I'm about to start the Halo series. The only other single player FPS I've ever played and beaten is F.E.A.R. What am I in for?
Halo
I'm about to start the Halo series. The only other single player FPS I've ever played and beaten is F.E.A.R. What am I in for?
Play it and decide for yourself.
A shit series that had 2 great games due the devs (of that time) being enlightned and stars aligning giving birth to the last bit of a soulful, non-meme version of a community to the point Halo 3 had a quite decent amount of players in 2020 on 360 which is nothing short of commendable
Also
Play it, halo AI makes fear AI look like a fricking joke.
Lel come on anon, not true at all
Decent series. You gotta understand the time it came out because playing it now for the first time isn't gonna impress you.
Strongly disagree. All of CE and the first half of 2 have aged like fine wine. As
says the AI makes it kind of a sandbox game where you get a different experience depending on your approach. It's unironically the game that Half-Life 2 wanted to be.
Don't play on hard. Halo 1 has some bullshit moments that make you want to tear your hair out.
Yeah I usually pick Heroic and only do Legendary in co-op
A gimped experience on the Master Chief Collection.
Main thing you lose is quite a bit of the soundtrack from the menus, some lines of dialogue seem to be cut (mostly in mission jokes from marines), and if you play with the remastered graphics you get stuff like Cortana being made fatter and uglier and the artstyle generally being ruined. You can switch off the remastered graphics and remastered audio, which is something I would highly recommend: but the phantom pain of what is missing from the games will be felt.
They also cut the original credits sequences from all the games, and if you click "credits" in the menu it takes it to an external link that only credits Microsoft 343i devs. None of the original Bungie devs are credited. People who should be legendary scrubbed from history due to a shitty battle between the devs and Microsoft.
Looking past all that, the first three games, together, are still one of the coolest and most well told stories in gaming. Great solid arcadey shooter, with a ton of fun mechanics. Was revolutionary for its time.
Seriously, the story told in those first three games is like a Lord of the Rings tier epic. Legendary myth of a generation.
Do this. Halo single player is balanced around Heroic. Do a Legendary run if you like the series and want some CBT.
>Seriously, the story told in those first three games is like a Lord of the Rings tier epic. Legendary myth of a generation.
lel. zoomers really believe this
>Cortana being made fatter and uglier and the artstyle generally being ruined
Remember what they took from you.
>Main thing you lose is quite a bit of the soundtrack from the menus
As a Halo fan I get it, but as someone new, why would anyone give a shit about this, this is irrelevant.
>some lines of dialogue seem to be cut (mostly in mission jokes from marines),
Never heard of this, grunts still call you a sissy, what lines have they cut?
Also, yeah do listen to him, don't play with remastered graphics in Halo 1/CE.
In H2A it is optional.
No game ever set the scale as large as Halo did, what you are seeing is a planet wide Halo ring , flying over the structure you are standing, the Ark, which is 5 times larger than Earth, which also is outside of the galaxy which in certain angles you get to see.
Before this, you get to see many massive ships, up to a kilometer in lenght all the way since CE, then there's cutting the cable, Scarabs in H2, the Foward unto Dawn arriving, the huge assault carriers 5km hopping into view in ODST, or seeing a paris class ship getting split in half by the 28km long Long Night of Solance.
Literally no game ever got this close on scale as Halo did, and it is a shame, as shallow as 343 attempts of immitating Bungie's Halo level of that mythical feeling, they never even got close because they simply don't understand what makes Halo great, in nearly any way, they actually though just changing the artstyle would work on Infinite as if that'd do jackshit.
The battle in the Arbiter's planet was okayish I guess lmao.
>Do this. Halo single player is balanced around Heroic. Do a Legendary run if you like the series and want some CBT.
All Halo games except 2 are balanced around heroic, 2 is balanced around normal
so i do advise to play 2 on normal
CE, 2, 3, ODST, and Reach are the Bungie games (AKA the ones worth playing)
I wouldn't really bother with 4.
Play Halo 2 on Legendary, it's too easy otherwise :^)
Play in release order, not the chronological order the MCC uses in the menu
>Halo CE
Great game except for any time there's a rocket flood that mogs your shit, the game can be merciless with them sometimes. Make no assumptions on what weapons might be good or bad, use them all. The starter pistol is notoriously overpowered though so I recommend using it when you can. Play with the OG graphics, they're still pretty even today.
>Halo 2
Doesn't reach the same heights as CE but it's more consistent overall. Play with the original graphics to make sure you get kino during Gravemind
>Halo 3
I consider Halo 3's campaign to be one of the most perfect video game experiences you can get. It's such a satisfying conclusion to the series. I recommend not playing anything past 3 aside from ODST and Reach. It'll just sour you on the series if you do because what comes afterwards was made by idiots who don't understand Halo
>ODST
A pretty comfy game overall. It's the most unique halo campaign since it's connected by a hub world but it has a pretty fun cast of characters, a great soundtrack and it's more of Halo 3 which is a good thing. Probably the weakest game plot wise but it's understandable as to why it is.
>Halo Reach
The 2nd best campaign after 3. It's the darkest Halo game tone wise but the game really ropes you in with it's characters and makes you want to do what you can to win in spite of impossible odds. The gameplay itself has some additions that are love it or hate it for some people, but overall I think they work well and expand on the Halo series. IMO Reach has the strongest singular campaign missions out of any Halo game.
It's pretty good, especially when you consider it was released during a time where most shooters were built on quakes formula. Don't be an idiot like me and play it in the order 343 put them though, play them in release order like said. Halo CE and 2 also have 'remastered' graphics; don't play CE with them it's shit - stick with the original look, 2 is okay, but the new music isn't as good, would still recommend the original graphics over the new one in the end. I wasn't around for the hype around the series but even playing it today it's damn good, and so far it's the only game I'd replay just from how fun it is. Co-op is pretty fun too.
>Play with the original graphics to make sure you get kino during Gravemind
What did they change?
Blow Me Away gets replaced with some generic buttrock sound.
>I'm about to start the Halo series
Play in release order, play on Heroic, and don't play anything by 343 (4,5, and Infinte).
theres something about the halo series that makes me feel some type of way no other game does aside from early destiny
>What am I in for?
Heroism.
The first game is boring as shit and the final 3 levels are ones you already played backwards. 2, 3, ODST and Reach are great.
wort wort wort
Absolute gigakino though strangely enough the more I play the more I find myself enjoying the very first Halo more than the others
The difficulty and AI are just so much better in it. Reach has amazing AI on Legendary but holy shit the balancing is unplayable, you die as fast as you do in Call of Duty but the enemies like two mags unless you're using the plasma pistol EMP which is boring
Feature creep; Weapon and otherwise.
Even within Bungie Halo titles, enemies and tools were added in sequels without careful consideration of what roles they would play in the sandbox. H:CE covers all the bases, while still making every faction and item feel distinct. There's no "this is the alien sniper rifle it's basically the human sniper rifle but purple" yet.
CE is also the only game in the series you can play in a vacuum. The story starts and wraps up nicely over eight hours. It doesn't even really have much of a sequel hook.
>There's no "this is the alien sniper rifle it's basically the human sniper rifle but purple" yet.
This is something only a level 1 Halo player would think. The sniper and beam rifle have very clearly different techniques for pacing shots and distinct handling differences for two weapons that essentially occupy the same role. Incidentally the Halo 3 sandbox was the peak of the series.
Minor stat changes do not make a new weapon. You also don't provide any evidence that the Sniper and Beam Rifle handle differently, so let's get you up to speed.
>specialist sniper item
>two identical zoom levels
>hitscan
>lethal headshots
>ricochet capable projectiles
>one is purple
I just described two weapons in Halo 2. The Beam Rifle's overheating gimmick is irrelevant when headshots and bodyshots between the two weapons garner the same result. You could switch the Sniper and Beam around and none of the Halo 2 and 3's encounters would change. The same cannot be said of any weapon in Halo CE.
"This is the alien shotgun" is lazy and anti-creative. Please do not become a game designer.
Yeah last time we had Covies with a different sniper on Reach with the focus rifle people hated it, mostly because it was underpowered.
I get your point, and I wish we had Reach's version of "alien sniper" but balanced properly (Maybe x2 damage on the head for near instant kill?) but now it's too late to remove the beam rifle, and honestly many people, me included love it for customs alone, and it'd be stupid to remove it-oh yeah lmao Infinite removed it.
>This is the alien shotgun
The sword, hammer, and even the mauler work very differently.
I still miss the mauler just by the fact it's cool just to be able to dual wield it.
I think you will love Reach, outside of the Spiker and the Plasma Repeater, which were added so Brutes can have unique weapons, and Elites can be sort of balanced in Invasion, I am pretty sure there really isn't any "redundant" weapons in Reach, even the needle rifle has the unique feature to be a long range needler.
Pic related, even if not neccesary.
The overheating "gimmick" changes the whole feel of the weapon. It doesnt take a genius to learn you can get more consecutive shots than the human sniper if you have the discipline to let it cool down. You also have the choice of firing off a second shot immediately after the first, knowing it will overheat and leave you vulnerable, perhaps if you only have a limited window to make the shot.
Level 1 halo player. Eat my ass, moron.
Halo 3 weapon balance was a lot worse than CE, almost all the covenant weapons are weak and the BR is so broken and appears so often that it's almost a fixed weapon. Halo ce has the best sandbox followed by halo infinite. Halo 3 has the best level design
>Even within Bungie Halo titles, enemies and tools were added in sequels without careful consideration of what roles they would play in the sandbox.
>CE
PP+Headshot weapon
Shotgun for Flood
>2
PP+Headshot weapon
Shotgun/Sword for Flood
>3
PP+Headshot weapon
Sneezing kills flood
>ODST
PP+Headshot weapon
>Reach
PP+Headshot weapon
nothing ever changed
Well you can kind of swap the PP for PR, and in 2 and 3 you can dual wield them which is cool, even with a magnum but it's more straight forward with a BR because Bungie never figured out you could maybe just KEEP the fricking left weapon by swtiching, and somehow though it'd be broken when dual wielding is a joke.
The change to framerate really fricked some of the levels, Long Night of Solace in particular is infuriating
Charged Plasma pistol + weapon that can headshot on everything until everything dies
Its okay
Halo 1 has the best together self contained story but half of it copy and paste hallways
Halo 2 has the best cutscenes, better mission variety, and is just the most fun one especially coop
Halo 3 has the best weapon sandbox, highest production quality but a bit bland tbh
Reach is forgettable
Odst is actually pretty decent even if its short but tons of variety, a decent story, and very solid sandbox
Who cares about 4 and 5
Halo 2 and fear are the best games ever made.
Played the original trilogy + reach in co op at a friend's house as the games released, liked them all except 2 which we both absolutely hated. Fast forward to the xbone coming out, got one for dirt cheap & got the MCC, a different friend & I played through all the games & holy frick they did not age well.
First half of 1 was really good but the second half became a tedious chore, 2 sucked just as much as I remember, quit part way through & 3 was moderately better than I remembered probably because I played the other ones so recently.
They’re some of my favorite campaigns of all time but I also played them when they were new and cutting edge. I go back to a lot of old shooters like perfect dark and while I enjoy aspects of them I don’t LOVE them, the thing is I consider the sand box nature of Halo with its vehicles to be special even today
They’re so dated in the current year I wouldn’t even bother playing them. Halo 1 in particular is slow, floaty, and in general awful to play.
Halo is garbage on all fronts but it's what a lot of us started with, so it'll probably interest you greatly since you have no other exposure. It's not FEAR's quality but it's good at what it does.
Mexicans and South Americans
It’s basically unplayable
You're not actually supposed to play PvP game modes after 2012.
You are in for kino with a kino OST, play the Bungie games only in release order. Not Reach first like how 343 wants you too play it. Don't play 4. Have fun
I recently was on your same situation. As someone who never touched the series before, don't play it one after another. I was already burned out on ODST and fricking quit starting Halo 4. The best one by far was Reach.
Big war games with power fantasies on top depending on the difficulty you play at. If you want to really push yourself, Heroic is a fine line. The story never won awards, it's not exactly as cool as it was when it came out in terms of achieving feats in gaming leaps and all, but they're still impressive taken for the context of their time since no other FPS games were really pushing boundaries besides like, Half-Life, and everything else was competing with Halo like Killzone's failure.
Frankly, however, you're probably gonna hate Halo 1 if you do it first. I'd still say release order for the games, but H1 is that game that is a VERY acquired taste due to how it's designed and it's damn rough compared to the two sequels.
>What am I in for?
VETO
Just play Halo and Halo Reach, maybe 4 for the saggy milf booba, which i did.