Something that should immediately be apparent from the first 10 minutes of the game is the larger scope of it's story, Halo 2's story just puts Halo CE's in the dark, at least in my opinion. A big part of that larger scope is a 2nd playable character, in Halo 2, as well as the Master Chief, you spend about half of the campaign playing as the Arbiter, before becoming the Arbiter, he was a covenant fleet commander, and this not only opens a new perspective on the Human Covenant war, but is a treasure chest of universe and lore. We see the Covenant's side of the war in Halo 2, which fascinates me, as does the politics of the Covenant, which is a big part of the Covenant story in this game. Their religion about the Halo rings gets coverage here, and we see their religious leaders, the Prophets, who serve as 3 of the game's baddies. I adore the Halo universe, as you may know, so Halo 2 is just Christmas, it's also a really interesting story, as we effectively see the dawn of a civil war in the Covenant, and we see the main character of this story lose his faith and realise the truth about his religion, which is something that really interests me. The Human side of the story is also really interesting, as the Covenant launch an attack on Earth, and another Halo ring is found, one that Chief and his fellow humans become determined to prevent the firing of. But what really sets this game's story above Halo CE's is it's characters, Chief, Cortana, Johnson, Spark and such return from Halo CE, and with the exception of Spark, who isn't really in the game much, all of the returning characters are more badass, Johnson in particular, who is completely awesome, and far more present here, he's also very quotable, "oh I know what the ladies like." if you have a badass and you make him quotable, I'm in, Master Chief and Cortana are the same, and both get more to say and do in the story, which is never bad. The Covenant characters are also cool, as I said, the Arbiter has a cool arch throughout the game, and the Prophets are also cool, it's just cool to watch the Covenant cutscenes and listen to them talk, as I already said, Covenant religion and politics fascinates me. There's another character who I will not name, spoilers, he is only in the game very briefly, but when he is there he is completely awesome and completely creepy, and he's a poet, a strange trait, but one that makes him pretty fun to listen to. I do however have one massive issue, the ending, there isn't one, the game's campaign just sort of stops, leaving on a cliff hanger that is infuriating. I didn't like the Empire Strikes Back ending, but I liked that more than this shit, it literally feels like a few missions were just cut from the game at the end, which is probably what actually happened, but that doesn't excuse a shit ending.
Gameplay has been refined, the same system as the first game is here, you can carry 2 guns, any 2 you like, but the 2 playable characters can do different things, Chief has a light, while Arbiter has the far cooler ability to turn invisible, I didn't really use either ability in the game, and aside from that the 2 characters play exactly the same, luckily then the gameplay is still solid with both of them. The game now feels much more responsive, and the arsenal of weapons is even bigger and even more nuts, with previously unusable weapons like the energy sword and fuel rod cannon now usable, as well as new weapons like the cute little SMG, and the mean and brutal Brute Shot, as well as the hyper cool Covenant carbine and Battle rifle, 2 fast firing medium range rifles that are both awesome, though weirdly the assault rifle has been removed. A big change in the gameplay is the ability to dual wield smaller guns, which is something you will use, as it's actually useful and makes you feel like a badass. It's also fun to try different combinations of weapons, maybe I'm just imagining it, but the Plasma rifle SMG combination is really effective. Further mixing things up is a few new enemy types, in addition to the returning Covenant and Flood enemies, you fight a splinter faction of the Covenant, massive Forerunner drones with shields on the front and mortar cannons on the top, flying bugs, jet pack elites, and finally and most notably, the Brutes, who are ridiculously tough, don't have shields, and charge at you randomly and beat the shit out of you. This game also has a few new vehicles, as well as the returning ones from CE. The navigation issues are much less of a problem here, thank god, and there is more variety in the levels, which is even better. And the version of the game I played was the anniversary version, which is much more of a talking point in this game. Far from the face lift of CEA, Halo 2 got some real treatment, the graphics have received a massive upgrade, and now the game looks stunning, which is really impressive, the sound and music has also been upgraded, which aside from a few changes I really don't like, is a massive improvement, though why did they get rid of Blow Me Away, seriously, that song was perfect, so why did they change it? And then there's of course the cutscenes, which are fucking amazing, they really are, they were done by Blur, the studio that did the cutscenes for Halo Wars, and they hit it out of the park with the gorgeous remade cutscenes, they are easily the best part of the Anniversary edition.
Halo 2 steps it up from Halo Combat Evolved in literally every way, and the Anniversary edition takes it even further, making a 10 year old game gorgeous to look at and listen to. I do have a problem with the ending, but I love this game's campaign, it's expansive, political, has really fun and interesting characters, of course just being a fun game to play even now certainly helps, and I will say Halo 2 is an absolute must play.
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