Whether you’re of the belief or not that games like Call of Duty and Titanfall were helped along by franchises that came before them – like, say, Medal of Honor or Tribes – there’s little doubt that many console shooters hopped aboard upon the success of Halo 2. The game paved the way for Xbox Live’s online service and the rise of multiplayer gaming on Xbox consoles, with 343 Industries executive producer Dan Ayoub, who is working on Halo: The Master Chief Collection, believing it changed his life forever.
“Going back and doing Halo 2 has been a tremendous amount of fun for me because I always talk about my personal experience with the first Halo game and that was the game that showed me you could have a good first-person shooter on console. I think about the multiplayer and about how that changed my life forever.
“I look at games today like Titanfall, Call of Duty – all of these games owe their multiplayer experiences to Halo 2. So I just have a romanticised view of it. In my mind it’s perfect.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be out this November for Xbox One and includes a remastered edition of Halo 2 along with the original game, Halo 3 and Halo 4 among other content.