To say the original “Halo” was a success would be an understatement — gamers coveted the game with a cult obsession. Aside from an engrossing single-player story, the game also had an impressive multiplayer game that gave thousands of nerds another reason to never leave their dorms.

The game’s developer, Bungie, had a lot to live up to when it came to making a sequel. It had to make a game that retained the strong fan base while expanding gameplay and features.

Does the game live up to the hype? Yes, it does. “Halo 2” isn’t just a good game — it’s a great game. Not only that, it’s one of the best games to grace the Xbox.

Released last week to much fanfare — and $125 million in sales on the first day alone — “Halo 2” wisely sticks to the same gameplay functions as its predecessor. Anyone even remotely familiar with first-person shooters will find the game easy to jump into.

The first “Halo” had almost perfect controls — the buttons felt intuitive and movements were smooth and easy to follow. Bungie was careful not to disrupt perfection, leaving “Halo 2” feeling quite similar to the original.

The game expands from there in almost every way — new weapons, characters, monsters, environments and so on. Even the story in single-player mode expands upon the original.

Without giving too many details away, the story follows our hero, Master Chief, and others as the Covenant — the evil aliens from the first game — decide to attack Earth. From there, the story mostly expands to detail the Covenant society. It is told in a grand, cinematic way, with excellent voice acting and character detail in the cutscenes. This is the stuff of big-budget summer movies.

Unfortunately, even with all the new features, the single-player mode in “Halo 2” comes and goes awfully quickly. It is likely a casual gamer will beat it in a few weeks. It’s an amazing experience, but some gamers might be left disappointed at the abrupt ending.

Once those end credits roll, the “Halo 2” experience is far from finished. You can take all your skills and play multiplayer with friends on your console, over a LAN connection or online via Xbox Live. This is where the game truly shines.

Shooting your friends in the back or dropping a well-placed grenade under their vehicle is pure and utter enjoyment. Bungie has structured multiplayer levels so no team or player has a distinct advantage — so no strong defensive positions or perfect routes. Weapons are also well-balanced so no single gun or rocket launcher is more versatile than another.

This level of balance, often ignored by many programmers, is key to the fun factor. After all, if you kept getting killed by the same player with the same weapon, there’s little chance you’d keep coming back for more. If you’re bad, though, chances are you’ll still get defeated often in “Halo 2” — but the experience is enjoyable.

If you play over Xbox Live, you’re in for a real treat. You can set up any number of games, from simple one-on-one skirmishes to 16-player Capture the Flag contests. Afterward, the game tracks practically every statistic — your number of kills, deaths, rounds shot, accuracy. It’s everything a fan could ask for.

Then you can log on to Bungie.net, where the site records every single stat of every game you play. You can even look at map layouts to see exactly where and when you died in every game. Without a doubt, “Halo 2” is the greatest multiplayer game for the Xbox, leaving all competition far behind.

This winter season, it seems every console has a landmark game coming out — for Xbox fans, they get “Halo 2.” Gamers will not be able to find a better game for their money this season, so don’t waste any more time and pick this up.