Best Halo campaign

[gorfias]

Someone on this forum told me I need to check out The Act Man. He is a hoot! I think he is an Xbox fan boy. And he loves him some Halo.

And he has made a video concluding with, in his opinion, the best Halo campaign.



Pretty good fun, especially for those that love this franchise nearly as much as I do.

 

[Worgen]

Halo 2 is the best campaign. Its got such an interesting story, really the only things that pull it down are the blue balls ending and the fact that Halo 3 doesn't really continue it.

I guess from a pure gameplay perspective Reach had the best, with Halo CE second. Halo 2 gets points off for the fov sucking on the original Xbox and for being brutally difficult at parts.

 

[Hawki]

Probably Combat Evolved or Reach.

Combat Evolved has a great campaign where every level is enjoyable. However, of the original trilogy, it has the weakest story.

Halo 2's campaign is extremely mixed. Of the OT, it has the best story. Gameplay-wise however, only about half of it is fun. John's levels are great, but I can't stand the Arbiter's levels except the final ones, where you fight stuff other than Flood and Sentinels. In short, best story, worst gameplay.

Halo 3 is between the two. Has some great levels, and some drek levels. Luckily the former outnumbers the latter, but compare this to CE, where every level is enjoyable.

ODST is a waste of time. The only enjoyable bits are the flashback sections.

Reach might be the best, but unlike CE, only played its campaign once. I don't know if it has the best story per se, but it does have the best atmosphere, how as the campaign progresses, everything becomes more desparate.

Halo Wars 1 & 2 are fun, moreso the former. It at least has a better story with better characters.

Halo 4's campaign is...meh. There's some fun to be had, but it's offset by its lacklustre story.

Halo 5 is an improvement from Halo 4 in both story and gameplay, but nothing special.

Haven't played Spartan Assault or Strike, and I couldn't even get past the first level of Fireteam Raven (seriously, fuck arcade games that won't let you add credits).

 

[Zetatrain]

Best for me is a toss up between Reach and Halo 3

Reach has a slight edge in level design and abilities, but Halo 3 has duel wielding and more enemy variety ( I actually had very few problems with the flood in 3 and its easily the least annoying in the original trilogy).

Reach has the Saber mission but i enjoyed 3's ground vehicle sections more than Reach's ground vehicle sections

Both don't have the best story in the series, but both have their moments and end on a high note.

3rd favorite is actually a close call between Combat Evolved and Halo 4.

CE levels are better due to being less linear than 4s and it definitely shows in the vehicle sections. That being said I like fighting Prometheans more than the flood. I also like the weapons in 4 a bit more than CE, but some of 4's levels have the problem of offering mostly promethean weapons and not enough human or covenant weapons. This is a problem i never had in CE.

I like 4's story more than CE and its actually my second favorite in the series. Though that does come with the caveat that i read most of the Halo novels before 4 came out, and 4 really feels like it was assuming that you read them, especially when it came to stuff regarding the Didact and the Forerunners. What's baffling is that the info consoles that you find throughout the game do help you fill in some of the blanks about the forerunners, but since they are hidden many players won't find them on the first try. That being said i thought 4 did a good job with the stuff between MC and Cortana, and it gave 4's story a more personal touch, which helps it stand apart from other entries in the series.

But at the end of the day I am giving 3rd place to CE and 4th to Halo 4, since i think it does have the better gameplay.

5th is Halo 2

Halo 2 easily has the best story of the entire series. Unfortunately, the brutes and the flood in Halo 2 are the most infuriating enemies in the series for me. The brutes' ability to one hit KO you when they go berserk feels cheap especially since they are bullet sponges. The flood are worse because unlike the brutes they don't have any weak points and they can even revive themselves. Its no surprise my favorite parts of the game are the first 4 or 5 Master chief missions because you don't have to fight Brutes or the Flood. And finally there are the Jackal snipers...

I also feel like most of the Covenant weapons are underpowered which further exacerbates the issue of the brutes and flood being bullet sponges. The human weapons are good and easily my favorite overall (though I do love the energy sword), but the game doesn't spread them out enough in most levels and their ammo reserves are not big enough.

6th is ODST

ODST doesn't have the highs of Halo 2 but it also never got as infuriating. Overall its just Ok. That being said I found it weirdly immersive when I put a set of headphones on (for the Rookie's segments).

7th and last is Halo 5

I'm going to keep this short. Halo 6 is not a bad game, but the campaign is the worst in the halo series for me in terms of both gameplay and story. The new abilities are worthless and more often than not got me killed when i tried to use them. There is some verticality, but none of it felt integrated into the game in any meaningful way. The Warden fights were annoying because it feels like they were designed for co-op. The writing and presentation is woefully underwhelming and undoes the ending of Halo 4 which i actually liked. I'm not completely opposed to bringing Cortana back but the execution was woefully lacking to put it nicely. I disliked the ending so much that it actually put me off of reading any new halo novels and comics. I'm hoping Halo infinite sparks some newfound interest in the franchise for me, though the more recent developments aren't a good sign. I have played every other halo campaigns (the FPS entries) 4 times or more. I only played Halo 5's campaign once.

 

[laggyteabag]

See, the thing about Halo is that despite being a huge fan, the story doesn't really do it for me anymore. I have played all of these games a billion times over, and will continue to play them a billion more times. I still appreciate some of the cool story moments and scenes, but whether or not the story is any good as a whole, is completely lost on me - with one exception. As a result, my enjoyment of the games mostly comes down to the weapon sandbox, the enemies, and the level design.

So yes, whilst Halo 3's story might not be as good as Halo 2's, I ultimately find the game infinitely more enjoyable.

1) Halo 3
2) Halo 3: ODST

Halo 3 and ODST are basically the same game. They share most of the same guns, and most of the same enemies. Halo 3 is just Halo perfection for me, because the enemies and the weapons are the most fun to use, and the game features the least amount of bullshit *shakes fist at Halo 2 jackal snipers*. Halo 3 edges out ODST though, solely because I slightly prefer its levels.

3) Halo Reach

Halo Reach is a cracking game, with a really gritty tone and environment. Sure, it can suffer from 2010's GREYBROWN, but it is still looks great, and the gameplay is fantastic too, with the most robust Covenant roster. The only real killer here, is the garbage vehicle health mechanic (which continues to plague the later games), and the weapon bloom, which is just frustrating.

4) Halo CE

Halo CE is basically a perfect example of design by subtraction, although this is more retroactive, than intentional. If you got a Halo game, and boiled down the whole experience to more or less its base mechanics, you would get Halo CE. Absolutely nothing is redundant or out of place. It is a solid game, and the gameplay more than holds up almost 20 years later (except the Scorpion tank). The only real downside is that I just don't really enjoy the levels too much. The first half of the game is fine, but the second is basically just the first half, but in reverse, and with the Flood. *shakes fist at rocket flood*

5) Halo 2

I just don't like Halo 2's campaign levels. I don't mind most of the Master Chief's levels, but the Arbiter's levels are just a drag, because you spend half of the game is just fighting flood, sentinels, or brutes - and just... eh. Out of Bungie's games, this is definitely the one I want to replay, the least.

6) Halo 5

Whilst the other games are protected by precious nostalgia, this one definitely isnt. Whilst the weapons are probably some of the best in the series, the levels are completely forgettable, and the prometheans continue to bog down the experience. This is the only game where the story actively annoys me, too. Also, *shakes fist at the Warden Eternal*.

7) Halo 4

Halo 4 is basically the perfect storm of bad weapons, bad enemies, and bad level design. The prometheans are frustrating to fight, the new weapons are either boring or useless, and the levels somehow just make everything worse. Im currently also slogging my way through Halo 4's Spartan Ops mode, solo/legendary, so that might also be tainting my perception of this game. Whilst I am usually a bit wishy washy with Halo 4, at the moment I just can't stand it.