I'll start the inevitable flame war with Halo 2 and Halo 3.
First of all, I'll defend the multiplayer as a fantastic gaming experience, no argument.
But the singleplayer blew, and everyone is so reluctant to acknowledge it.
Everyone got all excited for part 2 with the whole alien invasion of Earth teaser trailer, and the game really delivered on that for the first 3 levels. Aside from the inexplicable re-emergence of the cliche black stereotype, and the new bimbo captain, the plot got off to an okay start, and the gameplay was fun, fighting through the corridors of Earth against an invasion complete with Imperial walkers.
But then it all goes to shit, you take control of some middle aged alien douchebag, having a mid life crisis, taking the entire Halo universe plotline (which till that point was not exactly original, but still wide open and loaded with potential) and driving in down Cliche Street to the corner of Predictible Avenue and Rehashed Tripe Blvd. Oh, gee shucks, you mean the psuedo-religious aliens are actually bufoons, and the humans and good aliens have to team up to stop the misguided aliens and the [strikeout] Headcrabs [/strikeout] er I mean [strikeout] John Carpenters The Thing [/strikeout], er the Flood, that cliche parasite thing that made for the worst gameplay of Halo 1. Oh and the shitty cliffhanger ending.
And then Halo 3 is guilty of following through on the shitty storyline clearly set up by Halo 2, the game tries to make everything reminicint of Halo 1 by having similar levels, characters die off in similar fashion, forced drama, and only minor tweaks to gameplay, all to bring about that bland unoriginal, uninspired finale (not the part with the 2 walkers, that was one of the few very fun moments). Halo 2 and 3 are to story what Family Guy is to animated entertainment. It's not that it isnt occasionally amusing or entertaining, its that it is a total bland plagarism, full of cliches, and no one involved seemed like they were trying all that hard.