Fun with Friends:

Halo 2 Game-in-Game Challenges

By Alex McLain

Remember the "good old days," when you had but one or two games a year, and you played them until your NES overheated or the cartridge got fried?

Those were the days when you could play the same game over and over again and never get bored. Those were the days where you invented challenges for yourself and your friends.

You bet each other you couldn't finish the game in X amount of minutes or hours. You bet they couldn't reach a certain point threshold or finish the game without a cheat code or without power-ups. You used every scrap of imagination to extend the replay value of your cherished Nintendo or Genesis game.

Now, at least in the opinion of my generation, gamers have itty-bitty attention spans, and as soon as one game loses its appeal, the attention shifts over to the next. I have friends that are already tiring of Halo® 2 online and looking for that next best thing. It's only been out for a couple months! Sheesh …

That's why I'm here to bring you scenarios to further test your gaming mettle, while also challenging you to not toss aside a perfectly good game just because you've beaten the single-player mode once and want to feast upon something new. That "something new" could be in the game you just beat.

Use a little moxie, churn up a little creativity, and discover your own games within games. Create challenges within the framework of that just-beaten title. You'll be surprised how much entertainment value is still flowing through that shiny little disc.

This time, I'm going to focus on everyone's favorite first-person shooter (FPS), Halo 2. Instead of listing out one long elaborate challenge, though, I want to break down a few different challenges that you and your friends can try to wrap your controllers around.

Basic game-within-game challenges for Halo 2 include beating the game on Legendary, only using Human weapons, or only using Covenant weapons. You can also challenge yourself to beat the game in under six hours, in one sitting (no saving), or even without being killed once. (I'll allow accidental suicide falls, but that's it.)

Those are sort of standard challenges for nearly any FPS, so let's take a look at some Halo 2-specific challenges that are either crazy difficult or just this side of flat-out wonky.

Blam and Smack
Here's a marriage between strange and brutally difficult. There's no need to ratchet up the difficulty here. This one is plenty difficult on Normal. Try playing through all of Earth using only Grenades (Plasma and Frag) and melee attacks. You're only respite here is when you come across an enemy (e.g. a sniper) that's in a location where no Grenade can reach. Then and only then may you break out a gun to take them down.

Noggin Only
This is a game type totally dependant on having all of your opponents in agreement. Play multiplayer Slayer matches (team or solo) where you only count headshots as kills. (Luckily, Halo 2's stat tracking does keep tabs on headshots, so you can tally them up at the end.) This is an especially fun variant when you include no Sniper Rifles. Pistols and Battle Rifles can do the trick, though.

You can also use this premise for any medal or stat that Halo 2 tracks. For example, you could award winner status to the most accurate player (with a minimum of 10 kills) during the round, or you could track who had the most Grenade assassinations (melee attacks from behind).

The Warthog Circuit
This is an Xbox Challenge born from the original Halo®: Combat Evolved, but it's still fun today. Create multiplayer matches with several different Warthogs or Ghosts on the map. Then, agree on a set track (Burial Ground is a good map for this) and race around it.

If you really want to make sure the track is being adhered to, place one player in the middle of the map as a referee, so they can scope out where everyone is driving. If one player deviates from the assigned course, the referee can disqualify them.

The physics for the Warthog and Ghosts are so spot-on that Halo 2 makes for one heck of a racing game.

Grunts Against the Master
Think you're god's gift to all things Halo 2? Got your Slayer ranking up so far that you can barely see it? Consider all of your Friends button-mashing amateurs? Well, here's a game type for you.

Go ahead and play Team Slayer with four of your amateur buddies on one side and just you on the other. Litter the map with various power-ups and make sure it's clear that only you can use the Overshields, Camouflage, Rocket Launcher, or whatever special weapons or power-ups you choose.

It will be everyone against you, but you get the good equipment. Believe me, it's doable to win these matches. But, it's definitely one intense challenge.

Halo 2 and virtually any other game worth its salt can benefit from these types of game-within-game challenges. You just need a little creativity and a thirst to prove your skills. Now, go ahead and come up with your own wacky and difficult game types. I dare ya …

Check back on Xbox.com for more game-in-game challenges, including tips for making the most of upcoming Halo 2downloadable content!

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