Current Events > Playing the Halo series for the first time (Master Chief Collection)

(+) Yeah! (+)

ODST is the only Halo game I haven't played, but it is a fan favorite and a lot of Developers have actually said that ODST is their favorite game as well, as it was the only project they had where they weren't rushed for a deadline and had to cut stuff (plus it is a smaller campaign which helped), and they love all the noir elements they were able to add.

PerseusRad posted...

Finished Tayari Plaza (I took a break in the middle of it). ODST definitely feels different. They're making sure you use the night vision stuff, for one, and the map stuff along with it. Nice they have a way to point you in the right direction. Grenades seem floatier, or they go further before falling, whichever. I'm always annoyed when I try and fight through a level, then it turns out I could easily run to the end, like I did for this one.

I'm still on Heroic by the way. This game makes you feel a lot weaker that Master Chief and Arbiter, with how they'll start panting when shot.

I believe it's the angle of the throw. The Rookie kind of lobs the grenade whereas Chief and Arbiter just chuck it.

Completed Uplift Reserve. I remember being confused in Halo 2 whether or not a new level had started, it feels like that's the entirety of ODST, they seem liberal on having us switch perspectives, while still being the same level.

Tired, dont wanna go to sleep and have thread be dead. Bump.

I like how you can tank a Sniper hit on legendary in ODST, but not Halo 2&3

Bump again. Haven't been playing.

Jabodie posted...

Half the fun of the warthog is talking shit to your friends when they flip the thing in co-op.

The other half was setting sticky grenades on it's undercarriage and attempting to use the explosion to flip it over gaps while riding it.

I played not Halo today, might play a bit more later, and then maybe Ill finally be refreshed.

I grew up with Halo 1 on Xbox and I don't rate it that highly these days.

It's quite a repetitive game and I don't understand the praise

Ser_Jaker posted...

I grew up with Halo 1 on Xbox and I don't rate it that highly these days.

It's quite a repetitive game and I don't understand the praise

Halo 1 hasnt aged that well and its level design was never great.

the game I was playing just crashed and I lost like an hour of progress ._.

PerseusRad posted...

the game I was playing just crashed and I lost like an hour of progress ._.

What game?

spikethedevil posted...

What game?

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3: Professional. A mouthful of a title. I can probably get all the progress I had back pretty quickly, but theres like monster combining in the game, so I have to remember exactly what I did, or close enough.

spikethedevil posted...

Halo 1 hasnt aged that well and its level design was never great.

lmao

PerseusRad posted...

Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3: Professional. A mouthful of a title. I can probably get all the progress I had back pretty quickly, but theres like monster combining in the game, so I have to remember exactly what I did, or close enough.

Hm, so I kinda blew through the rest of the game and post game that I had left. Theres still more I think, but I got through most of the major stuff I think. Well see if that translates to me wanting to play ODST.

It didn't at least not yet. It's Friday though, we'll see what the weekend brings.

I actually went through a level. Kizingo Streets. Probably the first time I did a full restart in a level, because I didnt realize I was pretty much immediately supposed to go in the tank. Things were out of place and it felt annoying. Tank levels are usually pretty good. Even the bit after didnt take much time. I managed to beat the par score, which is rare for me.

Finished the ONI ODST level. The beginning was kinda weird with the bombs, like it couldve been cut with how fast it was done. But I suppose it kinda foreshadowed the much bigger explosion at the end of the level.

Finished NMPD HQ. The Rookie part and the Flashback part were both pretty annoying to get through. A lot of Brutes and Snipers. Im finding the audio logs pretty interesting, hope I dont miss them by accident.

Beat Kikowani station. Died a decent amount when I had to walk on foot to unlock the door, but overall it was probably one of the easier levels that I can remember.

For some reason the game glitched and I got the completion (and Par Time) achievement immediately for the Data Hive level. Felt weird to just have a random cop with me, only for him to die irrelevantly.

Finished Coastal Highway, paused before all the cutscenes after finished. I remember I actually watched some people play through this level before, and I remembered there was a trick to getting the tank through the barrier at the end. I tried it, but you cant hit another vehicle through once the escort vehicle essentially closes the tunnel. So I blew myself up, drove back to get the flipped over Warthog, got it almost in there, and pushed it in with the tank. So then I pushed the singular abandoned car thats in the other end to use as a ramp. I drove the tank in backwards so it was teetering on the barrier, and I used the Warthog to push it in. I still died a couple of times in the battle itself, mainly the last bit. May or may not have been worth it, cause the Warthog is a decent amount away, and I had to make that walk like two or three times. Just wanted to do it, to do it.

There actually wasnt much else to say after the cutscenes. Sgt Johnson was pretty in the scene with the Engineer. Unless Im forgetting something, Im assuming this is a lead in to Halo 4. Still got Reach to play. This one is tough. I feel like I should try and start playing to justify the thread being up, but trying to force it last time made me stop playing for like 3 weeks. But itd be nice to document everything in a single thread, even if nobody is reading anymore.

By the way, I see why people like ODST, very story focused. I get the feeling I missed some audio logs, might go look it up later.

I'm still reading. Reach's campaign is great, especially if you don't know a whole lot about it going in.

Reach is my favourite Halo.

Reach has a fun campaign. Too bad the multiplayer isn't relevant anymore, I think I spent more time on that one than any other. Some neat weapons and silly but fun gamemodes.

stoltenberg11 posted...

Reach has a fun campaign. Too bad the multiplayer isn't relevant anymore, I think I spent more time on that one than any other. Some neat weapons and silly but fun gamemodes.

All of Reach's multiplayer content is still there in MCC. I know you probably mean the time period more than the actual game itself, but I think it's still pretty popular on MCC at least. Probably second only to Halo 3. And certainly most custom games in the custom games browser are Reach games.

Reach is one of my favorite campaigns from a plot perspective. Great story, amazing characters, the cut scenes and the music and everything is done so well.

For some reason the gameplay though is one of my least favorites, it just seems like they went way too far from the Halo 3 mechanics and tried to add in a bunch of stuff from Call of Duty, this was about when Modern Warfare 2 was extremely popular. You dont feel as much as a super soldier Spartan I thought, compared to the original trilogy.

Also they got rid of the battle rifle for some reason, definitely my favorite weapon, and stuck is with the DMR, just a shitty version of the Covenant Carbine, I hate that gun

The one weapon in Reach that gets completely overshadowed is the Needle Rifle. I like it more than the DMR and I think it's one of the better precision weapons they've had in the series. It's too bad it was only in one game. Reviving the Needle Rifle would be a nice way to bring a new precision weapon into Infinite's sandbox that adds something a bit different to the table (automatic fire plus the supercombine effect).

As for the Carbine, it's always been one of my favorites. But it wasn't until Halo 5 that that weapon really started getting good enough to compete with the BR and DMR. And then Infinite just got rid of it entirely.

Can't believe they took away the grenade launcher from Post Reach Halo games. It was cool and difficult to use (compared to other guns) so people would skip it, which meant more GL for me.

Would plant grenades inside or under vehicles, and unlike 4s Sticky Detonator, it was very hard to spot, virtually invisible.

It's also nice to EMP unsuspecting aircrafts into the ground

The Concussion Rifle was also cool

Damn did I have a love/ hate relationship with Reach

The GL was in Halo 5, so it got off a bit better than some other weapons. And I remember it still being as good as Reach's. Difficult to master for sure. I was never quite great with it, but I had moments where I could chain together some nice kills.

Played the first level of Reach. It almost seems more different than ODST, but that might not really be true. This is where they added sprint and split the fanbase I assume? Cool to see more Spartans, though for the most part I dont really care about them. Guess thatll probably change the more I played

Reach had a multitude of issues

- Armor Abilities and Loadouts, similar to CoD mechanics
- The Armor Lock ability in general. It was very OP since it could stall a encounter for a few seconds, long enough for your team to save you AND recharge shields.

- Most Original MP maps were pretty meh and had a glaring flaw in all of them except like 2. The Forge MP maps all look the same.

- DMR Reticle Bloom, adding RNG to the precision weapon.

- The existence of sprint meant maps had to be bigger, so if you chose not to use it, it took a while to get anywhere decent without another device.

- Players leaving mid match, and no system to replace them.
One of my biggest gripes tbh

Reach is still very much a fun game and is a better designed game than most games today, but Reach's/ The Halo series fatal mistake was releasing their least popular Halo game (at the time) vs CODs most popular and supposedly best game

Fuck i miss the needle rifle

Finished ONI: Sword Base. This one had a lot more new stuff in it. The new mini-wraith, the needle rifle, the grenade launcher, and recruiting marines. I can tell theyre attempting to make Jorge very sympathetic.

Might play a bit later after taking a nap. Been playing Mega Man 1 (Never played the series before). I saw a lot of recommendations that said to start with 2 or something else, but I kinda thought I might as well start with the shaky ground and hope it improves over time.

Okay I beat MM1 and I didn't have an excellent time. The final boss rush felt dumb. The weaknesses didn't seem like they were doing enough, when it came to all of them except the Ice Man. Fire in particular felt impossible to dodge with any consistency, like he had two flame pillars and the timing/height made it impossible to dodge both. I ended up cheesing the Ice Man, Bomb Man, and then 2nd stage Wily, because I really wasn't enjoying it. The game glitched out after, which apparently is a known thing, but I won't lose sleep over it. Will probably go back to Halo.

Finished Nightfall. Most of the level I was able to play passively with the Sniper, which I appreciated. A few times when the enemy got close though, I kinda got blown up. Couldnt save any of the civilians, they all died by the time the Hunters showed up. The back bit, I was running out of ammo, so I died a few times while figuring out my strategy. Was a fairly good level. I almost thought it felt a bit too long, but it ended right before that moment.

Have you driven the almighty Forklift yet?

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

Have you driven the almighty Forklift yet?

I think I had an opportunity, but I decided against it. Soon, maybe.

Also I haven't played since my last post, I plan on doing so tonight, depends if I fall asleep I suppose.

Finished Tip of the Spear. I liked this level pretty well, there was good opportunity to hijack vehicles and make things go smoothly. The bit where we flies felt a bit different. I think I remember seeing people do it on Legendary(ASO), and it was hard there, but it was nothing on Heroic.

Finished Long Night of Solace. It definitely felt long, but I was also doing other stuff during it, so that might not be too accurate. Whole vehicle sections, then we got inside. Jorge sacrificing himself didn't feel as impactful as it should have been I feel like.

The next two missions are probably the best in the game. I always thought Jorge's death was well-done because it's where the story starts to shift in tone. It's when you truly start to know that Reach is doomed.

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

The next two missions are probably the best in the game. I always thought Jorge's death was well-done because it's where the story starts to shift in tone. It's when you truly start to know that Reach is doomed.

Im wondering if I just wasnt paying enough attention during the last couple of missions. I feel like I didnt fully understand the issues.

What do you mean?

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

What do you mean?

I dunno. I think I wasnt 100% certain as to why we were going after the exact ship we were. Nor did I really get the situation that made Jorge sacrifice himself, or at least, what exactly he did. I recall the ship that was aiding us was destroyed, then we tried to escape on the Covenant ship, but then things get a bit hazy. The last few plot points seemed to go quickly. Or maybe I forgot since I was getting killed a decent bit at the end.

Ah

They were trying to destroy a Covenant supercarrier with the bomb and the corvette (the ship you board) was their means of ferrying the bomb over to the carrier. But it was botched so that Jorge had to manually detonate it.

The supercarrier is destroyed but obviously right after a massive Covenant fleet arrives. It almost makes it feel like Jorge's sacrifice was futile. They destroy a single ship that's a massive threat only for it to be replaced by the largest Covenant fleet they'd ever seen.

Thanks for the summary. I missed the bit about the bomb, maybe. I think I didn't quite understand how dangerous the carrier was supposed to be, as well.

Hate to nerd this up, but if you did want to know...

The camera shot of the supercarrier in Tip of the spear is a bit weird if you've never seen one tbh

quickest comparison I could come up with

The Covenant Corvette you see shot down in Oni Sword Base/ You board in Long Night of Solace = Xbox 360

The Human Frigates that's shot down in Tip of the Spear/ LNoS = Gamecube

The Supercarrier = PS5

So taking one out is a massive win.

That helps with the scaling, I appreciate it.

Finished Exodus. That was long. Or felt long.