All things Halo

[Flabyo]

I think Halo 2 is a little unfairly maligned in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, the ending is a little abrupt and a bit too clear a case of 'hey, sequel!', but then so was Empire Strikes Back...

I still have no idea how they kept the fact you play half the game as another character secret, even to the point of it not even being mentioned in a lot of reviews.

I actually prefer it to another game that was released at pretty much exactly the same time: Half Life 2.

[chase210]

I didn't play this at the time, I didn't get to play this till 2010 I think? And I liked it a lot, not as much as Combat evolved or 3, but still a lot. The arbiter levels aren't nearly as good as the chief levels, but its still a nice change of pace, and advances the halo universe to a good degree, both in the games and books.

But why is there no assault rifle? Come on guys.

[SnakeyDavid]

Halo 2 was the most significant step for the series. Indeed the jump within the generation to 2 seems far more striking than the next one to Halo 3. Halo 2 for me, seems like Bungie's definitive articulation of what Halo is, with everything since being refinement or experimentation. The moment-to-moment gameplay is nothing short of astonishing. A wonderfully robust sandbox full of consistently satisfying, endlessly emergent encounters. The core of Halo is there but it's slicker, faster, and more playful. It's the most ambitious Halo, both narratively and mechanically. It's also my least favourite; an unfinished great that could have been a masterpiece.

Halo is by no means a series that I go to for its story. At its best it's a set of cool action figures which are fun to bash about with. But the music, enemy design, the grand architecture, the chatter of marine and covenant, and its religious overtones add weight to those cycling 30 seconds of fun. Simple and silly, it's narrative elements elevate the action to something rousing.

It's for that reason that Halo 2 impresses then subsequently disappoints. We get to see the covenant as a more complex enemy; getting more insight into their motivations and their internal struggles. We get a bit more character development. Tongue is still very firmly in cheek but there's much more personality in Halo 2 than CE. And there's an attempt to make the flood a more coherent, intelligent threat. But very quickly it all devolves into something convoluted and ill-told. The lack of a definitive conclusion leaves its lore messy; something which has got a lot worse as the series has continued.

Overall it feels rushed, which judging by some of the anecdotes about development, it was. It's even evident in the gameplay; some environments don't flow that well, the boss fights feel like first drafts and the brute design is a bit uninspiring- something they fixed in Halo 3.

I haven't mentioned multiplayer because broadband, not even Xbox live was a long way off in our household at the time of its release. So beyond some split-screen shenanigans, I never got to experience Halo 2 multiplayer as it was meant to be played, which is perhaps why my feelings are less favourable toward this entry than almost every other Halo.

It's a testament to the core experience however, that even unfinished it's a remarkable shooter, even today. Whenever I play it though, my overriding thought is always 'what could have been?'

[SnakeyDavid]

I actually prefer it to another game that was released at pretty much exactly the same time: Half Life 2.

I always think of Halo as the better shooter, Half life 2 as the better game.

[Bakers_12]

I loved the first game and could not wait for Halo 2. I had preordered the infamous disk scratching steel box version thankfully without any scratches.

The game had a few extra features that worked well with the mechanics of the first game. Playing as a second character was for me interesting. The four way battle towards the end of the game where a fun chaotic experience. The main draw was more Halo!!

There where a few negatives bungie's attempt at a continuations story feel flat for me and never really manage it over the following games. There stand alone story's are far better. The brutes in gameplay trams are not that good the phrase "bullet sponge" is often used to describe them, a shame as the making of dvd that came with my game shows some ideas they had for them. Also the large outdoor battle of halo:ce are as prevalent in 2 which is a shame

But even with a few detractors the minute to minute gameplay is as good as its predecessor.



There

[KissMammal]

I can't speak for the the groundbreaking multiplayer aspect of Halo 2 as it's a side of gaming I'm not really interested in - all I can say is that the long-delayed singleplayer campaign left me feeling pretty underwhelmed.

The great core mechanics were still there, but what really clicked with me about Combat Evolved was the unprecedented sense of scale, and I feel like when it came to Halo 2 Bungie really sacrificed that for graphical polish and more detailed textures. There was nothing that even came close to classic stages from the first game like The Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room. I'd also echo all the usual complaints of uninspired enemies like the Brutes and those Jackal snipers who could kill you instantly from a mile away!. I seem to remember it had a lot more difficulty spikes than the first game which made playing through on Legendary a bit of a slog, even in co-op.

It also marked the point for me when Bungie started to take the story side of things a bit too seriously, and where I stopped making even a cursory effort to follow the convoluted narrative of the series. The first game was an unashamed Aliens knock-off with a goofy B-movie charm - everything that came after started to get a bit pretentious and sombre for me.

All in all it's easily my least favourite entry of the series, at least of those that Bungie made.

[chase210]

Ooh, halo 3 now? This is a big game for me, huge in fact. Halo 3 was in fact, the first halo game I ever played, since I wasn't an xbox owner at the original launch of combat evolved or 2. I was so hyped for halo 3, I read every book, I watched every trailer, I downloaded the halo soundtracks onto my PSP to listen to. I saved my allowance for months and begged my mum to help me with the rest, so on launch day I got halo 3 and an xbox 360 from gamestation.
Then I discovered the original 360 sounded like a jet engine and didn't have built in wireless and you had to pay for online, but whatever, I was so excited.

The game was and is still, brilliant. It was pretty much the first FPS I ever played thats not metroid, and I was blown away. It looked great. The story was pretty interesting (even though I had to watched 2 and CE stories on the internet at the time), in particular, the ark is one bloody great level. The flood never were and never aren't that great to fight, but its not exactly torture, its just kinda not as good as the covenant. But the real revelation was the online multiplayer. I arranged some games with some guys from my class in school, and we played one evening with headsets, online co-op, and death matches. It was bloody brilliant, some of the best fun I think I've ever had with a shooter still to this day. We made stuff in the forge. We recorded clips. We set up dumb games. We did the legendary co-op campaign together over a few weeks. It was so much fun. I love halo 3. Its one of my favourite shooters of all time, its rare a game I'm so hyped for lives up to my own dumb expectations, but halo 3 was that game, so much so I'm afraid to play the masterchief collection in case it spoils my memory of it.

[Flabyo]

I can give you my three word review for Halo 3 now: Pimps at Sea.

I expect as you do your research you'll figure out what I mean by that (if you don't know already)

[RoboticMonk3y]

damn!
I completely forgot! my halo 2 three word review should have been "I love bees"

[Nekemancer]

Halo has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. Despite the story not being the best thing ever, I love it so much. I buy every Halo with the purpose of only playing the campaign on various difficulties. Anything past that is great, but I'm just in love with the stories of these games.

Multiplayer isn't a critical aspect of it for me anymore, just campaign and co-op campaign, but Halo 3 actually brought LAN gaming back for me for a while. I remember playing Halo 1 in high school and my freshman year in college all the time in large groups. Halo 2 destroyed that whole community for me, though the game coming out right around finals time wasn't great either.

I spent a fair bit of time screwing around with the mode creator in Halo 3, had a bunch of parties fall into long zombie mode matches, played a little bit of online versus.

The campaign itself is still great. I haven't had time to go back to replay it in the MCC, but I have nothing but positive memories of the campaign. I don't know if I'd call it my favorite Halo game, but it's certainly a contender for the #1 spot.

Three word review:

Spoiler: show

Sergeant Johnson?! Noooooooooo!

(Side note: It's been a while since I've contributed! Hoping to get back into the swing of things somewhat here.)

[deacon05oc]

Three Word Review: Sick of Flood

[ratsoalbion]

Three Word Review: Sick of Flood

Is that an American Music Club reference? If so, bravo!

[deacon05oc]

Three Word Review: Sick of Flood

Is that an American Music Club reference? If so, bravo!

No lol no reference. I just really hate The Flood

[dezm0nd]

I took some animated gifs from the videos that Karl, myself, Tony and Jon have uploaded from our most recent Halo 3 co-op playthrough. If these don't get you excited to play Halo 3 again, then I don't know what will.

Poor Tony Atkins gets killed... by the friendly A.I!



The Arbiter won't be shook off his Mongoose



This will always be a classic goosebump moment



Beautiful



Halo and its crazy physics!



Before...



...After

[Flabyo]

SO, ODST then. Or 'Halo Firefly' as it was nicknamed where I was working at the time...

It's my favourite game in the entire series, including the ones you've not got to yet.

I'm a sucker for video games that experiment with the way they deliver their narrative, especially when they choose to go down the non-linear route. It can take a little brain work to work out what the chronological order is for the various chapters, but that's part of the charm.

Focusing on the ODST rather than the Spartans gives it a more 'ground level' human aspect, these guys aren't walking battle tanks like the Master Chief, and their dialogue and level designs emphasise their fragility.

The ODST mean more of course if you're a fan of the novels and animated stuff. They're the previous 'best' troops in the UNSC (they're essentially the equivalent of the Navy Seals), so there's animosity between them and the 'genetic freaks' that are the Spartan 2 and 3 troops. (That this squad makes a reappearance in cameo in the next game, which is set before this one, and at least one of them is turning up in Halo 5 shows that they certainly 'clicked' with players).

Also, the musical score for this game is the series high point. It's incredibly mournful with far less bombast than before.

I guess the main thing this one has that the others don't, for me, is atmosphere. It feels more desperate, more hopeless, more human.

[dezm0nd]

Glad you enjoyed it, Glen! The code didn't go to waste. Cheers for your input.

[RoboticMonk3y]

ODST catches a lot of flack but I really enjoyed it.
Not being a spartan, you couldn't just go barrelling right into the middle of a battle, you'd have to carefully pick your way around the edge of battles, or sometimes just sneak past them all together. Knowing what weapon you had became vital, especially on the harder difficulty settings, energy weapons to take off shields followed up with some marine weapons to finish the job.

I think it was the atmosphere that won me over so much with ODST.
The hazy night-time slogging though the streets being, guided by the AI flashing up road signs and car headlights to steer you in the right direction combined with the amazing jazz sound-track really set the tone in a way that I've not really felt in many other games. You really do feel like you're completely on your own.

The audio logs really were an amazing addition to the game. Hearing how civilians on the ground were affected by the covenant attack on new Mombasa would have been a nice enough addition on it own, but the whole thing was acted out really well and gave extra depth to the game. it also came with the added perk that unlocking the audio logs gave to access to weapon stores dotted about the city making the later battles easier and also giving you access to a vehicle to help move around the city.

I liked how you found various items dotted about the city, and interacting with them would take you off on to the side-story of how things ended up there.

ODST also had the lovely addition of firefight mode, I'm sure it wasn't the first instance of a hoard-based game, but for me it felt like the first one where team work and co-ordination became so important (and we all know that one person who would get a little too trigger-happy up close with the hammer)

[Bakers_12]

ODST as it stands is the only Halo (FPS) game that I did not get around release. As I belived that this was originally going to be DLC for Halo 3 I felt I was going to be short changed. After picking up the game second hand at a resemble price I felt it was defiantly more than a glorified DLC that I latter found out was misconseption that I had.

I thought it was a breath of fresh air for many reasons including not being the master chief, the story structure that used flashbacks and a few game play twicks to renascent you not being a Spartan.

I felt that the story was better then the previous two game as it was both more interesting and had a stellar cast particularly for Firefly fans. It was with this game that I started to think to think that bungie was better at putting together a stand alone story then a continuing one, a theory that I still think is true.

The hub area was a mixed bag for me. When I innately liked the exploring and fighting through the deserted city, I did find that there was not much variation in scenery and parts could be a slog to get through. I have strong memories of trying to fight two hunters with very low heath and getting very frustrated.

[goatsnake]

Despite playing all of the main games in the Halo series in one form or another, ODST was the only one I loved rather than merely liked.

Playing through the atmospheric, rain-soaked stealth sections, while trying to rendezvous with your squadmates, was a nice change of pace to the more traditional Halo fare encountered when you started to track them down. Retracing their steps and encountering the scene of their battles was a neat way of tying it together too, as well as helping reinforce the feeling of being lost and alone in hostile territory.

Having the Firefly boys turn up to effectively reprise their roles was, for me, another welcome departure for the series; they were far more interesting than Master Chief's blank slate personality, while still being a great fit for Halo's curious (and charming) mix of earnestness and good-humoured adventure.

And that soundtrack. For my money this, too, is the best in the series, and the often more understated, moody tone fitted the atmosphere of the game beautifully. It's one of my favourite soundtracks of the last generation, and was the first game soundtrack I bought on CD.

[fieldy]

ODST was a day one purchase for me as were most of the other halo games.

The attraction of ODST for me was that for the most part in the Halo series your playing as Master chief a super human walking tank which works and feels great however in the background of some of the missions were other marines and sometimes ODST's. These AI characters almost always got killed easily and whilst you plough through the carnage in your green amour I couldn't help but feel sorry for them in a way. But now I was able to play as one of these characters and it really felt like I was vulnerable, I'm not sure if this was the case but it felt like health drained a lot quicker when taking fire than it did in halo 3 and that your default weapons felt like they were a bit weaker, that said I loved the spec ops style silenced guns!

The setting an atmosphere also left me feeling isolated open to attack this made the game instantly refreshing and gave me a new take on what a halo game could be, that and the fact that you got to see some of the events of halo 2 from a new perspective made this entry into the series very appealing to me.

Overall however I do think this was one of the weaker halo games it did try a few new things and indeed did stand out but really it felt like a stop gap between 3 and reach. A special mention must go to the soundtrack though, the Jazz - blues feel really added to the atmosphere and made the whole experience that much more interesting.