T5W#442-Top 5 Levels in Halo 2

Next week, the Halo TV Series returns for it’s Second Season…and to my knowledge not a lot of people are excited.  The First Season left a bad tastes in the mouths of fans who felt the show was somehow the worst thing in the franchise since Halo 5: Guardians.  Personally, the show is fine.  I don’t agree with everything but I’m not Cowboy Bebop or Ghost in the Shell levels of mad at it.  Anyway, that’s coming but that’s not the point of todays Top 5 Wendesday.  2024 marks the 20^th Anniversary of the game that got me into the Halo franchise, Halo 2.  This is one of my all time favorite video games with perfect action, music and dialogue I still quote and reference to this day.  Is it perfect?  No but the history of why that is, is well documented.  Still, it’s a game I can jump back into like no time has passed.  To celebrate this landmark for one of the most important games in the Halo series, I’m gonna count down my Top 5 Levels in Halo 2.

 
#5-High Charity

The second to last level of the game sees The Master Chief in the worst mission imaginable: stuck in the heart of enemy territory not only having to avoid being captured by the Covenant, but the Flood have started to make themselves at home after crashing into the massive city ship.  There’s so much going on here at once.  You can do you best to sit out the carnage and let the Covenant and Flood kill each other off as best as possible.  But then you run the risk of any killed Covenant becoming Flood reinforcements.  It’s a dark level that has a bit of a Resident Evil vibe as the Flood infection spreads.  Good thing you have more than enough weapons and ammo to deal with them all.
 

#4-Quarantine Zone

Much like Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, fans took issue with the story leaving the Chief behind to focus on The Arbiter, an Elite Warrior on the side of the Covenant.  Personally, I like the expanded view of the bad guys of Halo and much like High Charity, this is the Arbiters level to hash it out with the Flood as everything goes to hell in a hand basket on Halo.  This level is split into two halves with the first being a vehicle heavy race to evade the Flood, who also can drive vehicles too.  The second thankfully doesn’t repeat the same nightmare of getting to Halo’s Activation Index like The Library in Halo: Combat Evolved.  Not to mention the heavy rock and roll music playing as you blast Flood in a tank is so freaking cool.
 

#3-Delta Halo

While Halo 2 mightve skimped on the promise of the fight against the Covenant being waged on Earth, there’s something nice about putting boots on a brand new Halo ring.  The level design is gorgeous and shows just how far graphics have come between 2001’s original Halo and the 2004 sequel (more so in Halo 2 Anniversary).  This isnt just a rehash of the first Halo you found.  There’s more to explore and see and the Covenant don’t make that easy.  Thankfully you get Vehicles pretty early on, perfect for dealing with Sniper Jackals galore.  This definitely felt like a Halo sequel taking its titular setting to the next level.
 

#2-Metropolis

One of the first Halo levels I ever played, this is a damn near perfect Halo experience.  You have access to a Scorpion tank; Marines with Rockets for added carnage; and you get to battle the Scarab Tank that nothing has been able to take down until you came along.  All the while the heavy metal rendition of the classic Halo theme follows you through all the major action set pieces, reinforcing that this is your backyard and the Covenant are about to be mowed down like the lawn on a Sunday.  Also, and this is a personal thing, I LOVE the cutscene that opens this level with Johnson breaking down the mission to come.  His follow up line to Cortana saying the Chief never gets her anything is the stuff of legends, “Oh I know what the Ladies like”.
 

#1-Cairo Station

Now THIS is how you kick of a highly anticipated sequel to one of the greatest video games of all time.  When the Covenant suddenly show up at Earth’s doorstep, there’s only one thing to say to that, “I need a weapon.”  Unlike the copy and paste hallways and corridors of the original game, Cairo Station has a lot of variety in it’s design.  It feels bigger and more militaristic than anything we’ve seen before from the UNSC.  There’s also a constant stockpile of weapons including dual SMGs, getting to fight alongside Johnson and Miranda Keyes and that infamous closing cutscene of the Chief riding a Covenant bomb into space, just to drop into a Covenant carrier and float back to the In Amber Clad as it explodes (“For a brick, he flew pretty good).  This is one of the best levels in Halo period and one I always come back to and play the most whenever I revisit Halo 2.