This holiday season could have been called the season of sequels. It seems that many franchises presented sequels to original games. On the forefronts of most people's minds were three games in particular. The Xbox fans couldn't wait for the release of Halo 2. The computer gaming fans almost ravenously awaited the constantly setback release of Half-Life 2 and the GameCube fans were anxious to get their hands on Metroid Prime 2. While these games differ enough in genre to prevent a direct comparison, it is possible to compare them each to their original to determine the relative merits of each.

While the multiplayer gameplay of Halo was very good, the lack of online matchmaking through Xbox Live, which wasn't available at the time of Halo's creation, left many Halo fans without the ability to play as much multiplayer as they would like. In multiplayer, Halo 2 made vast improvements by introducing not only Xbox Live to the game, but also adding a ranked matchmaking feature in which gamers work their way up and down a ranking system in which they are automatically matched with people reasonably close to their skill level. This unique system allows for much more fair and balanced online play and also ensures someone new to the game does not get demolished by a team of seasoned veterans.

Halo 2's most notable improvement is probably that of its vehicle use. The addition of several variants of the Warthog, a jeep like vehicle, and the addition of several new Covenant vehicles, including a user playable Wraith, the Covenant tank, greatly added to the gameplay dynamic. While the addition of these new vehicles was a marked improvement, the addition of giving AI human soldiers the ability to drive vehicles as well as giving the player and AI the ability to board a moving vehicle added a unique feature that greatly added to the game.

In single player however, Halo 2 was much more of a let down than the original. This can primarily be blamed on two main "problems." The biggest issue was that of misconception and miscommunication of the game through the trailers that were released. In basically all the trailers that were released, the player was led to believe that the primary focus of Halo 2 was to fight as Master Chief, the main character from Halo, against the Covenant, the enemies from Halo, who are trying to take over Earth. (Minor Spoilers ahead.) In reality, the game only spends a brief 2 missions on Earth and in fact one of those missions is not on Earth, but rather on a space station above Earth. The Covenant make no major landing and their attack is all but demolished. The next 12 levels focus on another ring world, much like the one from the original Halo. Not only was the plot radically different than expected, but so was the main character. Rather than playing through the game solely as Master Chief, almost half the game is played as a Covenant Elite, including the last level of the game. While none of these elements are terribly bad developments, the fact that the game was not at all what it had been built up to be left a bad taste in many gamer's mouths. At first I really did not like Halo 2's single player, but after getting used to what it actually was and going back and playing it again, I found it a much more enjoyable experience.

The other issue was that the developers radically changed a number of the weapons. The primary issues were the pistol and assault rifle. While at first it would appear that the pistol is still around and the assault rifle was replaced by the battle rifle, this conclusion would not be correct. In reality, the developers felt the pistol from the original didn't make sense because it was one of the most powerful guns in the game but it was also the smallest. They made the decision to make the pistol a much less powerful weapon and instead give the abilities of the pistol to the battle rifle. The assault rifle's purpose was in fact replaced by the SMG. Because of the likenesses of the battle rifle to the assault rifle and the existence of a pistol in Halo 2, this change was not apparent to many gamers, who consequently felt that the pistol and assault rifle had been ruined. In fact, both the pistol and the battle rifle are two of the most hated guns in Halo 2 for this exact reason.

Overall, Halo 2 showed many brilliant improvements in gameplay dynamic, but these improvements were greatly tempered by the game's poor marketing and the miscommunication about the changes made to the weapons. While technically the game is a major improvement on its predecessor, it was only received as a minor improvement or perhaps even a slight letdown because of the way in which it was presented.

By far the furthest difference in time and the greatest change in technology occurred between the release of the original Half-Life and the release of its sequel Half-Life 2. Half-Life was released in late 1998, 3 years prior to the release of the current generation of gaming hardware. The size of this gap lends itself to the obvious improvement in graphics over the prequel. Of the three original games, Half-Life obviously had the worst graphics, however in the sequels, Half-Life 2's graphics utilize the power of the latest graphics hardware, creating a visual effect which even the best programmed game could not match on any current console.

As for gameplay, there are a number of changes made between the two games. While Gordon Freeman, the main character, still never speaks and is only ever seen by his hands, other characters are now much more interactive than the original. The AI shows vast improvements, but relatively both games had the most intuitive AI of their time. The biggest change that some gamers may not like is that the player is now unable to shoot friendly NPCs. While that may seem like a good way to keep down the gratuitous violence, there are certain times in which an NPC is just getting in the way.

By far the largest letdown of Half-Life 2 was probably the lack of plot progression on the overall plot left by the original. While Half-Life 2 is probably the longest of the three games, it introduces almost no new information about the details left open from the original game. After waiting so long for a sequel to be developed and then waiting through so many postponed release dates, many fans of the series were hoping for answers that they did not receive. While Half-Life 2 is an excellent game even with this point, it is something that injured it as a being a sequel, rather than simply a separate game.

Overall, while Half-Life 2 was an amazing improvement over its original and is the most technically spectacular of these three games, the lack of expected plot connection almost disqualifies the game as a sequel. While it is an amazing game in its own right and would be worthy of a Game of The Year title, its strength as a sequel is limited by its congruency.

Interestingly, the game that most closely resembles the definition of a sequel is both the least spectacular technically, as well as the game to receive the least fanfare. While the plot is not really connected to the first game, there was never really any expectation of this since the previous game had closure. As far as gameplay, while weapons were updated, gameplay style remains much the same. Updated graphics, new puzzles and an interesting plot give Metroid Prime 2 a very familiar feel, while still adding some variety to spice up the gameplay experience.

The downside to this is that many of the original game's "flaws" still remain. Several bosses in Metroid Prime 2 prove exceedingly difficult to beat, not because of any lack of knowing how, but simply because the designers made it too darn annoying. While some people may find this kind of a challenge interesting, I found that having to repeatedly attempt to beat a boss even when I know how I should be able to take him down grew old very quickly. (In fact, I have not yet beaten the game because I got so tired of attempting to reach and beat one of the bosses.)

As far as the plot, there are very few similarities to the previous game. As in all Metroid games, there are the obvious Metroids and Space Pirates, however the primary enemies you face are indigenous species to the planet you are on. The light and dark world elements allow a number of interesting puzzles and the reuse of many rooms. Also, the new idea of having the light and dark beam making enemies drop ammo for the opposite gun introduces a unique way of balancing the two beam weapons to ensure you always have the ammo which you need to defeat an enemy.

In the way of innovation, Prime 2 introduced a new multiplayer mode. While this feature seems somewhat similar to the death-match feature in the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo, the specifics of the implementation cause some degree of problems. In Hunters, all targeting is done in the traditional first person shooter style. (ie, aim and shoot) In Prime 2, the lock-on feature is actually used for multiplayer. This has a tendency to reduce fights to whoever has the biggest gun. There is some degree of strategy in choosing when to reveal yourself, but once a fight begins, choices become extremely limited for whoever has the smaller gun. This quickly becomes dull as there is only so much you can do when everything is done through lock-on.

Overall, all the sequels are remarkable games in there own right. Halo 2 was a bit misleading, but has remarkable multiplayer support through Xbox Live. Half-Life 2 is by far the most technically sophisticated and best looking game of the season. However Metroid Prime 2 was the only game to really stay true to the roots of the original game.

AJ Henderson