Halo 2 Anniversary

*Halo 2 Anniversary*

*This page is about the remake. For the original 2004 game, see Halo 2.*

*“Because the seeds of our future are sown in his past.”*— Thel 'Vadam to Locke in the *Halo: The Master Chief CollectionAnnouncement Trailer.*
***Halo 2 Anniversary***(also referred to by the acronym *H2A*) is a first person shooter science fiction video game developed by Saber Interactive, Certain Affinity and Blur Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios and 343 Industries for Xbox One . It is a remastering of the second game in the series, *Halo 2*, developed for *Halo 2's*ten year anniversary***,*** and*'**Halo**s thirteenth.*

*Halo 2 Anniversary*was released on November 11, 2014 as part of *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*, and thusfar has not been sold seperately. It was released exactly ten years after the release of *Halo 2*. The game is exactly the same as the original *Halo 2*, even running on the exact same engine, but with a new graphics layer, which uses a graphics engine similar to *Halo 4*. HD visual rendering, replaced HD audio and remastered soundtracks are just some of the content that was added for the game's anniversary. The game features 9 multiplayer maps (with one additional map released in an update), 6 of which are remakes of maps found in *Halo 2*. Unlike *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary*however, *Halo 2 Anniversary*does possess its own, remastered multiplayer. It also features achievements, terminals and additional easter eggs. Co-op remains the same and is unchanged. Also unlike *Halo CEA*, the game does not feature any kinetic abilities or 3D functions. And like previous  games, campaign scoring has also been added, along with other additional functions.

## Story

### Plot and Campaign

*Main Article: Halo 2*
*Main Article: Halo 5 Guardians*
*Halo 2 Anniversary'*s campaign maintains the same story as *Halo 2*, with the addition of Xbox One achievements, in game terminals and skulls. It also has a new feature returning from *Halo CEA*: when the player presses the back button on the Xbox One controller, the game will switch from the updated graphics engine to the original, and vice-versa. For the story, see *Halo 2*. *Anniversary* also has subtitles available for in-game and combat dialogue.

Added to the campaign are additional prologue and epilogue cutscenes, one at the start of the game and one at the end respectively. These cutscenes, like the rest of the game, are pre-rendered by Blur Studios, who also did the cutscenes for *Halo Wars*. These additional cutscenes tie into the events of *Halo 5 Guardians*.

In the prologue cutscene, Locke reveals to Thel 'Vadam just who he is hunting. The Arbiter is surprised, but afterwards begin to tell Locke the story of how he met John-117 (presumably, that is what the *Halo 2*campaign is: a retelling). In the epilogue after the game is finished, Thel 'Vadam finishes telling his story, and they arrive at their combat zone. Just before deploying, Thel asks if he is hunting John-117 because he is friend or foe, to which Locke responds that he is merely following orders. Afterwards, they enter battle against the Covenant, and the scene ends.

## Features

### Summary

*Halo 2 Anniversary*, as the name states, is an anniversary version of *Halo 2*, and therefore is fully remastered. The game has a new layer of graphics ontop of the old (similar to *Halo 4*) along with brand new audio and soundtracks. The player can also switch between the old graphics and the new, just like in *Halo CEA*. However, unlike *Halo CEA*when it was on 360, the switch is instantaneous, as opposed to the momentary lapse between switches. This can be done by pressing the back button on the controller. And unlike *Halo CEA*again, the switch can also be done in cutscenes; however, the transition during cutscenes is jumpy at best, given that unlike *Halo CEA*, where the cutscenes simply remained the same and just got a new graphics overlay, the new cutscenes in *H2A*are entirely pre-rendered, so that when the switch occurs, the original cutscene is replaced with the newer one.

Due to the game being part of the *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*, it does not possess its own main menu like the anniversary for *Halo: Combat Evolved*. However, it now possesses its own, anniversary version of multiplayer, which is the same as the old *Halo 2*multiplayer, but with a new graphics overlay, remastered *Halo 2*maps, and additional weapons and vehicles not found in *Halo 2*, along with a completely brand new vehicle called the Gungoose. It also possesses its own, independent forge mode. This Forge is an upgrade upon *Halo 4'*s Forge, with the all-new addition of spawnable terrain and a new function called scripting.

The Library function from *Halo CEA*does not return. Also, unlike in *Halo CEA*, the player cannot switch between soundtracks. The old soundtrack has been completely removed from the game, and even when switching, only the remastered music will remain.

Also unlike *Halo CEA*, *Halo 2 Anniversary*does not use the graphics engine of another game. Where *Halo CEA*used *Halo Reach'*s graphics engine, *Halo 2 Anniversary*uses its own assets, all of them built from the ground up, with only some of the assets being based off previous games. However, the graphics themselves are of similar quality to *Halo 4.* As a consequence, most of the weapons have their own independent models, and only a few of the vehicles use previous in-game models, with the Warthog using its counterpart model from *Halo 4*.

Elsewise, all content from the previous game remains the same and is unchanged.

### Forge

*Main Article: Forge*
*Halo 2 Anniversary*possesses its own Forge mode, and is upgraded from *Halo 4*. This Forge mode can be used on any of the remastered maps, but the game also comes with three of its own maps designed solely for Forge called Awash, Nebula and Skyward respectively. Unlike previous Forge-intended maps in the past, these maps are almost entirely devoid of any terrain, and is largely an open space, allowing the player to build maps almost entirely unrestricted. Awash is based just above an ocean, Nebula is based within an asteroid belt, and Skyward is based in the atmosphere of Installation 05. Many features from *Halo Reach*and *Halo 4*Forge returns, along with the game's own, newer, and in some cases groundbreaking, improvements.

The normal, fixed and phased physics from *Reach* returns, and precision positioning (which was not present in *Halo 4*) has been added as a proper function, and is now properly mapped to the controller. The structures from *Reach*and *Halo 4* have also returned, but in much more variety, and without a particular theme. The magnet, duplication and lock system from *Halo 4*has also returned. New features introduced are scripting and limited terrain application. A new addition to the Forge palette is terrain, which allows players to spawn a large square of grass onto the map, and even spawn trees, alive or dead, and in many different varieties. The player can also spawn interactable terrain, such as a stalactite, which can be spawned and promptly destroyed, which will then drop a block of ice that will crash onto the ground (and by extent, can also kill or injure players who are near the crash zone). The natural palette is also increased, with bigger rocks to add.

Also added is scripting. Players can now use objects to script others to make other objects do something. For example, a player can spawn an object (potentially any), and script it so that when the player interacts with that object, it can make another object scripted to that object do a particular action such as explode, move or disappear (Eg. You can spawn a wall, and then a console, and have that console scripted to that wall so it acts as a door. When the player interacts with said object, that wall will then open like a door, or disappear). This is great for machinima, and potentially significant, as it has never been done in Forge before.

## Anniversary Multiplayer

*Halo 2'*s multiplayer got the same treatment as its campaign and got a full graphical overhaul, but with only 6 of the original maps being remastered (with an additional one released afterwards as an update). Some additional weapons were also added to the maps, with the Assault Rifle and Silenced SMG being among some of the weapons added. Also added are anniversary armor customization. Like in *Halo 2*,the player can choose between being a Spartan or Elite. This is the same (with armor permutations still absent), but with the models simply remastered. Unlike the campaign however, there is no switch between graphics; the graphics remain remastered. However,   Halo 2's original multiplayer does return, and has its own seperate multiplayer servers.

### Maps

All the maps in the game are remastered versions of maps from *Halo 2*, but not all maps from that game were remastered. There are a total of 9 maps shipped with the game (with one more released in an update), with only 6 being actual remastered maps, and the other 3 being original maps designed for Forge. Unlike *Halo CEA*there is no classic and remake layout, there is only the remastered version. However, the original version of the maps, and the rest of the ones from *Halo 2*, can be found in the classic *Halo 2*multiplayer, which can also played.

* Standard
* Remnant

Remnant was a remastered map released as downloadable content on May 30, 2015.

### Gametypes

All of *Halo 2's*gametypes have returned, as well as some additional new ones:

* Infection
* Race
* Ricochet

## Marketing Promotions and Release

### Trailers

#### E3 2014 Trailer

*Main Article: Halo: The Master Chief Collection Announcement Trailer*
At E3 2014, *Halo 2 Anniversary*was announced as part of the *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*. It was announced officially in the *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*Announcement Trailer, which is a remastered version of the ending cutscene to the level Cairo Station in *Halo 2*, with Thel 'Vadam narrating it to Locke.

#### Cinematic Trailer

*Main Article: Halo 2 Anniversary Cinematic Trailer*
A cinematic trailer for *Halo 2 Anniversary*was shown in the 343 Industries panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2014. The entire trailer consists of a showcase of the new, remastered cutscenes of the games, all of which are made by Blur Studios.

#### Cinematic Launch Trailer

*Main Article: Halo 2 Anniversary Cinematic Launch Trailer*
Another trailer featuring the remastered cutscenes of the game was released on October 29, 2014; 12 days before the game's release. It shows more of the new cutscenes, as well as announcing, as well as showing, the newly remastered Another Day at the Beach deleted cutscene from the original game.

## Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrack

The Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrack was composed for the game, *Halo 2 Anniversary*, and was composed by Kazuma Jinnouchi. The entire soundtrack, and all of its tracks, are remastered, modern recordings of the previous tracks used in *Halo 2*. Like *CEA*, even tracks that weren't originally on their original game's soundtrack are remastered, and are either added to the soundtrack, or remain missing from it.

Altogether, there are 35 tracks on the soundtrack, both split into two seperate CDs. Most of the music from the game is present on the CDs, but some are either missing, or simply shortened versions of the one found in-game. It was released alongside the game upon release.

## Trivia

* Early in development, 343 planned on using the *Halo 4*sniper rifle in the remastered graphics in place of the *Halo 2*sniper rifle. The same could be seen of the *Halo 4*rocket launcher. However, in later videos, it was shown that while the *Halo 4*rocket launcher remained, the *Halo 4*sniper rifle had been replaced with a remastered version of the *Halo 2*sniper rifle, which appears to use the *Halo Reach*sniper rifle as a template. This template was eventually used for the final game. This can also be said for the rocket launcher, which uses the *Halo 4* variant, and this is used in the final game.
* *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary*used the *Halo Reach*graphics engine as its remastering template. In *Halo 2 Anniversary*, no previous graphics engine was used, and all the in-game, remastered game assets were either built from scratch, or only a few adopted from previous games and improved.
* *Halo 2 Anniversary*is one of the first FPS *Halo*games to use pre-rendered CGI in its cutscenes.
* This is the second *Halo*game that Blur Studios has had a part in. The first was *Halo Wars*.
* *Halo 2 Anniversary*is the first *Halo*game to not be sold outside of a collection, and the only one only to appear in a collection.
* While the game's idea was propagated by 343, they themselves did not develop the game. Saber Interactive developed the campaign, Certain Affinity the multiplayer and Blur Studios were in charge of the cinematics. 343 only worked with Microsoft to publish it. Despite this, 343 is still credited in the opening logos, in their usual position, and there is no mention of the other developers during this sequence.

## Gallery

Halo 2 Anniversary Mobile WallpaperA comparison between classic and remastered graphics on the level Cairo StationA comparison between classic and remastered graphics on the level RegretA graphical comparison of Johnson. Note the classic and remastered versions.A graphical comparison between the classic version of the Battle Rifle and the remastered version on the level OutskirtsHalo 2 Anniversary fan artHalo 2 Anniversary title art

## Links

### Internal Links

* Halo 2 Anniversary Credits
* Halo 2
* Blur Studios
* Forge

### External Links

1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 **IGN** - *E3 2014: Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Halo 5 Beta Announced for Xbox One*
2. **Amazon.co.uk** - *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*
3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 **YouTube** - *New Halo: Master Chief Collection Info and Gameplay - E3 2014*
4. **YouTube** - *Xbox E3 2014 Media Briefing: Halo*
5. **Halo Waypoint** - *Halo: The Master Chief Collection*
6. **Xbox Video** - *Remaking the Legend – Halo 2: Anniversary*
7. **IGN** - *The Horse You Rode In On (A Master Chief Collection Story)*
8. 8.0 8.1 **YouTube** - *Halo: The Master Chief Collection Panel - RTX 2014* 33:59
9. **Venturebeat**: *Understanding Halo: The Master Chief Collection (FAQ) — playlists, Forge, control schemes, and more*