In the Heat of Battle

From dual-wielding to vehicle jacking, there have been a lot of changes to the core gameplay of Halo 2. Both of those are going to change the game tremendously, and I'm sure it'll be for the better. Some readers have questions about some of the other elements of the game. Sean Perry asked:

Will there be different melee damage for different wepons such as the needler? Master chief switched it around and used the needles in the first one, but it was apparent it didn't do any more damage than the assualt rifle or a shotgun butt. So will the needler be a deadlier melee weapon?

That doesn't seem to be the case, judging by what I've seen in action. Unless you've got the plasma sword, you aren't guaranteed a single hit kill. Although that blade on the back of the Brute Shot looks like it could do some serious damage. Others had questions about the variety of melee kills. Saum Salehi wonders:

Can you still do multiple melee combos with all of the weapons?
From what I've seen so far, there are some different types of melees. It seems that if you melee attack an enemy from farther away, you'll simply stun him, while attacking from up close will kill him. If you take a look at the E3 Single Player demo from 2003, there's a scene when the Master Chief melee attacks a Brute twice, and the animation is definitely different each time. Let's ask Frank, though, just to be on the safe side:


There are multiple animations, and there are melee variations, such as with the Covenant Energy Sword lunge move and uppercut.
Well, there you have it. I'm a big fan of melee kills, so I'm excited to see what type of brutal deaths you'll be able to deal out. There have also been plenty of rumors about different types of environments in Halo 2. Allen asks:
I heard from somebody that there some space/lo gravity levels in Halo 2. Is that true?
I've heard those rumors, too, Allen! Did we hear correctly, Frank?

There are multiplayer levels set in varying environments, but gravity will be consistent (unless you're using a gravity-lift).
Well, that about does it for the second part of our second Halo 2 Reader Feedback Follow-Up feature. I'm sure you (like I) have a ton of questions still, so hopefully we can get Bungie to answer some more. Keep an eye on GameSpy over the next couple of weeks, as we'll be bringing you a purely speculative feature on the single player mode! As always, if you've got any news or questions, let us know!