHY did they end it when they did? Argh!

What's up with that big tentacle thing? I'm still a bit fuzzy on that. I almost got the vibe that that thing IS the flood or is connected somehow and it's pretty sweet that the last thing you see after the end credit is that thing getting ready to have a conversation with Cortana. As much as it is easy to see that we're going back to Earth, this stuff tells me that there's more we don't know about.

Also, with the way it ended I doubt Bungie is done. They'll still be involved somehow... whereever this thing is going.
post #22 of 106
I have a couple spoiler type questions.

If you beat the original Halo on legenday I hear that you get a slightly altered ending. Can somebody tell me what's different about it?

Also if any of you hardcore Master chiefs and Arbiters out there beat Halo 2 on Legendary can you tell if there's any difference to the ending you get?

I'm gonna try my hardest to get through both on legendary, but I wouldn't mind being spoiled along the way.
post #23 of 106
I beat the original in Legendary but I'm not sure what the difference to the ending is. I think it was slight if anything.

I'm playing through 2 on Heroic and it feels much harder than Legendary did on the first. I'm on the quarantine level and I'm hating it. I keep running around in circles. Damn Bungie.
post #24 of 106
Anyone else think it was really funny to watch the Chief punching that prophet guy in the temple, religious leader, trillions of miles away from earth, but when the Chief punches him...."OWWWW, OH, OUCH, AHHH"
It's helped by the fact chief punching him is the same animation, it looks so damn silly.
post #25 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Floydian_Trip
I beat the original in Legendary but I'm not sure what the difference to the ending is. I think it was slight if anything.

I'm playing through 2 on Heroic and it feels much harder than Legendary did on the first. I'm on the quarantine level and I'm hating it. I keep running around in circles. Damn Bungie.
I've gotten to the point where Halo is kind of a cake-walk on Legendary, but the sheer number of enemies and strength of the Elites is keeping me from advancing past the Station level (particularly the second hangar with the boarding crews that just keep on comin'). I'm hoping that better utilizing the energy weapons (particularly the charge gun) will help get around the roadblock.

Also, for those who haven't seen it yet, check out the 'Blind' Easter Egg. I read it on another forum. At the start of the Earth level (after you crash land) you can jump up on the lights just past the first hallway, and then jump up on the roof. There's a dark hallway up there with a skull, some grenades, and a small camera. You can pick up the skull.... the results are interesting.
post #26 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanoblech
I have a couple spoiler type questions.

If you beat the original Halo on legenday I hear that you get a slightly altered ending. Can somebody tell me what's different about it?

Also if any of you hardcore Master chiefs and Arbiters out there beat Halo 2 on Legendary can you tell if there's any difference to the ending you get?

I'm gonna try my hardest to get through both on legendary, but I wouldn't mind being spoiled along the way.

Beating the original HALO on Legendary gives you a shot <SPOILER> of Sergeant Johnson doing a tug of war over a weapon with an Elite. The Pillar goes Nuclear and Sarge says, "This is it, Baby. Hold me." They then hug and the Elite cops a feel on Sarge.
post #27 of 106
I like to imagine that it's The Arbiter hugging Sarge.
post #28 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by voiceoreason
Beating the original HALO on Legendary gives you a shot <SPOILER> of Sergeant Johnson doing a tug of war over a weapon with an Elite. The Pillar goes Nuclear and Sarge says, "This is it, Baby. Hold me." They then hug and the Elite cops a feel on Sarge.
Nice...

Thanks a lot.
post #29 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by phoenix_214
I've gotten to the point where Halo is kind of a cake-walk on Legendary, but the sheer number of enemies and strength of the Elites is keeping me from advancing past the Station level (particularly the second hangar with the boarding crews that just keep on comin'). I'm hoping that better utilizing the energy weapons (particularly the charge gun) will help get around the roadblock.

Also, for those who haven't seen it yet, check out the 'Blind' Easter Egg. I read it on another forum. At the start of the Earth level (after you crash land) you can jump up on the lights just past the first hallway, and then jump up on the roof. There's a dark hallway up there with a skull, some grenades, and a small camera. You can pick up the skull.... the results are interesting.
Maybe I'm a big dork, but how do you get to the roof from the lights? i jumped up there and can't clear the roof
post #30 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nanoblech
Maybe I'm a big dork, but how do you get to the roof from the lights? i jumped up there and can't clear the roof
It can be done. Just get right to the edge of the lights, put the wall to your right, and jump at the right time. I've seen it done by some dude online, and I've done it myself. Pretty cool effect, though I'd like to know if it pays off in the end... and that'll take a while

Also, for those who have cleared the airlock in the space station level, jump up on the angular pillars and go exploring. You can literally run around the entire station, although I couldn't find anything interesting. Let me know if anyone else out there does :-/

I'll keep updating when I see new stuff. Goddamn I love this game, but it's SO FREAKING HARD! Anyone have any good strategies on taking out Elites on Legendary? The main problem is them ducking behind cover once I get their shields down... bastards.
post #31 of 106
What a dogshit ending.

Count me in with the group who didn't unlock anything new after beating it on Normal.
post #32 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slater
What a dogshit ending.

Count me in with the group who didn't unlock anything new after beating it on Normal.
[hugs]Slater[/hugs]

I'm with you man. A little underwhelming and VERY abrupt. However, given the fact that it's likely going to be a few more years, I'm guessing there will be a ton of downloadable content (and maybe something akin to the DLC like we see for 'Sims' with new skins and objects being developed by players?) before we see the next incarnation to keep the experience new to us. Of course, if we want to play Halo 3 we'll likely have to shell out a couple hundred bucks more to get the newfangled X-box 2 when it eventually hits, but who's counting anyways?

Did you stay to watch the animation after the credits? Me are confused.... but I will admit I like where it's going.
post #33 of 106

quick question

Still playing Halo 2, I just need to ask some questions about the story:

Why exactly are the Brutes and Elites fighting each other? Is it something to do with the arbitor getting screwed for getting the index and the brute taking it from him?
post #34 of 106
Playing it through on Heroic mode and who ever was wondering if you play againts Brutes? Well you get your fair share.

One thing to note, the invisibility is aces for getting past some tough spots.
post #35 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by grammatonclericK
Still playing Halo 2, I just need to ask some questions about the story:

Why exactly are the Brutes and Elites fighting each other? Is it something to do with the arbitor getting screwed for getting the index and the brute taking it from him?
The Elites were the sacred protectors of the Prophets. After various screw ups, the Prophets want to make some changes and set things up differently. The Brutes took the place of the Elites as the sacred protectors. There's more and more in-fighting as the game progresses.

BTW, I've made it by the room o' Elites. Best way to take them out at this point in the game is with a combination of the Plasma Pistol and the SMG. Once you have the option of the Covenant Rifle, that's the best way to take out Elites, although it'll kill you with one shot on Legendary. Ouch. They're a real thorn in the sides at this point.
post #36 of 106
Quote:
Also, for those who haven't seen it yet, check out the 'Blind' Easter Egg. I read it on another forum. At the start of the Earth level (after you crash land) you can jump up on the lights just past the first hallway, and then jump up on the roof. There's a dark hallway up there with a skull, some grenades, and a small camera. You can pick up the skull.... the results are interesting.
How the hell do you deactivate this?
post #37 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gemini
How the hell do you deactivate this?
*shrugs* No idea. I just read last night that there's another Skull somewhere on Cairo Station that says 'Thunderbolt' or something like that... but the effects haven't been reported yet. Once I get done handing out ass in the Legendary campaign, I'm gonna start hunting for secrets.
post #38 of 106
Rumor has it that if you beat the game on legendary that you will get a message after the credits saying "Coming February 9th 2005". No pictures providing proof of this yet, but a few foreign language sites have said that it is true. Hopefully I can search for some proof of this.
post #39 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryo Hazuki
Rumor has it that if you beat the game on legendary that you will get a message after the credits saying "Coming February 9th 2005". No pictures providing proof of this yet, but a few foreign language sites have said that it is true. Hopefully I can search for some proof of this.
I have heard it was 'February 8th', and according to the math geniuses who've been following the 'I Love Bees' thing, apparently the new countdown there is counting down to February 8th, 2552... a little too coincidental for my tastes. I think we can look forward to seeing Halo 3 next year.

Hopefully, I'll be nearly done with the Legendary campaign by this weekend, so I can verify with my own eyes
post #40 of 106
If you guys are seriously expecting Halo 3 in a mere three months, you're in for a huge-assed disappointment. Go watch the Bungie documentary on the Halo 2 DVD...they doubled their staff, and they STILL just *barely* managed to get the game finished on schedule.

A full-fledged sequel in three months would be nice, but it's a pipe dream. Not gonna happen. If anything, February 8th will be the date that new multiplayer maps get released on Xbox Live.
post #41 of 106
Or perhaps it'll be the date when they announce the official development of Halo 3, who knows? I agree with Slater, though, the DVD makes it pretty clear that it was a miracle Halo 2 was released on time. I doubt they could have been working on a separate game while trying to finish Halo 2.
post #42 of 106
Having not played Halo 2 single player yet (so I must scroll down quickly to avoid spoilers) I do know that the ending is quite a cliff-hanger and has disapointed a few people (while I tried to avoid some spoilers I do come to a "movie insider" web page everyday so I must enjoy some sort of spoilers)..

So how about this.. Maybe on February 9th they will be downloading the "true ending" of the game. It may only be for people who finished on Legendary. It will be an extra mission (or the Earth mission from the video - not sure exactly how it ends - and please don't say in repsone to this..) where you can truly finish the game.

Either that or it will be new maps, vehicles or whatever..

Or knowing Bungie.. and that damn Bees thing it will be nothing...

But what it won't be is Halo 3...
post #43 of 106
slightly leaning towards slaters bleak realistic outlook on what february holds.

the ending is balls.

but I sit here clutching my controller in hand - i want to believe...
post #44 of 106
Bungie has said there won't be any campaign downloads. It's flat-out impossible to stream that much information over a broadband line in any reasonable amount of time.

If the rumor is even legit in the first place--and judging from the total lack of screenshots, I'm guessing that it's not--the date will either be the Halo 3 announcement or new multiplayer maps. If you're expecting anything else, you're in for a letdown.
post #45 of 106
The only thing I can point to without having an actual screen shot is in the EGM review Mark said, -"the downloadable content (including at least one huge surprise) on the horizon"-. I don't know if new mp maps are really a "suprise" since everyone knows those were coming. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Only problem I have is February is my Xenosaga Episode 2 month so....hopefully this doesn't interfere with that too much
post #46 of 106
And you know...EVEN IF Microsoft secretly had Halo 3 waiting in the wings, why would they release it in February, the slowest gaming month of the year? Hell, if they were going to release a title like this in early 2005, you can be damn sure they'd schedule it for the exact same day as Sony's PSP debut. (Late March, I believe.)
post #47 of 106
February is way to close to release of Halo 2. You know Microsoft is planning on Halo 2 being the number one Christmas game this year (and it just might be).. they'll be milking Halo 2 for quite some time. Hell, three years after Halo was released it was still in the top 3 games sold for XBOX. They will ride Halo 2 hard and put it away wet (so to speak...).

I'm going with nothing at all (like slater said, still is a rumor) or some new maps/vehicles for the game..
post #48 of 106
I completely forgot about that atv's absence until watching that extra bonus disc last night.....
post #49 of 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slater
And you know...EVEN IF Microsoft secretly had Halo 3 waiting in the wings, why would they release it in February, the slowest gaming month of the year? Hell, if they were going to release a title like this in early 2005, you can be damn sure they'd schedule it for the exact same day as Sony's PSP debut. (Late March, I believe.)
Bungie is a bunch of geniuses. I'm sure they have something good planned for the lot of us. I'm not going to subscribe to any of the theories the true fanboys of Halo are putting out there just yet, but I will say that I'm excited to see what is coming up.

And anyways, it *is* entirely possible they were working on additional content or further additions. I've been crawling through some of the Halo related boards, and some of the folks out there will modded X-Boxes have uncovered some pretty interesting things that never made it into the game...

Such as the 'Flood Juggernaut'. Seems like a waste of a lot of time and energy on something that complex if it isn't used. Also, all those additional vehicles and the few other missions featured at E3 seem to have disappeared. Given the story, would you be at all surprised to see them showing up again?
post #50 of 106
Maybe we'll get out digital hands on some new weapons. Like that poor flameflower that can't seem to get a break. Or a new magnum... with a scope. Some new vehicles, like the Atv or some of the variations on the warthog etc with some new maps. Snowhog? Woo hoo! I'm hoping to get Live, but I hope it won't be the only way to get any possible new stuff. We'll see.
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