Among Halo 2's marketing efforts was an alternate reality game called 'I Love Bees' that involved players solving real-world puzzles. Time constraints forced a series of cutbacks in the size and scope of the game, including a cliffhanger ending to the game's campaign mode that left many in the studio dissatisfied. Bungie found inspiration in plot points and gameplay elements that had been left out of their first game, including multiplayer over the Internet through Xbox Live. The player alternately assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and the alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the human United Nations Space Command, the genocidal Covenant, and the parasitic Flood.Īfter the success of Combat Evolved, a sequel was expected and highly anticipated. The game features a new game engine, as well as using the Havok physics engine added weapons and vehicles, and new multiplayer maps. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on May 31, 2007, developed by an internal team at Microsoft Game Studios known as Hired Gun. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004, the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie.
