For the comatose few who don't know… Halo starred the Master Chief, an armor-encased cyborg soldier who, when not chilling in a freezer beside a case of Baskin-Robbins, was saving humanity from the ass-whooping Covenant and the less friendly Flood. The Master Chief, along with drool-inspiring AI sidekick Cortana, defeated the Covenant, the Flood, and Guilty Spark (a genocidal soccer ball) by destroying Halo, a Holy Relic / WMD, sort of a galactic Ark of the Covenant.

Halo 2 begins with the Master Chief back on Earth enjoying R & R - Repairing & Reloading. Unfortunately, the Covenant crash the party. The Master Chief sets out, weapons in hand, to save humanity again. In the process of putting boot to ass, the Master Chief discovers that Halo is like a potato chip - one is never enough. There are more Halos in the universe and a Covenant faction has an effete claw on the detonator. If that seems a rehash of the original plot line, it is.

However, Bungie adds a twist - players switch roles from hailed Master Chief to disgraced Covenant Elite. The Elite, blamed for the first Halo's destruction, must perform suicide missions against Covenant heretics to redeem himself. Playing the Elite is fun and reveals Covenant culture, politics, and motivations.

Despite that, Halo 2's plot is thin. The transitions between Chief and Elite are jarring and unbalanced. Switches occur at seemingly random moments in the storyline, leaving the feeling that you've been playing a character for too long or too short a time. Towards the end, some dusty plot devices are used to magically move the story along, compensating for what seems to be the developers' lack of imagination. The cameo of the killer plant from "Little Shop of Horrors" is particularly bad. And the 'cliffhanger' ending leaves players wanting to throw the developers off a cliff. Worse, it makes the game seem rushed through development with a convenient ending slapped on to meet the ship-date. This impression is confirmed by the 10 or less hours it takes to complete the single player game. Yes, Halo 2 is short.

But for fans that want game-play instead of plot, Halo 2 excels. It sounds and looks great, on par if not better than its predecessor. The sound effects and soundtrack are solid particularly with Dolby support. The graphics are beautiful – well rendered, nicely textured, and clean. Nice graphic touches have been added like area-specific weapons and impact damage to vehicles.

With few exceptions the AI is good, the frame-rate doesn't slow down, and neither does the action. The controls are responsive and intuitive. If the goal of Halo 2 was to give players more of the Halo experience, then it has delivered:

• More enemies - flying Drones, grenade-launching Brutes, and wheelchair-bound-Prophets-from-Hell
• More playable weapons - Grenade Launcher, Fuel-Rod Gun, two types of Plasma Rifle, Energy Sword, Gauss Cannon, Battle Rifle, and Sub Machine Gun
• More drivable vehicles - Wraith, Spectre, Warthog LAAV
• More mayhem - vehicle jacking and two-fisted weapon wielding

Bungie also tweaked the play balance. The formerly irritating but non-lethal Needler now packs a punch. The Battle Rifle replaces the Assault Rifle gaining improved accuracy and damage but with a smaller clip and slower fire-rate. Most levels have less ammunition, so trading weapons and rationing ammo are important skills. The biggest change is the dual-wield ability, allowing players to carry a weapon in each hand. Resurrected from "Marathon", Bungie's Mac-based classic, dual-wielding adds tactical depth to combat and makes for some amusing weapon combinations.

Halo 2 has a few game-play issues:

• Some level designs are repetitive
• Co-op mode is split-screen only, no system linking
• Switching between dual-wielding and standard mode causes one weapon to drop. To dual-wield again, the dropped weapons has to be picked up.

For XBox Live addicts, willing to pay the monthly fee for their habit, Halo 2 is great. It supports a range of game types - Assault, Slayer, Oddball, and Juggernaut. Players can create clans, design team colors, and choose team insignia. Combine these features with dual-wielding and vehicle jacking and Halo 2 is hard to beat for online players.

Overall, Halo 2 is an excellent, though short, single-player FPS. It's a significantly better choice for XBox Live subscribers who will enjoy it online long after they've stopped playing the single-player campaign.