PAX: Halo 2 Hands On Report
Added 08/31/2004 by Colin
I’ve seen the light. I’ve seen Halo 2. Not just seen it, I’ve played it. Not just played it, I’ve played it in front of a crowd of 150+ people. Not just played it in front of a crowd of 150+ people, I’ve played it in front of a crowd of 150+ people, and owned. I guess I’ll start this off with what happened while I was playing, play by play, then I’ll write my impressions at the end, what weapons are good, how the vehicles handle, how the map is, stuff like that. So read on, brave Halo 2 fan, and rejoice, for Halo 2 is upon us, and as the marketing hype campaign goes… Earth will never be the same.Let’s start at the beginning. I’m standing in the console room, as we are getting the directions on team setup and who’s playing who for the Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow tournament. Almost no one who registered was there, and no one has a clue where they might be. Then suddenly, over the PA announces that they are handing out tickets to play Halo 2, and they are EXTREMELY limited. Needless to say everyone bolted. Well, some people didn’t bolt immediately. Some people just looked around in amazement, at the very thought of playing Halo 2, then bolted. Some took a look back at the Xboxes running Splinter Cell, then bolted. And some just started walking out, keeping their cool, saw the mass of humanity running (to get a spot in front of them obviously) and then bolted. Needless to say, I bolted right away. I ran from the console room to the escalator. The PAX staff guy there was yelling at people to be careful because some people had hurt themselves running down the escalator to get tickets to the Minibosses concert, but at least those people who got hurt actually got a ticket. Some people heeded his warning, others didn’t. Me, I just got down there ASAP.
I get into line, and there are easily fifty or so people already there, with more people filing in behind me every second. I finally get to the front of the line and I receive the ticket. It’s just a regular looking ticket with those magical words Halo 2 and the number forty-one written on it. Apparently they only gave out around 180 tickets, and a lot of people weren’t even at PAX yet when they were handed out, so I was lucky to get one. Halo 2 was set to start at 2 PM, and I got the ticket at 7 AM, so let’s fast forward 5 hours.
[fast forwards 5 hours]
The PA comes on yet again, bearing the news that those blessed with Halo 2 tickets should lineup outside the console room in order of their ticket number. In just a few minutes the line is already extending down the entire console hallway and out to the escalator area. While we wait, I kill time talking to the other guys around me. One of them it turned out owns his own web-comic and is hoping to get pictures for it, two others paid $20.00 each for their tickets, and another is just standing there, looking amazed that he is actually in line. Site-Owning Guy and I wonder what build we’ll be playing, how long we’ll get to play, what map it is, stuff like that. It was a great way to burn the time, and the conversation was interesting in it’s own right, and then suddenly we are at the front of the line. The group ahead of us cuts off right in front of Amazed-To-Be-In-Line Guy, so the 5 of us are set to go in together. From here I can see that they transformed the front of the Console room into Halo 2 central, but I can’t really see much of it from where I’m standing. Then come 9 more minutes of waiting, Site-Owning Guy and I start discussing handhelds, then our time comes. They check our tickets, and we are off to play Halo 2.
I walk in, and it’s unreal. Right there walking along the Xboxes, helping people out to bring in the next group are Bungie guys, including Frank O’Connor. The setup is eight Xboxes in a row each with their own TV, and then, raised from the floor on what appeared to be slightly larger TVs, are 4 Xbox’s each with their own TV. I sit down on the one on the far right, and I am asked by one of the Bungie guys (I’m pretty sure it was Frankie but this whole part was so unreal it almost blurs together), if I knew the map. I say yes, because I’ve played the Beta a few times over the last few months. He asks me if could maybe get the plasma sword, get a killing spree or two, and get some vehicle kills with the Rocket Launcher. I said sure, and ask why. It turns out MY XBOX is the one being piped to the MASSIVE projector TV, there so that the 180+ Halo 2 fans can watch the game being played. The crowd consists of some people who have never played the game before and some who just did, but all were looking for more Halo 2 action. My Xbox was also being streamed downstairs, where another 50 or so people were watching on two TVs running the live feed. No pressure. So I sit there, glancing nervously behind me, where the Bungie elite are finishing getting people to their Xbox’s, getting everything set up, and then the game starts. It’s Zanzibar, and I’m ready to dominate.
I start out on offense, so I immediately jump into the ghost and boost away, let up on the boost to turn, and gun it to the jump and over. I take the turn… and bump into one of the pillars underneath the chaingun emplacement, where two guys with SMGs (the starting weapon we all had) spam me to death. I glance behind me, to the crowd of people watching my every move, and decide to go for the plasma sword. I run up the seawall, up the tower on the right of the level, shoot the lock holding back the ramp, and jump down to the plasma sword and grab it. It then plays the awesome “You just got the Plasma Sword and it’s time to kick some ass” animation and I hear some people cheer. So I hop down from there, see a guy, jump towards him, and get SMG’d to death yet again. This is getting really annoying, so I go out and get some kills and run off the dirt ramp that goes from the ground to the sniping area with windows, and open the gate, grab the flag, run out to the courtyard and get gunned down at the main entrance area, and none of my teammates get it back. That sucked, so onto defense.
It’s payback time and I’m out for blood. From the spawn point next to the flag, I run up the ramp, pickup the Rocket Launcher, and scan the area for targets. Like a miracle from god, a warthog with 3 people drives on in, so I zoom in, aim at it, get a lock, and fire two rockets, sending the warthog and it’s passengers flying through the air, to which the crowd whoops. They come again in a warthog, this time with just 2 passengers (apparently someone learned his lesson, though the second two seem to take a little longer), so I yet again zoom in, and unload two rockets on them, taking them down. Just then a ghost comes in and I rocket that, and by now there are just a few minutes left on the clock, so I decide to try my luck with the plasma sword again, so I go up the tower, shoot the lock, drop the ramp, and grab the sword, hop down… then get gunned down yet again. I guess I just suck with it, because I saw another guy get a killing spree with it. A minute later the game ends, and it’s time for offense yet again.
This time I’m out for a flag cap. No fancy plasma sword stuff, no uber Rocket Launcher tracking, just Capture the Flag ownage. So again, I hop in the ghost. I boost down the beach turn left into the base, jump the, well, jump, turn left (without crashing into the pillar!), go in front of the gate, pull up next to the dirt ramp, run up, and grab the Battle rifle lying against the wall. From there I run over to the gate switch, hit it, opening the gate, and jump down to grab the flag. From there I run out of the base, and at the gate a guy with an SMG comes at me. I throw down the flag, shoot him with the BR a few times, killing him, pickup the flag, and run like hell. At this point Frankie himself comes over to guide me to the beach, and the crowd is yelling and everything. I keep on going, get to the rocky area, and another guy comes at me, I again throw down the flag, kill this new guy with the BR, at long last getting back at all the SMG spammers who killed me when I had the plasma sword, pickup the flag again, and run. I get between the ramparts of the base, at which point my team, who had been running around aimlessly figuring out how to play, runs behind me and kills the enemies following me, and go up the seawall stairs, run through the seawall area, down the stairs on the beach side, and score, as the crowd shouted and whooped making it one of the most incredible gaming experiences of my life.
Still high from my flag capture ownage, I’m on defense yet again. This time I decided to just go around getting some kills, and head out to the beach to see if there is anyone to spawn camp. Fortunately, at the archway there is a ghost someone left behind, so I hop in that and boost onto the beach, where I catch sight of a warthog with one guy driving it, so I start shooting at him, unfortunately, the guy gets stuck against a wall, so it’s not much of a contest, but I, being the spam hypocrite that I am, plasma-spam him to death anyways. From there I went around the level looking for people to shoot, but there wasn’t much to shoot at, since most everyone didn’t know the map well. The round ended, and so ended my coolest gaming experiences ever.
I just want to say a big thank you to all the people who put this Halo 2 showing on, it was incredible, and I had a total blast. Thanks to all the Bungie employees who took the time out of their day to come out and show it off, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.
Thanks for reading, and over the next week or two I’ll be writing hands on previews of all the games I played at PAX, including a more gameplay oriented preview of Halo 2, going into how the weapons and vehicles handled and the specifics there, plus I’ll be writing about Mech Assault 2 (I don’t know how this one went under the radar, it’s incredible), Jade Empire (Just preorder this sucker right now, it rules), and Conker (meh.).
