GDC: Halo 2 for PC hands-on; map editor and campaign analyzed
- March 06, 2007 15:28 PM PST
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Vicious Sid just had an opportunity to play the single-player campaign in Halo 2 for Windows Vista. But is it just more of the same?
Halo 2 for Windows Vista: more of the same?
We've just had a chance to play a portion of the single-player campaign from the Windows Vista port of Halo 2. The results were extremely faithful to the Xbox original, but there's little here that will excite established Halo 2 veterans.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode wasn't live, but we did learn a few (disappointing) details:
- Xbox Live Silver (free) members can only use basic server browsing to find games; no matchmaking, but VOIP is in.
- Xbox Live Gold (premium) members can use the rank-based matchmaking found in the Xbox original (aka "peer to peer" multiplayer).
- There is no split-screen multiplayer whatsoever.
- There is no online cooperative play.
Graphics and Gameplay
Our Halo 2 demo ran on a PC equipped with a Radeon X1950 XTX, and the performance was smooth. The graphics, on average, look roughly 10 to 20 percent better than those of the Xbox original. Textures and shaders looked a bit more detailed and realistic, while the in-game geometry was as detailed as in the cinematics. These all provided a subtle boost to the overall visual prowess of the game. Also, the game was running at a crisp 720p, adding another layer of polish. The final game will have apparently no upward limit on screen resolution, a nice perk for owners of high-end digital LCD monitors.
Overall, though, Halo 2 for Vista isn't a particularly attractive game by modern standards, though it is highly faithful to the original version. The gameplay is what matters, though. How does it play?
No surprises here: this version plays exactly like the original. Using the Xbox 360 Controller, which plugs into any PC USB 2.0 port, the gameplay felt familiar. Early reports of sluggish gameplay weren't confirmed in this playtest: everything felt as smooth, tight, and speedy as in the Xbox original.
Playing with the keyboard and mouse will take a bit of practice. As every Halo 2 devotee knows, dual firing plays a key role in combat tactics; the developers at Hired Gun have fine-tuned the default mouse controls to accommodate this (when in dual-firing mode, the left mouse button fires the left gun). Otherwise, it's very similar to the PC port of the first Halo, and shares the same default keyboard and mouse control scheme.
Map Editor
The bundled map editor looked like fun, too. Players can build new maps, in-level geometry, multiplayer modes, and even guns. The demo we saw showed a modified Capture the Flag mode set on an enormous soccer field. On this level, a custom-made giant soccer ball served as the flag, and opposing teams could push the ball into the goal (home base) using Ghost vehicles.
The map editor will keep Halo haxors busy for hours
Actual shot of map editor interface
Conclusions
We came away from the hands-on experience a bit underwhelmed -- Halo 2 is over two years old, after all -- but still impressed that Hired Gun managed to keep the gameplay almost perfectly faithful. But whether Xbox owners will feel compelled to buy a Windows Vista-enabled PC to play a fairly straightforward port of a two-year old game is another question entirely.
We were told that a final release date is still unknown, but that Halo 2 Vista would launch 'in the first half of the year," and likely a few weeks before Shadowrun.
