Halo 2 is a first-person shooter game, the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. The game features new weapons, enemies, vehicles and another player character. In Halo 2's story mode, the player assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and the alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the United Nations Space Command, the genocidal Covenant, and later, the parasitic Flood.