Halo 2 had not only the onus of being the sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, but to surpass it to a degree by bringing something entirely new to the table. The term crunch normally refers to working 50 hours per week or more, and that's something many developers at Bungie did for a year and a half to meet an impossible deadline. Halo 2: Bungie's Crunch and a Brutal Development Cycle RELATED: Destiny 2 Players Explain Why Hunters are Problematic in PvE The stakes were high, as there was a lot of pressure for the company to finish the product before Christmas 2004 due to the Xbox 360 launching the year after that, and so 18 months of crunch began. The game was far from being in a presentable state, and after that trailer aired, Bungie became fully aware that lots of work had to be put in Halo 2 for it not to miss its deadline of November 2004. However, that trailer was not something that Bungie had really made with the final engine for Halo 2, nor assets that would then be used to make the actual game, but rather it was the presentation of something that had to be scrapped entirely. Halo 2 was first shown at E3 2003, and the demo got players extremely excited to play the game, with its incredibly innovative concepts and mechanics like taking over vehicles and dual-wielding weapons. The first game was what started it all, but Halo 2 was arguably more revolutionary than Halo: Combat Evolved ever could be, due to Bungie being even more ambitious with the sequel. It's been 20 years since the first installment of the Halo series, but it's undeniable that Bungie's work on Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 dramatically changed the video game industry in many ways.