After enjoying the hell out of the original Halo: CE, I was very excited as a kid to see this was coming out. This game took most of the goodness of Halo: CE and turned it up a bit, and it was a lot of fun.

This rendition of Halo finally came with an online multiplayer experience on console - the original Xbox. While Halo: CE's PC version did support multiplayer (and at the time of writing, still gets a few hundred players online a day), the Xbox version just missed that capability. The addition of multiplayer on consoles and not just PC was a huge deal for the Halo series and surely helped cement it as one of the greatest FPS series of all time.

The single player campaign didn't quite live up to the wonder and mysteriousness of the first game, and used a lot of scripted events (like the infamous Scarab battle), but I still enjoyed the hell out of it. It was more Halo, made by Bungie, built from the ground up for Xbox (and PC again, which I also own a copy for). I did enjoy dropping into one mission in an ODST drop pod.

The multiplayer system did support a basic rank system in each playlist, clans, private matches, and a usually pretty great matchmaking system, especially for the time. It was a blast to finally play Halo with other people besides my family and friends in a LAN or split-screen environment, as at the time I didn't own a copy of Halo: CE for PC, only Xbox.

The graphics received a nice upgrade from Halo: CE. Master Chief's armor got a bit more refined and futuristic (his new MJOLNIR Mark VI armor), although the classic armor (Mark V) is still great. Environments were more detailed and varied. Weapons became more detailed, along with a little more variety and the ability to duel-wield smaller weaponry like the new SMGs, plasma pistols, magnums, or plasma rifles. They also added a few new vehicles, such as the Covenant Spectre.

Marty O'Donnell returned to write the score which was awesome as always. Even as a young kid I made sure that I purchased the soundtrack to this game. It's worth a listen and easy to find if you do a basic search.

If you like first person shooters, especially futuristic/sci-fi/space FPS games, or of course if you love Halo, this game is still worth a solid try. I would recommend it.