Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Halo 2 (Nov)

@themightyant @ralphdibny the biggest thing that bothers me is the fact that you accelerate moving the analogue forward instead of using a button and them have to use the right analogue you move the camera and the vehicle tends to go on the same direction (most of the time). I basically so far whenever there is fight I just get out of the car and start shooting while the guys on the car keep shooting also.

I have now completed 5 levels and I am enjoying my time but today I found the 5th level (Control Room) very long and samey with lots of long corridors going to round rooms with ocasional out areas with the bike ride (by far the best part of it as this vehicle is fun to maneuver). Went online to see the ranking of levels expecting it to be on the low part but found it be easily in the top 3 of most lists instead. Let's see how it goes when it comes to the famous Library (the only level I heard about before starting the series)

@Balta666 I think the library took me much longer because I literally kept falling asleep while playing it. It was so monotonous 😂

Wow a game I am actually playing right now (the odd achievement at least).

The gunplay, story and emergent gameplay are all still wonderful. Halo does a lot right. The weapons and introduction of the sticky grenade, needlers, energy swords and alien vehicles are all fantastic. Elites, jackals, grunts and the flood are all different and encourage a variety of playstyles to defeat them.

Halo is great, however the repetitive level design is hard to swallow these days. It wouldn't be so bad but there is no waypoint or marker to your next objective. My sense of direction isn't great so I often get lost, and on one level I was running around for 45 minutes and had to reach for a guide. The later Halos are better in this regard.

Halo CE is 22 years old, crazy. When you see the innovations and campaign mission variety it blew everyone away. If your new to the series, Reach is the better bungie halo game for audiences right now. But back 22 years ago, CE was one of the best games ever made. And unlike a goldeneye, is still playable and enjoyable.

Truth and Reconciliation was nearly my exit this morning. I’m not really having a good time and I feel my largely positive 22 year old memories are in danger of being tarnished. I love the soundtrack even if it does come in abruptly at random times and the alien designs still look great, I’m just not sure i can stomach this kind of thing anymore my gaming tastes have changed so much in the intervening decades. I’m onto the Silent Cartographer which I remember being quite good so I’ll see how it goes…

@KilloWertz Remember last year when you played through Halo CE and you didn't like it? Most people here seem to share your opinion.

Including me, of course. The game was most likely awesome at the time but the level design sure hasn't aged well at all. I even played through the game on Legendary, which was an absolute pain.

Last thing I did was to enter the Library (wish me luck!!). The introdution to the flood was a nice change of pace altough I got lost quite a few times.

If anyone is up for a heroic run through all of Halo CE let me know! I quite fancy it.

If we could grab a trio of us (unsure of that's possible as never tried) it could be even better

I am available most nights after 10:30pm uk time. @ me if you fancy it.

@LtSarge Yep, for better or for worse I remember it vividly.

It's definitely a product of it's time. Back then we didn't know any better, so if I had actually played it back then, my opinion likely would have been the opposite. I believe if the series had launched with the very same game today it wouldn't be the phenomenon it was for a long time. Games like Halo 1 get ripped apart today.

I'm not saying people shouldn't still enjoy it if they can, but the level design is so horrible that it would have been dead in the water. There are still good parts to the game, but the level design and a few other things kill it all. The suggestion above of doing it in co-op, if possible, would be the only way I could see enjoying it at all.

It is amazing how much of a jump there was from Halo: CE to Halo 2. Just judging them today, you go from one of the worst classic FPS games to one of the best FPS games ever made still to this day. The Master Chief Collection version is mildly cheating in the comparisons, but even without the fancy upgrades Halo 2 would still be great.

I have completed the Library and altough fairly long (but not more than the previous levels as I got lost) it is probably my favourite so far... I find the flood much more interesting to fight than the covenant and the shotgun is easily my favourite weapon to use.

@KilloWertz it's a game of its time. Compare Halo CE anything prior in a similar space, such as goldeneye and you can see shy it was held in high regard. Even Bungies previous 'Marathon' series looks so ancient in comparison.

A lot of the levels are copy and paste to a degree. I ran assault on the control room yesterday and the same similar room with maybe a barricade dotted in a different place was frustrating. The levels are clearly padded out in the second half of the game which drags the experience down.

Nostalgia plays a lot with games. I can't get onboard with all the Halo fans who rave about the og experience. It was great, still playable today but it's difficult to motivate a playthrough knowing the samey play areas. Halo Reach for me had the best mix of variety within a cohesive story and wider open areas to fight in.

One thing I will say about Halo as a series, the adequate amount of levels and 4 difficulty options lead to a lot of replayability. I enjoy CE in part due to the nostalgia but can see it weaknesses too.

I have finished the game. Overall I enjoyed it but definitely not as much as Gears of War (but its age has something do do with that).
I don't like the covenant weapons therefore fighting them is a pain as I get low on ammunition. That is the reason I much prefer to fight the flood.
Story wise it did not grabbed me as a lot of times it was done during gameplay and that is something that does not work for me as I cannot focus on more than one thing at the time.
Finally the last mission is a pain, first because of the section where you need to throw granades ar vents with any sign if you're are doing it right or not and second and easily worst thing in the game (and close to the top in worst section in gaming ever) there is the obstacles course with a countdown in the terrible controlling car...

As I heard many say halo 2 is a big improvement in level design I will at least give it a go before moving on to other pastures.

@Balta666 “there is the obstacles course with a countdown in the terrible controlling car...”

THAT was the bit I was hinting at above. Though if I remember correctly the timer is actually super easy, it just SEEMS like there is more time pressure than there is. Or perhaps that was because I was OK-ish with the floaty warthog controls

All I can say is that the controls to move the Warthog is annoying in Halo Combat Evolved XD
I'm in Attack on the Control Room level, at least the Scorpion's controls are decent. Plus you can get 4 Marines with you.
What I find annoying about Halo CE other than Warthog controls is when sometimes Marines stay seated in the Warthog while Master Chief has to go solo. If they would move w you I would feel more secure as to where I am going. Still, when the game prompts them to battle they battle, so I can't entirely feel frustrated by a simple game mechanic.
I play it on an Xbox 360 Slim, not sure if it enhances the graphics or if it doesn't, but the game is pretty cool overall. I've never played a Halo game but so far its been pretty fun. I appreciate that there are plenty of checkpoints — better than Medal of Honor in PS1 where if you die, you have to start over again. Looking forward to trying out Halo 2 and 3; and while Red Dead Redemption is still my favorite, Halo is def on my top games.

@themightyant yeah, I failed either that timimg or killed in action because i got stuck in the environments several times...

Ok, it is Crazy how the first two levels in halo 2 are so much better than anything in combat evolved!!
Storytelling, setting and gameplay...

@Balta666 I gota say I prefer Halo 2 to Halo 1. At least story wise. It's definitely very slightly more nuanced with the Arbiter character.

I think ODST has an interesting story too but you don't play as a super powered Spartan and the difficulty reflects this. I thought Reach was actually quite an engaging game and I think Halo Infinite is probably the most "fun" game at least to my tastes but even that falters for me when it pushes you through the linear parts of it.

@themcnoisy @RDDMarston do you both want to be added to the tag list for this thread or you just popping by for some Halo chat?

(Apologies, I might have already asked you in the past MC Noisy!)

Honestly i'm surprised, and interested, how much (relative) heat Halo is getting. It's been a few years since I played it, and I have rose tinted glasses, but I still remember a classic with a great story. Though the level design is now dated it was mind blowing at the time. And looked at now it definitely lacks some QoL features.

I always liked Halo 2, even when it was getting some grief at launch, but the story isn't as well written imho and the ending cliff-hanger was just annoying and left a bad taste at the time

Still think Halo 3 is the peak of everything for me, i've lost count of how many times I've played it. Reach tops it in many other ways but not in all, and while it's probably objectively the better game I don't prefer it to 3, but it is a close second.

ODST was an interesting side story with good mechanics and some great set pieces but not much more to me, pacing didn't quite click.

Halo 4 and 5 felt like a huge backwards step in many ways and annoyingly didn't finish their stories and then even more annoyingly didn't properly continue them in the next outing, similar with Infinite which was a little disappointing for me. It had great gunplay, LOVED the grapple but a weak storyline made worse with bad storytelling and repetitive environments and no/few good/memorable set pieces. Plus it lost too much going open-world as such it's the only Halo I haven't played more than once.

3 > Reach >> 1/CE = 2 >> ODST >> 5 > Infinite > 4 (Campaigns rated with rose tinted glasses based more on release) but all good games.

Damn it you've all made me want to play this series again!

Finished up the game this evening and I’d warmed up to it by the end, despite the atrocious final level. I think in the end I probably enjoyed it more 22 years ago but the remaster is a solid shooter with some good moments, particularly when the flood are introduced. I’m still eager to make my way through the series as I didn’t keep up with it beyond 3 but I reckon I’ll leave it a few months. Appreciate the club forcing my hand as i feel I’ve ticked off a classic since returning to the xbox fold albeit one I’ve played in another life 👍

On the achievements front, the tracking is off for me. The completion cheevo hasn’t popped and the one for missions completion is two behind??