Halo 2’s Tenth Anniversary

Halo 2 turned 10 on November 9th. I can still recall waiting, months of anticipation built up so I could finally head to the EB Games (before GameStop even owned them) at midnight to pick it up.

The Grand Teton Mall still had a food court, Bush Jr was just re-elected, my old Toyota was on the brink of death, and the iPhone was still three years away. The line at the mall appeared to be miles long. So long, that the Sbarro opened up just to serve those coming to the midnight madness. Finally getting up to the register was a treasure. Happily, I forked over my $59.99 (the original price of the special edition) and was on my merry way to have plenty of good times ahead.

While I very likely have good memories of playing Halo 2, I don’t look back on the game very fondly. I recall not liking it all that much because it just simply wasn’t as fun as Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Odd comparison, I know, but that’s basically all I knew.

Fast forward to now, I am enjoying playing it all over again. Gone is all of the hype, gone is all of the frustration. I am playing Halo 2 as it should have been played and weighed, and that’s on its own merits. Standing on its own, it’s pretty danged good. The revamped graphics and sound help tremendously too. Now if only the matchmaking would start working like it should.