HALO 2: Secrets Thread (Spoilers) - Page 2

Alright let's get crazy with these theories. Based off the above quote you could draw a conclusion that Bungie has hidden some gameplay in the code of the game. A download could then be given that would add to/trigger the material to be open.

While an extra mission may be too much for a download, it could work if the majority of the material is already on your hardrive..

Ohh and BTW, aliens and the Loch Ness Monster are real....

Hmmm... is a Live subscription going to be necessary to download additional content, or will those of us who don't do the whole multi-player thing out of luck?

Well the business side of MS says you must pay for the downloads. But almost every Live game these days comes with a two-month free Live trial (you must have high-speed internet though). So you could do that to get the download (you also need a credit card to sign up, but as long as you cancel before two months is up you won't get billed...)

But the Loch Ness Monster IS an alien.

Bungie wouldn't have to do much to make the fans happy and if they're one step ahead of themselves with stuff already on the disc then that's cool too.

The idea kind of reminds me of the Naboo star fighter hidden in the original Rogue Squadron game for the N64 but it was more or less hidden in there until after Episode I came out months later. Cool stuff.

We could get really crazy and possibly see the first console expansion pack (at least I think it would be, I am not the Geek Supreme so don't quote me on this).

It would be simple to do (especially given the XBOX hardrive), have a few final levels almost done but not quite ready for the final version. You give yourself a few more months to finish, let Halo 2 dominate the Holiday sales, then BAM...

Come 2/9/05 you sell the Halo 2 Expansion Pack - Halo 2: Covenant Boogaloo for $9.99. Multiply $10 bucks by the millions of people who have bought this game. It is pure, yet evil, genius!

maybe we can download a lock steve vai's hair. rendered in all it's bump mapped glory.

That's so good it's just got to be fattening.

Hmmm... I'd be willing to pay $20, maybe $30, if the Elites wear headbands and legwarmers and bust out some fancy moves.

Seriously, guys, you're setting yourself up for heartbreak.

There have hardly been ANY downloadable single player missions for any Live games to date. The original Splinter Cell offered a few missions, but they were incredibly basic, visually repetative encounters that recycled graphics and music from earlier levels. If you think something with the scale, scope and complexity of your average Halo 2 level can be blasted out over a modem--complete with all the scripted events, in-game cinematics, music and sound effects, etc.--well, it's not gonna happen.

Only if the final boss is Sgt. Ozone and Eric La Salle (with full gerri curl) is his henchman..

On a serious note, they probably could get $19.99 out of it, but I think that would be rather high (depending on what is in it - then again this is all made up anyway, so who knows...)

On my way home tonight I was flipping through the new EGM and on page 50 it says that there's a new campaign for Full Spectrum Warrior available on Xbox live for $4.99. I don't have that game or Xbox Live (poor me) but I'll assume this is true. If so it might qualify depending on what kind of content you get I suppose, so you never know I guess.

I'm not overly optimistic about whatever extra Halo 2 content we may end up getting. Anything would be some extra icing on an already awesome cake, but it seems like anything is possible I guess.

Now I just have to work on getting Xbox Live... even if we never get anything else in the future, playing online would be all the extra features I'll ever need.

Seriously, that ending is horseshit. Give me one more level as Master Chief. One more. Bollocks.

This Friday/payday I'll be picking up the 50-foot ethernet cable which will allow me to slaughter all of you fuckers on Live this weekend. Huzzah!

On the bonus disc, Joe Staten references the fact that the game has fifteen levels. As we all know, the game only has fourteen. Considering that modded xbox's have uncovered fun stuff like the Flood Juggernaut, is it possible, regardless of the logic of the move, for bungie to have an additional level or such locked up for release at a later date via a tiny update from Live?

What is the Flood Juggernaut? The link doesn't do anything for me. I'm guessing it's a big nasty flood monster.

Actually there are 15 levels. The Heretic is a selectable ( if not playable ) level. Just go to level select and see for yourself. I know you can't "play" it but in bungies' eyes it's still a level nonetheless.

I finished the campaign on "herioc" last night. Started legendary today I never even tried normal as I like a challenge in my games. Didn't unlock anything tho' .
You don't really see the amazing a.i until you play on herioc difficulty or harder. the a.i is harder than before but on the other hand it's also a little less consistent resulting in me walking up to an Elite without him seeing me at least three times in the game. A minor gripe tho'. The marines are MUCH better than before and are actually useful here. the only time they can be annoying is in charge of vehicles ( got run over a few times ). I liked the take your buddies weapon idea.

love....the...sword.
Dual wielding's a blast ( but I love my nades I do ).
Rocket launcher... =)
Pistol. I miss the scope but can do without, no big deal.
Oh yeah one thing that bugged me badly....the reload rate on the Scorpion tank. Waaaaaay too fast! Made the levels boring and too easy.

Funnily enough it seems that the levels have gotten more claustrophobic than before....very linear. I found myself missing open spaces while in control of vehicles....especially levels from the first game like "Assault on the control room" & "Halo" where you had MUCH more freedom
Pretty cool stuff all in all. Definately an improvement on the original.The first few levels on earth are amazing until after you defeat the Scarab and then it all goes a bit meh for a couple of levels before picking up the pace again.
Nice to see a developer pushing the X-box. Very pretty game ( although I still can't see why all the visual bugs made it into the final build....oh well ).

I can say that the game takes double the time on heroic ( 20-25 hours ). Herioc is a little harder than Halo 1 and legendary is much, much harder ( just finished the Cairo station.....I saved all my nades and stuck the Elites as they jumped out of the dock in the part that was mentioned earlier ).

My feeling for this game is that it's not a "true" sequel....it seems to be a filler that's leading up to the main event....I would assume that would be a full scale Covenant invasion of earth. It's like they gave you the first few levels in order to whet your appitites and then whisk you off on this detective chase for the rest of the game before returning to earth. Just in time to see the start of any invasion in the background and then "game over"

Overall. An extremely polished, professionally made game. Kudos to Bungie.

Just finished it for the first time last night, and yeah, the ending was a pretty big miscalculation. Really the only misstep in an otherwise superb game. I find it pretty hard to believe that ending it like that ever could have seemed like a good idea, so most likely the break here was caused by lack of time to finish. I haven't seen the bonus DVD yet, but it sounds as if getting Halo 2 at all in November was a miracle.

I'm with Slater and some of the rest of you on this one: there isn't any single-player content on the way until Halo 3 for most likely the Nextbox. Once they decided to ship Halo 2, that was it for the campaign - in the Halo canon, that's where Halo 2 ends.

I'm curious if any of you followed Frankie's weekly updates over on Bungie.net. I've been rereading them to see if I can identify things he kept secret from us, and it's a blast. (Things like now knowing what "I'm going ribs!" means, for instance).

Lys

I am well aware that thre will be no additional content for Halo 2 availableon 2/9 or any other date. Just having a little fun, at my expense...

But I can dream (a tear drips down my cheek) can't I?

Oh, I know. How incredible would that be, though? And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a port of the Marathon trilogy to XBox, Bungie. Or as unlockable content in the next Halo! DROOOOOOOL...

Lys

Just finished the game a couple of days ago, fuckin hate the ending, it's like bungie fucked me in the ass and master chief/arbitor were taking pictures.

The only thing i dont get is:

If halo was activated by the brutes, why didn't it go off. is it because the other halos need to be activated?

also, what ship is the arbitor on?


overall though, the game was a blast.

You would be correct sir

Okay, here's how it went down at the end:

The Brutes couldn't activate the Delta Halo, for reasons that Bungie left ambiguous. They did, however, know that Commander Keyes could. There was a throwaway bit of dialogue in the control room sequence where 343 Guilty Spark says something like "Careful... this reclaimer is very fragile!" Anyho, the Brutes pretty much put the index into Keyes' hand and force her to insert it into the "Activate Halo" slot, which starts the firing process and the last actual fight in the game, against the white Brute with the mohawk, Tartarus. The dude with the big-ass hammer. Keyes and Sergeant Johnson and the Arbiter (who is on the Delta Halo with everyone else except the Master Chief and the Prophet and Cortana) discover that they can stop the firing sequence (until it completes, obviously) by removing the index from the control panel, but first they have to get past Tartarus, so you have to kill his ass, at which point, Keyes removes the index, and the Delta Halo, instead of firing, sends a signal to all the other Halos that puts them all on ready-to-fire standby, which can be initiated from "the Ark," which, from the sound of it, is a safe, remote location. And might very well be the Forerunner cruiser that the Master Chief steals from the center of High Charity as his ride back to Earth to stop the Covenant.

I keep seeing people speculate that Regret's ship is the Ark, and that's obviously wrong. (If they could have detonated the rings at any time, what's Regret waiting for? Why fuck with Earth in the first place?) The Ark either is Earth itself or is hidden somewhere on Earth. Period. That's why the Covies show up there in the beginning of the game, and that's why they're baffled to find human living on Earth.

Going by the biblical analogy, the Ark is the one place that keeps you protected from the great flood (The Flood), right? That's the reason that humans are descendents ("Reclaimers") of the Forerunners...because Earth is the only spot in the galaxy that's safe once the Halos are detonated. That's how humankind survived the first "Great Journey" that wiped out the Forerunners. That's why the prophets have decreed that the humans must be completely wiped out rather than offering them sanctuary as part of the Covenant; humankind is a direct threat to the prophet's rule (because who would everybody follow, the race that found the Forerunner technology or the race that's directly related to the Forerunners?).

It actually makes a lot of sense, but you have to do some deductive reasoning.

nice. Very good way of laying it all down to Slater and CorporealDennis, but I'm with Slater on the Ark and its earthly connection and the obvious connection between humans and the forerunners. I never thought of the whole Ark, Flood thing, so that's really cool. There's apparently a bit more going on here than I thought at first. Cool. My appreciation for the story just got kicked up a few notches, but it just makes me long for the story to continue.

Now I'm wondering about a technical detail. Co-op play can only be done split screen. Is this something that could be amended through a future Xbox Live download? Or is there too much information going on for a LAN or Broadband connection to Handle? It seems to me that it SHOULD be able to work, but what do I know.

I wish I had stuck around as a lurker on the "ilovebees" ARG boards. The game apparently did tie into Halo 2 (it was certainly set in the Halo universe, and towards the end it sounded like it was actually tying into the game itself), but I'm not sure to what extent. The last time I was snooping around I saw that the story involved a Forerunner artifact discovered in space and brought to Earth. The artifact had been activated and was in a cycle that suggested a countdown, but no one knew what would happen once the countdown reached 0. The main antagonist (a human military official convinced the artifact could be a weapon to use against the Covenant) was doing everything in his power to prevent anyone else from finding the artifact, including assassinations. There seemed to be some concern that the Covenant would be able to find Earth based on the activation of the artifact, but I don't know if that was anything more than speculation.

At any rate, it seemed that the game would answer some of our questions if we put all the pieces together. I've yet to find a site that summarizes absolutely everything up to today, though, and the sheer size of the game makes it difficult to put it together by yourself. At one point there were something like five different storylines/character arcs that finally merged into one story as the release date neared, and I can't make heads or tails of much of it.

Anyone actually stick with this game long enough to update us on what happened?

RE: The absence of the Flood Juggernaut...

Bungie's half-assed removal of this character was pretty shoddy and probably the only other flaw (besides the weak ending) I've found in this otherwise divine game. The level subtitle "Juggernaut" remains, and you actually hear it killing shit in the room right in front of you...then all of the sudden...there's nothing there, and nothing is ever mentioned again. Very weak, Bungie. How hard would it have really been to simply leave it in there as a mini-boss kind of thing? I don't get it at all.

I agree that it's also possible that the Ark is either Earth or something on Earth (possibly in New Mombassa) - that's why I said "might very well be" rather than "is". In either case, neither answer is obviously wrong, because there's evidence to support both.

See, in my theory, it works out like this. Regret could have detonated the Halos at any time from the Forerunner cruiser. If (and this is a big if) he knew how. And had already inserted an index into a control room console, and subsequently removed it before the ring fired. See the thing about the Covenant (which is mentioned a couple of times in the games) is that they use Forerunner tech all the time, but they don't really understand how it works, so they have a bunch of mystical and religious symbolism built up around it to explain what they can't. Remember that the monitor tells them that inserting the Index and then removing it before the ring fires puts all the rings in standby mode. Why would you want to do that, unless it was so you could go hop in your ship, and remote-detonate after you removed yourself to a safe distance (I believe someone said between two and three galactic radii)?

It also seems that, as a safety measure, the Forerunners set the Halos up so that they could only be fired by a Forerunner. And through either a coincidence of paralell evolution or actual descendance, humans are close enough to being Forerunners as to make no difference to the Forerunner AI constructs. Which is why they needed Miranda Keyes (and Sergeant Johnson as a backup) to fire the Delta Halo - it wasn't just that they didn't understand how it worked, and couldn't have it explained to them because they had too much mental religious baggage to make sense of what the Monitors were telling them, they physically could not do it - if they put the index into the control room console, nothing would happen. They probably tried it that way in the first place.

As for why the Covenant showed up on Earth... well, there was the small matter of the beacon that was set off in the whole I Love Bees radio play. Perhaps the Covenant thought there would be a Halo where Earth was. Perhaps the artifact was moved to New Mombassa after the whole debacle at Chawla base. Perhaps that's why I Love Bees was such a pain in the Halo fans' collective asses to unlock... it was backstory that would otherwise have left some very confusing questions unanswered.

Or maybe I'm just talking to hear my head rattle. It wouldn't be the first time.

One thing I don't really understand is the giant plant thing. Did I just miss something or is it never even remotely explained? Was it only there to bring the Chief and the Arbiter together? I guess it's probably something we'll learn more about in the future because of the little post credits sequence with the plant thing and Cortana. (I would just like to note that CorporealDennis got one thing wrong in the first summary. Cortana is still on the Delta Halo. She told the Chief to go without her.) I was just wondering if anybody who beat the game on normal and legendary can tell me if there is a difference between the post credit ending?

Actually, Cortana is on High Charity with the Gravemind (the plant thing, which seems to be a sort of Overmind (if I may borrow from Starcraft) of the Flood). The Master Chief left her there when he hopped in the Forerunner ship that used to be High Charity's primary power source. And since High Charity is seen in cutscenes to be approximately as massive (assuming that it's fairly solid inside) as the Delta Halo, that's some pretty impressive power output, right there.

But no, you didn't miss anything. They never really explain (or give the name of, even) the Gravemind. Bungie, as corporate policy, never explains something explicitly where leaving it ambiguous will drive people crazy.

1. Supposedly the only difference is that when you beat it on Legendary, it says "Coming February 8, 2005" after the credits. That's unconfirmed, though.

2. That thing (it's named Gravemind) wasn't a plant...it was The Flood. Kind of like a hive mind for the entire Flood race, apparently. It used Master Chief and the Arbiter as a distraction while it sent its forces into both the Delta Halo cradle and the holy city of High Charity. Although it's (probably) evil, it doesn't want to see all the life in the Universe wiped out anymore than the others.

3. I think the "Forerunner ship is the Ark" theory is debunked by the fact that in the final cinema scene, it's very obviously returning to Earth...the same place where the prophet Regret got his ass kicked less than 24 hours ago. The fact that he's returning to such a dangerous place (especially without the support of his fleet) means that he wouldn't be there without a damn good reason. If he could trigger the Halos from any place in the galaxy thanks to his ship, Earth would probably be his very last destination.

Hrm. I got a very different read on the ending when I played. It seemed like the entire giant-ass Covenant fleet (or at least a goodly part of it) bugged out for Earth with the one prophet who got away to make sure the Humans were eradicated before the Great Journey began (presumably so that the Forerunners would welcome their faithful servants who had eradicated the imposter upstarts who looked like them). And the only way left for the Master Chief to stop them was to steal the Forerunner ship the Covenant were using to power their holy city, because Cortana had to stay behind so she could use In Amber Clad to prevent the Delta Halo from being fired if Johnson and Keyes and the Arbiter couldn't.

Weird. Yeah, that's a totally different read. I need to play through those levels again.

Yeah, I probably do too. Except probably not on Legendary, because that shit is difficult.

Seriously. I'm just making it through the Ruins right now.

In single player, I've just gotten to the part where Master Chief says "Boo!" (I'm sure you guys know where that takes place). How much more game do I have to look forward to?

Off the top of my head, Jacob, that's another two or three levels. Although I'm fuzzy on when some levels break, so I'd put it as two more big missions.

Have you guys seen yet that you can FUCKING FLY with the sword?

This Gamefaqs link has a bunch of skull locations. There's also a video floating around that has them as well.

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gen...topic=17589418

***edit***

If I had bothered to read the whole thing before posting I would seen he gives the video links in the thread as well.

damn, that was pretty nifty shit. liked that banshee hijacking.

Finished heroic today, damn I want more......

The back of the Limited Edition says "He's travelled a trillion miles across the void to protect the dearest prize of all, Earth". That sounds more like a description of Halo 2......

I outta try Legendary to see if that Date appears, no way is it story, although I thought at the end Chief was gonna land and do that E3 demo stage.......

and btw the documentry on the making of Halo 2, the use of that damn Hoobastank song during the demo was so very very silly, I hate that song so much......so very much......

Look forward to the downloads and blowing you all up on Live.

Crashing the party kinda late, I know...

Seems pretty evident to me that

1) Humans and Forerunners are one and the same;
2) Either there is a "galactic bunker" buried on Earth, OR the entire Earth itself, that is somehow protected from the destruction wreaked by the Halos;
3) That the Forerunners survived the first Halo strike by using Earth as an "Ark" (in the Noah sense)- the Prophet of Truth claims the Forerunners survived the Flood once before;
4) That, considering the similarities between the Halo-activation event and the Noah story, it suddenly becomes clear why the Flood are called the Flood, and furthermore, our own Noah-myth is understood to be a kind of racial memory of the Halo cataclysm;
5) We may not be able to trust Cortana;
6) In Halo 3, Master Chief is going to be faced with the choice of saving Earth from both the Flood and the Covenant by activating the rings. It's a neat solution. My guess is, he won't do it.

I see most of this has been stated by Slater already. Good show.

i've heard from multiple users [granted it is the internet but] I was told there is nothing extra upon completing Legendary, take that as whatever, they may be wrong, they beat it on Co-op, maybe they're right or wrong, but they [5 people] day nothing.

Of course there is another level of difficulty where you grab some skulls and it turns harder by stripping you of the radar and giving enemies more health [I think it's called mythic] So, just felt like sharing that info.

Why can't Cortana be trusted, cause she should've known this? Cause she's could possibly in league with Tentacle O'Reily at the End when he asks to answer some questions?

She seemed awfully insistent about wanting to stay behind, all I'm sayin'. I know, I know, she was probably just planning to use the Deus Ex Machina device or In Amber Clad or whatever it's called. Still, it's fishy, particularly considering the post-credits scene and her stated willingness to help Gravemind.

Also, consider. If the rings are activated, all sentient life in the galaxy dies, except for whomever is inside the Ark... and AI constructs. Guilty Spark 343 survived. So will Cortana. How deep does her allegiance to Master Chief and the rest of humanity go?

She's a smart AI. In about seven years, she's going to go crazy anyway.

http://transmit.ilovebees.com/outbound/only_seven.wav

RE: Beating Halo 2 on Legendary.....

God Damn.....good use of the ILoveBees content to add to the Halo 2 game....how long has she been active? Maybe this triggers her insanity?

Good work brother.

BTW: I beat it the Last level on Legendary (via the Halo 1 method that got you the Sgt. Johnson Flood love moment) and nothing happened. BUT....there was at least 5-10 seconds MORE of dead air/video time THAT could be reserved for a date if you beat the game the RIGHT way through. Just saying.

Most of the skulls you get are in Legendary and activate things like lower/higher health and no radar.

For all you skullery needs:

http://www.highimpacthalo.org/showskull.php

Videos, effects, etc. Not all of them make the game more difficult, but most of them do...

I beat you to it if you look a few posts up.

***edit***

Fuck, nevermind, I just tried my link and it doesn't work.

The rampant AI thing is a concept from Marathon, if no one's mentioned it yet.

In Coagulation: Have someone fly the Banshee over to the other base while you stand on top of it, then jump down into the base, grab the flag, run outside, and hop back on the Banshee.

In Lockout: From the middle, going towards the tower with the Battle Rifle on it, jump on the left ledge of the pathway, and jump straight to the top, instead of circling around the path.

If you need me to show you, set up a game and invite Whoskeyzersoze or Shillam G.

There was some speculation on Halo.Bungie.org that Cortana had started going rampant at the end of the first game after she was inside Halo while the Chief was with the monitor. However, if she wasn't rampant then it would seem like it only would have gotten worse at the beginning of Halo 2.