Halo Series

> Day 1 Gamepass
I believe all first party titles (until further notice) are Day 1 on Gamepass. If I can get a cheap deal then I'll probably try it at launch as well. I've heard that every so often you can get a 1 month/$1 deal if you haven't been a subscriber a certain amount of time (e.g. X amount of months). I had a subscription a few months ago so I might not have a cheap deal yet. I think my friends will be playing MP so I might end up getting a month due to FOMO anyway, haha.

Yeah it’s convenient that it’s on gamepass day one. If I like it enough I’ll probably just buy it. Actually really looking forward to it.

>I’ll be all over Infinite. Just signed up for gamepass again and got 3 months for $1(no idea how) so I’ll be there.

Happened exactly the same to me. Also no idea how.

Just opened the Xbox app to see what they wanted to charge me for Game Pass...same as you guys. £1 for a month plus 2 free months. Must be intentional, surely...

Strangely couldn't find the option, it just gives me full price, where are you guys looking?

Do you have the Xbox app on PC? That's where I went. I opened it, and as I didn't have an active subscription, it immediately prompted me to go to the "sign up" page (normally that would annoy me greatly). From there the discount was right in front of me.

Ah I see it too, but that's only for PC. The 'console' version is just the same sadly, full price.

Played a bit of Infinite Multiplayer yesterday, mostly I'm into playing against bots. I don't have the time to invest in learning how to do actual MP anymore, but killing bots is a lot of fun with lots of weapon variety and honest to god great maps so far imo.

That said I'm already a bit done with it, the training-mode where you can make bots harder has no 'modes' it's just infinite shooting around, while the other mode is you and 5 other players against 4 easy-mode bots which is just....laughable haha.

Might give actual MP another go later this week, see if I can't at least go 1:1 instead of getting slaughtered. I do like the style of the MP, in terms of weapon locations, super-weapons and abilities and such, it's very arcadey.

I've been playing a bit of Infinite MP with some friends, mostly enjoying it but some definite flaws. All of my friends have had crashes to desktop or a weird bug where your screen goes black and the game stops responding until you tab out and back in. I've been lucky and found it very stable.

Core gameplay is fun, but I have a couple of issues with maps. There's a map I absolutely hate, but cannot remember the name of it. There are some issues with spawns too, I've spawned right in the line of a Sniper's sight a handful of times which isn't fun. There are some weapons that just don't seem that useful (most of the new ones). The series favourites are still fun, though. The new Battle Rifle feels pretty chunky and powerful.

The unlock progression/battle pass is dreadful, but it's a F2P game, so why wouldn't it be?

Played the game until the 'third' mission.

So far the game is fantastic, if you play it. What I mean by that, you can very easily already just make the experience a snoozefest by just sniping from afar, but going in close with the grapple is a joy. There's so much use to the mechanic, from having it be a stagger to have enemies stop in their tracks or have Jackels drop their shields, to grabbing a weapon from afar to a quick relocation if your shields drain.

My best compliment to the grapple is that it feels like it's been in the series since the first entry, or at least should have been. It's such a natural extention of the Chief's moveset. Walking speed is also great again, no need to spring (half the time I even forget it's there).

Weapon variety is great and each tool has a use, while ammo is JUST plentiful enough to use weapons but also constantly switch.

Missions so far are a bit too...dull in terms of enviroment, but there's just a level of freedom and exploration on display that's genuinely exciting. From finding a hidden shotgun early on for some mayhem, to being in a big Forward Operating Base where you find a gattling gun tucked in a corner - it's a blast to play.

Great to hear, I'm gonna play this after I get my Windows situation sorted out.

I'm very glad to hear that Raeng, I didn't like the ability to sprint so it's good to know it's not needed anymore.

All the weapons being useful as tools like in action games is what elevates Halo for me above other shooters, happy to hear they didn't fuck this up.

How do you find the open world itself, when separated from the main missions (Again, happy to hear about the freedom and experimentation they allow)? Does it slow the pace or is it not intrusive?

> sprint
Yeah I really can't recall it even being in the game, until I press it by accident. It really isn't needed.

> open world
Can't comment on it, I've mostly stucked to main missions so far. I did one 'forward operating base' which honestly allowed for a lot of creativity in how I handeled the fight, constantly retreating, going back to other areas, entering a new building on the side for an advantageous position - really good stuff so far.

NOTE: I've noticed Elites are pretty rare so far. It's mostly grunts+brutes.

> weapons
Yeah it's all pretty solid. The plasma-pistol ironically isn't as useful yet since shields are pretty rare, but I'm sure it'll increase in use as the game goes on. If I was allowed one real complaint it's that the assault-rifle seems headshot capable, I don't think it should have that.

I’ll echo what Roy said, having a lot of fun so far. Lots of neat details with the AI as always and the shenanigans you can pull with the grapple is just fantastic, I feel this is the first game I’ve played to really pull this idea off well. I’m not loving all the guns though; the plasma pistol seems pretty meh, and the shotgun is underwhelming.

Also really enjoying the music. Weird to play a AAA game where not every song is generic orchestral movie music that you don’t remember when it ends.

I hope to play this soon - had an absolute nightmare of a time trying to install it through the Xbox app on PC last night. Awful, awful bit of software. Finally got it installed but I was ready for bed by that point. Glad the opinions so far are generally positive, though!

I think a lot of the guns have lacking SFX, the feedback, sounds, flashes - it's all a bit 'weak'. That and the shotgun really has a damage problem. When it doesn't even OHKO a grunt from close-range...that's a problem.

> PC
Heard the game is very bugged on that platform. Good luck!

NOTE: I do have to make a statement out of this: the fact that this game doesn't have a disc release with the actual game on it, is really a bad sign. I hope that this game does have a future, be it through a GOTY-release or w/e.

Put a pretty serious session of 3+ hours in, which...I haven't done in a while with any game.
Some notes:

> marines
Their AI is pretty intense, in groups they can singlehandedly take down entire bases if properly equipped. That said there's some weird oversights in terms of their AI and the terrain. They simply...cannot even climb or walk up steep cliffs, making them very, VERY situational. You'll have a squad with you and "whoops, there's a minor hill to cross, guess I'm at it alone".

Ironically, they don't despawn, so later-on I re-encountered my old squad who was in combat with random enemies, which I helped out. Tanks and other vehicles *do* despawn however.

> open world
The rewards are *just* good enough to make them worth your while, but not good enough that they impact your performance. Actually the biggest reward for them is interesting combat encounters honestly. Every side-quest works towards earning Valor, which you can use to get better vehicles and weapons at your FOB's (basically homebases). That way you can start with better stuff like a Warthog, two NPCs and a Sniper for instance if you have enough.

Spartan Cores upgrade your special abilities, but the upgrades are extremely minor.

The last upgrades are just multiplayer-skins.

> specials
Also got a second special-weapon, the enemy locator. Switching specials is pretty annoying, but once you get it down and realize double-tapping Right on the dpad is the grapple, you're golden. The enemy locator is pretty handy so far.

> level design
Have to say that this might be a big bummer down the line. The lineair levels so far have been very, very dull in both design and lay-out. The open world is fun and explorative, but once you've climbed 5 mountains you've honestly seen them all. I fear this might be a big downside upon replays.

NOTE: I seriously cannot say enough just how fun the core combat is with the grapple and movement-speed. Jumping in combat, using whatever tools you have and grappling tools towards you, only to them grapple away from the enemy to cover and throw some giant container their way...it's just fantastic. And I haven't had a cutscene for hours. It's pure gameplay all the time.

At it's best moments it really is just Halo:CE on overdrive.

>PC
I’m getting frame drops in the really open sections like crazy, and my laptop can absolutely handle it. Game seems unoptimized as hell.

>side quests
They seem a lot less mindless than most games like this, mostly because the combat is so good. However, I must say so far this game is giving me MGS5 syndrome: excellent core gameplay/mechanics, but the general sameness of every arena and a lot of enemy layouts drag down the potential. It’s a lot of “boxey areas a lot of shielded guys a couple grunts, with coils laying around everywhere”. As a result, I’ve had the ability to make every single fight fun, but there’s also not a lot to distinguish them. The boss in the 8th level or whatever it is, stood out to me. Crazy setup and pretty hard.

>upgrades
I don’t mind them here. I’m glad they don’t gate super important stuff behind them, rather they just enhance stuff that’s good on its own.

>enemy locator
I didn’t use it when I first got it but it definitely has its place as you noted. Especially when you get a little too far into the trenches and you have enemies on all sides but don’t know which group to after first.

>gameplay is just fantastic
I’m inclined to agree. The number of options at any given moment, the new tools, the environmental and AI stuff, the general easy to understand nature of it all, it’s a blast. Grappling on to an enemy vehicle and hijacking it is a hoot.

>no cutscene for hours
And they’re skippable!

I do have a few weapon questions:

- what do the 'special' weapons do you get from rare enemies? Like the "dualist energy sword" and "unstable Plasma pistol" or w/e. Are they stronger?
- there's a gun that shoots...mines I think? It has two firing modes, what exactly does it do?
- what's the point of that 'gun that shoots balls'.

Managed to play a little bit today. Really pleasantly surprised so far. The Grapple Hook is such a good addition, absolutely loads of utility. Grab on to ledges, use it to launch yourself past things, pull yourself into enemies, run away from enemies, grab explosive coils from a distance, grab a new weapon when your low on ammo... just a great new piece in the toolkit. Oh, and you can stun Jackals with it too to lower their shields! Love that.

Fully agree with the above comments from the couple of levels I've seen so far. Plenty of options, but my only critique so far is that there isn't a whole lot of variety to enemies and it sounds like it doesn't improve too much.

Really cool to have proper boss fights with health bars, too. I don't think they've been in Halo before have they?

I've experimented a bit more with the weapons, the only one I find myself not really using is the basic assault rifle, which seems overshadowed by nearly everything else.

> Grapple
Fun little usage, if an enemy is about to throw a grenade, using a stun-grapple (the upgrade) will make them drop the grenade at their feet. Kills them instantly hahaha.

> bosses
They are a tad 'meh' for me, Chief isn't too mobile in enclosed spaces and most of them result in just "shoot thing until dead" without the complexities of the regular combat. Haven't enjoyed them yet to be honest outside of the first one.

Almost finished the game!

As a whole, so far, the open world bits are by far the strongest elements of the game. Raiding outposts, rescuing crews etc. and just derping around looking for fights and handeling them at your own style.

BIG NOTE: at a certain point you'll have to activate a few 'things'. After you do that you can go towards a new mission. That mission is a point-of-no-return. The game doesn't tell you this. Keep that in mind.

That said, the missions themselves....eh. I think they are honestly the least interesting parts of the game, with some of the final ones being just straight up dull and boring. We're talking 10 halls in a row of just Sentinel drones. It's just embaressing. The levels also don't have any verticality or interesting enemy setups. It's just a room with some dudes, kill em, go to next idenditcal room. Halo:CE had better shit than this.

That vent out of the way, the rest is gold and thankfully the missions aren't that big part of the game.

Okay, so, played some more last night and reached the open-world... and things have definitely soured a little.

The core gameplay is excellent, but there's not much to shout about regarding the open-world. It's got all your typical Ubisoft checklist crap (if the combat wasn't so good this would be a bigger sin), lack of visually interesting environments, lack of interesting level designs, nothing interesting to explore in the environment so you may as well fast travel everywhere you can... Halo really didn't need open-world. I tried to be optimistic but I can't say I'm surprised that I'm wishing it had the traditional linear mission structure.

I think Infinity above compared this game to MGS V - very appropriate comparison, I got all the same vibes from it. They've taken a surprising amount of cues from it. Setting up bases, developing new tools and equipment, having your soldiers greet you as you go past, the "no camera cuts" style of cutscene that also got used in Dad of War... funnily enough, most of MGS Vs criticisms seem to apply here too. The mechanical potential is untapped, and the uninteresting design elements act as a sort of bottleneck for the whole experience.

I'm still having a lot of fun running round and shooting stuff, trying out different weapon combinations and making a lot of use of the Grappleshot. I maxed out all the Grappleshot upgrades before touching any of the others. It's such a shame there aren't more levels/arenas that encourage clever use of it. I wish they'd made it so that equipment could be activated with different key presses, rather than having to toggle between them. Doom has well and truly converted me to a "button for every gun" type of PC gamer.

Overall, I'm still having quite a bit of fun with this game, but it's also pretty disappointing at the same time? Weird to have these conflicting feelings. I may go back and play through the MCC again after Infinite and compare the experiences of each game.

The more I play it the more I am reminded of the quote from Shigeru Miyamoto. In Super Mario Bros. not about the Coin and what it gives you, but it's about how fun it is to get. And in this case it's the same for me. The stuff you collect and do are, pointless at best, but they are super fun and engaging since the combat is so enjoyable and varied.

I think you have to make it fun for yourself as well. You can just bring a tank to everywhere and laugh it off with the custom weapons and the game will become a slog, but if you constantly use new weapon combinations and sometimes a new vechile like the Gungoose with a RPG guy on your back...it's a game that honestly just keeps on giving. In that sense I haven't had a single fight that played out the same way, they were all unique and enjoyable, which I think was the goal here.

That said most of the fights I did were 'pointless' in a sense, as the reward was usually just some valor or sometimes nothing at all. It's a difficult balance and I'm not sure what I'd have done. You don't want to reward it too much, as you'd nuke balance.

I do think they should've really improved the lineair missions. There's only two that I found engaging at the slightest.

> equipment
It gets easier imo, once you know the input pattern you're swapping between them. It was either that or a (barf) radial menu with time-slow like Doom Eternal (this is a console game after all). Once you start swapping them regularly it's honestly fantastic. I don't really use the Dash though. Shield-wall is absolutely fantastic though, as is the motion-sensor. Fully upgraded shieldwall really changes the game especially, since it then adds Shockdamage to every gun, making some weapons hit like a truck.

Yeah, the interior missions are the worst part by far imo. A lot of repetitive samey areas that seemingly never end, and they typically don’t take advantage of the enemy roster very well. The open world definitely has a bit of “why did they do this” on top of looking the same everywhere, but actually engaging in combat in these locations is great. Constantly swapping weapons, throwing coils, grappling through and around enemies, stealing vehicles, etc. Just so much fun to be had. Maybe the most fun I’ve had with core FPS mechanics in the last several years.

>final missions
One of them is just a series of waves in rooms that look almost identical. Very mediocre mission design unfortunately. Next playthrough I’m not going to rush as much and take my time doing side stuff.

>10 halls in a row of sentinel drones
Oh yes. The entire time I was thinking “when is this mission actually going to start?”. Very amateurish.

>Ubisoft comparisons
While I think the open world is pointless at best, I don’t find it to be quite this bad. Maybe because at it’s core the game is so enjoyable, unlike Ubisoft games which are all design-by-committee trash. But I see what you mean, linear and well crafted levels would have definitely been preferred.

>quickest activated with different keys
In hectic fights I just lob whatever grenades it automatically assigns because I can’t for the life of me remember which input is for what. I never the dash either.

>play MCC again
I’ll be very curious to play the originals after this as well. I do want to beat Infinite on legendary first.

>journey vs reward
It’s interesting to think about. If the entire game revolves around handing out rewards and upgrades, then the balance of the game gets destroyed, and then games try to fight this with stats and rpg stuff everywhere to keep the rewards meaningful(which we see now in most open world games). I also don’t know how I’d handle it, but I’ll take what they did here. Just give us a playground with a ton of fun shit that sticks out from other games. I didn’t re-invent anything but it’s still so enjoyable regardless.

> Ubi
Oh yeah, it's definitely much much better than Ubi games based on the core mechanics alone. They've offset some of the open-world issues just by including the Grappleshot, as it's not really an issue to get anywhere you need to be. I personally don't really get any enjoyment out of the structure where, say, the map is divided up in to sections and you have a counter for how many audio logs you've found, how many upgrade tokens you've found etc. If you do that your open-world needs to be super interesting (as does getting from place to place) and the vast majority of games don't seem to achieve that IMO. I think what I'm trying to say is that it's annoying that the game could be so much better with some more thoughtful design - could even be up there as an all time great for the FPS genre.

> MCC
I'm honestly worried I'll hate the old games for not having a Grappling Hook!

> Open-world battles
They are loads of fun - I wish some of them where a little longer, like Doom's wave based arenas. In some of the enemy camps you can clear them in seconds. Maybe that's something a higher difficulty will address (I decided to start with Normal). I'm in two minds about the power coils - there are absolutely loads of them, and I'm not sure if I feel its good to always have them as an extra option in combat or if the game is made a little bit too easy by the quantity of them. A bit of both, really.

> final mission
The boss was pretty fun (the drone dude), actually one of the more exciting bosses in terms of mechanics since he wasn't loaded with OHKO attacks but instead had you pressured.

> levels
I think the open world could've been improved so much with just some of the most basic additions like "snow area" and "jungle area". Mechanically speaking they could be the same, but just some visual variety would help. Near the end of the game I still felt like I was in the first 'zone' if you get me.

> MCC
I think we'd miss the grapple, it feels like such a natural evolution of the series I'm amazed Bungie didn't do it immediately. In general the sub-weapons are all great (except the dash imo).

> inputs
I don't really care for the grenade types, but really, it is worth memorizing the inputs for the suit-abilities. Being able to drop a wall on demand and constantly shooting out beacons is a lot of fun and helps speed up gameplay a lot.

> coils
It's a lot more interesting on Heroic/Legendary. Enemies will often shoot them out of your hand (especially jackals) which is an OHKO against you.

> sandbox
As it stands, I think maybe just add some random encounters and I'll honestly be good to go haha. What I like most are the fights that scale up, i.e. it starts slow but then droppods and ships come in to flip the script.

No clue how this site works but check this vid around 2:35: https://gameclips.io/Raeng15/28fbf736-8438-4c1e-87e7-24ecae4efabc

It starts minor, I turn a rock to kill a guy, turn around to a gunship, now I'm flanked. And the fight just keeps on escalating. It was just a super, super dynamitc fight with so many revolving parts, and it was a completely random encounter to save some marines. Nothing really 'structured'. But super memorable, at least for me.

Also shows a bit of the varied usage of the suit-abilities.

> ubisoft
What I will say, at least everything works towards something. You get Valor for most things, which gives you better setups at the FOBs, while every 'collectible' is an usable item be it a suit upgradepoint or a piece of gear to MP.

Sad to say that nothing is perfect: Infinite's finale is probably the hottest garbage I've ever had the misfortune to play and really makes me think 343 was just straight up lucky with the open-world combat.

After you enter the point of no return the game devolves in lineair corridors with the most barebones encounters. Despite being the finale, I hope you enjoy fighting against 20 Sentinals in a row or just a room of Grunts because, you will. A lot.

The final two boss fights are absolutely garbage OHKO monsters.

When the game ended I wasn't happy, I just thought "glad that's fucking done with".

> Legendary
Started on it. The core combat is good, but I do feel you're less mobile due to the increased enemy health. Melee is barely an option and you have to play a bit too careful at times for my liking. The first few missions also mostly give you a limited arsenal, which makes things a bit more tricky.

The first boss is honestly pretty BS due to how limiting he is. You either use the plasma+needler combo, or you don't win. Regular weapons don't deal nearly enough damage to his health. The tracking on his nearly OHKO jump (deals like 90% damage) is pretty bonkers too.

No idea how close to the end I am, but I'm already getting tired of the game. I've just had to play an "epic" Scorpion section and my objective is now a rescue mission (trying to avoid explicit spoilers, just in case). I see what you mean about fighting the Sentinel Drones, and the game seems determined to get you to use the Sentinel Beam against them... pretty uninspired.

We've said a hundred times between us that the core mechanics are great but the combat environments and enemy compositions are so dull that it sours the positives the more you play. Even the open-world fights, which a couple of days ago I was really enjoying, are becoming a bit of a slog. I'm struggling to find any meaningful differences between them. The Marine rescue side missions are a bit pointless given how you can beat them in seconds, so they aren't worth looking forward to. I want to get the game finished but not looking forward to it after reading the above.

> Legendary
I've always felt that you have to play a bit too careful on Legendary in Halo titles. Seems to be a recurring issue for high difficulty modes in games with regenerating health. Some games get around it, but others don't (the thought of playing CoD on Veteran makes me wince).

He's perfectly manageable on Normal, but I felt that the Grav Hammer boss is a bit BS, even using the Grappleshot to fly around the room. He's super fast, hard to stun and probably OHKs you on Legendary... that doesn't sound fun.

You're not that far off the end. The epic-scropion section was the highlight of the final run, but you're already past the "point of no return" basically, it's just straight missions from here on out.

It's such a big game with a duality, this would be one game where I'd say that DLC or some form of expansionpack would shine. The core-gameplay is set and is fantastic, now take the time and budget to actually put it to good use.

> legendary
The damage is just high enough that most boss moves are an OHKO. Most bosses are generally easily exploited, like Hammerbro you can just avoid entirely by standing above a doorway (he has no ranged weapons), while the Elite bosses have barely zero HP against headshots once their shields are down.

The game does have one issue I'm noticing more and more, which are the 'super weapons'. Most Legendary notes you find talk of the Arcane Sentinal Beam and Breacher BR - both of which are absolute monsters of weapons. You can also find an infinite-ammo Scorpion Tank turret near the start if you really want to cheese. But if you bring those I mentioned, and use refill stations to reload, you're practically immortal even on Legendary as most things die in seconds.

Of course there's the note that, if it's broken, don't use it. But it's still an issue.

> CoD on veteran
Did it with World at War - never again.

As a closing thought: I am really looking forward to now just taking my time with the game on Legendary in the open-world and to have fun fights. If it can't offer that, I'll gladly bump it down to Heroic - that's more than fine for me.

Finished the game tonight. I didn't have much trouble with the final bosses, although that was only on Normal difficulty. Died once against the very last boss, and I think I could have prevented it if I played a little bit better. I can imagine these are way harder on controller, though. Much easier to spin 180 and spam Grappleshot out of danger on M/KB.

Ending was pretty disappointing. I thought the conclusion to 343's trilogy would be more...conclusive. The story devolves into complete nonsense by the end. So many weird choices they made with "The Pilot" and "The Weapon". The main Banished antagonist (Escharum?) was probably the best new character. I've seen a few complaints from people that they never felt like he was a big deal, or much of a threat...I thought he was okay, really. I dont think any of the Halo villains are especially noteworthy so he stands amongst the others, for me.

So, back to the open-world. I must admit, I kind of liked having a couple of hours of linear missions again. I liked the "training" fights in the combat arenas towards the end. There was a very noticable lull during the missions that are just endless amounts of Sentinels - I thought the final stretch after that was a lot better. I have access to the Wasp now, which makes going through the rest of the open-world stuff much more palatable. I do think I maybe should have played on Heroic instead of Normal, but if I beat the other games on Legendary I might come back and do it on this one too.

If you just stuck to the main story missions you could smash your way through this game pretty quickly, I reckon. It definitely relies on engaging with the side missions to maximise playtime. I think I'm gonna carry on with my H:CE run soon, and maybe carry on through the rest of series if I feel like it.

I think Normal may have been a wrong call yeah, as Normal in Halo is usually easy-mode in disguise. Heroic is generally where the average balanced-challenge is at, while Legendary is more bonkers.

> Legendary
Should note, after the intro it is far more managable and fun. Some fights are a good challenge, but once you level your shields it gets a lot less "oh god I'm dead what happened". Through good exploration you can max out shields and get the necessary upgrades for the grapple once you finish the Tower - which is neat.

> escheraum
Really liked his 'honor' shtick. It wasn't super deep or anything, but he was quite charismatic. Compared to other main-baddies he was definitely a highlight, Didact was terrible in H4 and the rest of the games didn't really have a primary 'big bad'.
The final boss was a tad lame to me. I liked the concept (waves of enemies, then kill), but on Heroic her orbs are an OHKO for the most part. So you're constantly replaying the waves before her which suck. Fact that the wave-spawns are based on proximity to you is even worse, making it really hard to spawn kill.

> open world
Once I got to that part again in my Legendary run I honestly just couldn't drop it. It's just really enjoyable to me to run around, find fights and sometimes get a little pat on the back. The fact that everything you do is your choice, i.e. you go on a warthog with 2 guys because you decided that was a good idea, is just so addictive to me in this modern age. Just wish there was more visual diversity.

I will say that out of the main missions, the Tower holds up very well. It's a pretty unique set of encounters and its boss is pretty challenging and unique as well. Sets a good standard which, imo, later missions don't meet.

> The Pilot
I felt his name reveal was super...weird. It was made out to be this big thing, but it was just a random name.

EDIT: @greg, I am curious what you'd think of Infinite's combat on Heroic or higher. Will you attempt this?

> The Pilot
I thought it was incredibly weird that he wasn't asked for his name (or just gave it himself) until the very last scene of the game. Is he a character from the novels or something? Was it a big reveal in the wider lore? Same case for The Weapon, why did she spend the whole game with a default name? Felt like they needed to save something for the ending because almost nothing happened!

> Heroic/Legendary
I think I'll maybe play through at least some of the others first, as I'll tire of the open-world if I start a new playthrough straight away. I am curious about how it plays though, so I probably will, yes! I do like the concept of upgrades for Legendary, should help to improve some of my usual issues with it.

> Open-world
I do agree that you get a good amount of choice, like in the example you gave of choosing to take vehicles, Marines, you can choose what weapons to give them etc. They should have made a "Fireteam" feature where you can spawn in a particular loadout of marines/weapons/vehicle to save you manually setting up what you need every time. The weapon variants were a good idea but I was a bit disappointed that you, for example, couldn't use ammo from the normal AR in the ammo pool for your variant AR. It was a bit easy to run out of ammo, which is fine for guns you find in the environment (as there are bazillions of them) but for weapons you have to spawn in it feels a bit anticlimactic.

It's a great game but for every positive there is a negative, and sometimes the negatives were big, IMO. The last stretch did redeem it for me as I was getting a bit tired of having to Grappleshot everywhere. Vehicles were kinda crappy for getting around, felt weirdly hard to control at times. The Scoprion is the worst on M/KB, as A and D don't seem to turn left and right, so you can only move forward or backwards in relation to where you're facing. Pretty sure the other games weren't like this on the MCC but I'd have to check.

> names
I think it was more conceptual. Using terms is a lot more 'sticky' in your mind than a name. Master Chief, Weapon, Pilot - it's all pretty cool. Beats John, Cortney and Fernandez hahaha

> other campaigns
Enjoy! I had a blast with them honestly, do play on Heroic or higher though, as on Normal they are an absolute snoozefest. Halo 2 is still my absolute favourite I'd say. I have a softspot for games with a lot of 'diamond in the rough' ideas.

> fireteam
A good idea! I wonder if they maybe didn't do that to avoid broken setups, then again you can get pretty darn busted pretty fast anyway, so they might as well do it. Going in a Razorback with 5 RPG guys is hilarious hahaha.

> variant weapons
Probably a balancing issue, but I agree that it's weird. Some of the super weapons are absolutely game-breaking though, I stopped using them after a while. On Legendary they might see a bit more use though. I do wish they'd randomly spawn/drop from enemies down the line though, right now you either always have them (spawn) or you don't. They're never part of the constantly rotating weaponpool.

NOTE: you can refill their ammo in ammo-stations. So it isn't all bad considering how busted they are.

> vehicles
I was surprised by how limiting the enviroment could be. The warthog couldn't handle a simple rock, and the tank barely could circumvent a tree. AI-partners having a invisible wall they can't cross is really wonky too. Note that they handle pretty similarly with controller, at least as I remember them controlling in previous games. They even fixed Banshees, which controlled like a nightmare in H4 and H5.

Where would you rank the game compared to the rest of the series?

> Names
I'd agree, except I don't remember anybody even referring to The Weapon by a name (people just speak and assume she'll know they're talking to her) and The Pilot very rarely ever gets referred to by that name either. Meanwhile, Master Chief gets repeatedly called Chief, Big Guy, etc. It just seems weird.

> Other Campaigns
Continued my MCC H:CE Legendary run last night... I it took me nearly 3 hours but I beat Truth and Reconciliation. I hope I never have to play it ever again.

> Fireteam/Broken Setups
You can still do them, if you can be bothered. I imagine they didn't include such a feature as it probably wouldn't be considered a priority. It's a shame, as it would have made the open-world better. If it was convenient to equip my Marines with different stuff I'd have probably tried a whole bunch of combinations, but I usually just went everywhere on my own due to impatience.

> Variant Weapons
I didn't realise you coukd ammo up at the stations, that's good. I thought the variant Shock Rifle was cool - the shock could transfer to nearby targets. I think the transfer maintains the damage multiplier for headshots as I managed to kill 3 brutes with one round! It was pretty cool.

> Vehicles
Oh yes, the environment was really not built for the vehicles (particularly the UNSC ones). It was incredibly easy to clip the edge of a rock on a Mongoose/Warthog and tip the vehicle over. You could easily do this multiple times per journey, too. Sometimes I just used the Grappleshot and go on-foot thinking it'd be quicker than having to flip the vehicle back over a bunch of times.

> Rank
Hard to say, for a number of reasons. The only Halo games I'd say im genuinely familiar with (completed multiple playthroughs) are 3 and Reach. I've beaten Halo 3 ODST, 4 (I think...) and 5 but honestly couldn't tell you anything about them. I'm currently on my first playthrough of CE, so 2 is the only one I've never touched. I think I'd be best revisiting them all before deciding on a proper ranking, but I'd probably rank Reach and Infinite joint-top for now. Infinite has the gameplay that speaks to me the most, but I think Reach is an all-round good game and I prefer the linear mission structure. I mostly played 3 in coop which would skew my opinion on it, so I won't rank that for now. What about you and your ranks?

> ranking
Pure based on personal enjoyment, not based on objective analysis: Halo 2 > Halo CE > Halo Infinite = Halo 3 > ODST > REACH > 4 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 5
The second game really is unique for me in just how unfinished, broken and fun it is. It kind of reminds me of NGII in a lot of ways, it has so many crazy and derpy ideas that you could only see in a sequel to a surprise hit where the team just threw in the kitchen sink with no care for budget or deadline. It reeks with passion, but of course is massively held back by said deadlines haha. And even the system at times.

Halo CE is CE, it's just the template. Infinite and 3 share a spot. I like Infinite's combat more, but the final set of missions are so garbage for me I really hate the game sometimes while Halo 3 is a far, far more consistently fun experience. ODST and Reach are fun. 4 is...weird. 5 is garbage unless you play co-op imo.

> Legenary
I honestly only touched them once on the original machine, I finished them recently but...eh. Legendary gets a lot of love but it doesn't promote what makes the series great imo. Perhaps future runs will see me look at it differently. I remember having the same stance towards NGII's Master Ninja i.e. "Mentor is more fun", until I elevated my skill. Not sure it will be the same here.

> vehicles
Yeah the biggest issue I have is their inconsistency and how they tend to be 'slower'. A Ghost is pretty fast, and a good alternative, but still risky. I sometimes bring a Razor just filled with units which is fun haha. They're pretty durable too, those NPCs, sometimes I'd bring them to one of those base-submissions and they'd really pull in their weight.

Reading your guys’ posts has made me want to play the rest of the series again, though I’ll probably skip 4 and 5. Not gonna lie, I feel I might be thinking “where is my grapple hook” the whole time. Gonna finish up my heroic run(did my first one on normal, huge mistake) and then I’m going to start them all over.

Despite the problems I had with the game, I think it was probably my favorite game released this year, aside from maybe Ghosts N Goblins. It’s just so rare to find a modern big budget game with such free-form gameplay that let you experiment so much. As soon as the credits rolled I was ready to go again, which hasn’t happened in a while.

>rank
This is tough for me. I’d probably say 2>Infinite>3>1=Reach>ODST>>>>4 and 5. Could completely change when I play them again though.

> Grappleshot
Honestly, I've not really missed it playing H:CE, which is surprising. It's a very cool combat option, but it's only really a necessity for me for moving around the environments. Obviously, the old level design wasn't created with any sort of advanced movement in mind, so it doesn't feel too restrictive not having it.

> Difficulties
I might abandon my Legendary run for now and do Heroic instead, as Legendary is clearly not the best way to enjoy the game. Halo: CE is such a highly revered game and I'm going to come away from it thinking "fuck that game" if I keep pushing myself through hours and hours of trial and error deaths.

It's a challenge for people who like to overcome the odds, but as far as my experience goes, you're not allowed to play the game in a fun way on Legendary. I've had to cheese almost every single fight in CE so far. It's hard to balance high difficulties around regenerating health.

> Game of the Year
It's hard for me to pick a favourite out of this and Guilty Gear Strive, both were pretty good but had their flaws. These are the only two games I'd even consider. Certainly a pleasantly surprising standout in an incredibly dull year, though.

> Rank
I did say earlier that I'd prefer to revisit before giving a final verdict, but if I had to give my ranks purely based on enjoyment and what I remember of them, I think I'd go (single player experience only):
Reach/Infinite > 3 > ODST > 4 > 5

> where is my grapplehook
It's more about the positioning where I'll miss I think. It is a fantastic tool to grapple out of danger with when you're low on shields as it also makes you harder to hit. That said other Halo games are much smaller in scope and with plenty of cover, making it a non-issue perhaps. Not sure. What's interesting though is that when Sprint was added, a lot of hardcore fans cried foul as it meant that there was no punishment for bad positioning as you could "just run away". Now we basically have a multipurpose teleport haha, and everyone's a-ok with it.

I think what I'll miss most though is just its flexibility. I'm a big sucker for a thing that does more than one thing, and the grapple is just so flexible and creative in its usage.

> modern big budget game that's this good
Absolutely agree. I mean, to be honest, it might have the best combat in the series. That's crazy coming from a 2021 entry to a series that's been around since 2001. Image a new DMC or NG coming around and just straight up blasting away their predacessors, or having a new Resident Evil that makes 4 play like a dated experience. I cannot phantom this.

> credits rolled, immediately restarted
Same here!

> Legendary Greg
I'm a bit hazy on your details, but is this your first run? Or first run in a while? With H1 and 2 Heroic is definitely the way to go imo. Later games have an easier Legendary that's more managable in numerous ways. Right now it's like starting NGII on Master Ninja: don't.

> singleplayer only
There's multiplayer?

> Grappleshot
Agree with all the points above, it really is a brilliant addition to the Halo formula. It's so good, in fact, that I don't think I'd put Infinite anywhere near the top of my series rank without it.

> Legendary
So I'm working my way through the MCC in story order (so Reach first) and I'm up to CE. It's my very first playthrough of CE, which will also be the case for H2. I wanted to beat the series on Legendary, just for the sake of challenge and bragging rights with friends, but I didn't think I would enjoy Halo enough to do more than one playthrough of each game, so I just started on Legendary. I'm finding that it's very restrictive and forces you to play incredibly defensively and underhanded to make it through the missions. I think I'll shift to Heroic so I don't have to spend every fight popping in and out of cover. I'm honestly not enjoying Legendary and I don't want to sour my first playthrough any further.

> Modern Big Budget Game
True, it's reassuring to know big name studios CAN still put out good titles. We got Doom Eternal last year which I loved, Smash Bros in 2019 which I still consider to be a proper "gamer's game", DMC5 in 2019 too (I think?) which was generally a good game... can't remember what else I've really enjoyed in recent years from major developers.

> Multiplayer
Haha! Most of my experience with Halo is playing multiplayer with friends as a teen, so I don't have an especially detailed opinion of the single player in most of the games. We did of course do Legendary in coop, but it's really not that difficult when one player can stay back and allow the others to keep respawning. Coop is a good laugh but it's certainly not a balanced experience!

Oh, absolutely switch to Heroic if this is your first run. General rule of thumb is that Heroic is the intended difficulty, while Legendary is made for Co-op. Legendary gets easier with subsequent entries (except 5, which is a nightmare).

I consider myself decent at H2, since it's my favourite, and I can barely beat the first chapter on Legendary - that game is absolutely nightmarish. Please god play it on Heroic haha

Carried on with CE on Heroic, much better experience. I was thinking to myself that, while it's a decent game, I'd not played anything that wow'ed me yet. And then...

Guilty Spark 343. What a level. I'm really surprised that *this* isn't the CE level people talk about, I'd never heard of it before playing it myself. Brilliant introduction for the Flood, they managed to create such an atmosphere for this mission. The bit where you walk through the doorway to find the Marine who's clearly lost his mind? Holy shit. Maybe Halo should just be a horror game instead! Was so surprised how enjoyable I found this mission to be.

The following mission, The Library, didn't quite carry over the same atmosphere, but I did like this one too. This is "Shotgun: The Mission". It's a nice change to be given access to a weapon with a big ammo pool that shreds through enemies. It's a very satisfying change when you've spent most of the game trying to strip shields off of enemies with Plasma weapons.

I think the next mission is called Two Betrayals, I might play through that one this morning.

Side note: is the AR awful in this game or is it just me? It doesn't seem good for anything other than fighting the hordes of tiny Flood.

>H2
I've read a lot about how H2 is borderline unfair on Legendary, so I will definitely be playing it on Heroic, don't worry! Haha. Have you played both the original and remastered versions? If so, how would you compare them? My first playthrough will be on the remastered MCC version.

> guilty spark
Mostly since people link it to the Library, which is often considered a low point for many players despite its cool ideas. Guilty Spark really is a great level though, with some solid horror buildup.

Mechanically speaking the level Silent Cartographer is best remembered.

> AR
It has its uses, like against certain flood, but it's one of the weaker weapons yeah no doubt about that.

> H2
I vastly prefer the original. This is mostly because H2 has some really cutting edge scenes, that if you play them on original hardware really make you realize just...how insanely ahead of the curve it was. Playing the remaster made me feel like I was playing a generic shooter with dated ideas.

Was in a pretty foul mood yesterday haha, so I booted up MCC to just play some random missions of random Halo games on Heroic. Have to say, I really do miss the lineair structure. Some of the missions are just so much better than the random corridors that Infinite offers. Yet Infinite's open-esque base-raids are fantastic and a highlight in their own right. It's fun that each game is just stand-alone so great that they can be enjoyed next to the others.

I really love the little nod to ODST in Reach btw, that you have to save Buck. Cool little scene.

Finished CE last night. Think I enjoyed the second half of the game more than the first (although playing some of the game on Legendary probably didn't help. It's a decent game. I can see why it was so influential to shooters moving foward, but it's a bit of a shame that it had as much influence as it did. Things like the two weapon limit are good for making you think more tactically about what weapons you use, but I feel like nearly every shooter for years after that followed the trend. It's nice to have some games where you can still carry a full-on military arsenal in your backpack. I think this is a recurring thingthroughout the series, but the checkpoint system seems very finnicky. It seems to be based on enemy proximity and whether or not you're in danger, so you can get a checkpoint in the middle of some fights just by finding cover. Other times, you can do 2 or 3 fights without getting a checkpoint if you keep the pace up.

I also started Halo 2, which I think I'm already enjoying more. There's already quite a big increase in the amount of weapons and all of them are at least somewhat interesting. The Battle Rifle and Covenant Carbine rifles are satisfying to use, but maybe feel a touch underpowered, even on Heroic. The Sword lunge is ridiculously far, and it propels you forward with such force that you can easily throw yourself over the edge of a cliff, which was humurous the first time. The biggest downgrade from CE, so far, is that there seems to be quite a few areas in the game where you just stand around fighting waves of enemies instead of progressing forward. I like that you get to split your team between Chief and Arbiter and see both stories. The movement and jumping mechanics feel a bit smoother more refined. I'm up to the mission Delta Halo and enjoying the game so far.

If I was allowed one advice: play CE's first few missions again on Heroic. Especially "Halo" and "Silent Cartographer" are one of the best in the series and I really recommend going through them on Heroic at least once.

> influential
It's a good example in the case "good intentions badly interpretated". The dual-weapon limit was used to great effect and was a pillar of the entire combat system, remove it and it just falls apart. But if you just blindly put it into another game, it adds nothing and only removes something. Medal of Honor had a "you have every weapon under the sun" carrying mechanic originally, same with Call of Duty as I recall and after Halo they removed that since "this is what's good about Halo....right"? It's like putting bloodstains and bonfires into an action game, it's way too surface-level thinking.

> Halo 2
Fun fact: the game was made in 10 months. It's crazy.

> hold the line
The game is a lot more 'setpiece'y', and I really recommend almost that you try and play some of the setpieces on 4:3 with old graphics at one point (be it through an original copy, or manipulation). A lot of the setpieces, like boarding the Scarab, seem fun today. But when I played it on a CRTV on my original Xbox it legit felt like playing a game from the future. You JUMP on the machine and you WALK into it. Can you imagine that in a console game that released the same year as Splinter Cell 2 or Fable... crazy.

> BR/carbine
Note that these weapons are headshot capable, which is what makes them so good. The BR in that game was absolutely busted.

> dual wielding
Try to experiment with this. It's super, super fun to play around with and it's absent in nearly every game since sadly. Wielding things like dual-needlers is so broken you have to see to believe haha

Beat Halo 2 tonight, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I didn't realise it was put together so quickly, nor did I know it had a bit of a reputation for being rushed. I don't think it shows too much, honestly. The only times it seems that way are in the areas where you fight waves in one location for a while, but there aren't too many of them. Without thinking about it too analytically, it feels like a step above CE in most ways. It has more weapon and enemy variety, the mechanics feel more refined/responsive/precise and I felt like it had fewer repetitive sections. It wouldn't be fair to compare CE and 2 Remastered in terms of visuals, but I thought 2R looked pretty good all things considered. I have no frame of reference from the original game, so I didn't have any attachment to the old presentation. The only things I didn't really like were:

- Sniper Jackals (having a OHK enemy who can get you from miles away is a recipe for frustration)
- The Flood occasionally rushing you with Shotguns and Rocket Launchers (this did seem toned down a little from CE though)
- The Flood being able to do OHK melees (I'd get it on Legendary, but seems harsh on Heroic)
- Melee is a bit useless unless you have the Energy Sword (Grunts don't even die in one melee unless it's an assassination)

Seeing as I'm (re)playing the series, I may as well start my ranks again from scratch. Only two games in, but so far:

Halo 2 > Halo: CE


> CE
I might go back and play the first few missions again once I've beaten the other games. Silent Cartographer was the first one I played when I switched to Heroic.

> Influential
Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. It suits Halo because it was designed to, whereas in other games it can just feel like you're short-changed.

> Halo 2
It's funny you mention the Scarab section, as I thought that was really cool even on the remaster. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to jump on from the bridge above or if there was something more "on-rails" that was meant to happen. I jumped on and fought with the crew and thought it was pretty great. I can see why that would have been so interesting for a console shooter of it's time. It's pretty tough to get those sort of "wow" moments in gaming now. Even though hardware and game engines are constantly improving, it seems that they haven't facilitated many breakthroughs in game design for a while. I did catch myself at a few points thinking "this must have been crazy on the original Xbox".

> Weapons
Yeah, the precision weapons are very handy to keep on you. Dual wielding was also fun, I enjoyed using a Plasma Pistol / SMG combo in the first few missions to take on the Elites. Dual Needlers is pretty busted, as you say. A lot of fun though, especially when you can trigger multiple Needle explosions on the same enemy before reloading. Games should be less scared to have stuff that's a little bit busted if it's fun to use. I'm glad they didn't rebalance the weapons in the MCC to make them uniform across games. The games have more of an identity having their own unique metas.

The best part about Halo 2's development is that they didn't focus so much on content (nearly all the good ideas were scrapped and put in Halo 3 instead), but more on making it 'more fun'. Apparently nearly half of the dev. time was put towards playtesting to make sure it was as fun as possible, which I think really paid off.

> jackal snipers
Managable on Heroic, a nightmare on Legendary. I think Infinite did them best (high damage, quick, but require a red-dot to give you warning)

> Flood
I'm honestly not a fan of them in any shape or form. They tend to either be too spongey, to random or weird and just not to my liking. The only good part that they add imo is infighting.

> melee in H2
Most assassination, you can really easily bait enemies in H2 - especially elites, which helps.

> 2 weapon limit
Yeah just imagine giving Doom a 2 weapon limit, as they had originally intended with Doom 4 (no joke).

> scarab section
It's just such a cool segment since it's all without loading times. Usually it has a cutscene, or the machine would be crippled first so it becomes a 'stable' area. But you're literally inside a moving vechile, no idea how they pulled that off honestly. H3 has similar sections which are just as cool, but also less memorable imo.

> Wow moments in general
Definitely. I think the last time I really was wow'd was maybe a few generations ago. I think it was, in random order:
- "Rules of nature" in Metal Gear Rising, and similar 'vocals'. The change to vocals when a fight hit a certain pace was absolutely amazing;
- The nuke going off in CoD4. I mean, the entire industry's been trying to recapture that moment for the last 20 years or something. It really was just amazing and so well done;
- entering Anor Londo for the first time in Dark Souls.

And those are mostly just 'setpieces', not even mechanically or technically impressive. Technically impressive might be the time-warp level in Titanfall 2; that was super impressive how they managed that. Portal was also sort of 'omfg can I do that'.

> allow for some bustyness
Absolutely. Obviously there needs to be some balance, especially in a title like Halo where enemies can do the same as us (imagine dual wielding needler elites....), but it's fine to let players have fun with stuff and find broken things. Despite how bad it was imo, Dragon Age 2's best memory for me was giving a certain guy 250% chance to crit with a 400% crit-damage bonus or something bonkers like that. Sometimes breaking the rules is just as cool as following them.

> MCC rebalance
There's some issues, due to them being based on shitty Gearbox ports, but generally speaking they're pretty faithful which is great!

Speaking of MCC - I heard that Halo CE and 2 still have gameplay issues (even after 343 fixed most of the visual bugs), but how are the rest? Are they superior or at least faithful enough to their original forms?

> halo 1
There's some minor issues, but this is at such a small scale you'll barely notice this even as a series fan. Only die-hard players will notice them. Game runs a lot smoother than the original Xbox release.

> halo 2
There's some bigger issues, especially related to frame-rate (game runs like ass on an Xbox). Using classic graphics the game runs super smooth though. The original game didn't.

> Halo 3 + ODST + Reach + Halo 4
Runs like a dream and superior to the original release.

Overall I'd say the MCC is a good entry. I prefer playing Halo 1 and 2 on the original system because I'm:
a) an idiot
b) a sucker for playing games on original hardware

Generally speaking a lot of the changes or shortcomings are either extremely minor or massively overblown.