Tonally and aesthetically divorced from the first game.

yeah because it doesn't take place on a Halo ring

>>712586735 (OP)
Although Halo is still better. Halo2 is great in its own way

>yeah because it doesn't take place on a Halo ring
this nigga serious?

Tonally, CE feels similar to super metroid or system shock so I agree. 2 feels like a badass power trip. Both great, but I can see why it's divisive.

>>712586812
Uh uh? So what were half the levels of the game on then?

>>712586735 (OP)
They did something different. Halo CE was a weird amalgamation of many shelved/ previously used ideas by Bungie, combined with 80's Aliens aesthetics.

Halo 2 was also supposed to be a big presentation on the power of the Xbox, and despite being made in a year (and sloppily handling SOME of the aesthetics from the previous game) it looks pretty good, even if it is 'plain'. The models are definitely more detailed, anyhow.

What the fuck was his problem?

>>712586735 (OP)
CE and 2 were the only Halo games I ever loved. I liked 3, ODST and Reach, but CE and 2 will always be the special ones for me.

>>712586735 (OP)
The game was also HEAVILY influenced by the WOT, and by 3 it had been completely invaded by the 'ideas' surrounding the war. It was also meant to be a powerjerk for the USA.

>>712586735 (OP)
Where can I sell my like new/opened steel book collectors edition launch copy of this?
I just realized some moron will pay good money for it.

>>712588069
Yeah, never mind.
Used copies aren't even going for the original sale price.

>>712586735 (OP)
It was a crappy sequel only 2010 zoomers like.

>>712590573
Agreed.

>>712587386
The campaign in CE is better than 2 but the multiplayer in 2 is better than CE.

>>712586735 (OP)
>Remember it ending on a cliffhanger
I was so fucking mad

i think halo 2 is the best one. it feels l like halo 1 but improved. halo 3 is the one i would argue feels too different but i like all 3 games.

>>712591506
reasonable

>>712586735 (OP)
I was there for the midnight release. It was very disappointing. Maybe the most disappointing sequel of all time

>>712593960
It felt like the first AAA game and that's not a complement.

>>712586812
Back when it came out I remember people being mad that you only spend a few levels on Earth

>>712586735 (OP)
I remember playing this as a kid after the first one came out and thinking the story was stupid and boring in comparison. The mystery and intrigue of the first game was way more interesting than the gay war and political infighting of the second

>>712595043
i had the opposite impression, i was obsessed with halo 1 and got the first 3 books. but it wasnt until halo 2 where i fully became immersed in the story. i think halo 2 did a good job expanding the halo universe while still retaining a lot of the original mystery of the first game. to me it was halo 3 which dropped the ball. halo 2 introduced a lot of new and interesting areas weapons and content. expanding on the elite lore was a lot more interesting to everyone than halo 3 just basically having new brute content. if you think about it halo 3 was the problem because halo 2 set up the covenant civil war in an interesting asymmetrical way implying that alliances could change from area to area between the different alien races. in halo 3 this didnt pan out at all. you could have had levels in halo 3 with allied grunts or allied hunters to shake things up and contrast with different areas where those enemies would be hostile.

>>712586735 (OP)
yup

I feel like a huge improvement for very little change would be to make the african city beautiful for the first section then it becomes iraq as the level progresses. It will never be purple sky taiga forest but it stops it from being brown: the game

>>712586735 (OP)
I played halo 1 VR a few months ago and it was better than I remembered

2 is worse than 1 in pretty much every way

Halo was ruined when some bonehead got the idea "why don't we have all the elites speak in english and then they become your friends and you stop fighting them"

Genuine question, why do so many people seemingly prefer CE's campaign over 2? I played every Halo campaign back to back about a year ago and CE felt like the weakest of the big 3. I'm not saying it was bad but there were definitely some points where walking into the 6th copy of the same room in a row I wanted to rip my hair out. By comparison I feel like 2 had a much more engaging story, levels, pretty much everything. Even the cliffhanger ending was exciting for me, but I can accept that maybe that was just because I knew I could just jump right into 3.

>>712598172
CE had an air of mystery to it

>2004
way too soon

>>712587310
He's made of meat.

>>712598172
>I can accept that maybe that was just because I knew I could just jump right into 3
It's not really possible to see halo 2 for how it was at the time. Going from a super crazy preview that turned out to be totally bullshit and no ending made it a letdown in a fashion that wont affect you if you already know this going in.
Halo 1 was a perfect package. Blew everyone's expectations out of the water. Halo 2 brought everyone back down to earth.

You know, peter molyneux made some pretty good games. He'd be a well liked industry name if he didn't keep promising he was making the greatest game of all time with every release.

>>712587102
Alien vs Aliens

>>712598172
1 had big levels with good AI and felt less scripted.

Bet you can't stick it, Master Chief....

And it's the best one in the series.

How did they do it?

>>712599051
They sneaked into your house at night and injected you with the bad taste virus. And GRIDs.

>>712598172
1 have steaks in it

>>712586735 (OP)
We all agree
2 > 1 > 3 >>>>>>>>>> literal shit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the rest
Right?

>>712602556
nah we all agree 1 over all

>>712596195
they originally intended for their to be allied hunters and grunts, problem was play testers kept shooting them so they just removed them

>>712602556
Nah, sorry man.
3 > 2 > 1 > ODST shit>>>>>>>>>>>> Infinite >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>5

>>712603691
BOOM!

>>712586735 (OP)
For me it was the shotgun going from the most reliable shooty to a complete waste of space in the second game.
To say that they nerfed it into the ground would be an understatement.

ONLY THE STRONGEST WILL SURVIVE!

>>712586735 (OP)
Indeed, great improvement.

>>712586735 (OP)
That would be why they're separate games, retard.

>>712602556
Yes.

>>712586735 (OP)
I'd say gameplay too, I barely remember it but what I do remember is a shit ton of very pedestrian urban environments that all looked generic as fuck relative to the first. My buddy & I beat the game & then went right back to the original because it was so different in a bad way, never played it again after that.

and?

>>712586735 (OP)
Halo 2 is poorly written.

>>712606707
Potently truthful image

>>712606707

>>712606707
I don't know what the hell they were thinking with Halo 2.

>>712586735 (OP)
I didn't like how ugly 2 looked compared to CE. I understand why it looks how it does now after seeing the development history behind it, but I still don't like it. Even without the failed lighting engine, CE had a much brighter and more pleasing to the eye color palette, in my opinion.
CE had a much better overall campaign too. Arbiter's stuff in 2 is kino, but Chief's side of the campaign is dull as fuck until the Flood show up.
It definitely has better multiplayer at least, but again, I didn't like how the game looked so I didn't play much of it. Halo 3 was a fair compromise between the two art directions.

>>712606707
>>712607827
>I don't know what the hell they were thinking with Halo 2.

Joe Staten

Lehto told him to knock Arbiter off for Halo 3

Halo 3... sigh

>The first four levels are filler
>The Arbiter is barely present as he already finished his character arc in Halo 2; Chief never even says one word to him in H3
>Truth went from a calculating operator to a deranged retard
>The radio chatter has no personality anymore and is solely tactical military bullshit. It doesn't help that Cortana is absent most of the game
>Miranda went from the progeny of the man who invented the Keyes Loop (not to mention her mother is perhaps the smartest human to ever exist), to an imbecile who crashes a Pelican into the Ark's control room without any backup let alone decent equipment. Then unsurprisingly dies.
>Johnson left a Frigate with the keys still turned right where the Flood could've hijacked it
>The Terminals and cutscenes were written by different people and contradict each other on whether the Forerunners are human
>"To war."

>>712609015
i personally think the graphics of halo 2 are the best. but it still would have been interesting and i would have taken it if they just made halo 2 in the halo 1 engine. halo 2 has a gritty look to it i like where things look more realistic at times than they do in halo 3. visuals are also more clear and crisp than halo 1. i felt like halo 2 was just a refinement of halo 1. maybe if halo 2 had the original planned lighting engine you or others who dont like itwould be saying something different, hard to say.

i liked halo 3 and i think it has a lot of cool designs and inventions but i personally feel that it looks sort of pixarish at times and i think that clashes with the feeling of the first two games.

regardless though any of the 3 are better to me visually than anything from halo 4 onwards.

>>712609156
Thank God, for Lehto

this thread is fucking insane
the 2nd half of CE was just backtracking through the first half
i mean come the fuck on
IN 2
YOU GOT TO GO TO FUCKING EARTH AND HIGH CHARITY
YOU GOT TO GO TO THE FUCKING HALO RING
YOU GOT DEEPER WORKINGS OF THE CONVETENT THROUGH THE EYES OF A BLEIEVER BEOCMING DISILLUSIONED BY THE CHANGING POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN THE SHAODW OF THE FORERUNNERS CONSTUCTIONS
CHIEF ACOMPLISHES WAYYYYYY MORE FUCKING EPIC FEATS
ODST DROP
YOU CAN DRVIE A FUCKING WRAITH
WAY MORE COOLER FLOOD MISSIONS
LIKE WHAT IN THE FUCK

Honestly, 2>CE
CE became pretty repetitive and some of the levels weren't that enjoyable, kinda regret playing it on heroic and not playing 2 on heroic

>>712602556
odst and reach bad?

>>712602556
2 > reach > odst > 3 > 1 > power gap > shit > fromsoft somehow > 343i

>Halo 2 could been the Sonic 2006 of the og xbox if bungie weren't competent enough to salvage the horrid development hell they went through

>>712603691
God I hate those playtester retards.
>inb4 acting like retards is their job
I still hate them.

>>712603691
Yet that didn't stop them from assuming people wouldn't skip the Arbiter's 10 minute long intro and immediately being dropped into the next level with Grunt and Elite allies.
Fuck playtesters.

>>712602556
1 > ODST > 2 > 3 > Reach > power gap > Infinite > 4 > power gap > literal feces > 5

>>712587310
>What the fuck was his problem?
He's listened through rock and metal and time.