I have failed...Halo 2 in one sitting.

Earlier today I had the idea to try and beat Halo 2 in one sitting, as FPS's aren't usually that long. I did some reading up on the net, trying to find out how long Halo 2 is, most people and reviews saying it is quite short. So I thought, hmm..I've beaten Halo 3 in one session, I'll go for this one and try beat it. 

I got pretty far...with only one break for some dinner, I got all the way up to the start of the chapter called "Objects in Mirror are larger than they appear." From the contents pages of a few FAQs, that looks about 2/3 to 3/4 or so through. The headaches were starting to win over after around 6 or so hours.

  4.1. The Heretic (beat) 
  4.2. Armory (beat) 
  4.3. Cairo Station (beat) 
  4.4. Outskirts (beat) 
  4.5. Metropolis (beat) 
  4.6. The Arbiter (beat) 
  4.7. Oracle (beat) 
  4.8. Delta Halo (beat) 
  4.9. Regret (beat) 
  4.10. Sacred Icon (beat)
  4.11. Quarantine Zone  
  4.12. Gravemind
  4.13. Uprising
  4.14. High Charity
  4.15. The Great Journey

But I'll give some of my impressions on the game. There are a few times throughout the game where you are just looking round the room for the last enemy or whatever to kill before a checkpoint appears, or a door opens or some kind of trigger event happens. Those instances are quite infuriating as I'm trying to get through it fast. Its a pretty linear game, with a few cubby holes but more or less a straight path all the way through so far. There are some really cool levels though, which are quite open..one of my favourites so far is when you are controlling a Banshee as the Arbiter and flying across the outside of the Heretic's base, looking for weapon installations and his Banshee. The sky looks awesome.

Graphically, I was impressed...having not played an original xbox game for a while. Nice lighting effects and fairly good textures for the most part. I tried to find a video on youtube, no success.

So I am taking a break now while my HP recovers, or shields, more appropriately, before I start playing again. =p

The Flood are one thing in the Halo games that really piss me off. They really stress me out because they take so much ammo to actually finish off. In the sections in this game, they kindly give you Sentinel guns to cauterise their wounds and finish them off permanently, in Halo 3, I think Plasma Rifles dual wielded are best. I always find these parts in the Halo games test my patience, and usually give me a negative impression. I never have fun fighting them, cos they can be very tricky. If you try the Halo 3 mission into the Flood ship on Legendary...man thats not much fun. So far, Halo 3 seems to have improved on quite a few things from this one. I like that you usually have comrades in 3, in this one, it feels pretty lonely and boring at times. There are perhaps more epic scenarios in the 3rd game. 

The music is pretty damn good in this game, and the other Halo games as well. One of my favourite tracks is this one:

Still, this one is pretty good so far. I like the cutscenes (there doesn't seem to be that many in the 3rd game, which is maybe one contributing factor to the respective lengths of each game-this one seems longer than 3, but I'm not sure.)