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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Reach is a bit more lore intensive than the Halo games before it, it is good to know at least that Reach is the birth place of the Spartans, the military capital of humanity, and basically the last line of defense before Earth. If Reach falls, then the war is basically over and humanity will just retreat to Earth for one final stand. Also Dr. Halsey is the master mind behind the Spartan II's, and the creator of Cortana.

Halsey made the Spartan II's (what Master Chief and Jorge are) but did not make the Spartan III's, which were basically slightly weaker mass produced versions of the II's. All of Noble team except Jorge are Spartan III's, which is why Jorge is "the big guy" compared to the rest and also the only one who seems to show Halsey any respect.

I knew there was something going on between Jorge and that woman, but I wasnt sure what. Thanks for the clarification.

Finished New Alexandria. Mission wasnt as annoying as I expected it to be, considering the type of thing it was. I definitely remember seeing Kat get shot before, in some video, but I completely forgot it was then or who it was.

I plan on playing like right now, but the purge can be weird, so I'll bump it now.

Had to charge my controller a bit, but I finished The Package. This level felt good to play. Ample opportunity to grab a vehicle, getting the Wraith near the end really helped, I know the turrets were supposed to help, but I was afraid of having to run back and forth. Only two of them died, one twice.

Completed Pillar of Autumn, aka the last level. Havent watched the final cutscenes yet. The whole level was a bit of a drag tbh, except the beginning parts, up to when I stopped driving.

Oh wait, theres this last bit, I forgot. The achievements popping mixed me up.

Admittedly, ending kinda felt like a lame
duck. Its cool we got to see the beginning of Cortana, but the Spartans with the most personality all died first. I had 0 attachment to Emile, and only a little bit to Carter. My instadeath on Lone Wolf didnt help, to be sure.

Downloaded Halo 4. In a change of pace, I only died once on the first level, Dawn (Heroic), and that was through a plat forming failure near the end (probably the last place you can die in the entire level).

Finished Requiem. Felt like a long level. And I experienced a fair few of the deaths Im used to this time. Looks like Im just about to start facing off with what I believe are the Prometheans. Done for tonight though.

I hate fighting the Prometheans.

Finished Forerunner. I can feel the Promethean hate, though it was mostly in the 2nd half when the Covenant were around as well. Felt like it was dumb to fight, but it was also easy to get killed.

Halo 4 is the easiest game in the series I'd say. But fighting the Prometheans is a definite slog. Crawlers and Watchers are both extremely annoying. Knights are just a brick wall. Halo 5 made the Knights drastically more fun to fight, but they also completely neutered both the Crawlers and Watchers. It was nice that they made them less annoying to deal with but they also kind of lost their identities. Overall though, Prometheans definitely improved in Halo 5.

PerseusRad posted...

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.

I believe if you get all the audio files beforehand, the cop is different and actually relevant.
Though, i don't remember the specifics

Finished Infinity. Decent level, the Mantis was fun. I actually beat the par score, a rarity for me.

Par scores are usually much easier to get in vehicle heavy missions. Especially with the Halo 4 Mantis.

Halo 4 killed my interest in the series. Hate nearly every aspect of it

Promethean Crawlers are ok to fight, but Knights and Watchers are a chore

I will say theres like 2 or 3 levels that are cool as hell.

Finished Reclaimer. I remember seeing this level played before, with the whole Mammoth stuff.

I feel like I dont mind fighting the Prometheans. The dogs are easy to kill, and the bikes arent that bad. Again, its mostly only bad if the Covenant are also around.

Finished Shutdown. Now I dont like fighting Prometheans lol

Finished Composer. Sad to see Cortana breaking down more and more.

Finished Midnight. Im not sure I understand how Master Chief smacked a nuke and lived, watching the final cutscenes now.

Ive seen that last ending cutscene, and I was pretty sure there was more to the ending on Legendary, so I went and looked it up. Showed more than I remembered, even if it was just a second or two extra.

So its finally happened, I finished the entire Master Chief Collection, all on Heroic. There was an achievement for it and everything. Its hard to give any ranking, honestly. Ill say that ODST ended up getting me more invested than the others, along with 2. Gameplay wise, mostly felt similar after like, 3. Of course I know from osmosis that some people did not like some gameplay changes, but it might have been more of a multiplayer issue. 4 didnt come off particularly bad to me or anything, and I know people didnt like that one, or at one point didnt.

As for Halo 5 or Infinite, I dunno. Whether I play them or not, remains to be seen. I could imagine doing so some time, right now I definitely think I need to lay off Halo. A bit of a shame Im completely ignoring multiplayer, which is one of the draws, but I get the sense itd only sour me on the series. Perhaps one day Ill go look up all the stuff I didnt get to see, and thatll prompt me to play 5. Appreciate those who have been reading the topic. Topic has been alive for a bit over 2 months, not used to keeping topics alive that long.

Halo 4 was primarily criticized on the multiplayer side. The campaign was mostly well-received. I was disappointed by the campaign, but I've come to like it a little bit more on subsequent playthroughs.

Halo 4 also has the Spartan Ops mode if you're ever interested. It's mostly a set of generic missions set after Halo 4, but it does have a story. It was supposed to bridge the gap between Halo 4 and 5. It was also probably intended more as a co-op mode than anything, but you can play solo. I personally enjoyed it more than Halo 4's main campaign. But like I said, the missions are mostly rather generic in terms of gameplay and objectives. So may not be the best choice if you want a break from the Halo gameplay.

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

Halo 4 was primarily criticized on the multiplayer side. The campaign was mostly well-received. I was disappointed by the campaign, but I've come to like it a little bit more on subsequent playthroughs.

Halo 4 also has the Spartan Ops mode if you're ever interested. It's mostly a set of generic missions set after Halo 4, but it does have a story. It was supposed to bridge the gap between Halo 4 and 5. It was also probably intended more as a co-op mode than anything, but you can play solo. I personally enjoyed it more than Halo 4's main campaign. But like I said, the missions are mostly rather generic in terms of gameplay and objectives. So may not be the best choice if you want a break from the Halo gameplay.

Yeah, I looked things up after the fact (cause I didn't want to accidentally spoil myself), and it seems it was more well received than I thought. As you said, basically the story was good, multiplayer was bad. Though some people think the story's antagonist was weak. I might agree with that, but if I had found more of the optional videos, then it might feel better.

If Spartan Ops was part of MCC, it's a bit too late now, already uninstalled it. Wondering what to play next. I could work on FFX or Elden Ring. Or Fallout 3, San Andreas, or Yakuza 0. Or maybe something shorter, I dunno. Lot of options, I've finishe more video games in this year than any other, I think.

The Didact has a huge backstory in the lore that is not explored that much in the game, which makes him a better character imo. I enjoyed the Halo 4 campaign though, not as good as the original Bungie games but the story wasn't bad. I also enjoyed Chief being a bit more emotional in Halo 4, and the cut scenes were great.

The gameplay was pretty meh though, and Prometheans are not fun to fight at all. Way too many quick time events, and pretty annoying how the Didact is so OP that whenever you go to fight him he just immediately force chokes you lol, you never get any proper boss fight or anything against him. Also pretty annoying you don't get like any backstory on who this faction of the Covenant is and why they are still fighting you, and then they just immediately get relegated to lackeys of the Didact when he awakens. Complete waste of them as an enemy.

Nice one, well done playing on Heroic for your first playthroughs.

"Time was your ally, but it has abandoned you"

The Didact is awesome. The writing surrounding his return not so much. The Forerunner Saga books are interesting though and tell you a bit more about him, but they're kinda difficult reads.