Joe Staten: 17,000 give or take.GameSpy: I noticed that there's a ton of battlefield chatter, much more than the last game. Was that done to make the action scenes more immersive?
Joe Staten: Halo had around 2,000 lines of combat-dialog, Halo 2 over 14,000 for about the same number of AI actors. This not only makes fighting with your AI buddies more satisfying, but helps keep the post-combat interesting as well (i.e. no more awkward silences). This time around, it's even more rewarding to keep your AI backup alive and talkative.
GameSpy: There are a lot of celebrity voices in Halo 2, in both major and minor roles. Did you have those particular people in mind when you were writing the dialogue?
Joe Staten: For the most part, we cast fans of Halo -- people who had actually played the game, and wanted to be part of Halo 2's cast. Some of these folks happened to be celebrities, but they were all very talented actors. There's a character in Halo 2 called the "Prophet of Truth." Without revealing the actor who plays the role, let me just say my ability to write good dialog for Truth had a great deal to do with the fact that I could anticipate the deftness of that particular actor's performance.GameSpy: It seems like there's a bit of humor in this game, and Master Chief even has a few one liners. Was this a conscious addition?
Joe Staten: Only a bit? Try swapping-weapons with your Marine cohorts, and see what they say -- especially if you trade something crap for something sweet (e.g. a plasma-pistol for a sniper-rifle). This is just one example -- humor is all over the place in Halo 2. It's a critical part of our characters' (AI or otherwise) believability and likeability.GameSpy: The cutscenes are all rendered in the game's engine. Why did you choose to do that, as opposed to FMV?
Joe Staten: Two main reasons: immersion and flexibility. Working in-engine allows us to keep our story visually connected to the game world as well as react quickly to changes of plan (i.e. the last minute cutting or shortening of levels). Both are near-impossible to do as far as CGI is concerned.
