Halo 2: Anniversary PC review — Solid overall, but the cracks run deep

Halo 2: Anniversary Source: 343 Industries

After two months since Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was ported to the PC platform, Halo ii: Anniversary has officially made the migration and is at present available as part of Halo: The Master Principal Drove on Steam, the Windows ten Store, and Xbox Game Laissez passer for PC. Included with the game is the full Halo 2/Halo 2: Anniversary campaign experience, too as both the Halo 2 and Halo two: Anniversary multiplayer. Simply is the PC port a skillful one?

After playing it extensively since its release, I tin can say the reply is a complicated i. In some means, the game plays excellently, while in others, the experience is marred significantly by a slew of nasty bugs. Overall, the state of the game is solid, but it leaves much to exist desired.

World volition never be the aforementioned

Halo 2: Anniversary

Halo 2: Anniversary on PC

$10

Bottom line: The port of Halo 2: Anniversary is good in many ways, just suffers from big problems in others. Overall, information technology's fine — just "fine" isn't good enough for Halo.

Pros

Looks (mostly) astonishing on PC
Runs very smoothly nearly of the time
H2:A multiplayer plays excellently
Lots of content

Cons

Annoying audio problems
Occasionally jarring graphics issues
Halo two classic multiplayer is barely playable
No Forge at launch

Halo 2: Ceremony PC Entrada

When it works properly, Halo 2: Ceremony looks stunning on PC hardware.

In general, Halo 2: Anniversary's campaign experience on PC is good, but there'due south a sizable amount of room for improvement.

When information technology comes to graphical quality, the visuals overall expect better than they always did on Xbox 1 thanks to the power of PC hardware. Unfortunately, there are times where the look of the game suffers from visual bugs. Specifically, textures both close to and far away from the player tin announced low quality, and some foliage LOD textures may not even return at all. Shadows may appear very blurry, too, and information technology's pretty distracting because that Halo two: Anniversary is divers by its clean, crisp aesthetic.

Thankfully, these happenings were few and far between. For the vast bulk of my playthrough, Halo 2: Anniversary'southward campaign was goose egg but gorgeous to look at.

Audio is a mixed bag, to say the least. Music and sound effects come through loud and articulate, and at that place are no instances of sound cutting out like information technology did for previous ports. Nonetheless, when yous switch between Halo ii: Anniversary and the original Halo 2 version of the campaign on the fly, music can skip around or prematurely end. Music is quieter than it's supposed to be in the original Halo 2 mode, besides, which will disappoint fans who want to hear the original game'due south score. On height of this, switching between modes can randomly switch your PC's audio output, which is annoying to have to set. You'll never experience these issues if you stick to Anniversary mode. Still, it's unfortunate that people accept to deal with them if they want to switch betwixt the original game and Anniversary. Office of the fun of Halo ii: Anniversary is comparison the original game to the remaster in real-fourth dimension, subsequently all.

Thankfully, the operation of Halo ii: Ceremony'south campaign is stellar. While there may be the rare slight frame rate driblet or micro-stutter, the game runs fantastically overall. The core gameplay of the championship is also fully intact; aside from a weird glitch where Elites can't dual-wield properly, Halo 2 and Halo 2: Anniversary's entrada will play only as you remember them.

Halo 2: Anniversary PC Multiplayer

The state of Halo 2's classic multiplayer at launch is unacceptable.

The multiplayer experience in Halo ii: Anniversary is either excellent or abysmal, depending on which game you're playing. Halo two: Anniversary's multiplayer is nearly perfect — aside from the occasional lighting problem, information technology looks, sounds, and runs just as it does on Xbox I. Non having Forge mode at launch is unfortunate because Halo ii: Anniversary didn't have many multiplayer maps to begin with, but it's non a terrible setback.

However, the archetype Halo ii multiplayer is in an awful state at launch. While the servers run great and there's no lag to speak of, there are tons of bug with hit registration. Frequently I've experienced cases where my shots didn't practice damage to other players (you can find it in the clip to a higher place when I'm sniping at the actor on the balcony), and this has also occurred with melee attacks, grenades, and explosive projectiles equally well. At the time of writing, there's also a bizarre glitch where rockets and grenades yous utilize may vanish, only to reappear next to teammates across the map, killing them. If this happens several times, you lot can be booted from the game for betrayals. Killing enemy players can also register equally betrayals as well on rare occasions. It'due south only not acceptable that Halo 2 plays this way.

Considering we're in the middle of a pandemic and everyone at 343 Industries is currently working from dwelling house, I understand that the evolution process isn't platonic correct now. However, I don't understand why the game couldn't have just been delayed for a while until these bug were solved. Maybe Microsoft is pushing to have all of the games on the Master Chief Collection ported to PC before Halo Infinite? Whatever the example may be, these problems have seriously soured what should accept been a triumphant return of Halo 2'due south dearest multiplayer.

Should you buy Halo ii: Anniversary PC?

Halo 2: Anniversary Source: Windows Central

At the end of the day, I call up people should but become Halo 2: Anniversary on PC right now if they're planning to stick to the campaign and/or Halo 2: Anniversary multiplayer. The state of Halo 2's classic multiplayer is actually rough, and honestly, I don't think people should subject themselves to the numerous frustrations I mentioned in this review. Yous'd be better off waiting if Halo 2 multiplayer is what you lot want to get Halo two: Anniversary for. The campaign has bug of its ain, but they're tolerable — the bugs afflicting Halo 2's multiplayer aren't.

The steady reduction in port quality from Halo: Attain on PC to at present has me worried virtually how Halo 3: ODST, Halo 3, and Halo four will turn out. From a consumer perspective, it seems like the priority is to become each game in our hands as chop-chop as possible and and so fix the problems later. Microsoft may not want multiple Halo releases vying for consumer attention when Halo Infinite comes out, but these games represent the best of what Xbox has to offer. They, and the PC gamers who get to experience them for the showtime time, deserve ameliorate.

Halo 2: Anniversary on PC is bachelor for $10 on Steam and the Windows 10 Store. You can also purchase the full Master Principal Collection for $forty.

World will never be the same

Halo 2: Anniversary

Halo 2: Anniversary on PC

Halo should be better

The port of Halo ii: Anniversary is good in many ways, but suffers from big bug in others. Overall, information technology's fine — but "fine" isn't practiced enough for Halo.

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