And what a story it is. Bungie has been pretty tight-lipped over the single-player campaign in Halo 2 since the game was announced with a teaser trailer a few years ago, and then last year at E3 with an eight-minute rolling demo shown of the Covenant invading New Mombosa, Earth. One thing was known: Halo 2 was going to be huge. The demo surprised even the faithful and brought new fans onto the scene with its epic showing of the battle between the Convenant and the Spartans on New Mombosa. Even 18 months ago the books were gaining popularity and action figures were flying off shelves.

In keeping with the trend of other reviews, the following will not contain any information about the story beyond the first three levels - just enough to set the scene and leave surprises and twists intact.

The game is set immediately after Halo on a defence station orbiting Earth with the Covenant closing in fast. The first level is reminiscent of the opening in Halo but with a lot more wow factor as sides battle over Earth's defences. The levels mould together well and sometimes you won't even notice that the level is over and you are continuing onto the next.

The next thing you know you are in New Mombosa, but this is totally different to what was shown last year - in fact none of that is even in the game. Each level is bonded together by some excellent storytelling and cut scenes. These are graphically impressive, apart from the occasional glitch and slowdown and use now customary in-game graphics with some added effects rather than CGI.

During gameplay the level of excellence continues with some magnificently created levels which are nowhere near as repetitive as Halo, yet always able to keep epic battles intact. There will be more than a few moments where you will take in the surroundings as the levels are not only colourful in their own way but also have huge draw distances. Alongside you during these battles are AI soldiers, but this time they seem to act a bit more like soldiers rather than cannon fodder. Taking cover when they can and actually defeating a few of the enemies, they are great allies to keep around if you can preserve them. They do have a few AI issues, although this is really only during sections in vehicles. This time around you do not have to drive but have the choice to be a passenger or gunner with the AI taking you to your destination. Occasionally, however, the AI will do some silly things like drive into a wall or sit still while taking fire.

On the whole, enemy intelligence is excellent particularly on the higher difficulty levles. Enemies will try to flank you, run you over with vehicles and even make witty retorts as they try to lay down the smack. However, on the lower of the four available skill levels the enemy will just stand around and won't pose as much of a challenge, leading to a bit of a walkover and a short game.

In the campaign and in multiplayer you can now dual wield weaponry. Dual wielding enables you to carry any two single-handed firearmes at once. This adds to people's different strategies - when dual wielding you cannot throw a grenade unless you ditch the weapon in your left hand, and reloading both weapons at once can cost valuable seconds. Changing strategies for different maps is usually wise unless you find a wining combination that works well for you.

Another great addition is hijacking vehicles. You can board a vehicle if you are close enough and approaching from the right angle, and press the X button to kick out the occupants. In multiplayer mode this feels especially satisfying as you can taunt the other player as he gets booted from the vehicle. Two modes of transport cannot be boarded like this and they are the Wraith and the Scorpion. Both of these are tanks, one man made and the other an alien craft. Although you can't board these, you can jump on top and bash open the door open using a melee attack and then drop a grenade inside.

As with the first game, the sound in Halo 2 is excellent through and through. A fantastic musical score in similar vein to the original, with apt orchestral tracks enveloping you in atmosphere. The sound effects themselves include bullets ricocheting off objects and rockets whizzing from behind and narrowly missing you. The whole sound department alone has really brought the world of Halo together, making for a truly cinematic experience.

In multiplayer mode, Bungie has put together a mammoth statistics page which is accessible on Bungie.net, where you can check out any gamer's ranking on Xbox Live. Aside from that you can view 3D maps with who killed whom and where, with what and which paths are used the most. There is no other game to date that comes close as far as these sorts of rankings go.

When launching your own multiplayer game there is quite a few modes to choose from such as the token Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch but on top of those there is a few others to take a look at.

• King of the Hill: This mode requires the player or team to dominate a section of map for a required time. The section of map can be set to random for a specified amount of time.
• Oddball: The idea behind this mode is to hold the ball for the set amount of time. While the ball is held by the player they are vulnerable to attacks as they cannot hold any weapons although the ball can be used for melee attack. This mode can be played as free for all or in teams.
• Juggernaut: One person is it. While this person is it they get points for killing other competitors while the competitors are trying to take him down. To become the Juggernaut you must first kill the Juggernaut.
• Assault: This is a team-only game and requires a team to pick up a bomb and deliver it into the enemy's base while they defend. If they get hold of the bomb then they need to deliver it to the other team base.
• Territories: Scattered through out the map are areas which need to be dominated. Once an area has been taken over the time accumulates for the team. However, the more areas taken over, the faster the time goes. The other team or teams need to try and take them over while also leaving resources for defending.

All of these modes have variations and you can customise them in almost any fashion from a selection of options and save them for future use. Teams can be invisible, radars can be turned off and you can remove dual wielding. The possibilities are almost endless; you can even have four teams for some intense team games.

A very high percentage of games played by some of us here at Gameplanet have had some excellent connections thanks to not just excellent net code but also due to the hosting options. When searching via Matchmaking the game automatically determines who has the best connection and selects the host accordingly. Matchmaking is used for ranked games whether you are searching for head to head games, team skirmishes or clan matches. Clans are very easy to set up and Bungie has even given room for private forums for your clan on its website.