Thread 724981712

It's a bad sequel.

How?

>Better campaign missions
>Better worldbuilding
>Better narrative
>Better core gameplay
>Better MP maps
>Better soundtrack

Only thing it does worse is weapon balance and arguably atmosphere

You are your parents bad sequel.

>>724982297
It's also unfinished

>>724982441
loathsome little guns.

>>724982297
It insists on itself

It's better than you realize, but not as good as it should be.

>>724981712 (OP)
>slowslop
Halo was never good.

>Halo CE has the best AR in the entire franchise
>and the best pistol
>and the best shotgun
>and the best plasma rifle
>and the best plasma pistol

on one hand i'm impressed they got so much right in their first game, but on the other i'm mad at how it's still undefeated in some aspects despite being a quarter of a century old. What's so fucking hard about making a fun shotgun?

>>724981712 (OP)
>Halo 1
>The people on the Pillar of Autumn went out of their way to prevent the Covenant from finding Earth
>Halo 2
>The Covenant found Earth anyway

It only flopped on the final level & ending. Other than that it's great.

>>724983026
>AR

Incorrect, 5 and Infinite are better in almost every metric, and arguably even 4 and Reach's are better in specific regards

>Pistol
5 and Infinite's gives it competition, the H5 Magnum is excellent and the Sidekick is damn good

>Shotgun
Correct, unless we're counting the Infinite Mutilator

>Plasma Rifle
H5's Brute Plasma Rifle gives it competition

>Plasma Pistol
Correct

>>724983026
I don't like the CE shotgun honestly, it feels very inconsistent. The H2 and H3 shotguns may not have much range but if you're in 1-tap range you know you'll get it.

>>724982297
It's not as fun to play. The enemy AI is worse, so are the weapons.

Halo 3 was the best one. Halo 2 was cool because you could do clans and stuff like BXR made the game have a bit more depth. Halo 1 was awesome

>>724981712 (OP)
It had plenty of good ideas. The problem was that they refused to just commit to the idea of the invasion of earth.
Get rid of the arbiter missions, get rid of all of the stuff on/around delta halo and you have the basis for a solid sequel to CE.
ODST did this well, but it was still just a shadow of what Halo 2 could have and should have been.

>>724982297
>Better campaign missions
Better linear ones but no exploration ones

>Better worldbuilding
too bad all the world building is done in the first few minutes in the arbiter introduction and then a few minutes more when you meet gravemind, then it's done and there's nothing noteworthy in the rest of the game or even all of halo 3, theres one more forerunner superstructure and that's it. I didn't even like the new things they brought forward in 2. The arbiter is cool and that's it.

>Better narrative
No. It's hard to compete with the flood hammer drop of CE but halo 2 isn't anything special or interesting. Nobody replaced keyes in screen presence.

>Better core gameplay
I'll give you this one but the SMG is a lame replacement for the AR and the BR is not a fun weapon and it's terrible that it became so important in the game. It's a long range fart gun that makes you spam right trigger. Every weapon is more fun than the BR and only the carbine approaches it in shittyness.

>Better MP maps
Halo 2 does have better multiplayer unless you were a grenade and pistol friend group in that case they absolutely fucked you, and it wasn't even necessary. They could've left the magnum in custom games. Now let me tell you what sucks though. Spawning in coag with the smg with 90% chance you'll be killed by ghost or guy with a BR before you can react. That's a core part of the MP experience and it massively blemishes the game for me. Eventually they just had to give you a BR to fix it and now it's BR the game.

>Better soundtrack
No. CE is all original, almost all banger tracks. Halo 2 reuses so much material and motifs, and adds piano and electric guitar and is more cliched sounding. It's still a great soundtrack but the accomplishment is way less.

>>724984330
I dont know if the scarab counts as world building but it was also cool, just wanted to throw this piece of shit sequel any bone I could.

>>724982297
>>Better narrative
>>Better campaign missions
maybe if we remove the covenant missions

>>724982441
I still remember the E3 demo where people went fucking nuts over the dual wield reveal. simpler, better times

>>724984180
Well, the third act that got cut was supposed to return and finish on the Earth invasion. Turns out the title screen was supposed to foreshadow the final battle the entire time to some degree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lL6RYrYc4U

>>724983629
No way played Halo 5 or Infinite those don't count.

>>724984535
It was vehicle jacking that got me so hyped

>>724981712 (OP)
The covenant missions were fucking awful. Nobody wanted to play as a gay elite. The marketing was entirely hammering home the point that the covenant were attacking Earth. And guess what? We only get ONE FUCKING MISSION on Earth!

>>724982297
I didn't grow up on Halo 2 so I don't have nostalgia glasses like many do.

>Better campaign missions
Almost 30% of the campaign, 4 of 14, is just pure filler trash. I don't have a problem with the Arbiter's story, but the missions are just shit.
>The Arbiter
>The Oracle
>Sacred Icon
>Quarantine Zone
people shit on Cortana and The Library, but those are not even fucking close to being as bad nor as repetitive.

>Better core gameplay
eh. Everything feels worse imo. The SMG was not a good replacement for the assault rifle. The BR basically replaced the CE pistol. Halo 3 fixed a lot of these issues by making the magnum feel punchier again.

>better soundtrack
yes and no. Halo CE was overall better, but I love the feeling of dread and hopelessness that Halo 2 introduces. It doesn't quite match the tone but I still fucking loved it. Halo 3 basically perfected everything after.

>>724985405
reminder that the 2 magnum isn't supposed to be a shit-pusher, it's a headshot machine. the ODST magnum is the same gun with a scope functionally, but that scope brings out the headshot capabilities that the 2 original was not great at. meanwhile the 3 magnum sounds and animates better, but it's actually the worse weapon simply overall.

>>724985986
guns "feeling" fun have such a huge impact on gameplay, regardless of stats. Modern Warfare is such a good example of that, even though a lot of the animations are over-indulged. It's fun as fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVwn5zZAwQ

For some reason, halo 2 guns just feel so rigid compared to CE. It feels like a fan-made mod or something. The BR and sniper feels like holding a fucking 2x4 pea shooter. It was unfinished.

To a bad game.

>>724986307
Halo 2's animations all feel weightless.

>>724982297
>Better campaign missions
Well they're not composed entirely of samey-looking corridors, so they suck SLIGHTLY less shit, but they still suck shit
>Better worldbuilding
>Better narrative
Nobody played these games for the story
>Better MP maps
At least half of them are reused from the first game
>Better core gameplay
If by that you mean "somehow made the weapons even worse" then sure.
>Better soundtrack
It's as forgettable as the first game's

>>724982441
>Introduce dual-wielding
>Make dual-wielded guns weaker for "balance", thus defeating the entire point of including it in the first place
It takes a special kind of retard to design a game like this

>>724983026
The AR is a fucking BB gun in the first game

>>724982770
>implying fastslop is good

>>724986514
Each bullet is kinda weak, but it shits out 60 of them in 4 seconds.

Halo CE is the only good game in the franchise.

>>724986514
People keep underestimating the point of the bullet weapons in the early games. They're awful at shredding shields on Heroic and Legendary, but mince health like a hot knife through butter. Halo 2 is absolutely fuckbonkers broken for balance, which doesn't help matters, but the MA5B is definitely a Grunt and Jackal shredder in CE as well as pretty decent against Flood, whereas it faltered against Elites. Combine that with its ridiculous spread that made it fall off at mid to long range and it really was just an SMG in rifle format. In an intended balance, the H2 Magnum and SMG would've functionally been the same shit with headshot bonuses for the former, but the lack of a balance pass ended up breaking its intentions. There's a reason why the Plasma Pistol + Magnum noob combo was a genuine threat in H2MP, never mind akimbo Magnums, enough so that Bungie actually nerfed the Magnum to cut that off.

>>724981712 (OP)
I liked it better than the first and I liked 3 better than 2.

>>724986376
Yeah? well, you’ve never lifted a weight so what would you know?

>>724982297
>Better campaign missions
That's a toss up, the first two missions were great on Halo 2, but then you got the Arbiter and it doesn't really have anything iconic after that other than maybe flying on the banshees. CE may have been repetitive, but the missions were all more memorable.

>Better worldbuilding
>Better narrative
Hard no on all of those, Halo 1 was more focused on its premise and had a surprise twist, Halo 2 tried to be a huge space opera but it lacked focus and tried telling too many sides at once. Master Chief was almost a side character in the story of the Arbiter, the Covenant schism, the Gravemind, they find another Halo, Guilty Spark is for some reason there, King Monkey tries activating the new Halo, and while all that happens the Covenant invaded Earth off screen.

>Better soundtrack
Arguable, I liked CE more. 2 was using some licensed music and didn't have many memorable pieces other than that. Even the OST had to be cut into pieces.

>Better core gameplay
It gave you regenerated health (CE still required you to get health packs to heal up, only your shield regenerated) and fucked up weapon balance.

>>724981712 (OP)
It's a 10/10 departure from the last game as all the Bungie Halo's were(sans ODST of course).

>>724983026
>What's so fucking hard about making a fun shotgun?
Every game makes Shotguns do 0 damage unless you fire them point blank. CE shotgun is useful even at a medium distance and it can reload per bullet. That's really all it does special. It's no different from the Shotguns in Doom in that regard.

The reason it really shines is because Flood is weak to weapons that can shred their bodies, and the Shotgun is especially good at that, especially since you always meet them in closed spaces.
So the CE shotgun shines 50% because it isn't gimped in range for balance, and 50% because enemy/map design favoring it.

>>724984330
>Nobody replaced keyes in screen presence.

I'd argue that Johnson has some more cool scenes in 2 but yeah it doesn't make up for the lack of Keyes.

>>724987765
>CE may have been repetitive, but the missions were all more memorable.

They're more memorable because you play them all twice.

>>724987180
mincing health with the AR is completely useless because one pistol headshot to shieldless enemies kills them. Making the AR a good shield stripper like in 3 and Infinite was the right call.

>>724984804
speak for yourself. Fighting with Elites and Hunters and the Covenant Civil War was pure kino

>>724988406
If anything that just says against the CE Magnum in how it can overshadow so many roles. Though not everyone carries the Magnum 24/7 in campaign.

>>724988406
The AR could penetrate in H1, so it was better to mow down groups.

>>724988758
You get enough ammo for the thing to use it for practically the entire game. I don't understand the hate CEfags have for the BR when the Magnum is way more monstrous. I think Reach handled the magnum best in that it was strong, but overclassed by the resident precision weapon.

>>724989058
Enemies in Halo 2 are way more overtuned to where you basically need to use the BR or Carbine the entire game on anything higher than Normal. It also doesn't feel nearly as good to use because it's weaker and the animations suck.

>>724982441
Based SMG chad. Also blue elites are pussies

>>724986437
>Make dual-wielded guns weaker for "balance", thus defeating the entire point of including it in the first place
dual wielding shreds elites quicker than the AR ever did

>>724981712 (OP)
I like it.

>>724989203
>It also doesn't feel nearly as good to use because it's weaker and the animations suck.
I don't know about that one. Nailing a 4-shot kill or a noob combo feels orgasmic just like the magnum.

>>724989203
see
>>724982441
>>724989262

>>724989407
>playing on easy

Why does nobody like the Halo 3 AR? At least it was actually useful beyond Normal difficulty

>>724982297
>Better campaign missions
Structurally yes. Much better objective variety, but I find myself replaying CE more.
>Better worldbuilding
>Better narrative
Both true. I enjoyed seeing things from the Covenant's perspective. Halo 2 was very much Arbiter's story which is why I think a lot of people disconnected with it.
>Better core gameplay
That I'm mixed on. I liked the addition of vehicle boarding and dual wielding, but I felt there were a lot of redundant weapons added to the roster. Enemy balancing also felt pretty bad on higher difficulties, especially with shielded flood, Brutes and Drones.
>Better MP maps
Also agree. Halo 2 has the best mutliplayer maps in the franchise. Only Halo 3 comes close. But I do miss some of the wacky designed maps like Chiron TL-34 and Boarding Action.
>Better soundtrack
Absolutely. Halo 2's soundtrack in my opinion is the peak of the series.

Overall I thought it was a fantastic sequel.

>>724989592
cope

>>724988398
>They're more memorable because you play them all twice.

You only play three maps twice IIRC, one has you running a different route half the time and completely different enemy placements on the other, the second has half the level cut up because the covenant ship is now derelict, and the third is a massively expanded version of the first map so hardly even qualifies as the same stage.

so at best you have 1 level you have to play twice, with two others being very similar.

>>724981712 (OP)
wrong
halo 1
>walking through the same levels multiple times just to pad the game
>levels feels empty of life and super game scripty
halo 2
>none of the above

>>724981712 (OP)
It's a flawed sequel. halo 3 was better in every aspect

>>724981712 (OP)
You can make complaints against Halo 2 but I don't think you can call it bad just for the MP alone setting the standard for online going forward.

>>724990195
If it weren't for the shit one-two punch of Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone it would easily be the best campaign in the series

>>724981712 (OP)
No.

>>724989058
Well the Battle Rifle IS the Magnum. It was literally taken from the exact tags in the engine code and supplanted to 2 as a burst rifle to "justify" the raw power. So really, the weapon triangle shifted a bit and the CE Magnum equivalent no longer was an inventory default. The same shit happened for the CE AR to the 2 SMG.

>>724990840
It's a nerfed to shit pistol.

>>724985405
Only people that played every Halo before Reach at launch can post in this thread, sorry.

>>724982297
>Better core gameplay
brutes in halo 2 are not fun to fight against
plus legendary co-op was incredibly frustrating

>>724990952
Blame Bungie post-launch for making it even weaker and less accurate because people with akimbo pistols were a bullet hose menace with only 9 shots to kill for 24 round spam. And if you pack it with a energy weapon in the left hand you can still strip shields and then instakill with headshots when you use it right. It's still arguably about as difficult if not easier than a 3 BR for headshots so long as you're not doing it at a range.
Meanwhile the SMG only really gets that sort of breathing room with full akimbo spray rushes and not much else for utility at all unlike the 2 Magnum.

>>724990960
:(

>>724991147
I wasn't talking about Halo 2's magnum.

>>724990952
>Magnum in one hand
>Plasma Pistol in the other
>you can now break shields and headshot without even swapping weapons

>>724991479
>have to dump half a mag because the magnum has horrible accuracy

>>724981712 (OP)
You can tell who didn't bother to use the Arbiters invisibility button, based on if they view his flood levels as Bad or "meh"

I would like 2 more if Cairo Highway didn't scar me on my first LASO run.

>>724981712 (OP)
Why does everyone on reddit r/Halo like Halo 4 and 5 ? What fucking happened to the original Halo 1 - 3 players or is the fanbase completely overrun with people who discovered Halo at 4?

>>724984330
>>724988196
I would argue the The Arbiter does, its just harder to see because he is an alien which inherently makes it less resonant.
But if you can vibe with the warrior culture tone, it hits really well.

>>724991876
Its self-selection because anyone who doesn't like the direction has either formed their own private enclaves or disengaged by now.

>>724981712 (OP)
Could Halo be treated as a stand alone game by itself if the sequels never existed? I forgot how it ends but was the conclusion of Halo 1 satisfying?

>>724992004
>was the conclusion of Halo 1 satisfying?

no because it implied a larger universe and themes to explore

>>724992004
>destroy a halo ring so it doesn't wipe all life out in the galaxy
>but the Covenant are still unresolved in the threat they hold over humanity
>"Halo.. it's finished."
>"No. We're just getting started."
>343 Guilty Spark fucks off into space
You could tweak some shit to make it standalone, but it straight up ends on a sequel hook otherwise.

>>724983698
The enemy AI in H2 is actually improved, there's more behaviors and complex responses, there's a big series of posts an anon did a while back explaining it

>>724984330
What "exploration" missions? There's no exploring/adventuring focused missions in CE

"Halo" is nonlinear but that just amounts to picking which of the 3 samey and uninteresting wave defense suggestions you do in which order, that mission is hurt, not helped, by it's nonlinearty

>No. It's hard to compete with...
>too bad all the world building is done in...

Nah, the entire sequence of content from "Regret" through "High Charity" is masterfully done and forshadows and builds up to narrative reveals and implications through clever dialog and environmental storytelling, while juggling multiple plot threads, EX: Miranda mentions the Library complex and shield wall you later see and fight through as the Arbiter when encountering her ODSTs, it's all but said that Truth intentionally lets Chief get away with killing Regret to justify changing of the guard, and the fact that the Prophets claim to have spoken with Spark also implies they know what the rings really do, the fact the Flood begins to drive vehicles in Quarantine Zone hints at there being a coordinated intelligence behind them etc, there's more examples I didn't even mention

>Halo 2 reuses so much [music], and... is more cliched sounding

Anon we're talking about Halo 2, 3 is the game with almost zero original tracks and makes them sound generic with whatever orchestral covers

>>724984532
>>724985405
>>724986437
>>724987765
"The Arbiter" is fine if you know how to use camo well, "Uprising" is great, and "Great Journey" are excellent

The flaws "The Oracle", "Sacred Icon" etc have with copy pasted rooms and low weapon/enemy variety is shit CE's entire campaign suffers from, so if you think those ruin Halo 2's campaign I don't know how you can stand CE's

>At least half of them are reused from the first game
I'm not counting those

>>724991876
I don't get the love for Halo 4 these days either, but I've defended Halo 5's MP and core gameplay since the beta, it is excellent

>>724991876
my theory is that OG halo fans largely bailed after the blatant insult that H4 was, and then H5 killed any hope left and cleaned up any stragglers. Halo 4 was basically literally a spat in the face to the fans, and the backlash from it is pretty much lost history at this point.

The history revisionism is the worst aspect of it. Halo 4 was never received well by the fans. It's just a confirmation bias because all the fans eventually abandoned all hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONUN3iGJYEo

>>724991118
>>724989698
>>724987765
Ran out of space to respond to the core gameplay remarks here in >>724992503, but:

By core gameplay, I mean the movement, shooting, physics, etc, not stuff like weapon or enemy balance, hence me noting CE has better weapon balance over 2 as one of the few things 2 handled worse

I will concede that 2 switching to regen health was a core gameplay downgrade, but I think 2's more responsive movement and shooting more then makes up for that

>>724992797
There was always a minorty of people who liked Halo 4's campaign, but I don't understand how they grew so much or why Halo 5's campaign hasn't seen the same softening of opinions considering I think both of their campaigns are as flawed as each other, albeit in different ways

>>724992853
Nobody likes the Halo 4 campaign. They like the pseudo-romance between Chief and Cortana

>>724992907
that's part of the campaign

>>724993074
who in their right mind would overlook mediocre levels, bad enemy design, a terrible villain, horrible weapon balancing and an ugly artstyle because they want to see Master Chief get his AI gf a body

>>724981712 (OP)
I played the uncut mod for this recently and man there's a lot of stuff i wish made it into the full release.

>>724991876
>What fucking happened to the original Halo 1 - 3 players
We quit when Bungie did

>>724993302
Not sure, but a decent amount of people apparently will or apparently don't think those flaws are that bad

Personally I don't think the Didact is a great villain but I don't think he's a bad one, if nothing else he's got presence and good lines, his motive and goals just seem extreme

They shoulda switches the villains of 4 and 5, have 4 end on Cortana going fully insane from rampancy and trying to protect chief by force and sealing him on requiem and you needing to be the one who kills her, (and get rid of the UNSC infinity from the plot while we're at it), and have 5 be about the Didact wanting to use the guardians to install galactic peace by force

>>724992797
>The history revisionism is the worst aspect of it. Halo 4 was never received well by the fans. It's just a confirmation bias because all the fans eventually abandoned all hope.

fact

>>724992503
>what do you mean
>oh you mean this because I know what you mean

I'm not reading your post lol

>>724994131
I guessed what you mean but I wasn't sure

>make best Cortana
>kill her

>>724994262
Halo 1 Cortana was by far best Cortana

>>724982770
if this was heroic you'd be running on no health rectangles after that

>>724981712 (OP)
>playing in 2025 means he's playing the terrible campaign
it was a multiplayer game

>>724994262
>>724994383
4's cortana is hot but doesn't feel like cortana, she's too curvy and thicc and doesn't look or act smart/confident

>>724984532
>maybe if we remove the covenant missions
Literally the best part of Halo 2. End yourself,

https://youtu.be/Krtx2q2riGI?si=3OzZUkvZNOMwxuJT

>>724994792
this. Halo 4 Cortana is retarded. Halo 1 - 3 cortana was based

>>724986514
>>724987180
I think the AR's low damage on shield is fun in an obtuse way, it makes a miniature addicting gameplay loop nobody talks about

First of all it has a lot of bullets so you feel satisfaction when dumping it, but it also means you can kill multiple weak enemies on the same magazine, or kill a weak enemy and then move on to an elite on the same magazine.

It's good against grunts and jackals because you hitstun them and they die pretty fast, and then you fight the elite last and each elite feels like mini boss because he tanks the AR so good with his shield while juking you so you miss your shots.

This seems so important to CE and how it feels.. I've tried playing with the pistol and it's so boring. It's boring like BR is boring.

The invasion of earth that they ended up going with was fucking lame.
>HUUUURRRRRR, THA COVENANT DIDNA KNOW THAT URF WAS HOOMANITYS HOMEWORLD
>HUUUUUUURRRRRR THEY ONLY SENT A SMALL EXPEDINIONARY FORCE!!! SURPRISE!!
The fact that we got the Halo 2 that we did instead of what we were initially promised and it still got 10/10s across the board still fucking baffles me.

I was there from day one and I've always considered 2 the weakest game in the trilogy. It's not a 10/10.

>>724995285
the story was always weak at best, I think OG halo fans embraced that. Bungie really leaned into the rule of cool.

the underlying symbolism and irony of religious cultists committing genocide against the chosen people is really kino. everything being a biblical reference, especially the flood. but anything outside of that was always just a vessel for the gameplay.

>>724981712 (OP)
I'm playing through the Master Chief collection right now. Pretty sure I'm on the last mission (have to run through some covenant ship to save Keyes from the flood/aliens... again) I do not get why this was so popular in the first place. I'm going to probably beat it tonight and play H2, but so far. Not as good as you old dudes said it was.

>>724981712 (OP)
Halo 2 is literally an unfinished game
And a bunch of staff left

>>724994792
>>724995050
>Halo 4 Cortana is retarded
Halo 4 Cortana is going rampant. It's a plot point why she is acting weird. Halo 4 story is okay not great not bad okay. I no worse or better than Arbiter's story in 2 or Reach or ODST. Halo 4 failing is the gameplay, mostly the Prometheans and Promethean weapons suck and they're half the game. Also the The Didact was kinda lame.

>>724981712 (OP)
The fact that Halo2 added boss fights and no halo game after that had boss fights suggests they were just trying stuff.

>>724996150
5 and infinite had bosses

>>724996150
Except the series had already established rampancy was an AI gradually and without themselves noticing, going mad with power and them becoming controlling and overpossesive, not having cringy temper tantrums and then being depressed about it

What Halo 4 does is both inconsistent with existing lore, undermines Cortana's already brash and controlling personality, and simply doesn't land as something that makes me worried for her.

Halo 5 never should have revived her, but how she's written in 5 is what her rampancy always should have been handled like.

It's the best in the series.

>>724995837
>the story was always weak at best,

Said no one fucking ever

>>724996150
>Halo 4 story is okay

Who thinks such bullshit?

I like Reach. It has lots of neat stuff.
>Zoom-
I'm 34.

>>724981712 (OP)
Every sequel after Combat Evolved is a bad sequel.

>>724996641
All of the Bungie games have value to them, even if Reach's MP got raped by the Title Update and 2's is kind of messy as hell by the standards of 3 and Reach both.

>>724994978
>Cairo Station
>Metropolis
>Delta Halo
>Regret
>Gravemind
I love the Arbiter but you're full of shit

I groan audibly every single time the flood are on screen

>>724996547
it literally is though. I'm talking about the trilogy proper, not including the books, external materials, or reach. The universe is flat as fuck. I think we only ever visit 1 planet and 3 forerunner installations in the trilogy. there's less than 10 characters.

having a weak story isn't a bad thing. if anything, I admire halo more because of it. I hate that every fucking IP has to have an extended universe nowadays. Marvel, Starwars, etc. Convoluted bullshit. Halo is short and sweet.

>>724996816
Halo 1 and 3 Flood were tolerable thanks to the shotgun and them being nerfed respectively

>>724996818
The Halo series was always vibes, action and a solid sense of tone and structure. The only lines people constantly quote are largely because there really isn't a lot of memorable dialogue but a few cutscenes each game, and CE really struggles for that since it's only barely a few steps above a 90's shooter plot thanks to the scale and presentation on offer for 2001. Anyone that acts like the games had legendary, top shelf writing didn't actually play the games, or are genuinely nostalgia blinded. ESPECIALLY for Halo 3, which is so barebones for anything beyond the "finish the fight" substance that it largely subsists on one-liners.

>>724996979
>always vibes, action and a solid sense of tone and structure.
FPSes now can't even do that right judging by NuDOOM's flanderization

>>724996979
agree with everything. really well said.

>ESPECIALLY for Halo 3, which is so barebones for anything beyond the "finish the fight" substance that it largely subsists on one-liners.
I think the crazy thing is that the one-liners are extremely effective. Still gives me goosebumps to this day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo-4DDle5ss

I have to imagine Marty had more influence to the writing than is credited, since he was previously a jingle / advertisement writer and started with Bungie in Chicago.

>>724997067
2016 kinda had it right besides a few shit "stand and watch/listen" points. Then Id took their fluke success, flanderized it into being all about their deep Night Sentinel lore and comic book Avengers with demons and gore, and it just fell apart. Someone might prefer the modern Doom games for speed and design to Halo, fine, whatever, but they try to indulge an audience that frankly doesn't seem to actually be interested because Id just can't write worth a damn.

Halo vs. nuDoom is straight up a case study of opposites and how sometimes less is more.

>>724996979
it's the little things that give it soul, unironically
>the not-so-subtle hints of humans being Forerunner
>Arbiter's Halo 2 storyline
>everything about the Gravemind

Halo's commercials were always better than the games.

>>724981712 (OP)
The two missions of chief on delta Halo are peak Halo stfu

>>724996603
Retards or niggas that were gaslit by constant spamming of 343 retards

>>724996818
>>724997215
I unironically think Halo 2 has one of the best written plots in games, as I explain in >>724992503 , there's so many other examples I mention

CE barely has a story and Halo 3 is hype moments and aura, but Halo 2 is legitimately well written.

>>724989262
>dual wielding shreds elites quicker than the AR ever did
well the ar from ce spat out bullets in like a 60 degree arc so it's not that hard to beat. wish they had kept the sound and the big mag though, that's one thing I'll give to cefags

>>724981712 (OP)
you're never getting another marathon and it would be trash if you did

>>724982465
also this

>>724992797
your "theory" is plain fact to anyone who was around at the time. you're only forgetting one detail: the multiplayer fanbase had already been split in half by Reach. many, many Halo players did not accept Reach's multiplayer and stuck with Halo 3 until they moved on to a different game (not Halo) or until the lights went out.
Reach, not 4, was the first misstep. Reach was made by a B-team around Marcus Lehto, an artfag who never cared about gameplay. the core of Bungie who made Halo 1-3 good were all either gone or already planning Destiny while proto-343 made Reach. A few exceptions like Marty O'Donnell notwithstanding.

>>724998347
I don't want Marathon. I want a Larry Niven Ringworld game :^)

>>724998369
100% agree. the reach split was massive, but a lot of fans felt like it was experimental (almost like the rogue one of halo) and that 4 would return to form.

reach split the fanbase and 4 absolutely murdered it.

>THEY FALL IN LINE, ONE AT A TIME, READY TO PLAY
KINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

>>724982297
The narrative sucked ass lol
>"Chief go kill Regret"
>"uh actually Truth was going to kill Regret anyway so punching him to death was kinda pointless, anyway go get the index from Truth"
>"uh actually Truth doesn't have the index, Gravemind teleported you into a trap, leave Cortana behind so she can self-destruct High Charity to destroy Delta Halo if the Arbiter fails to stop it"
>"uh looks like the Arbiter didn't fail so Cortana's getting gang raped by Gravemind for no reason, but at least you got onto the Forerunner keyship with Truth"
>Halo 3 starts with Chief falling to the Earth after being ejected out in low orbit
Literally would have been better off staying in Africa

>>724996150
Halo 4s story is so dog shit more lives would have been saved if Chief and Cortana had just died at the end of 3.

The Didact would never have been freed by those retards, evil Cortana wouldn't exist to destroy the Brutes homeworld, which sets the Banished against mankind.

>>724995216
>I've tried playing with the pistol and it's so boring.

The pistol is a handheld sniper rifle. It can 1 shot kill anything short of an Elite with a headshot.

>>724992503
>"The Arbiter" is fine if you know how to use camo well,

The camo lasts something like 5 seconds on any difficulty higher than normal. It's practically useless.
Wait, you are not playing on normal, are you?

>>724981712 (OP)
>it's the best in the series

>>724981712 (OP)
To be honest I've been replaying it for the first time since launch and I'm enjoying it more than I remembered. I even played ODST after Halo 1 and before Halo 2 on a whim and I'm liking 2 more than ODST

>>724998903
yep, what 4 needed to be was a reconciliation of the split audience. it needed to play more like 3 so no sprint, no jetpacks or limit jetpacks to a special mode etc. they could have played with other knobs like maybe dialing up dual wield damage a little, reducing the number of shots per mag in the sniper rifle to 3, minor tweaks that make it feel just different enough to be a new game. throwing the "Halo" part out the window and making a weird COD clone multiplayer literally ended the legacy. nobody gave a fuck any more when they showed themselves capable of that. also fucking QTEs in singleplayer. you just knew the game was done based on seeing that and what they did to multiplayer. it was so blatant it doesn't even count as a bait and switch. everybody knew Halo was over when Halo 4 was revealed.

Halo had a confidently unique identity up until 3. As big an audience as Xbox was realistically ever going to garner for a game had embraced said unique identity. There was no way up from Halo 3, without going multiplatform by having a first class, simultaneous PC version. instead they kept it a timed console exclusive, guaranteeing that they could not grow the audience. and they self-consciously stripped down the unique identity, pushing fans away, thus guaranteeing a shrinking audience. I mean think about how fucking retarded Microsoft had to be to expect to GROW the audience by making the games less appealing to the already saturated Xbox market. they had to have known that any Xbox owner into FPS was already playing Halo 1-3 and that a fucking one platform exclusive couldn't compete with fucking COD which was on every platform including PC, maybe even Nintendo? there aren't enough public humiliations of Microsoft managers.

why has there been an uptick of halo bot threads?

>>725000112
>new thing gets announced
>why are there more threads?
it's not difficult to figure

>>724999254
Your mistaking the ineffectiveness of the UNSC, for the whole plot when it was more about grand machinations playing out and the Arbiter's character arc.
Halo 2's plot feels like a Classic Blizzard Storyline in a good way.

>>724981712 (OP)
Did they ever get the E3 2003 demo up and playable?

>>725000454
Yeah its on steam workshop, alongside some other digsite content like the macworld demo reimagined, A scrapped arbiter mission from halo 2, Some reach firefight prototype and 3 odst levels.

>>725000454
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3360515088&searchtext=
Playable is a strong word, since it's the demo without the stencil shaders or OG graphics in full, and will break the instant you go off course from the scripting. But as far as Bungie has ever discussed said demo, that's how it was originally too.

>>724999517
Exactly, you're not supposed to use it to sneak past encounters, it's too short for that on heroic, you're supposed to use it to get a sneak attack, get behind cover, then use camo to exit cover and flank the enemies from a new angle for hit and run maneuvers

That's what I meant by "use camo well"

>>724999254
None of what you said actually asserted or explained why it's bad aside from maybe the gravemind having to teleport chief and arbiter

>>724982770
>play game on easy
>it's easy
woooooowwwwwww

>>724982770
Halo on Easy is literally for 6 year olds.

>>724984180
Building on the left looks like the mothership from Homeworld.

>>724987180
People also keep forgetting that in CE weapons have melee utility. The AR has decent melee range with good melee damage. It's a brawler weapon through and through. I wish Bungie kept and enhanced the melee system in CE instead of swapping to melee magnetism because melee capability was a very slept on mechanic that added some needed utility to weapons.