All things Halo

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Mononoke

Halo Legendary Solo Discussion

Post by Mononoke »

Having recently gotten round to completing Halo 5 on Legendary Solo (LS), a long-time tradition amongst many Halo players, I thought it timely (for me at least) to open up a discussion for any Halo vets out there to just talk about the LS experience throughout all the series. Do you have any particular memories or stories to share or just general thoughts and impressions about either specific halo campaigns on LS or just about LS in general?

Whilst the addition of easily applicable skulls in Halo 3 allowed for a further significant and modifiable increase in difficulty, the LS experience is still the most challenging base version of Halo gameplay and for me, the most satisfying, but also at times highly frustrating, level of challenge. As I just finished Halo 5 LS, I might as well start up the discussion with my impressions of that especially in comparison to earlier campaigns. Without going into all the reasons Halo 5's campaign is the weakest of the series for me (and from what I gather many others) on LS the problems I had with its general design became exacerbated significantly. The new revive mechanic is the most egregious of problems as being 'knocked down' more often than not spelled doom for me due to very poor teammate A.I. Half the time I would just revert to last checkpoint when it was clearly hopeless, but that narrow margin of possibility, where I might get revived by the worst Spartan super soldiers in the universe would make me cling on sometimes, especially when a good way into a combat encounter, and so be even more frustrating when we all died anyway. Whilst it might still have been problematic at times, the new revive mechanic could have worked if teammate A.I. had even been competent. As it is, I seriously hope they remove it or improve it for Halo 6.

The other major change I noticed from previous Halo level design in Halo 5 was the over-reliance on filling certain combat encounters with simply lots and lots of tough enemies and feeling overwhelmed with the amount of foes that needed to be brought down with limited weapon resources and a lot of one-shot knockdowns/kills. Previous Halo campaigns have had large battle encounters, but for the most part I feel like the designers have done a good job providing ample means to tackle those encounters, whether with more powerful weapons and vehicles or just through the design of the combat arena itself. In Halo 5 these encounters with large groups of enemies are often in confined spaces but with plenty of sight-lines between you and the enemies, meaning generally one is being attacked on multiple fronts at once with less breathing room than really needed. I can count 3-4 times throughout the campaign where I simply had to quit the game and beat the area another day because I was becoming so pissed off with this lazy design - where increased difficulty = more and tougher enemies to kill all over the place. Previous Halo campaigns on LS aren't exactly the most tailored of experiences, as usually Legendary does equal simply tougher enemies and a weaker player, but at least for the most part they have remained a well-balanced challenge. Granted, I say there were more enemies added in Halo 5 but perhaps in normal or heroic (I don't remember the latter as it was a while ago) the number of enemies was the same but their health was higher. Regardless it still felt that for LS in particular these encounters had not been play-tested to ensure that whilst still a challenge, that challenge remained fun. There were definitely levels that were better than others and offered that more well-balanced challenge - (Levels 7, 8, 10 and 12 where definitely the best) but still, I can with utmost confidence say that, unlike all previous Halo games, I will not be repeating my LS playthrough of Halo 5 ever again because of how pissed off it made me throughout.

Halo Legendary and LS throughout the series has had its fair share of unfair design (Jackal Snipers Halo 2 anybody) but I thought Halo 5 really took the biscuit in a way like never before.

So, has anyone here played Halo 5 LS and what where your thoughts about it and maybe some memories and impressions about earlier Halo campaigns too?
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Feirsteax
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Re: All things Halo

Post by Feirsteax »

So I got to play a lot of the Halo Infinite beta this weekend and last weekend. And I have to say, it was extremely good fun. There's some quirks and creases they need to iron out but it was overall very very good.

New equipment pieces the Repulsor (send grenades back to their sender, pushback enemies off cliffs, overturn warthogs, splatter enemies against walls with it if you're really lucky) and the Grappleshot (Spartan + Spiderman = amazing) are both really really fun.

New weapons are all really cool and unique as well. As opposed to earlier titles where it sort of felt like we had a bunch of very similar weapons that were just reskinned, the weapons this time all feel pretty unique and different.

Yeah I just had a lot of fun with it. I really want to play with some friends now on multiplayer, it looks like it's gonna be a good laugh.
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Alex79
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Re: All things Halo

Post by Alex79 »

I had a plan to play through every Halo game since getting an Xbox recently. I'm coming towards the end of the first game, but I think I've had enough. It's just not a series for me. For some reason, I think I was getting a bit of motion sickness with the game, too. Not something I've experienced often.
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