Introduction

Halo 2! The game that has inspired many heated debates ever since its release. Unlike its predecessor it was developed for the Xbox from the beginning and became the most popular game on Xbox live for sometime until Gears of War on the 360 beat it.
For some development history, check out this history link on Bungie's webpage.

The first teaser of the game came out in 2002.

At E3 2003 Bungie unveiled the first gameplay footage of Halo 2

The big day came in November 9, 2004 when Halo 2 was released to the public; it received high praise from gaming media, especially noting its excellent multiplayer among other things. The game has sold a total of 8.46 million copies, as of November 2008, making it the best-selling first-generation Xbox game.
Of course, voices were quickly raised regarding a PC port of the game. For a while, there was silence but the port was finally announced in February 2006, and was going to be released only for Vista. The game was finally released on May 29, 2007. To mixed reviews from the gaming media.

Game back-story
I recommend watching my LP of the first game in order to grasp the story of the game. It's available on the archive here.

Here's a quick rundown of what's happened though:

The ship Pillar of Autumn escaped from the planet Reach prior to its destruction by the alien Covenant. Onboard was one of the last surviving Spartans, Master Chief, a human outfitted with the best technology and genetically modified to fight the Covenant. The ship came upon a massive ring-shaped construction floating, Halo, in space and landed on it to avoid capture by the Covenant.
On Halo, Master Chief learns that the construct is a weapon of massive power and fights the Covenant for control over it. However, a mission into what was believed to be a weapons cache released the parasitic life form Flood and they start spreading all over Halo.
Master Chief learns from Halo's caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark that Halo's true purpose is to clear the universe of all living organisms as that is the only way to stop the Flood from spreading. He then prevents Guilty Spark from activating the ring and using the reactors on the crashed Pillar of Autumn, he destroys Halo while making his escape in a ship.

Halo 2 picks up from there. Sort off.

I love bees
I love bees or ILB was an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that happened before the release of Halo 2 and its story has ties to the Halo universe. Through a "hacked" website visitors got information to payphones across the US when answered at the schedules time got to hear an audio clip that when threaded together formed an audio drama. Later on, people who participated got a chance to play Halo 2 multiplayer before release.
The audio drama in its entirety was later on released on a DVD which is available for download on Fileplanet
Bungie reused the idea of Alternative Reality Games for the release of Halo 3.

Questions & Answers

Q: LPing Halo 2, isn't that bit redundant since everyone has already played it?
A: Perhaps, but I hate leaving things unfinished. Therefore, it felt natural do the sequel.

Q: How are you going to do it?
A: Same as last time, videos with subtitles. Just so people can hear the game audio. As some genius at Bungie thought it was a really good idea to make radio messages almost un-hearable at parts in comparison to the first game I thought it was a wise idea to stay with a tested formula instead of voice commentary.

Q: How many times will you update?
A: Twice a week unless other things comes in between.

Q: Will you do Halo 3?
A: Unless Microsoft decides to unveil a PC port of the game anytime soon I don't think that will happen.
Addnendum: TheGreatGildersneeze will however be doing a Halo 3 LP later on. So go watch that instead.

Q: How about Halo Wars then?
A: I'd love to really but I don't think they'll ever port that over to the PC.

Fan art:

By Dodo Hunter

The Let's Play Archive

Halo 2

by Cooked Auto

Introduction

Table of Contents