Halo 2 overhaul by Bungie

Those of you playing Halo 2 online will have no doubt noticed that those players wielding heavier weapons such as the Brute Shot in the past have been slower and more sluggish in their movements. You may even have lobbed a grenade only for it to be about as powerful as a slap in the face; injuring rather than killing your opponent as intended. If that’s the case, then watch out because the latest auto-update will see Bungie tweaking like they’ve never tweaked before and redressing certain balances.

Of course, the third update since the game was released is full of the usual necessities required to fix various bugs and glitches but is also full of gaming revamps to make multiplayer especially that little bit more interesting. Bungie have spent some time testing and retesting various aspects of the weaponry within Halo 2 and after comments, suggestions and some criticisms from both the guinea pigs as well as some Bungie employees themselves, they have decided to revamp certain elements of the weapons to make their effects more plausible as well as more unpredictable.

The grenades have been give special attention and now if you see that sticky blue ball of plasma land at your feet, running away would be your best option as they no longer scuff your knee – they’ll take it off. Along with your head. Shorter fuses have now been implemented on both the plasma and frag grenades to make it more likely that when you hurl it at the enemy, it’ll actually kill them.

The power of some weapons has been slightly reduced whereas others have been increased in force – but the most notable change by far is the melee attack option. Whereas before you may have given your opponent a slight headache as you slapped them around the head with your rifle, this time the damage will cause significant shield and armour loss as well as possibly being enough to kill them. It makes the gameplay far more varied and interesting, as well as making matches last longer. This evens the score a bit more when someone charges in to do close combat with two SMG rifles strapped to them – you are more likely to be able to kill them with the butt of your weapon than they are shooting both barrels at close quarters!

Those players who are not connected to XBOX LIVE will be able to access this update with the retail version of the additional multiplayer maps will be released in June.