21 Facts About Halo 2

Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox console.

Halo 2 is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved.

Halo 2 was a commercial and critical success and is often listed as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game, with more than 8 million copies sold worldwide.

The Xbox Live multiplayer and downloadable content features of the Xbox version of Halo 2 were supported until the discontinuation of the service in April 2010, with the final multiplayer session concluding May 10, almost a month after the service was officially terminated.

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Halo 2 opens with the trial of a Covenant Elite commander aboard the Covenant's capital city-ship of High Charity.

The crew discovers another Halo 2 installation; realizing the danger the ring presents, Keyes sends Master Chief to kill Regret while she and Johnson search for the Index, Halo 2's activation key.

Arbiter meets the Master Chief in the bowels of the Halo 2, brought together by a Flood creature called the Gravemind.

Halo 2 had never been planned as a trilogy, but the critical and commercial success of Combat Evolved—selling more than five million copies in three years—made a sequel expected.

Xbox general manager J Allard confirmed Halo 2 was in production at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2002, with a planned release in time for Holiday 2003.

Halo 2 was put in charge of a small team to further develop the small-scale arena multiplayer, while the rest of the team developed a larger "Warfare" mode.

Story for Halo 2 grew out of all the elements that were not seen in Combat Evolved.

Halo 2 was officially announced in September 2002 with a cinematic trailer, scheduled for a Holiday 2003 release.

The first major look at the game came with the E3 2003 demo in May; Halo 2 was Microsoft's strongest showing at the event, and some journalists believed the game looked too good to be live gameplay and must have been a scripted cutscene.

Halo 2 was sold in a standard edition and "Limited Collector's Edition".

On release, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, holding that rank until the release of Gears of War for the Xbox 360 nearly two years later.

Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game with at least 6.

Game Informer, along with numerous other publications, rated it higher than Halo 2: Combat Evolved, citing enhanced multiplayer and less repetitive gameplay.

Halo 2 was one of the Xbox games that was backwards-compatible on the Xbox 360.

The online services of the Halo 2 were discontinued alongside other original Xbox console games in 2010.

Halo 2 Vista was ported by a small team at Microsoft Game Studios who worked closely with Bungie.