Excuse me if I'm mistaken, Las, but aren't the cutscenes in Halo 2 rather, well, crap? Abrupt pop-up and all that? Also, a lack of detail textures? That's certainly not an improvement....
Also, I'm yet to read one review that knocks MP2's level design, other than the prevailant purple colour scheme of the dark overword. Which was a deliberate design choice, unlike Halo's cutscene shenanigans.
Oh, and word to that, Mr Deflok.
Edit: I think
this review nails Halo 2 dead-on.