[Crash]

You can board any vehicle by holding the (X) button when prompted near a slower moving vehicle; some like the Spectre are more difficult than others. The Spectre requires that you open the hatch and then rip the driver out, but its extremely difficult not only because of its speed and sporadic movement but because your character will want to grasp one of the two sides before he ever wants to take the driver out. The easiest vehicles to board are the large heavy ones. The tanks have both a front boarding method and a rear boarding method. When you grasp the craft the icon menu will tell you to melee the vehicle and you'll begin to pound away by pressing the ( button. When the front or rear hatch is open, you can continue to melee (very effective in the front hatch, not so effective on the rear since there's no driver back there to hit) or simply toss in a grenade with the (L) trigger and boom. Instant fireworks, release the vehicle and enter it.

The Ghost and Banshee are actually not as difficult to board as you would think, but the boost is the one thing you're going to want to keep an eye on. Good vehicle operators will boost at the last second which is immediately deadly if you're in the eye of the vehicle and trying to play matador. Another thing problematic, yet strategically interesting, with boarding is when you do board, because the animation does take a moment to two to occur, the other player may bail at which point you become the vehicle operator and they can knock you out of commission. Sometimes this works out well for one party, other times its the other. In the end its all about placement and release, how you get to where you want to board and how to get out of there with the vehicle, hopefully with the previous operator splattered on the ground. The single best way to board a vehicle is always by creating a diversion (or having your allies do it), whether human or a bot, the operator is trying to fight something off to the side and doesn't see you until its too late. That's when its crunch time.

Weapons

Most of you are already aware of the weapons to such a degree that me covering them extensively would be a waste of your time. There are however, some elements involving the weapons which I was not aware of until playing the game. I'll try to fit the additional information if I can about each weapon in a sentence or two for the sake of brevity.

The Battle Rifle will be you first and last line of defense in the campaign; it fires in three-round burst zoomed or unzoomed. Some people are upset that it no longer fires a single-shot zoomed, but I can't say that gameplay has been affected negatively by this. The Magnum is the lesser version of the Pistol from the previous game, and although it doesn't pack quite the punch and lacks the scope it fires much much faster. The SMG is a fast and simple weapon which works best when paired with another gun and in close-quarters.

The Plasma Pistol is actually far different than it was described, as the fully charged plasma burst and even the single fired shots seem far less effective in terms of tracing the enemy and their individual potency than before. It can take a shield down if needed, so in this regard it is still a trustworthy arm. The traditional blue Plasma Rifle is the only weapon which appears to have remained unchanged, but its counterpart the red Brute Plasma Rifle is far more powerful. The offset between the two is that the traditional one can commit to sustained fire for longer periods of time before overheating, whereas the Brute's version can go out of service rather quickly.

The Rocket Launcher is by far the most powerful projectile based weapon in the game and with its new lock-on feature it has a lot of potential in both campaign and in multiplayer. It also has a cool and unique sound now when its fired, something which always raises the hair on the back of everyone's collective neck when its heard. The Shotgun is by far the most lethal close-quarters weapon in the game; one well-placed shot can do the trick and two mediocre shots are just as effective. The Sniper Rifle now has a recoil thats a little getting used too, but don't worry, its not nearly as bad as you could expect and despite the new look, this weapon remains largely unchanged.

The Brute Shot which becomes a very costly necessity towards the end of the game is really an amazing weapon if you learn its minimal trajectory and speed; the only problem is ammo runs out quick so make sure every shot counts. The Needler is back and is more powerful apparently, but I enjoyed the original version so this weapon is not a homecoming for me but simply a great find. It's the best ranged dual-wielding weapon out there. The Carbine to me appears slightly more powerful than the Battle Rifle, but is only capable of good use with a person who can tame its fast semi-automatic single-round firing. Once you have reigned it in you can really bring a lot of death with it. The Beam Rifle is an excellent sniping weapon as it never has to be reloaded (although it can run out of energy), if the user keeps a steady and even poise when shooting the gun. If you fire too quickly it will make a metallic grinding noise and halt for a second or two. This is the most powerful gun in the game, as it will even cut through the shield's of Jackals.

The Energy Sword will be known as the "Noob Stick," and despite requiring some level of skill it will allow unskilled players to get some kills here and there. If you don't have a ranged game then you're going to want to learn one quickly because its the only way to survive a proficient swordsman, well that and good grenade placement. The Sentinel Beam is dropped by the floating propitioners of the Halo construct's monitors (like Guilty Spark 343's sentinels) and basically emits a beam of orange energy frying some more resilient enemies; in so much as I have not used the weapon very often its efficacy is questionable which may be why the Sentinels are such easy opponents.

There are only two types of grenades, Plasma Grenades and Frag Grenades the former being the more powerful of the two. Unlike before, inactive grenades do not explode when an active one goes off nearby. I don't know why this was changed, but I suppose to makes sense to some degree. Since they're not active they won't be capabale of detonation, at least not in my experience. There are four types of Turrets in the game, two human and two alien. Each side has a large turret with shielding and a small one without. I have yet to determine what the purpose of the small ones are, as they seem quick ineffective in comparison to the larger, armored turrets.

The only weapon which you do not get in multiplayer but have the pleasure of dishing out in campaign is the new and improved Fuel Rod Cannon. This may be available for downloadable content since there's no weapon really like it in the multiplayer system, and its completely reinvented for this game compared to the counterpart of the previous game. Apart from looking drastically different, it now fires as straight burning mass of gas towards the victim instead of lobbing a shard of plasma upward with arc. Very effective, but unfortunately by the time you get to really use the weapon excessively in the campaign the enemies are so tough it takes two or three direct shots to take them down. Cool weapon though, extremely fun to use despite taking up half of your screen.

Vehicles

I'll try to skim through these just like the weapons, and I'll cover all the noticeable features which I have yet to hear from an outside source. There are only three types of vehicles: Light, Heavy and Banshees. Follow closely, there's going to be a test on November 9th.

The two most obvious Light Vehicles are the traditional Warthog and the Guass Warthog. The former needs no introduction but the latter you'll remember from the E3 2003 demo. It fires a magnetic beam of energy which is instantly deadly and it is the closest thing you will get to a heavy vehicle from this end of the spectrum. The Warthogs are not as top-heavy and with the breaking mechanism by pressing the (L) trigger its easier to keep them in line. The Ghost is not all too different, the most important thing about it is the boost. Always boost when you're in a tight spot, otherwise you're at risk of being fired upon or worse, boarded. The Ghost is a perfect reason why no ATV was necessary, as now having played the game it is painfully obvious that any incarnation of an ATV would be simply cannon fodder. The Spectre is a little bit of an oddity. The vehicle has a driver, gunner and two people who can hang on the sides. It works well and can move and fire fast, but the control can be slightly awkward compared to the dynamic ability of the other vehicles. Its fun when coordinated properly, but if not done so it could spell doom for any participants. Its also somewhat difficult to board which is good for areas not as wide open, like Burial Mounds.

The Heavy Vehicles consist of only the Scorpion Tank and the Wraith. The former is extremely slow and overbearing. Its only real asset it a complete 360 degrees of enabled attacking ranges. You can fire in any direction while traveling in one and it also has a secondary fire with the (L) trigger. When comparing the two though its painfully obvious that the Wraith, with its massive primary fire (huge plasma mortars) and its boosting ability is the best heavy vehicle in the game. Its fast and lean when it is controlled by someone who knows what they're doing, yet it can be strong and relentless too. I didn't like the fact that in campaign it has a secondary fire but I was not able to locate it once I was in the vehicle. I also know that you can have a passenger stand right in front of the cannon (if this individual has lost their ride) and you can fire and travel despite with them being right there, in front of the plasma cannon. With the level sizes you deal with in Halo 2 it becomes an imperative to invent new ways to travel.

The Banshee is a sexy vehicle, I don't care what they say. And if some of you know who my real name is you'll know that I was a strong supporter and believer that there would be other flying vehicles. This of course is not the case, we only get the Banshee. That being said this is one hell of a ride. I didn't care for the speed or handeling when I first took it up in the air, as it seemed to move slightly slower, doesn't hover in the same way and would be the victim of severe clipping problems. This was all alleviated once I learned how to operate the damn thing. You can hover simply by looking straight out and letting go of the controls, if you try to back up and hovering while looking downward you'll fall to the ground. The new movements are not only cool to look at but especially useful in dodging shots and avoiding boarding when you make systematic dives against an enemy base.

In campaign you get the luxury of two things you don't get in multiplayer. First its the return of the fuel-rod cannon, or now known as the Banshee Bomb. This fires almost indentically to the previously advised weapon, the Fuel Rod Cannon. It doesn't lob per se, but fires in a nearly straight trajectory and instead of a solid mortar of plasma it fires a clean burst of burning energy. Its quite useful if you can learn hovering and barrell-roll techniques. You'll need to when you go against three or four Wraiths at a time in the latter part of the game. Throw in a Phantom and you've got another reason to learn this. The second thing you get to enjoy in the campaign is a new paint job. In one early level you get to fly a brightly colored Banshee throughout a space installation in what is definitely the best aspect of said level. Its nothing new in terms of gameplay, but its cool to see a different color.

Enemies

Wow, where do I start? Well, as you'll find out from my campaign review good and evil aren't as easy to splice this time around, but I'll give you a break down of what enemies there are and what to expect from them without giving away any pertinent secrets. I'll divide these up into paragraphs as I see fit, and some of this will contain slight spoiler information (but nothing that really hasn't been touched on already) so guard your eyes and skip over this section if need be.

Lower Hegemony

The Grunts haven't really changed much to be perfectly honest. They hobble around and still do purple-bloodied flips when you shoot them in the head. They are loyal to their Elite commanders as you will learn and not as loyal to anyone else. Jackals aren't loyal and they aren't the bastards they were in the game before, hiding behind their impenetrable shields. That's probably because many of them are carrying Beam Rifles and they will fire and kill you from a distance if you don't move quickly to take them out. If you get close, incidentally, they will drop the heavy rifle and begin to run covering their head. I found this strangely comical.

The Drones are difficult to fire upon in certain situations, but as you go through the game your ability to gun them down will improve. They like to flying around sporadically and either do one of three things. They'll cling to a nearby wall and take pop-shots, attack from the air above you or they'll hit the ground and run towards your position while firing. They're simply bugs and they bleed their white blood once you've got a clean shot or two in their direction. Its not a problem. Hunters however can be. They are seemingly larger this time around and not only that, they are tougher to take down. Its not terribly different from the previous game. They have three methods of attack instead of their previous two, charging forward and firing their Fuel Rod Cannon. Their third is when you get close behind them they will raise their armored arm into the air and bring it crashing down behind them. Not a good place to be, needless to say. Their arm-mounted weapon is more of a powerful ray gun now, firing a column of green burning energy and making a decidedly different sound. Its more effective in some ways than the Fuel Rod Gun of old, but not by much. The best part of the Hunters in Halo 2 is not having to deal with them as enemies all the time. They make much stronger allies if you're of that conviction.

Heretical Order

Its not all fine and dandy in the Covenant army, anyone who fails at their mission or disagrees with the doctrine set forth by the leaders is labeled a heretic. When this happens all of the defectors of the Covenant who follow the heretic unite under the banner of their leader. During a brief instance in the campaign you run into a whole new set of Grunts and Elites, all wearing the armor of the heretical order they belong to. They are more resiliant and aggressive than the traditional Covenant militia and should be dealt with in an equally aggressive fashion.