HALO 2: Online Advice Thread

3. Watch out for Brain of JG. That guy is an asshole.

Don't scratch your nuts in the heat of battle.

Words to live by.

Don't get too cocky if you're duel wielding SMGs. You can still get beaten to the punch by a guy with one SMG and a Plasma Rifle, or a combination of a charged plasma pistol shot followed up by some SMG fire. Everybody passes by the Plasma Pistol, but it's lethal as long as you're not playing against more than six opponents. Two SMGs are great for the kill but lousy against shields, just like two Plasma Rifles are great against shields but worthless when it comes to the kill. Mix and match and you're unstoppable.

If you're about to pick up your second DW weapon, chuck your grenades in the direction of the nearest gun battle. Sometimes you can score a lucky kill that way.

In Ninjanaut, get someplace high and wait for the red X's to start showing up, then respond with long distance weapons or grenades. Sniping the Ninjanaut from a distance gives you a HUGE advantage in the game, since you're less likely to be immediately clubbed down.

The pistol, battle rifle and needler are all fucking worthless unless you don't have any other options at the moment.

If you know you are going to die or in close combat with somoene swinging a sword, it is best to drop a grenade. Hopefully you'll get the perp after he kills you.

Says you. The Pistol/SMG combo is the most effective medium-range combo in the game.

When dual-wielding SMGs, consider your reload a bad thing. Use one gun sparingly while laying in with the other gun. Once that gun starts the reload, keep using the loaded gun and leap-frog your way past people. Constant stream of lead = desirable.

Okay, I actually NEED advice:

Is anyone else having trouble joining a party? I'm gettin invites, but every time I try to accept, it says that the network is too busy, "sorry about that". What. The Fuck.

Yeah I'm getting that too.

I had good luck with medium range gun fights with the pistol...aim for the head and it'll take em out faster.

How do you use the sword properly? Carl kept slaughtering me with what looked like some sort of dash-attack, while I waved my weapon around like a ineffective elderly flasher waggling his limp dick in the morning breeze.

It's obviously a bad-ass weapon, judging by the number of times someone came out of nowhere and killed me instantly, I'm just finding it hit and miss to use myself.

If you hold the cursor over someone for a few seconds, it will turn red. Then push the fire button to lunge. You can do this from the air, too. If you switch to the sword from another weapon while targeting someone, the lunge will be ready right away sometimes. It's all about the red cursor.

Also from the ground to an elevated position, giving you a good boost and a reason to yell "SHIRYOKEN!" into your mic.

It's weird about the needler being worthless seeing as it kicks so much ass in single-player. I also weep that the pistol, the best weapon from the first game, is now dick in this one.

Also, what do you mean when you say "against" shields? Are you talking about overshields or just if someone's life is full charged?

Aaah, so it's all to do with this "aiming" thing I hear so much about. Given that I come from the Hudson school of shooting erratically in all directions, this explains a lot.

The life shield. Plasma weapons are far more destructive when your shields are up, projectile weapons are more dangerous once they drop.

And Dan, when you're using the sword, forget about the B button. You can only do the sword lunge with the right trigger. Don't waste time trying to melee attack anybody.

As for the lame-assed pistol...sure, it's useful at medium range. But seriously...how many battles play out at medium range? 95% of the time, you're either blasting someone who's charging your down, or you're sniping someone who's frantically backpeddling. Medium range battles are pretty infrequent; hence, the pistol is pretty fucking worthless.

The Brute Shot is just insultingly feeble. I hit someone with three grenades last night and they didn't die. Fuck that weapon. Considering how hard the Shot is to aim, you'd think the actual impact would be devestating.

This I must experience, even if I must me on the receiving end.

Is it just me, or has the shotgun been nerfed? I really dont think its getting the killing power up close that it did in Halo 1.

I am officially a plasma rifle/pistol SMG dual wielding whore now though. That is easily the best combo in the game.

Plasma pistol charged up shot actually hitting is the only iffy thing, I feel it doesn't home in as well as it did in part 1.

I used to love the rifle melee combo from part 1, but the melee attacks have been seriously nerfed also. You need to hit them directly in the back of the head for a one hit kill, and up close, you really have to have weakened them with projectile fire before the rifle melee hit will take them out.

And good god the SMG has a pitiful melee attack.

I've found my niche, as Carl can attest to, the sword is lord.

1) always aim for the feet when using a rocket launcher
2) Plasma stick vehicles though i'm not sure if a fag grenade can get caught in a warthog seat
3) Shotgun will kill anything when very upclose, 1-2
4) Never trashtalk someone cause they will always end up killing you eventually [Bukakke Bob]
5) A melee attack to the back is an instant kill

Most of those you probably know but they're steps towards being the winner.

and hell yeah Brute Shot sucks.

Okay, but how do you know where their life is at? In the heat of the moment, who can figure out "okay...I think they were blinking...but maybe not...oh look, I'm dead."

Oh, and Brute Shot is surprisingly awful as anything other than a melee weapon. I mean, even if it has the advantage of being able to hit enemies around a corner, if they're that close in the first place, then why not just use a regular weapon?

Well, if you're close enough to be using the SMG in the first place, you're close enough to either see their shield flashing or not. Because if you're using the SMG from more than 20 feet away, you're just throwing away bullets. If you're fighting in close quarters, you can see their shield blink out, and that's when you switch from controlled SMG bursts to full fire.

That's how I do it, anyway.

I have found that the Needler breaks down shields mighty quick and add to the fact that you just have to aim in the general direction. It works well with a SMG or pistol.

I came to fully utulize the red cursor last night. It helped a lot in my kills, I still get killed a lot but I felt like I was playing a ton better.. These tips really work (how's that for a testimonial?)

I just played Live for the first time last night, and didn't get my ass handed to me quite as badly as I thought I would, so I was happy.

My question is about actually joining a game. I choose which type of game I like, then it takes forever to find the "Best Game" then it starts. There's no lag or anything, I was just wondering why I takes so incredibly long. And then, after the game is over, I just have to go back to the lobby and find another one. There's no "replay" option where whoever would like can just stay in and go at it again?

After a game is over, you can click on the people's names in the post-score report and send them a Party Invite - that puts you all in a "party" that can then move through matchmaking as a group or play custom games. The idea is that you'd send an invite to the people you liked playing with so you can play with them on the next game too. If there are Guests on your Live account, keep in mind that you can only do Custom games or use the Training Grounds unranked matchmaking. It's actually a neat system.

Lys

I think there are a few factors that determine how long it takes to set up a "Quickmatch". One of them is that the system is trying to find seven other players around the same skill level as yourself who are ALSO looking for a match. Sure, tons of people are online, but a good portion of them are already in a game somewhere, so they aren't available. The system has to look at the available folks in your skill range and then put them all together.

I'm sure other factors are involved as well.

On an unrelated note, I visited the Bungie site and read up on what goes into the ranking system. It's kinda interesting.

I'll being playing this for the first time at a tournament here in Atlanta tomorrow. Will probably get my ass handed to me on a silver platter, but I've been reading this thread for tips. Most people seem to agree that when dual-wielding, the right mix of weapons makes the difference.

For the most part, does Halo 2 play similar to the first game? I know that Chief jumps higher and takes no fall damage, but that's about it.

I have new-found love for the SMG/pistol combination. When I actually get my aim right, it is really working for me. Actually I have been trying to avoid the dual SMG combo. I lose my aim so fast when I use that, even with controlled bursts..

Dual SMGs are great for in your face combat. But if a guy has a sword or a shotgun, you will loose.

Try alternate bursts when closing in with the SMGs and then drop the hammer up close.

I used the pistol/SMG combo to good effect. Problem is, I use the clip up so fast I keep trying to shoot with it and forget to reload.

Here's my tip though: When playing a game with Slater and he's in the tank, get out of the way. While you might think this applies to enemies, that's not the only case. He'll run over a teammate readily and claim it was an "accident".

I'm a force of nature all right.

Stay away from the exploding barrels on the zanzibar map.

The lock-on with the rocket launcher kicks ass.

The Sword and the Sniper rifle are a master chief’s best friends

And if you don’t have your Sniper rifle handy get a combat rifle use the scope and annoy long range targets

Hiding the bomb in an assault match while you’re in the lead is a cheap way to achieve victory.

Exploding barrels are subject to physics. Therefore, if you're on a high ledge (like, say, the elevator in Ivory Tower) and feel the need to dispense exploding death on the enemy-filled lower floor, just push one over the side and shoot it a couple times/gren-spam it. Sure to cause chaos.

Looking for advice rather than offering: what look sensitivity do you guys use? I got pretty good at Halo PC, but I'm still getting used to the Xbox's controller. I don't want to get comfortable with too low a setting, or struggle endlessly with one that's too high.

I'm Loomer on Live; if I ever work up the nerve to join a game, take pity on me.

I use 7 for Halo 2 usually, it seemed to me that look speed is a bit faster in this game than the first Halo. I've never played Halo PC so I can't really compare that. Also it's kind of hard to really describe the relation between mouse/keyboard and controller.

My advice: I'll try to avoid repeating what others said.
Go for back of the head melee attacks whenever possible. I get more assassinations than pretty much anyone else. Sneaking up on people is good.
Speaking of which, always keep your head on a swivel. I'm not going to say nobody ever sneaks up behind me, but I'm constantly checking the radar, if it's on. When it's not on I look around a lot (which is where the high look sensitivity comes in handy.
Maybe it's just me, but I almost never use grenades. I've been trying to dual-wield less so I can take advantage of the melee attack, but I still rarely use grenades, and I was awesome with the grenades in the first game.
Don't be overly aggressive. Patience can definitely be a virtue.

Thanks, Jack. 7 feels about right.

7 works for me too. I've also got the control inverted, but that's just me.

I don't use inversion, but I do use the boxer button configuration, mostly because that's what I'm used to now because when I started playing Halo I always had to use the controller with the broken L trigger, which would cause me to randomly throw grenades. Especially into the walls right after I spawned. It was easier if I would constantly melee attack instead of constantly hurl grenades. However, I like it a lot more now because I prefer melee over grenades anyway

I'm currently set on 10, so when I suck on Live I'll have a plausible excuse. It's very touchy, I'm starting to become convinced that the lack of fine control is worse than the slow turning at lower sensitivity levels.

Gonna give it another few days, if I can't adjust I will dial it down to the recommended 7 or so.

Hmm "look sensitivity", maybe that's what my head moves so slow. I haven't touched ym controller options yet,. What is the default setting? I think I could use a little bump....

Default, I think is set to 3.

I'm not a big Halo buff.. I don't even own an Xbox. But I have played a bunch of times and quite a few times found myself in the midst of a home-grown tourney. So the other day I went to my friend's house to play Halo 2 for the 1st time. There was the usual crowd of goons that come out of the woodwork for these things and they're all playing Halo 2 multiplayer for the first time as well. So people picked their teams, and since this was kind of a treading-new-waters kind of thing, people wanted to be with players they knew were good. So me and the other crappy people, along with the girlfriends dragged along, all ended up on the same team... we didn't have a chance.... or did we?

Yeah we swept 2 games of CTF 3-0 and the goons decided to take their Xboxes and their Halo 2 collector's editions and go home early. It was the strangest thing. After 2 games they never go home... that's when they order pizza and dig in for 5 more hours! But they were not pleased with the HAlo 2 mulitplayer experience. They even went as far as calling their pals who have not yet played the multiplayer either to break the the "bad news" that HAlo 2 (in their words) "doesn't even compare to the original". "Yeah, man.... it's not the same. It sucks."

So obivously these guys didn't have the knowledge of the levels that they had with the first Halo, my friend could make his way around Damnation with his eyes closed, and they were miffed that they'd have to acquaint themselves with all new fighting levels before they could continue to dominate. They'll warm up to HAlo 2 in time, they just need to get used to it. I want to know if anyone else has seen the fallout of Halo enthusiasts that dislike Halo 2 because of the demotion of expertise that a new game brings with it. Anyone?

Ya I totally agree with that. I have a cadre of buddies down in Irvine who are halo nuts. They too knew all the ins and outs of every level. And of course they were pistol whores.

They played 2 for the first time, and they all hated it. They didnt want to change. But after 3-4 more sittings, they all started digging it, and started getting a hang of the new gameplay mechanics.

Frankly, the map design in part 2 blows ALL maps in halo 1 out of the water. It is very well thought out and very well done. I am very impressed by every map.

I noticed a lot of Halo 2 slamming on some other forums. The funny part is their main complaint is that too many n00bs (God I hate the spelling, but I think it fits here) are gonna win some games. They made it so n00bs could play and get kills from veteran players (it's the same argument professional poker players say about newcomers....when they win).

Now I am a player who really isn't that good but has a fun time playing (especially CTF type games because I don't have to fire as much) but the thought of "I'm not as good at this one so it must suck" is hilarious. If you hate Halo 2 say it is because you don't like the maps, or the game physics or whatever.. So just please spare me the "to many n00bs get easy kills, this game sucks" talk. Just cause you haven't mastered this game, or you have to learn new maps, pick new weapons, etc, doesn't mean the game sucks..

Okay, I feel better!

Can I get on Live with YahooDSL or do I need an actual cable connection?