I need to get this out. Apologies for those who don't agree with me, but halo 2 sucked.

I was really looking forawrd to Halo 2. I had visions of fighting through ruined cities against covenenat forces, leading marines into battle, maybe even capturing a prophet and using him to force a covenenant retreat by threatening to kill him.
What did I get? I got a weak story, with weak rip-offs from halo; 'In Amber Clad'? Poor name for a ship. 'Pillar of Autumn' sounded dependable, 'In Amber Clad' sounds like a name for a girl's car. I had to play as a covenant soldier, the 'arbiter', in a series of enjoyable-but-frustrating-since-they-took-me-away-from-playing-as-the-master-chief missions which helped to ruin what i had hoped to be a good game.
The lack of direction in missions was something that I had seriously hoped they were going to get over by use of things that have been in games for decades now, called 'waypoints'.
Dual wielding? It was a nice touch. It would have been even better if I'd had a chance to get used to it before all hell broke loose.
More Covenant soldiers? Brutes? Drones? No. Please no. Adding 'more' does not mean 'better'. Instead of knowing my enemies and being able to adjust my tactics quickly, I had to try and work out who i was fighting and what was most applicable to kill them for far too long.
Return of the Flood? You know, I think I'd had so much of the Flood in the first game that if *I* was the master chief confronting them again, I'd just sit down, open my visor, and hope for a ncie quick end because otherwise they'd bore me to death. No one liked the Flood. They comprised some of the most boring parts of Halo.
Poor Characterisation. Oh look at the new Cortana! OMG she has her hair down! OMG she's so sassy now! OMG I can understand her, unlike British comedians which are just too strange to be funny! BTW WTF is sarcasm? Seriously. New Cortana irritated me. New Captain keyes irritated me. Sergeant Johnson I would have shot him, just so I could park a warthog over his grenades and make it jump.
Changes to guns. Changes to Human guns I didn't mind. Liked the battle rifle, found the smg to be fun, understood the changes to the pistol. Changes to the Covenant guns were... bewildering. Covenant Crabine? Apparently entirely against covenant combat ethos. beam rifle? Reactionary change against power of sniper rifle. Brute shot? Pointless. Brute plasma rifle? Fun but again, a role already served by the elite plasma rifle. Energy sword? Nice.
I have unintentionally run out of steam on a positive note, so let me reiterate my main whinge: the story sucked. the chaaracters sucked. the new covenenat armoury sucked.

I don't feel better, but I do feel less like vomiting.