"After Halo 2 was released in November of 2004, some gamers slaved away on Xbox Live getting their Halo 2 ranking up to an obscene number only to have it all wiped away when Bungie reset all the stats in May of this year. If you were one of these people left frustrated, sad, and alone, I’m happy to announce that Bungie has released the Halo 2: Multiplayer Map Pack that features 9 new multiplayer maps, a variety of game play improvements, and a handful of special videos. The expansion pack should brighten your day and give you cause to get back in the saddle and recapture that spectacular ranking."
Overall: Well the maps will soon be free. Was it worth paying the dough? To a degree, I'm glad I have all the practice on the maps so I'm not at a disadvantage since I presume many if not all XBL users purchased this map pack in some form. But since you could only use'em in Team Preview and Slayer Preview, it was kind a bummer. On top of the fact, some maps really suck, like Backwash, which was suppose to have so much fog you could barely see in front of you which is a load of crap. The only one I found really unique was Terminal w/ the whole train, that's an interesting premise and defintely a cool level. But yea just wait till these are free, they are great maps. Gameplay: Backwash just sucks. The weapon placement, the choice of weapons, I really hate the map. None of my kills look cool, it's just a small, boring map.
Terminal has some cajones. The train, all the vehicles, the announcer warning when the train is coming in. Great weapon placement, I love it, has gotta be one of my favorite maps.
Relic is a good slayer map but I really don't like it for assault or ctf. On assault, once the person gets up there with the bomb and dies, it's just too easy to defend, especially if you got a sniper rifle.. With CTF, once you grab the flag and toss it over the edge, it's too easy to win.
Gemini I've only played with Slayer, but it's a pretty enjoyable map. There's generally a rush for the overshield by both teams and then a big fire fight at the beginning of the round.
Elongation is slightly better than Longest, but it's still garbage IMO.
Turf, Sanctuary, Containment, and Warlock have all been free for a while so I won't write about them. Graphics: Nothing new or spectacular. Obviously the train and the guilty spark at Backwash, Gemini has the statue with the halo holograph, and Turf has the swinging doors, but besides that, nothing that stands out drastically, though the maps still manage to maintain a degree of uniqueness. Sound: Not many new noises, excluding like I said the announcer at Terminal and Guilty Spark at Backwash, but besides that it's all the same Halo 2 sounding goodness you've been used to since last Nov. Suggestions: Nice variety of maps, decent price too. Should do another one.
Overall: There are a few maps that I really like on this like Gemini and ELongation, and there are a few that I don't really like all that much such as Terminal and Relic. Overall I thought it was worth the money for the amount of maps/content you get. Gameplay: Like I said earlier, I really like some of the maps a lot (Gemini, Elonation) and then there are some that I'm not a big fan of (Terminal - too big, Relic - too wide open and boring). But I really think that the good maps outway the bad ones. Graphics: Graphics look good, just as I would expect them to. The only problem I have is Backwash and the fact that apparently grenades wouldn't work with it because it slowed the framerate down so much. Other than that the visuals are great. Sound: Umm... good, I guess, I'm not a real audiophile, so I really didn't notice anything wrong with the sound. But once again, I'm no audiophile, so this may or may not be real accurate. Suggestions: More maps like Gemini and less maps like Relic.
Overall: Nine more great maps for multi-player, I do not have all of the maps yet, I have four of the nine. I couldn't be more happy with those. Can't wait till the other five are free! Gameplay: Great additions to an already perfect multi-player game, I have no problems with the multi-player game at all, except for the dreaded lag every now and then. Graphics: The visuals are perfect, the environments look spectacular. The maps are big and more open to go almost everywhere than some of the original ones. Sound: The sound is still one of the best of any game on the Xbox, the weapons and vehicles are realistic sounding. Suggestions: Why not any single player additions?
Overall: The Halo 2 mappack once again continues to expand and update the overall GREATNESS that Halo 2 is. The wide-range of map styles are what make this pack great. Gameplay: Each map is unique. Thats what I love about it. Some are big, some are small, some are intense, some are not. You get the full meal with this pack. Graphics: The maps are great. Simple as that. There is so much variety and depth and detail in each that it rules.
The visual effects are still top notch along with Halo 2. Everything from the explosive enviroment to the fog effects are beautiful. Sound: The sounds are well the same as Halo 2. This is only a map pack, so all this still sounds just like ol' Halo 2.
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