Halo 2 Vista Multiplayer Impressions

Nearly two years after Bungie released Halo on Xbox, Gearbox released its PC port of the game. Last year, Microsoft announced that Bungie's Halo 2 would also be coming to PC, and by the time it hits store shelves this year, the wait for PC Halo fans will have been even longer than it was the first time around. Bungie is handling the port in-house, which, given that the company is also working on Halo 3 and presumably some further project, may explain why the Windows Vista-exclusive PC version of the game won't make its operating system's launch date.

There's not all that much to say about Halo 2 for Vista, as the game does not include any major revamps from its two-year-old predecessor, but playing the game on PC does provide a new experience. I had the chance to get some hands on time with the game this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On tap was Sanctuary, the largely symmetrical map set in temple ruins, added to the Xbox version of Halo 2 in a post-release map pack. Visually, the game does not appear to have been boosted in any major fundamental ways. At a glance, textures and geometry seem identical to their Xbox counterparts. There are some minor additions--the water effects, for example, are new and more advanced than those in the Xbox game. It does, however, have the ability to run in significantly higher resolutions, which goes a surprisingly long way towards making the overall game feel noticeably cleaner, with the added benefit of squeezing more on to the screen. Still, don't expect a game that's up to cutting edge graphical standards; Halo 2 was first released in 2004, and this is basically the same game. Fortunately, though it's not pushing any envelopes, the visuals come off as perfectly serviceable--particularly in multiplayer, where graphical whizbangery is widely considered of less importance than it is in single-player. In terms of controls, the biggest adjustment was getting used to the movement speed. Halo 2's run speed is already relatively conservative, but playing with a mouse and keyboard under my fingers and subconsciously expecting the significantly faster movement that comes along with running in nearly any PC FPS was a very odd sensation, despite having logged no doubt a few hundred hours in Halo 2 on Xbox. Beyond that, things felt like one would expect based on the Xbox game. Those accustomed to the console game will likely have some growing pains as they mentally remap their button associations to keys, but those new to the game should have little adjustment, even though some of Halo 2's controls are slightly uncommon. By default, the left and right mouse buttons control the left and right guns while dual wielding, or the gun and grenade while not dual wielding. The mouse scroll wheel is used for zoom, which is a big improvement for the sniper rifle, as it allows quicker cycling through the multiple zoom levels--the lack of which was always something I found very mildy frustrating at times with an Xbox controller. Other keys, such as melee, are likely to be rebound based on player preference. Of course, the most significant change in playing Halo 2 on a PC is the aiming and turning. The latter in particular benefits, as even the highest sensitivity setting in the console game can't really reach the instantaneousness of a quick mouselook snap. Players can still choose to use a controller; like many games falling under Microsoft's Games for Windows banner, Halo 2 PC has full support for the Xbox 360 controller. It's a bit of a mystery what exactly you would gain by playing Halo 2 on PC with an Xbox 360 controller besides higher resolution and perhaps a less insufferable online crowd (if for no other reason than that the Halo 2 online scene is sure to be much smaller on the PC), but all of my multiplayer opponents chose to use the controller when I got my hands on time, so I guess there's some sort of appeal there. I didn't perceive any particular grand advantage over my controller-wielding foes; this is likely partially due to my unfamiliarity with keyboard/mouse Halo 2 (in some respects it does actually feel like a different game), but presumably Bungie also kept the game's auto-aim enabled when users have selected the controller method. The single biggest joy of playing Halo 2 with a keyboard and mouse was actually feeling like a really hardcore sniper while using the sniper rifle, something that is a special event rather than the order of the day in Halo 2. This is nothing new to those of us who are long time PC gamers and masters of the rail gun, but the feeling of being able to apply my mouselook skills to the high power of Halo 2's sniper rifle--again, being accustomed to using it with an analog stick--made me almost giddy. I was pulling off last second headshots and multiple point blank shots in a row with ease. On the other hand, I did find that for some reason lining up melee attacks was more difficult than it generally is in the console game; this may simply be a practice issue, as few PC shooters implement melee in the way Halo does. What I saw of the multiplayer lobby screen seemed basically the same as the Xbox version: invite your friends or have others join, select the map and game options, and go. Despite the visual similarities, the game will feature no cross-platform multiplayer compatibility with its Xbox cousin. All in all, Halo 2 for Vista is hardly essential for existing Halo gamers or for PC first person shooter fans--particularly if you don't already plan on getting Vista right off the bat--but, for those who happen to fall into both categories or for Vista owners looking for a good shooter, Halo 2 is a pretty safe bet. Plus, the Halo name practically guarantees that there will be a decent (decent in number, not manners) online player base from day one.