I'm collecting a little bit of data on the Halo games. The question is: what gameplay mechanics do you dislike/like from Halos 1-3? Give reasons why please, also list some things you'd realistically would like to see in a Halo game. I need this data for both multiplayer and singleplayer. Thanks in advance.

a mechanic?
Duel-wielding is a mechanic right?
Duel-wielding. I miss it.
Edited by spiral on Feb 26, 2014 at 10:32 PM

Halo 2: The campaign - All of it is horrible
Edited by MatthewDratt on Feb 27, 2014 at 01:12 PM

you have a horrible taste in gameplay then.

I disliked the fact that SP Elites are significantly stronger than the player (melee) in Halo 2, regardless of rank.

They are also more resistant to melee damage.

Also, I disliked the existence of the bullet sponges that seemingly come back from the dead, aka Brutes.
Edited by Dumb AI on Feb 26, 2014 at 11:03 PM

Equipment in Halo 3 was kinda bad, never really used it.

Halo 1 is the best of the three. It's got awesome locations and a well paced story, the introduction of the flood and the revisiting of locations presented a whole new twist on everything you had done in the first half of the game. It had weapons that all worked well together, each when mastered could be used to devastating effect against the Covenant.

Halo 2 ruined all that. It delivered a fractured story that was unimmersive, and rid the game of some key concepts and enemies that made the first game so fun. Human weapons are rare to use, and are only commonly found in 3 or 5 missions depending how you classify them (Cairo, Mombassa, Delta Halo), and the Elites are enemies in those missions as well, except briefly in Gravemind. You do have them as enemies in the Gas Mine, but they are only fought using Covenant weapons, and the whole plasma for shields, human for flesh concept from the first game is tossed out the window. To top it off, Legendary is incredibly broken. You may say what does Legendary matter? Well Legendary is the only difficulty in the first game that fully embraces the games design and gameplay mechanics. It's an unfinished game, that was poorly planned by Bungie despite the extensions they were given. Dual wielding was something neat that was added, but did make the once formidable elites pushovers. In H3 this was corrected through both the nerfing of dual wielding, and the fact that they rid themselves of having a single brutes in CQB situations and mostly gave packs of them to deal with. On the subject of Brutes, they were poorly done, as was the flood, which is disappointing considering they are the enemies in more than half the game.

H3 was very well done, but it suffers from Bungie being burned by the reaction to H2's Story. For whatever reason, they felt that toning back the amount of story was the solution, rather than addressing the problems with H2's story. They were also backed into a corner by H2, forced to remove the Elites as enemies, and stuck dragging out what should have been a short story into a full game. H3 has you wandering around earth doing almost nothing for the first 4 missions, and mission 5 is really just an extension of mission 4. The game really starts and begins with The Ark and The Covenant, with Cortana (dreadful mission) and Halo (cool but not really a real mission) being the epilogue. The game also does away from Alien settings, and 3 way fights which were always interesting encounters. The core gameplay of H3 is solid, and it shows in ODST, but both games are unambitious in both story and combat (other than scarabs!) which ultimately makes them less interesting than they could have been.

I really need to write something up sometime with my thoughts on all the games.
Edited by Masters1337 on Feb 26, 2014 at 11:11 PM

Just cuzz im a dev doesnt mean i cant have a say too and i agree with this.

Halo 2, all the mechanics of the game sucked horibbly. Lame vehicle driving. Lame weapon animations. Lame mechanics generally. The only thing that I liked, is dual wielding which is, I have to say, something that has to return back in Halo.

Halo 1 was great. My first experience with the game was buying it with my dad about a year after it released on xbox. IIRC we bought the xbox for the game, my dad wanted the game more then I did. We loved it. Fighting in the pillar of autumn, a ship slowly getting blown to bits was a great feeling. Then stepping out onto Halo the first time was incredible. The missions were great. The mood was great. The story was great. It was a very close to perfect game. I remember when it came out on PC, I bought it in 2003, my dad would play pc and I would play xbox. He would always bitch about people online having more health than him lmao.

Halo 2 was a disaster, I didn't realize it because I was only a kid when I first played it, but after playing it multiple times it was clear that H1 was a superior game. The multiplayer was amazing, story was lacking. As I said before, bungies initial goal for this game was xbox 360 standards. The quality they were shooting for was just to much for the xbox, also, the fact that they began designing levels and missions before anything story-wise was even planned out was totally absurd. (The Arbiter level for example, initially being a MC based map). Nothing shown was on par to the E3 demo. Even if you look closely at the E3 demo you can see empty areas or places that just cut straight to skybox due to the resource limitations. The E3 demo would be great to play on, however it would not work as a playable mission. It is carefully scripted. If the player would to take any other path while playing then what was seen in the video, money says that the whole level would fall apart. The Arbiter character is what ruined the immersion of the covenant in Halo 1. The Arbiter was critically received very well, however his whole part of the game is what ruins everything through Halo 3.

Halo 3 was meh. Wasn't as bad as Halo 2 production wise however there is nothing special about it either. Fans were bitching about wanting more earth levels. Believe it or not, Halo 3 was original supposed to have NO missions take place on earth originally. The first level maybe, but thats it. The Ark was originally Halo 2's last mission. Where you discover the ark and it's purpose. The player would have played as chief and the dervish. Nope, instead we have 5 earth missions with nothing really getting accomplished. The Ark level (the desert one right?), was meh, The Covenant was an okay level, Cortana sucked, Halo was meh. It's too much. If there per say had one or two earth missions instead of 5 there would be much more room to tell a story.

ODST was just awesome. Not much to complain about. I can play the game over and over without getting bored, infact a lot of my inspiration comes from that game.


As for best gameplay? I'd have to say Halo 1. Halo 2 would be my choice if it's standards were met, but with half assed levels and unfinished game modes and content, I'm not able to really consider it.

Indeed.

Halo 1- Maps, History

Halo 2- Master Chief

Halo 3- Textures, Weapon Models, Gameplay

Halo 3 ODST- Everything iz aw3z0m3 br0!

So many opinions in this thread stated as facts (masterz + killa).

Halo 1 in my opinion was fantastic, had great multiplayer and a really well designed and put together campaign. Sucks it never had xbox live.

Halo 2 was actually my introduction to the series (through mp at a friends house) and has, arguably, some of the best level design in the entire original trilogy. The campaign is long with a great story. Some may argue that the ending is dissatisfying but I personally think it was great, as it set up the events perfectly for the next and "final" game.

Halo 3 was the first game I got to play from when it launched, got legendary edition, etc. This game in my eyes is a masterpiece, refined small things Halo 2 didn't get quite right and put it together in a packwage that wasn't simple, but wasn't complex, but was eloquent. Personally out of the three this game in terms of mechanics and gameplay was super refined not only in multiplayer, but also in single player (which included some great levels too, although was a bit short).

Halo 1 was, and is still the best Halo game I ever played due to its intense plot, atmosphere, and mystery. My only complaint about it was the existence of weapons / vehicles that Bungie made usable just in the later chapters (Energy Sword, for example), but this is just a little thing.

About Halo 2, I kinda liked how the game played , though the storyline looked a bit rushed IMO. I loved the introduction of the Arbiter and Rtas, probably the best characters of the saga after Chief, and I loved the analysis of the Covenant society. I still dream a Halo game totally focused on the Elites. Hated the introduction of Drones , though...

Halo 3... ew... where should I begin? The game had an huge pre-release hype, but -at least to me- it did not satisfy my expectations. The storyline is just based on the clichés from the previous chapters, like the Warthog run, the beach assault and the suicide marine. Some missions, like Tsavo Highway, are just empty and pointless for the plot, placed just to make the campaign longer. Also Bungie ruined some aspects from the previous games: the Grunts aren't cute anymore, the Elites look fat and "dinosauresque" instead of elegant and fierce, most of the weapons sound weak , and I can not accept what they did to the Assault Rifle. Also, the Flood in H3 are the most stupid and not even remotely scary ones of the series, Bungie ruined the Flood atmosphere, and they did not show very well their menace.

Keep in mind That everything is just my opinion, though ...
Edited by SOI_7 on Feb 27, 2014 at 09:58 AM

i say halo2 was my favorite, but it was also where i started so maybe i'm swayed. i agree that halo2's story needed work and that the levels should have been designed once they knew where they were going with the story. halo3 just felt like you where screwing around the whole time to me, and the flood wasn't that fun. i would've preferred a middle ground between halo2's rushed feel and halo3's drawn out. i loved reach, and its my second favorite, fairly balanced, enemies where balanced to the point where they were only just bullet sponges, decent weapon variety, and it had an excellent story so no complaints here. halo4 didn't feel like halo to me, it wasn't TOO bad as a game, but it dropped the bar... through the floor, as a halo game, too many complaints to list.
Edited by greg079 on Feb 27, 2014 at 03:07 PM

Out of the first three games, I liked Halo CE the best. So many surprises, balanced gameplay, fear, and mystery.
Halo 2 threw that all out the window (with prejudice) and the whole game just felt like KILL ALIENS, KILL ALIENS, KILL ALIENS...AS AN ALIEN! And the Arbiter levels were IMO dull and uninteresting.
For my opinion of Halo 3, just read Masterz' review. He sums it up perfectly. The last level was a total joke IMO. The MP, however, is my favorite of the whole entire series.
ODST I loved all the way through. The open-world mechanic was amazing.
Reach I don't even take seriously.
Halo 4... probably has my favorite campaign of the whole series. It was the first time since CE that a Halo game actually made me go "whoa" and had me surprised. I will kindly leave the god-awful MP out of the question.

Halo 1 is actually a horror game out all of them.


Remember 343 guilty spark when we first time when saw the floods?

And I remember when I was 7 years old the library was sooo.. depressing.


But the didact look more scarey..
Edited by sshers4 on Feb 27, 2014 at 04:45 PM

Agreed, he's certainly scarier than the Prophets or even the Gravemind (a giant plant?!!?)

a giant rhyming plant.

Also higuy, you are always so quick to discredit peoples thoughts on H2, but you never have a response for the things people like me or Killa accuse it of doing. Most of what we say isn't opinion, it is indeed fact. The game is incomplete and it breaks and removes core mechanics and idea's presented in Halo 1. I can understand you liking it because it was your first, but I am curious as to how you can enjoy is so much while ignoring it's gaping flaws.

Halo 2 to me, had to be the worst of them all. It doesn't even come close to the others in my opinion for most everything. The story lacked, seemingly some world proportions were off (scenery vehicles were super tiny compared to how they should be in real life), some textures looked alot worse and lower resolution then Halo 1, the human characters looked like crappy cartoon characters compared to the Halo 1 human characters even though the Halo 1 characters were more blocky, brutes were sponges and pricks on legendary (everything else that are against you on legendary was also pricks and annoying to fight) , flood was more boring and annoying, although more active compared to Halo 1, campaign gameplay was bland, and why the crap did they lower there mic quality in Halo 2 (game world wise. Unless it just seems that way.)

Haven't played much of Halo 3 for years now, but from what i have played... A lot more fun then Halo 2 campaign.

I think Halo 1 would the best out of all of them if they improved the graphics (Like CEA), added more physics to most everything like ragdoll and such, added more interactions with other characters (not like you could decide what to say to them and stuff like that. Just meet more people that talks to you and maybe tell you what you need to do and you could fight along with them or something like that), and maybe make the bsps more interesting.

I actually really love the way H2 looks, especially on Vista. You can tell a lot of love went into H2 in terms of presentation and graphics, in that regard it's my favorite. It really has the best story presentation of the series except maybe H4, although I do think the story was crap. The idea of exploring the Covenant was an awesome idea, I just wish we discovered everything about them through the Chief and Cortana's eyes, instead of bouncing in and out of two stories.

Some of the out doors environment looked great. I was just talking about some textures and world proportions (for example, New mombasa). I can see that Halo 2 was trying to make a story, and trying to add on and or improve the story, but i think it failed at some of it if not most.

Also, Halo 3 Cortana looked ugly. l:3

Edit: And sometimes the forerunner architectures in Halo 2 didn't look very forerunner like, but more human like. That bugged me a bit.
Edited by P3 on Feb 27, 2014 at 05:37 PM

Oh my god, this threads having an intelligent conversation.

Halo 2 was worse...... even bungie made a statement that they rushed it.

So you only dislike it because bungie made a statement? If anything halo 4 was the most rushed and it was quite broken at launch. (I lost all of my sp data)

Halo 1...
Like: Each weapons has a unique role and none really overlap at all.
Dislike: These weapons all sucked when it came to multiplayer because the pistol completely overruled everything, barring the shotgun for close range and sniper for suuuuper far. Jumping was also relatively eh as compared to later Halo games where I explain below (due to the fact you can't jump immediately upon landing). Hate how long it takes for a warthog to start moving also, it just grinds dirt for a few seconds before it even starts to move.

Halo 2...
Like: Weapons became a lot more balanced, I could kill with just about anything thanks to the supreme power that is duel wielding. Jumping and the mechanics around a character itself were very nice. It was easy to find just a slight ledge to jump to and thus jump elsewhere. Vehicles also began to drive very quickly upon getting in, unlike Halo 1. Vehicle-weight was also nice, whereupon a vehicle would do its best to flip itself if you turned it over somehow whilst in it. Also: FP legs, animation permutations, and look-up/down overlays.
Dislike: Button combos, ruined the game a ton albeit made the pro scene that much more intense and fun to watch.

Halo 3:
Like: Dual-wielding was perfected. Weapons were all short-range enough that you couldn't dual-wield all the time, but not too overpowered where they were the best at short range. Pistol's rate of fire slowed down so as not to be super cheap but still be good to finish with a headshot when close enough and dual-wielding.
Dislike: Nothing this game is perfect everything is perfectly balanced anyone who says otherwise is wrong...except for melee. I still cannot figure out how the system works in rewarding the kill or rather, how much damage the melee does. It still worked pretty well though. That's about it though. Rest is flawless fight me about it I dare you.



And seriously, a lot of you don't seem to understand what gameplay mechanics mean.

Woops, ha-ha, forgot to read. XD Just kind of threw my opinion in there.

Halo 2's melee lunge is useful but annoying sometimes, it leads to a fatal fall.

You know, its funny because this has come up so much recently with people I talk to. When H2's main menu video got leaked (the one that shows up if you sit in the main menu to long and don't do anything) it showed footage of Delta Halo structures, and for the most point I was unspoiled at that time. I seriously thought the story was going to have us visiting ancient mayan and aztec ruins, and further explore Humanities connection to the Forerunner that was hinted at in the first game. Clearly, the Covenant came to earth for a reason, and we would have to beat them to the forerunner installations on earth and somehow defeat them Of course, this never ended up happening and those structures were just weirdly on another halo ring.

In terms of campaign, Halo 4 was the least rushed of the series. They were working on it since before Reach was announced.

The Story wasnt rushed sure but there were too many bugs. i lost all my single player data and my armor resets all the time

That bug was actually due to their weird MP system. The campaign itself had nothing to do with it.

I really appreciate this.
I know aliens are supposed to be scary but cute was what made a grunt a grunt in my opinion.
Same with speaking not alien, they where the only covenant in halo 1 to speak in the human's language and that was a large part of what made the grunt my favorite thing ever in halo. When Halo Reach came out and the grunts where just high pitched sounding Sangheili that destroyed me on the inside. It was a neat idea but after a while I missed the old funny grunts.
h4 grunts are unspeakably terrible and ugly, not even scary. There stupid and dumb, not even silly. In my opinion.

but anyways on gameplay mechanics, I like suicide grunts. Pointless, annoying, silly, fun!

I don't think the H4 Grunts are MEANT to be "scary". Alien, yes. Scary? No, that goes to the Elites (admit it, the H4 Elites look pretty scary) I actually like the H4 Covenant models.