You should have stuck with it, Joe. It's a masterwork. The controls might be unfamiliar at first, but they're easy to master. And, if you look beyond the control scheme, you'll find one of the most polished, addictive, immersive video game experiences of the past 20 years.

@OP: Halo 2 is brilliant. I know some fans complained about the short, episodic campaign, but I think it was outstanding, with inspired level design and top-flight mechanics. I didn't get to experience the multiplayer on the original Xbox -- I didn't own it at the time -- but I logged some time on Xbox 360 before Microsoft ended online support for original Xbox games. It was fantastic. I really think Bungie found the perfect balance of single-player and multiplayer in Halo 2, before the focus quite clearly shifted to multiplayer in Halo 3.

Quite simply, online on consoles would never had been the same without Halo 2. My personal favorite game of all time.

i have yet to get this game on PC. my friend gave me SO much games on PC that i have a HUGE backlog! add to that my relatively big back log on my ps3 and i wont be playing this anytime soon. but i soo want to play this and halo 1 on pc

Bah, I disagree. The ending was terrible, and Arbitor levels felt so out of place.

However, the game was funny. I beat the game co-op, and my buddy and I had the funniest end game glitch. Basically we lured the boss of the game to the edge of the platform and one of us shot a rocket at him knocking him off. Then for the next 5 minutes we focused on the Hunters and stuff, andwhen we killed them all nothing happened. We kept wondering wtf happened to the big boss. He literally died within the first 10 seconds of the fight, and the game took 5 minutes to recognize that he was dead. We laughed so hard because our friends kept telling us that the boss was so hard, but it was a joke because he just fell off the level.

Great co-op game, but Halo 2 is nowhere nearly as good as 1 and 3 were. Even Reach I think was better, but Halo 2 did deliver a solid experience.

I hope Halo 2 HD remake is carried out by a more competent developer with a better game engine. Anniversary to my surprise was sub HD and kept dropping frames. Not impressed.

Halo 2 was the least memorable in the series for me. I need to back and play it again.

Never played it, but all my closest Xbox friends at home told me it is one of the best games they have ever played. I won't doubt them on that. I never got into the series since I care little for FPS games in general, but I do get the sense I would like it if I tried it. The story seems interesting.

The story is fantastic.  The ending was just left on a  big cliff hangar so people was mad they had to wait for Halo 3.

Haven't played anthing like that since counter strike.

To think I get frustrated over the 10 second respawn timer on Halo....

The ending was hated in Halo 2 for one simple reason. It was a cliffhanger, much like the second Pirates of the Carribbean movie, it left you hanging in your seat.

However, that problem got solved many years ago when Halo 3 launched, so the cliffhanger is now a non-issue, just continue the story via Halo 3. :)

Halo though is a fantastic Sci-Fi space-opera game if you like that kind of thing, it's not everyones biscuit, hopefully Microsoft does a Halo 2 Anniversary, it does need an overhaul in the graphics department as it didn't age that well.