Current Events > Playing Halo for the first time >_> It's fun

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malenz posted...

Legendary is a fucking pain. I can't believe I ever even achieved it. Must have been pure determination.

There are a couple places that are obnoxious, but it's not too bad on the whole. I just dislike how Legendary gimps your weapon pool. But I suppose that's just my 90s upbringing of always having an entire arsenal crammed up my butt talking.

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spikethedevil posted...

The level design in Halo 1 is awful imo.

Some of them are long and repetitive and it really wears on you.

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malenz posted...

Legendary is a fucking pain. I can't believe I ever even achieved it. Must have been pure determination.

One of the good things about the first game on Legendary is that the game is relatively fair. Rocket Flood are total bullshit, but for the most part there's nothing outrageous. It's just a tough playthrough from start to finish.

Halo 2 is where things get utterly ridiculous.

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I don't think I ever beat Halo 2 on Legendary. Didn't play it all that much as I though 3 was so much better.

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GeneralKenobi85 posted...

One of the good things about the first game on Legendary is that the game is relatively fair. Rocket Flood are total bullshit, but for the most part there's nothing outrageous. It's just a tough playthrough from start to finish.

Halo 2 is where things get utterly ridiculous.

Yeah the jackal part on Outskirts is stupid. I think I might've skipped it a few times

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Once you have fun with it, look into that cursed halo mod just for some of the amusement it brings (or perhaps better, just watch on youtube someone doing a blind playthrough of said mod).
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Did Chief just punch a hole through Flood Keyes's head?

Daaaaaaaaaamn lol

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That was a pretty heavy scene. Even worse when you read about what the Flood was doing to him.

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Starting the final mission now. I like how Master Chief just casually crashes his ship into a building just to annoy Cortana lol

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Beat it. Damn that was a good game. The 2nd half is definitely inferior but the levels are still overall fun. I don't want to play Reach until after I beat Halo 2 and 3 >_> I guess I'll just wait for Halo 2 in the mean time.

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NeonOctopus posted...

Holy cow, this assault on the control room level is so long

That level belongs on my list of GOAT level designs. The music, the atmosphere, it was just fun. Something about being in that snowy canyon was amazing and makes me want to explore it more than go through it

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NeonOctopus posted...

Beat it. Damn that was a good game. The 2nd half is definitely inferior but the levels are still overall fun. I don't want to play Reach until after I beat Halo 2 and 3 >_> I guess I'll just wait for Halo 2 in the mean time.

Yeah, after the intro level of the Flood, thats when the game went downhill gameplay wise. The Library of course sucked, the other levels after were repeats plus Floods

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I really liked ODST's campaign, I may even dare to say it was my favorite even though it didnt really deal with Master Chief, but I may be in the minority on that. I just liked exploring the city and then it being all momento style storytelling when you find shit and you gradually find out what happens, and the transition from the semi-calmness to the more hectic sections was pretty cool.

So if you're curious to play all the Halos I'd at least try to check it out even if it's kind of a side story. If you can find a way to play it at least, idk if it ever got released outside of XBOX 360
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I heard ODST is hard as fuck

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halo 2 is a big step up from the first game, it's fantastic. however halo 3 is my favorite in the series.

reach was pretty good. story was kind of dumb but there is no flood thankfully & the final level in the game is a classic video game moment imo

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NeonOctopus posted...

I heard ODST is hard as fuck

Well yeah you dont play as a spartan so they kind of made it to reflect that your character was weaker and not as advanced at combat. But it wasnt game breakingly difficult by any means. Especially if you're playing on Normal difficultly like you've played here it shouldnt be much of a problem. Legendary was certainly extremely challenging at some junctures.
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Romulox28 posted...

the final level in the game is a classic video game moment imo

the final cutscene reminded me of The Thing (2011). definitely had goosebumps the first time i played it.

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Halo is definitely an interesting game for the FPS genre too.

To my knowledge, it was the first shooter to have regenerating health (or technically, shields in-universe). If I am wrong about it being the first, then at least it was the first one that got wide-scale recognition for it. Technically, regenerating health was effectively a thing before in space combat sims like Wing Commander and Freespace, but Halo brought it to the FPS genre.

The first Halo game also had traditional FPS health behind those shields. Its actually a hybrid I feel does pretty well, honestly. A regenerating shield allows for new ways of playing a shooter, but still having health that only refills traditionally ala medkits means you need to use that shield tactfully.

Of course, many shooters since then went with regenerating health. Mostly without shields. Lot less realistic, of course, but it does allow for better gameplay in some ways.
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From a design (and obviously ignoring realism) standpoint, the best system IMO for the single player experience would be something like: (The "units" I am using are arbitrary)

1. Regenerating shield type health of 100 units, that I'll just call "shields" from now on. Starts Regenerating rapidly when you are not hit for several seconds. This is your effective health for quick, strategic gunplay and such before getting behind cover again.
2. Old fashioned, traditional health of 200 units, with very minor regeneration. Regenerates 1 unit every couple seconds. This is your backup health that serves as a cushion in case you want to go further. Ideally, you don't want to have to rely on it.
3. "medkits" or whatever that heals the traditional health are very rare, pretty much all just appearing before a boss area so that the player doesn't have to wait to go into the boss at full power. Other kinds of powerups (including those that may temporarily enhance the shield) are more common.
4. For multi-player, there are three health modes that can be selected regardless of whatever other game-mode options you choose. The first just replaces all the health with only shield-type health (so just 300 units of shields). Medkits would of course not appear. This would likely be the most popular overall. The second would be all traditional health. Medkits are more common, and health wouldn't regenerate slowly like in SP. This mode effectively would be if you wanted to have a traditional-style FPS match. The last mode would basically be 150 shield, 150 health, just in case some people would like a mixture of the two (allows for using cover, but also means you can't just go all the way back to full after beating someone if they got through your shields, making you a bit more vulnerable). Medkits would spawn in this mode but would be rare, and the health doesn't slowly regenerate like in SP.
5. Weapon-wise, if single player has enemies with shields, then we can have some weapons that do better against shields and some better against other stuff. For multi-player, both shields and health would be impacted the same way for balance purposes. Rather than having something like the plasma pistol's overcharge for instant shield busting, have weapons with other effects instead. Like a weapon with a charge ability that disables the target's ability to shoot for a couple seconds, or which slows them down for a couple seconds, or which similarly is "compatible" with all three health modes.
6. Being able to carry 3 weapons is a must. You can put a 2-weapon option in MP, but being able to carry 3 of them in the SP campaign would be ideal, if you must limit weapon choices (you can also go the traditional route and just have no weapon limits in singleplayer). If you set it to 3 weapons, put a smaller icon of the "next" weapon next to the icon of the current one on the HUD so the player can get used to their current order so they know whether to tap weapon switch once or twice. And as long as we are on the topic of weapons...
7. If the setting can allow for it, remember to put some weird ones in. Perhaps a nice, unbalanced BFG equivalent too. You can simply have them not spawn in multiplayer if they are too unbalanced, outside of special game modes that can grant one to a team or something if they perform some task (every X kills, or something else). You can also potentially just make the multiplayer version(s) of these super-guns just single-shot-only.

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Halo 2 is the best campaign in the series. Also one of the hardest. Play that shit on legendary sometime

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I heard it ends on a terrible cliffhanger too because Halo 3 was originally supposed to be part of Halo 2, but they cut it due to time

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I don't think I'd call it terrible.

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ODST is the easiest by virtue of you being able to

- tank at least 1 Sniper shot
- The VISR pointing out said snipers
- Usually one invincible AI teammate, up to 4
- Pistol/ Plasma Pistol combo
- Short levels in general, A lot with vehicles

Probably the hardest part is traveling the streets and potentially getting ambushed

In terms of difficulty

2(Cheap) >>> 1 > Reach > 4 > 3 > ODST

Not sure where 5 would fit in

PowerOats posted...

ODST is the easiest by virtue of you being able to

- tank at least 1 Sniper shot
- The VISR pointing out said snipers
- Usually one invincible AI teammate, up to 4
- Pistol/ Plasma Pistol combo
- Short levels in general, A lot with vehicles

Probably the hardest part is traveling the streets and potentially getting ambushed

In terms of difficulty

2(Cheap) >>> 1 > Reach > 4 > 3 > ODST

Not sure where 5 would fit in

Halo 5 is the easiest in the series in my opinion. There is a single part in Halo 5 that could be considered really tough, but other than that, the game is straightforward. In Reach and ODST you don't always have your invulnerable AI teammates, but in Halo 5 you almost always do. Plus Halo 5's weapon sandbox is so good that you will generally always have a weapon worth using. Even the ones that are supposed to be bad you can make work.

My ranking for difficulty is a bit different I think

2 > CE > Reach > 3 > ODST > 4 > 5

I don't think Halo 4 is too difficult. It's just a chore to fight Knights and Watchers. I never found them to be huge threats though. Halo 3 is by far the best and fairest campaign on Legendary. Both for solo play and for co-op.

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