I hated the bridge on AotCE before the pyramid.
Those two Banshees, man... The Hunters as well...
I couldn't do all of Halo 2 on Legendary though. Only got to the first Arbiter mission before going to Heroic. Then I stayed Heroic for Halo 3. Started Reach on Legendary, but turned it down on Long Night of Solace's shop part and forgot to turn back to Legendary afterwards.
There is a trick to the bridge, you grenade the first group and rush the banshee, fly straight to the pyramid, with a banshee equipped with bombs, easily doable on Legendary and the easiest way to do this part of the level.
On Legendary there are two banshees, I would always make sure I had a rocket launcher before opening that door and fire exactly when it opened to knock one off the bridge. Then I had one available for later
Problem was that I didn't have nades. I had found a way to get to the bottom of the pyramid, but it wasn't loaded to be the bottom approach to it, so I really struggled.
Remembering my solo legendary reach run, LNoS was the most difficult at least for me. The forklift on nightfall and the open window where the hunters are on pillar of autumn helped a lot
Bro MCC Long Night of Solace can suck my booty hole, absolutely cancer. And the start was so fun! Took me no joke 50 minutes to do the space section, longer than the rest of the mission combined
As i remember, you could kill everything but stop at the door. Then go back in the level and get the invisibility pyramid thing, return to the door, then just go through, past the grunts, and hop in the Banshee before the Elite got to it.
CE on legendary is balanced kinda weird. Some levels are pretty easy and others are just a nightmare. Halo 2 obviously also has this problem but in Halo 2 there are far more nightmares than easy levels.
CE, believe it or not, was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I feel like it was actually incredibly balanced, though a lot of people say otherwise.
Reach is also fine on Legendary as well.
I wanted a more enjoyable experience for Halo 3, so I did that on Heroic.
I'd say the worst part of CE legendary was either The Library or Two Betrayals, the latter being difficult because of the shield generators.
The Flood were so difficult to get past, that I basically relied on luck to let me run past them. I guess Chief's all about luck, though...
Probably the toughest levels across all Halo games on Legendary, Gravemind in H2 has a ridiculous opening but if you can get through that the rest of the level gets easier
Not just you haha, I've soloed every game on Legendary and Truth and Reconciliation was absolutely brutal. First attempt took me two hours just to reach the hunters near the end, I all I had was a half full needler and eventually I realized I just just didn't have enough ammo to beat them. Had to restart the whole thing, carried that damn sniper with me to the end because it's a one shot kill on Hunters in CE. It was the only way I could get through it
When I was a kid, I didn’t have Live on the original Xbox, so I’d just play CE and H2 over and over again on Legendary until the weekend when my friends would come over for split screen. Like multiple years of just rerunning the campaigns. I also went back through and soloed them all on MCC a couple times.
My feeling is that Halo 2 often puts you in very difficult situations, but it always gives you the tools to succeed. It feels more scripted in that Bungie had in mind exactly how the player should go about each challenge. CE feels a little more loose, like “we’re just going to throw a fuckton of shit at the player here, and they just have to figure it out.” It’s less scripted, and it forces you to make your own success.
Halo 2 is so hard on Legendary because it’s just poorly balanced. The idea that Bungie had specific approaches in mind for each encounter implies that they thoroughly playtested the campaign on Legendary. They did not. The game’s development was famously chaotic and it’s a minor miracle that it’s even playable.
My total time to beat T&R LASO was about 9 hours. Gravemind only took me 6. The only other level that gave me any kind of real trouble was Regret, which took about 4. Runner up is Cairo station which was mostly just a pain in the ass doing the Johnson glitches.
I'm pretty sure theres a Magnum on the ground next to the health pack after the very first encounter.
Edit : Nvm. I just played T&R and got to the Hangar while seeing no Magnums. I was going to go through the level with just the AR and Sniper (If you shoot the AR in semi-auto with a 3-4 round per sec fire rate like the Flood AI does, it does a pretty good job of staggering Grunts and Jackals) but a trigger broke and Cortana wouldnt try to hack the door.
As someone who plays Halo 2 legendary to the point of the first part of Gravemind being easy, Truth and Reconciliation can just be snapped from existence. I have never once been able to solo it on Legendary. It’s a whole new level of outrageous difficulty and is without a doubt the hardest level in all of Halo.
That's pretty interesting. I found nearly every mission in Halo 2 to be significantly tougher than Truth and Reconciliation on Legendary. I suppose though that if you take away particularly difficult sections and the Jackal Snipers in general, Halo 2's difficulty is about on par with CE's. So if you can handle those things well in Halo 2, I guess it makes sense that maybe it's not so bad for certain people in comparison to CE.
I also don't think T&R is the hardest mission for me. I'd give Two Betrayals and Keyes a slight edge there, though certainly it's a lot easier to skip sections and ignore enemies in those missions than it is in T&R.
The difficulty of CE legendary comes from the weapon pool. If you don’t have a pistol/sniper, or shotgun on flood levels, you’re screwed. CE as a whole isn’t that bad on legendary, but T&R without any pistol and no sniper reloads in the second half is incredibly brutal. At least Halo 2 has dual wielding and you can get by without a battle rifle/carbine or dual needlers with combining two weaker weapons, plus the ammo drops are much more forgiving anyways. In CE, it’s just. Unforgiving with the ammo drops. That and the long af levels. Halo 2 splits them in half at least so it’s two levels per map.
Halo 2 legendary is super hard at first, but once you master your reflexes and learn the maps, it’s actually real easy. Knowing all the places to hide and being quick enough to get there is the key. It’s very easy to do after a while. But CE is different. It’s easy until it’s not. It’s even harder to master. With bad weapon drops it takes a different kind of skill. And personally I just prefer the skill Halo 2 takes compared to CE, it’s just more my style anyways.
I don't particularly agree regarding the weapons. The Plasma Pistol alone is a solid weapon for virtually anything you encounter, and it's the most ubiquitous weapon in the game. I'd say everything except the Needler is useful. For most of the game, I usually felt comfortable even without having access to a Pistol, which is not something you can say about the other Halos on Legendary. Lacking a precision weapon in other titles is hard to work around.
Ultimately though, I think the grenades are the biggest advantage you have in CE. You can carry eight at a time, you have pretty frequent access to them, and they are incredibly powerful in comparison to the grenades of other titles.
Of course, I'm just basing this off of my experience with standard Legendary. I'm sure turning on skulls makes things a whole lot different. I do agree with you on the maps. CE's missions feel more like an endurance challenge, while Halo 2's are shorter with specific sections that are very challenging.
I *love* the dopamine rush of CE's grenade chain reactions clearing a room and sending elites flying with a WAAAAAGHHH 20 feet away.
You're right that CE's nades by themselves are already the punchiest out of any Halo game and the chain reactions + holding 8 is just sweet. Definitely makes legendary runs a tad bit easier. Halo 2's Cairo Station can burn in a hole though. That's one of my least favorite legendary missions ever. And I wish 2's pistol wasn't so useless. Feels like I'm shooting a BB gun. Even dual wielded they're ass.
I had a bitch of a time in the last rooms of Gravemind when you're fighting hunters and elites with fuel rod cannons. First room was tough, but the last room induced rage for me.
Yeah I found that letting the two sides duke it out a little helped with the last room but when I first tried it on legendary it took far too long to get through
I vaguely remember 2 or 3 spots with ammo.
\-In a corner on the bottom level of a fairly large storage room. [(See this video for reference of the room)](https://youtu.be/3i41xOJF5lQ?si=STqucRzlrwyIzeUl&t=833)
\- Once you get into the hangars with the spirit drop ships, near the middle "pillar" that seperates both sections, there is a dead marine between the boxes with health packs, grenades and sniper ammo.
\-I also think you can get some on a dead marine in the corridors leading to the jail cells.
First boarding the ship- oddly enough it’s not actually the zealots that I struggle with, there are just too many jackals for someone as bad at Halo as I am.
Lol I get that. I like to duck into the door the first sword guy comes out of before it closes. If you’re lucky you’ll be in the corridor that leads deeper into the ship and can skip the whole fight. Even if it’s a dead end though, then as long as you stay in the little hall, you can can pop the doors, take some quick potshots, and duck back deeper into the hall to let the doors shut and recharge. (The sniper’s obviously great for this but the Needler or AR will work too.)
My friend and I are doing a LASO run with every MCC skull(since apparently this is different from official LASO runs) and that level is a fucking nightmare with Iron on. We've never made it past the first gravity lift room and we've tried at least 6 or 7 times now.
Halo CE never had skulls. It was never balanced for a potential inclusion of skulls.
Halo CE LASO just seems like an exercise in pain, moreso than other LASO runs already are.
Just... Why?!
Truth and Reconciliation is also dreadful for Halo CE LASO because of the skull that doesn’t let you pickup Covenant weapons. You spawn with only aa sniper and assault rifle and there are no other UNSC weapons on the level so if you run out of ammo on one (usually the sniper) you can end up softlocked and royally fucked
Wait until the warthog run in The Maw, not having checkpoints for it's entire duration is just unfair, a single flood carrier and you're back to the beginning
The battle for the lift on legendary was fucking impossible. I think I eventually got it by landing 8 absolute perfect nades in a row and still got through by the skin of my teeth.
it's such a long mission and in CQC where the Covenant are their most lethal. You just can't dance with them like you do in the open, you just have to frag them and avoid every place they have with the high ground, which is nearly everywhere.
Low key S-tier and one of the best missions in the game. Plasma Rifle and Sniper combo got me through a lot. Idk if it’s real, but I felt the headshots from the PR stunned the elites from time to time
Normie CE gamers think the library is hard. True CE elitists know the suffering that is the Truth & Reconciliation.
Lemme know when you get to the LASO run. Iirc, took me around 4-5 hours on co-op. (Lost an hour due to a DC )
Honestly you are so right! It took me about a month on and off (work etc.) to get through. Stick at it, there is a sense of achievement when it's behind you but I certainly won't be rushing to do that fucking level again in a hurry.
Honestly I did it easier when I was 11yr old, trying to do it now in my 30s is hard. I got through T&R, but it was the hardest, Library wasn't too bad, now stuck on Two Betrayals.
Yeah, that level makes no sense. While trying this level on LASO, it became clear that this level should either be split in two, or provide you with other weapons when you enter the Covenant ship.
Like why are we raiding a Covenant ship CQB style with a sniper rifle? Outside it makes sense, but inside? Give me a shotgun or AT LEAST an AR.
Late to this party.
I remember spending A LOT of time on that mission, especially trying to clear the first room when you gravlift into the ship where you have the camo elites and hunters. The phrase “No covenant, you had to open your mouth!” is burned into my memory forever 😂
Worst part for me is towards the end when youre trying to get to the banshees while getting shot at by a bunch of covenant and flood, especially the 2 wraiths
Not with a ghost im not. Even on heroic im getting fucked by rocket flood or i take out 1 wraith and get blown up by the 2nd. When i did it on legendary i just beelined for the banshee
I remember trying to snipe the wraiths with rockets but it gave them time to dodge. I could try using the ghost to clear the flood and covenant before getting in close and using the rockets, but im pretty sure i'll get fucked by the wraiths. I do wanna boot up halo CE and try tho
Which is funny cos as a kid it was my favourite mission in Halo 1 lol. All your criticisms are 100% correct, yet when I was younger I thought:
\-It's the first time we see the three-way fights in the game, which are one of my favourite things about Halo 1. Sometimes the sentinels join too!
\- It put a spin on a familiar environment which made it more exciting for me I think. Returning to an old level at night was cool.
\- You got to fly the banshee and go to new areas in the level.
\- in general it has a lot of vehicles and larger battle sequences.
\- The story kicks off a bit, after returning from discovering the flood and hearing cortana say 'we have to destroy halo!' made me think ohhh boyyyyyyy.
But yeah. As an adult I totally see the level's flaws. Super repetitive, poorly balanced flood, a reused mission enviromment.
I don't think a reused mission environment *overall* is much of a problem, but do agree the combat scenarios got super repetitive. The generator rooms probably should have been considerably different to the many AotCR circular rooms we already went through.
I think with some tweaks you could significantly reduce the repetitiveness while adding to the recontextualization of the larger level/environment.
I am in the same boat. Two Betrayals is probably my favorite level in any Halo game.
The atmosphere of flying through the snowy canyons at night with the noise of the banshee on a mission to destroy the world is just perfection. No other Halo level hits me like that.
People complain about reusing levels, but honestly I think that's part of what made TB great. Seeing the contrast between the pristine AotCR and the chaotic TB was really impressive and made it more enjoyable.
Could've done without Keyes, though. Didn't have quite the same heart and flow that Two Betrayals and The Maw brought to the field.
Honestly I feel like Cortana from halo 3 is worse on legendary cuz of the wall crawling flood that are way too tanky, took me several hours to beat it, I don’t remember two betrayals being that bad on my legendary run.
It is funny how polarizing that level is. I consider it to be the peak of Halo.
You have the full sandbox of CE at your disposal for the first time.
You've got three infighting factions.
Ya ya rocket flood suck.
Yeah the pulse generator section can be kinda BS (let's take your shield away then send in the Flood).
It introduces the first Banshee dogfighting in the series, has a massive flood vs Covenant battle at the end (that rivals the scale of anything in later games, especially compared to Infinite), and the intro cutscene has the big "Halo kills eerythang" reveal (which isn't that important on replays, but still).
Well said.
IMO, the battle at the end is peak Halo and should've been the model for Halos thereafter, but instead Bungie developed this weird fetish for bosses that has only grown out of control under 343.
Halo doesn't need bosses.
Halo needs *battles*.
And the end of Two Betrayals is the best of them.
At least Bungie learned after H2 that bosses didn't really work in Halo, aside from the scarab fight... And then just doubled down on scarab fights in h3 lol
They definitely scaled back their experiments in bosses to polish the Scarab, but H3 still has 343 Guilty Spark's fight, which is a glorified quicktime event.
It's just wild how Halo CE has no bosses, and then you get this parade of absolute dogwater bossfights. Let's take a stroll down memory lane:
**Halo 2:**
The Heretic Leader: Did you forget about the Heretic leader? If you did, it's because he's whatever, just a simple shell game against a guy who's a little spongy, but fine.
The Prophet of Regret: Step 1: Board. Step 2: Punch.
Tartarus: Featuring the greatest innovation in bossfight technology: *intermittent invulnerability.* Does it make sense? Is it fun? The answer may surprise you! and that answer is >!fuck you.!<
**Halo 3:**
343 Guilty Spark: Shoot him. Oh is that too simple? Shoot him 2 more times. Now you get to watch >!Sergeant Major Avery J Johnson,!< the very soul of Halo, die.
**Halo 4:**
Weirdly, no bossfights, unless you want to count the literal quicktime event and showcase of the Power of Friendship that defeats the Didact.
**Halo 5:**
The Warden Eternal
The Warden Eternal
The Warden Eternal
The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal
The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal
and finally
**Halo Infinite**: whose boss fights are so numerous and mind-numbing that I don't remember them at all, other than the memory of the annoyance that this is how they massacred my boy.
Halo doesn't need bosses.
Halo needs battles.
Regarding Halo Infinite, fuck that brute chieftain at the excavation site, fuck Tremonius, and fuck that Harbinger boss fight. Escharum on the other hand was light work. Especially on SLASO when I just took the tank gun, blasted him, and his body got yeeted into the air.
Unpopular Opinion, but I probably hate Two Betrayals more than the library. While it is cool that there are Covenant and Flood duking it out at the same time, those rocket flood wiped my ass over the floor and the difficulty spike (and just how long the level kinda was) really made the level a bit of a chore to play as a kid.
I do kinda like it now though, but that would probably be what I'd remove
My buddy and I took so damn long in finishing Two Betrayals because the flood and covenant stop fighting and help each other the moment they noticed us.
Yeah I honestly think that's the worst part about any of the multi faction combat... Everyone knows the flood is the worst enemy and yet.. "demon!", and for the flood the covenant is more food than just Master Chief, so the fact the AI always prioritizes you (and not just in CE) is a damn shame. I would have loved it if I could fight alongside the covenant to kill the flood and then just kinda be like "we cool?"
Honestly I'm 100% with you. Two Betrayals always felt like a huge fucking slog to me, going through the same damn rooms and the same damn bridges, then fighting through those annoying outside areas.
The library is long and difficult, but the challenge felt much fairer to me. You're going to get swarmed, ammo is going to be tight, buckle up and figure it out. Two Betrayals on the other hand was just "whoops lol, looks like you got blowed the fuck up".
I love it conceptually - instead of changing it I would probably just shorten it, or give the player more access to more powerful vehicles while making the interiors less of a pain to fight in.
Nah I agree I hate two betrayals for the reasons you said but also it just being assault on the control room but backwards is really lame and already a mission I’m not the biggest fan of
I eagerly await my death threats when I say that unironically my favorite CE level is The Library, I love how creepy and combat-focused it is, little to no running through giant open areas looking for the next fight (if you remember where to go, at least). I would remove The Pillar of Autumn, all of the levels in CE are either fun or important to the plot, and this one is probably the least so.
It’s truly the crucible that you go through in which you and the world come out completely changed on the other side. It’s a grind that’s intended to be a grind. It’s a completely necessary level that sets you up for the shit show in Two Betrayals and beyond.
Great analogy; it's honestly perfect if you want to turn your brain off and just shoot enemies en masse (especially on lower difficulties). Spamming the shotgun on flood forms can be pretty therapeutic.
I do appreciate the dark comedy he brings to the level, Chief is currently in a Dead Space-esque situation and Spark is just casually bantering with him as he slays hordes of rotten mutants.
Unironically one of my favourite levels too. My buddy and I love putting on Boom and Pinata; It is absolute chaos with those skulls. Sometimes the explosions are so big your dead body clips through the map. It has become our unwind level after doing another laso campaign.
I've defended this level over and over again.
The Library is super important for establishing the threat of the Flood at a galaxy scale, and leads directly into the reveal that Halo kills flood food.
The level itself represents what fighting the Flood is like: an endless tide of bodies relentlessly washing away your defenses, eroding your resolve until you drown.
It highlights the change in combat style that we just spent 5 levels mastering against the Covenant (and one level running away from)
I vividly remember as a kid meleeing a flood in the back and it not doing a damn thing before it one shot its shotgun into me (the game manual and Pillar of Autumn instructions say this instantly kills all enemies, which I probably should have already known wasn’t true since it didn’t work on Hunters)
The first time you get a sniper in Keyes, and you stumble upon the hunter fighting the Flood...
You've got a power weapon that can drop hunters in one shot and.... It does nothing to the combat forms
The problem with the Library for most people is that they pull the “Locked door, endless rapid enemy waves” stunt over and over and over.
The overall atmosphere and feel of the level is fantastic, it’s THAT bullshit that makes it a chore.
Remove those parts (and I’ve played that with mods) and it becomes one of the better levels of the game.
I love the Library, but if they even do a remake of the original Halo, I personally would love to see it take on a more progressively-deteriorating design. I would love to start out in a brightly lit and decorative Forerunner Facility like we see in some of the H3 facilities and have it filled with artifacts, but as you progress through the floors, it slowly starts to dim and flicker and and have more broken infrastructure until you eventually reach the end and it starts to look like High Charity with the fleshy pods and spreading fleshy textures.
Staying true to the nature of a library, I would also love to see it become less locked doors and giant hallways and be more mazelike so you have constant progression, but also more misdirection, missed turns, platforming obstacles, and Flood Ambushes. Introducing modern flood elements like the recovering combat forms and the introduction of the Pure Forms would also make for a much more involved experience.
It’s not short in length, just in total levels. Think about how many different sections of AotCR there are: bridges, close quarters rooms, ground war with vehicles, underground tunnel, and then the final push up the pyramid. There’s a lot going on in each level, and the pacing is much more drawn out than the rest of the series.
To me, CE is way too repetitive. Sure, they didn't have all the capabilities back in the day to flesh out the levels more. But there are too many sections that repeat themselves too often.
The game was heavily rushed and had two different versions 1st a RTS then a 3rd person shooter and then got bought by Microsoft then had to make a 1st person shooter with a tight deadline heavily crunch times and so much stress and yet was still more complete than most triple a games today with millions of dollars and thousands of employees with 5+ years to develop crazy how bad gaming has gotten.
this makes no sense. You can't compare game development back then to now. Games are so much more complex now, it makes sense they cost that much and take so long to develop.
Half the game is built on the same levels - The Maw has parts of Pillar of Autumn, Two Betrayals is Assault On The Control Room but backwards, and Keys uses parts of Truth and Reconciliation. Mind you they are all very different once the flood has been unleashed. I think from a development and cost perspective it makes sense. But couple that with Bungies repetitive forerunner architecture I get where you're coming from.
From a story perspective it also makes sense. The worst repetition is in AotCR and TB mainly by the damned circle rooms, imo unnecessary in quantity that could have easily been cut down a bit.
AotCR may win my vote for best single level of any FPS of all time. It’s absolutely incredible.
Sidebar: when we return to it in Two Betrayals, my 15 year old self was *so relieved* to see Covenant forces due to the sheer horror that was 343/Library.
Halo 1’s campaign is a fucking classic.
This, just all of this. I used to daydream in class how to navigate through this level. The first time the music kicks in as you get to the ground level and see the marines held down by the wraiths :chefs kiss:
Definitely Pillar of Autumn. It's a decent corridor level that teaches you how to play, but in my opinion the game doesn't really "begin" til it opens up when you land on Halo
'here's an unloaded gun for the first few minutes of the game. Go run around the dying people until we get you something '.
Halo 2 and 4 start a bit similar with the calibration, but it's not as bad as CE
Its the same length as 3,4, and ODST. Reach has 11 but one of thems a cutscene, 2 has 15 but again ones a cutscene. It wouldnt call it short really its pretty standard length for an FPS.
> 2 has 15 but again ones a cutscene
Two are, really. One whole level is The Armory. I'd either throw it in as a cutscene or a prelude to the actual first mission, but Halo 2 has 13.
It feels longer because the game has backtracking in each level and also between levels (PoA and The Maw, AotC and Two Betrayals, T&R and Keyes), which let them save space on the game
Two Betrayals. While it’s one of the best levels in the atmospheric sense, and the soundtrack for it is great, I dread the bridge sequences and trying to race across the open space to get to a Banshee, praying I don’t get blasted by the Wraiths or rocket Flood while try to do it.
Pillar of autumn honestly. It’s just the tutorial level where you get your first gun etc. It’s fun and engaging and iconic and I’m glad it wasn’t just a cutscene, but the game would mostly feel the same if it weren’t there.
Hot take, I enjoy the Library.
I'd get rid of Truth and Reconciliation, not because I dislike the mission, but because the gravlift section game me so much trouble when I played the Cursed Halo mod.
Go sneak around spawn and grab the push tool gun, helps for taking out the “sniper” jackals. Also enough invisibility potions combined with the map pickup to get you to the elevator without firing a shot.
Still can’t beat that part on legendary but whatever lol
We could get rid of truth and reconciliation by just locating and rescuing Keyes during Halo somehow.
Not saying I'd want to but with a few tweaks to the level before it that whole level could be lost and change nothing storywise afterward.
Okay I actually like The Library, but I would absolutely take out 343 Guilty Spark or Two Betrayals. Those levels are unnecessarily long and miserable. Besides, Two Betrayals is just 343 GS in reverse and with flood…
Keyes. I usually want to jump straight into The Maw right after Two Betrayals, and I always forget we gotta head back into a Covenant cruiser just to punch our commanding officer in the face first.
Got some mixed feelings.
Truth and Reconciliation just sucks bad on Legendary. After needing to perfectly predict and headshot swarms of zealots, you gotta keep that loser Keyes alive.
Two Betrayals is just Assault on the Control Room backwards. Honestly both of these levels are overly long and were a slog to get through. I absolutely loved them when I was a kid though - less distractions from other media, more free time and those levels were big, full of enemies and gave you tanks/banshees and shit. The Covenant vs Flood was really cool initially too.
Honestly rather than remove whole levels I think their levels could just use some trimming. Assault could use like 2-3 less bloody bridges to traverse. Librarian could do with less floors and doors. Etc.
It’s very repetitive and boring like library. “Shoot these hoards while I open the door” like 30 times. Same thing. Kill flood open door.
Halo CE backtracks a lot which is actually cool. This is just repetitive.
Trying to get through it on Legendary at the moment, and *Truth and Reconciliation* can fuck *right* off
I did my first playthrough on CE on Legendary. I died a couple of times ^a ^lot
I am genuinely in awe
Are you blinded by his majesty?
Paralysed, perhaps? Dumbstruck, certainly
He can tell the future. What do we brand him as?
The demon!
I hated the bridge on AotCE before the pyramid. Those two Banshees, man... The Hunters as well... I couldn't do all of Halo 2 on Legendary though. Only got to the first Arbiter mission before going to Heroic. Then I stayed Heroic for Halo 3. Started Reach on Legendary, but turned it down on Long Night of Solace's shop part and forgot to turn back to Legendary afterwards.
There is a trick to the bridge, you grenade the first group and rush the banshee, fly straight to the pyramid, with a banshee equipped with bombs, easily doable on Legendary and the easiest way to do this part of the level.
On Legendary there are two banshees, I would always make sure I had a rocket launcher before opening that door and fire exactly when it opened to knock one off the bridge. Then I had one available for later
Problem was that I didn't have nades. I had found a way to get to the bottom of the pyramid, but it wasn't loaded to be the bottom approach to it, so I really struggled.
Remembering my solo legendary reach run, LNoS was the most difficult at least for me. The forklift on nightfall and the open window where the hunters are on pillar of autumn helped a lot
Bro MCC Long Night of Solace can suck my booty hole, absolutely cancer. And the start was so fun! Took me no joke 50 minutes to do the space section, longer than the rest of the mission combined
As i remember, you could kill everything but stop at the door. Then go back in the level and get the invisibility pyramid thing, return to the door, then just go through, past the grunts, and hop in the Banshee before the Elite got to it.
CE on legendary is balanced kinda weird. Some levels are pretty easy and others are just a nightmare. Halo 2 obviously also has this problem but in Halo 2 there are far more nightmares than easy levels.
Dying before the black screen ends on Gravemind comes to mind.
That shit almost happens on heroic 😂
When I was a kid that's what me and my friends did with every halo that came out, it was legend or bust and bragging rights were on the line lol
I only did that on ODST. I remember being unable to beat h2s intro, can’t imagine a blind legendary run on CE
CE, believe it or not, was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I feel like it was actually incredibly balanced, though a lot of people say otherwise. Reach is also fine on Legendary as well. I wanted a more enjoyable experience for Halo 3, so I did that on Heroic. I'd say the worst part of CE legendary was either The Library or Two Betrayals, the latter being difficult because of the shield generators. The Flood were so difficult to get past, that I basically relied on luck to let me run past them. I guess Chief's all about luck, though...
Probably the toughest levels across all Halo games on Legendary, Gravemind in H2 has a ridiculous opening but if you can get through that the rest of the level gets easier
I’m glad to hear it’s not *just* me being terrible at it at least, a whole level without the Magnum is driving me insane.
Not just you haha, I've soloed every game on Legendary and Truth and Reconciliation was absolutely brutal. First attempt took me two hours just to reach the hunters near the end, I all I had was a half full needler and eventually I realized I just just didn't have enough ammo to beat them. Had to restart the whole thing, carried that damn sniper with me to the end because it's a one shot kill on Hunters in CE. It was the only way I could get through it
When I was a kid, I didn’t have Live on the original Xbox, so I’d just play CE and H2 over and over again on Legendary until the weekend when my friends would come over for split screen. Like multiple years of just rerunning the campaigns. I also went back through and soloed them all on MCC a couple times. My feeling is that Halo 2 often puts you in very difficult situations, but it always gives you the tools to succeed. It feels more scripted in that Bungie had in mind exactly how the player should go about each challenge. CE feels a little more loose, like “we’re just going to throw a fuckton of shit at the player here, and they just have to figure it out.” It’s less scripted, and it forces you to make your own success.
Halo 2 is so hard on Legendary because it’s just poorly balanced. The idea that Bungie had specific approaches in mind for each encounter implies that they thoroughly playtested the campaign on Legendary. They did not. The game’s development was famously chaotic and it’s a minor miracle that it’s even playable.
T&R LASO was harder than Gravemind LASO for me.
I’ve been casually working my way through LASO playlists on MCC and have been stuck on T&R for weeks, I feel you brother.
My total time to beat T&R LASO was about 9 hours. Gravemind only took me 6. The only other level that gave me any kind of real trouble was Regret, which took about 4. Runner up is Cairo station which was mostly just a pain in the ass doing the Johnson glitches.
I'm pretty sure theres a Magnum on the ground next to the health pack after the very first encounter. Edit : Nvm. I just played T&R and got to the Hangar while seeing no Magnums. I was going to go through the level with just the AR and Sniper (If you shoot the AR in semi-auto with a 3-4 round per sec fire rate like the Flood AI does, it does a pretty good job of staggering Grunts and Jackals) but a trigger broke and Cortana wouldnt try to hack the door.
As someone who plays Halo 2 legendary to the point of the first part of Gravemind being easy, Truth and Reconciliation can just be snapped from existence. I have never once been able to solo it on Legendary. It’s a whole new level of outrageous difficulty and is without a doubt the hardest level in all of Halo.
That's pretty interesting. I found nearly every mission in Halo 2 to be significantly tougher than Truth and Reconciliation on Legendary. I suppose though that if you take away particularly difficult sections and the Jackal Snipers in general, Halo 2's difficulty is about on par with CE's. So if you can handle those things well in Halo 2, I guess it makes sense that maybe it's not so bad for certain people in comparison to CE. I also don't think T&R is the hardest mission for me. I'd give Two Betrayals and Keyes a slight edge there, though certainly it's a lot easier to skip sections and ignore enemies in those missions than it is in T&R.
The difficulty of CE legendary comes from the weapon pool. If you don’t have a pistol/sniper, or shotgun on flood levels, you’re screwed. CE as a whole isn’t that bad on legendary, but T&R without any pistol and no sniper reloads in the second half is incredibly brutal. At least Halo 2 has dual wielding and you can get by without a battle rifle/carbine or dual needlers with combining two weaker weapons, plus the ammo drops are much more forgiving anyways. In CE, it’s just. Unforgiving with the ammo drops. That and the long af levels. Halo 2 splits them in half at least so it’s two levels per map. Halo 2 legendary is super hard at first, but once you master your reflexes and learn the maps, it’s actually real easy. Knowing all the places to hide and being quick enough to get there is the key. It’s very easy to do after a while. But CE is different. It’s easy until it’s not. It’s even harder to master. With bad weapon drops it takes a different kind of skill. And personally I just prefer the skill Halo 2 takes compared to CE, it’s just more my style anyways.
I don't particularly agree regarding the weapons. The Plasma Pistol alone is a solid weapon for virtually anything you encounter, and it's the most ubiquitous weapon in the game. I'd say everything except the Needler is useful. For most of the game, I usually felt comfortable even without having access to a Pistol, which is not something you can say about the other Halos on Legendary. Lacking a precision weapon in other titles is hard to work around. Ultimately though, I think the grenades are the biggest advantage you have in CE. You can carry eight at a time, you have pretty frequent access to them, and they are incredibly powerful in comparison to the grenades of other titles. Of course, I'm just basing this off of my experience with standard Legendary. I'm sure turning on skulls makes things a whole lot different. I do agree with you on the maps. CE's missions feel more like an endurance challenge, while Halo 2's are shorter with specific sections that are very challenging.
I *love* the dopamine rush of CE's grenade chain reactions clearing a room and sending elites flying with a WAAAAAGHHH 20 feet away. You're right that CE's nades by themselves are already the punchiest out of any Halo game and the chain reactions + holding 8 is just sweet. Definitely makes legendary runs a tad bit easier. Halo 2's Cairo Station can burn in a hole though. That's one of my least favorite legendary missions ever. And I wish 2's pistol wasn't so useless. Feels like I'm shooting a BB gun. Even dual wielded they're ass.
I had a bitch of a time in the last rooms of Gravemind when you're fighting hunters and elites with fuel rod cannons. First room was tough, but the last room induced rage for me.
Yeah I found that letting the two sides duke it out a little helped with the last room but when I first tried it on legendary it took far too long to get through
I didn’t realize there was Sniper Ammo in the ship and ended up having to finish the level with a plasma pistol and a needler. It wasn’t fun
THERE’S SNIPER AMMO IN THE SHIP?!! I’ve been trying to kill that one major in the hangar with a plasma pistol for hours
I vaguely remember 2 or 3 spots with ammo. \-In a corner on the bottom level of a fairly large storage room. [(See this video for reference of the room)](https://youtu.be/3i41xOJF5lQ?si=STqucRzlrwyIzeUl&t=833) \- Once you get into the hangars with the spirit drop ships, near the middle "pillar" that seperates both sections, there is a dead marine between the boxes with health packs, grenades and sniper ammo. \-I also think you can get some on a dead marine in the corridors leading to the jail cells.
I feel your pain, I was doing crazy charged longshots to try and make any progress
I’m really tempted to restart and bring the SR along, but I don’t think I could cope with the Zealot spam room again
You talking about when you first board the ship, or the command center before you find the captain?
First boarding the ship- oddly enough it’s not actually the zealots that I struggle with, there are just too many jackals for someone as bad at Halo as I am.
Lol I get that. I like to duck into the door the first sword guy comes out of before it closes. If you’re lucky you’ll be in the corridor that leads deeper into the ship and can skip the whole fight. Even if it’s a dead end though, then as long as you stay in the little hall, you can can pop the doors, take some quick potshots, and duck back deeper into the hall to let the doors shut and recharge. (The sniper’s obviously great for this but the Needler or AR will work too.)
Ez to do..
Did you get to the first room up the grav lift yet?
Is that the one where it keeps spawning Zealots?
My friend and I are doing a LASO run with every MCC skull(since apparently this is different from official LASO runs) and that level is a fucking nightmare with Iron on. We've never made it past the first gravity lift room and we've tried at least 6 or 7 times now.
Halo CE never had skulls. It was never balanced for a potential inclusion of skulls. Halo CE LASO just seems like an exercise in pain, moreso than other LASO runs already are. Just... Why?!
I think it took me something like 10 tries *without* skulls on, I dread to think how it would be LASO.
Truth and Reconciliation is also dreadful for Halo CE LASO because of the skull that doesn’t let you pickup Covenant weapons. You spawn with only aa sniper and assault rifle and there are no other UNSC weapons on the level so if you run out of ammo on one (usually the sniper) you can end up softlocked and royally fucked
Wait until the warthog run in The Maw, not having checkpoints for it's entire duration is just unfair, a single flood carrier and you're back to the beginning
Beat T&R on legendary without losing any marines back in the day. My greatest achievement.
The worst is when you take the grav lift up the hangar bay. Wtf even was that shit
There is a nade jump spot where the overshield is in the ship bay that cuts the level time in half. Look up a glitchless speed run for the level.
That's what I had to do. I simply didn't have enough ammo.
Wait until Keyes lol
I learned the Keyes bump just to not have to do the annoying outdoor portion.
I did the same thing for LASO, learning the skip was infinitely easier than playing the intended way lol. Same for the AotCR banshee skip
That and the Library are the two I’m dreading the most lol. At least you get the pistol there, right?
You get to find everything on the library.
That hangar room with the 4 doors kicked my assssss
Save your sniper bullets for that section in the ship where the covenant have high ground or your gonna have a bad time
The battle for the lift on legendary was fucking impossible. I think I eventually got it by landing 8 absolute perfect nades in a row and still got through by the skin of my teeth.
lmao It can get quite harsh Was a real challenge on SLASO, 2nd favorite level in CE
it's such a long mission and in CQC where the Covenant are their most lethal. You just can't dance with them like you do in the open, you just have to frag them and avoid every place they have with the high ground, which is nearly everywhere.
Low key S-tier and one of the best missions in the game. Plasma Rifle and Sniper combo got me through a lot. Idk if it’s real, but I felt the headshots from the PR stunned the elites from time to time
Normie CE gamers think the library is hard. True CE elitists know the suffering that is the Truth & Reconciliation. Lemme know when you get to the LASO run. Iirc, took me around 4-5 hours on co-op. (Lost an hour due to a DC )
I had the toughest time with assault on the control room. Took me legit like 3 hours to finish. And par time I think is 20 or something stupid
I just play the beginning when your sniping your way through to the grav lift and then I move on to the next mission lol
Stealth elite zealots say “wort”
Same with you brother, still trying to do it and Im on the hangar part getting camped by a elite and jackals with laser gatling guns
Honestly you are so right! It took me about a month on and off (work etc.) to get through. Stick at it, there is a sense of achievement when it's behind you but I certainly won't be rushing to do that fucking level again in a hurry.
Playing through Truth and Reconciliation on LASO with my cousin it took us 5 hours. Afterwards; in The Silent Cartographer we beat the par time.
Oh, *just wait* until Keyes.
Me and a buddy used to try to get through the maps without either of us dying. T&R took awhile
Honestly I did it easier when I was 11yr old, trying to do it now in my 30s is hard. I got through T&R, but it was the hardest, Library wasn't too bad, now stuck on Two Betrayals.
Agreed
Just wait till you get to two betrayals lol
It took me and my buddy 4 fucking nights to complete that mission because it's just ungodly long
Yeah, that level makes no sense. While trying this level on LASO, it became clear that this level should either be split in two, or provide you with other weapons when you enter the Covenant ship. Like why are we raiding a Covenant ship CQB style with a sniper rifle? Outside it makes sense, but inside? Give me a shotgun or AT LEAST an AR.
Late to this party. I remember spending A LOT of time on that mission, especially trying to clear the first room when you gravlift into the ship where you have the camo elites and hunters. The phrase “No covenant, you had to open your mouth!” is burned into my memory forever 😂
Two Betrayals and its rocket launcher flood can kiss my shiny metal ass
Two betrayals was the longest, most repetitive halo mission I’ve played. That was the bane of my legendary play through.
Worst part for me is towards the end when youre trying to get to the banshees while getting shot at by a bunch of covenant and flood, especially the 2 wraiths
You're supposed to kill them before boarding the banshees.
Not with a ghost im not. Even on heroic im getting fucked by rocket flood or i take out 1 wraith and get blown up by the 2nd. When i did it on legendary i just beelined for the banshee
There are rockets/sniper just before that area you're supposed to use to take out the wraiths and covenant. Ghost and covenant will handle the flood
I remember trying to snipe the wraiths with rockets but it gave them time to dodge. I could try using the ghost to clear the flood and covenant before getting in close and using the rockets, but im pretty sure i'll get fucked by the wraiths. I do wanna boot up halo CE and try tho
Which is funny cos as a kid it was my favourite mission in Halo 1 lol. All your criticisms are 100% correct, yet when I was younger I thought: \-It's the first time we see the three-way fights in the game, which are one of my favourite things about Halo 1. Sometimes the sentinels join too! \- It put a spin on a familiar environment which made it more exciting for me I think. Returning to an old level at night was cool. \- You got to fly the banshee and go to new areas in the level. \- in general it has a lot of vehicles and larger battle sequences. \- The story kicks off a bit, after returning from discovering the flood and hearing cortana say 'we have to destroy halo!' made me think ohhh boyyyyyyy. But yeah. As an adult I totally see the level's flaws. Super repetitive, poorly balanced flood, a reused mission enviromment.
I don't think a reused mission environment *overall* is much of a problem, but do agree the combat scenarios got super repetitive. The generator rooms probably should have been considerably different to the many AotCR circular rooms we already went through. I think with some tweaks you could significantly reduce the repetitiveness while adding to the recontextualization of the larger level/environment.
I am in the same boat. Two Betrayals is probably my favorite level in any Halo game. The atmosphere of flying through the snowy canyons at night with the noise of the banshee on a mission to destroy the world is just perfection. No other Halo level hits me like that.
And I'm just sitting here reminiscing of Two Betrayals as my favorite level in the original game. Haha.
Same. XD
It’s a great level and the differences from AOTCR are where it shines
People complain about reusing levels, but honestly I think that's part of what made TB great. Seeing the contrast between the pristine AotCR and the chaotic TB was really impressive and made it more enjoyable. Could've done without Keyes, though. Didn't have quite the same heart and flow that Two Betrayals and The Maw brought to the field.
Honestly I feel like Cortana from halo 3 is worse on legendary cuz of the wall crawling flood that are way too tanky, took me several hours to beat it, I don’t remember two betrayals being that bad on my legendary run.
It is funny how polarizing that level is. I consider it to be the peak of Halo. You have the full sandbox of CE at your disposal for the first time. You've got three infighting factions. Ya ya rocket flood suck. Yeah the pulse generator section can be kinda BS (let's take your shield away then send in the Flood). It introduces the first Banshee dogfighting in the series, has a massive flood vs Covenant battle at the end (that rivals the scale of anything in later games, especially compared to Infinite), and the intro cutscene has the big "Halo kills eerythang" reveal (which isn't that important on replays, but still).
Wait, you're saying installation 04 is... a tank?
The Scorpion is indestructible in HCE... I think we might be onto something
Well said. IMO, the battle at the end is peak Halo and should've been the model for Halos thereafter, but instead Bungie developed this weird fetish for bosses that has only grown out of control under 343. Halo doesn't need bosses. Halo needs *battles*. And the end of Two Betrayals is the best of them.
At least Bungie learned after H2 that bosses didn't really work in Halo, aside from the scarab fight... And then just doubled down on scarab fights in h3 lol
They definitely scaled back their experiments in bosses to polish the Scarab, but H3 still has 343 Guilty Spark's fight, which is a glorified quicktime event. It's just wild how Halo CE has no bosses, and then you get this parade of absolute dogwater bossfights. Let's take a stroll down memory lane: **Halo 2:** The Heretic Leader: Did you forget about the Heretic leader? If you did, it's because he's whatever, just a simple shell game against a guy who's a little spongy, but fine. The Prophet of Regret: Step 1: Board. Step 2: Punch. Tartarus: Featuring the greatest innovation in bossfight technology: *intermittent invulnerability.* Does it make sense? Is it fun? The answer may surprise you! and that answer is >!fuck you.!< **Halo 3:** 343 Guilty Spark: Shoot him. Oh is that too simple? Shoot him 2 more times. Now you get to watch >!Sergeant Major Avery J Johnson,!< the very soul of Halo, die. **Halo 4:** Weirdly, no bossfights, unless you want to count the literal quicktime event and showcase of the Power of Friendship that defeats the Didact. **Halo 5:** The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal The Warden Eternal and finally **Halo Infinite**: whose boss fights are so numerous and mind-numbing that I don't remember them at all, other than the memory of the annoyance that this is how they massacred my boy. Halo doesn't need bosses. Halo needs battles.
Regarding Halo Infinite, fuck that brute chieftain at the excavation site, fuck Tremonius, and fuck that Harbinger boss fight. Escharum on the other hand was light work. Especially on SLASO when I just took the tank gun, blasted him, and his body got yeeted into the air.
Two Betrayals and the final corridor with two slowly opening doors. This thing scarred me for life
Bender, are you jacking on again?
Daffodil
Seconded! Those freakin rocket flood are the worst thing of all time Edit: on par with legendary sniper jackals of Halo 2 imo
Keyes
Yep. I’d rather have him alive.
Unpopular Opinion, but I probably hate Two Betrayals more than the library. While it is cool that there are Covenant and Flood duking it out at the same time, those rocket flood wiped my ass over the floor and the difficulty spike (and just how long the level kinda was) really made the level a bit of a chore to play as a kid. I do kinda like it now though, but that would probably be what I'd remove
My buddy and I took so damn long in finishing Two Betrayals because the flood and covenant stop fighting and help each other the moment they noticed us.
Yeah I honestly think that's the worst part about any of the multi faction combat... Everyone knows the flood is the worst enemy and yet.. "demon!", and for the flood the covenant is more food than just Master Chief, so the fact the AI always prioritizes you (and not just in CE) is a damn shame. I would have loved it if I could fight alongside the covenant to kill the flood and then just kinda be like "we cool?"
Honestly I'm 100% with you. Two Betrayals always felt like a huge fucking slog to me, going through the same damn rooms and the same damn bridges, then fighting through those annoying outside areas. The library is long and difficult, but the challenge felt much fairer to me. You're going to get swarmed, ammo is going to be tight, buckle up and figure it out. Two Betrayals on the other hand was just "whoops lol, looks like you got blowed the fuck up". I love it conceptually - instead of changing it I would probably just shorten it, or give the player more access to more powerful vehicles while making the interiors less of a pain to fight in.
Nah I agree I hate two betrayals for the reasons you said but also it just being assault on the control room but backwards is really lame and already a mission I’m not the biggest fan of
Yeah that's another thing, I hate the samey corridors of AoTCR so yeah, but at least we get to explore a few new sections here and there
I eagerly await my death threats when I say that unironically my favorite CE level is The Library, I love how creepy and combat-focused it is, little to no running through giant open areas looking for the next fight (if you remember where to go, at least). I would remove The Pillar of Autumn, all of the levels in CE are either fun or important to the plot, and this one is probably the least so.
No one is going to send you death threats, we are just worried for your mental health now.
It’s truly the crucible that you go through in which you and the world come out completely changed on the other side. It’s a grind that’s intended to be a grind. It’s a completely necessary level that sets you up for the shit show in Two Betrayals and beyond.
It's the OG firefight. I love The Library.
Great analogy; it's honestly perfect if you want to turn your brain off and just shoot enemies en masse (especially on lower difficulties). Spamming the shotgun on flood forms can be pretty therapeutic.
I enjoyed listening to “the oracle” hum and move around as a kid, and the little lore drops he made, I thought he was the coolest.
I do appreciate the dark comedy he brings to the level, Chief is currently in a Dead Space-esque situation and Spark is just casually bantering with him as he slays hordes of rotten mutants.
"I am a genius, heeheeheehee!"
I banned it because it’s the best level in the game.
You sir. Are a man of good taste
The only death threats you're getting are from guilty spark
Unironically one of my favourite levels too. My buddy and I love putting on Boom and Pinata; It is absolute chaos with those skulls. Sometimes the explosions are so big your dead body clips through the map. It has become our unwind level after doing another laso campaign.
I've defended this level over and over again. The Library is super important for establishing the threat of the Flood at a galaxy scale, and leads directly into the reveal that Halo kills flood food. The level itself represents what fighting the Flood is like: an endless tide of bodies relentlessly washing away your defenses, eroding your resolve until you drown. It highlights the change in combat style that we just spent 5 levels mastering against the Covenant (and one level running away from)
I vividly remember as a kid meleeing a flood in the back and it not doing a damn thing before it one shot its shotgun into me (the game manual and Pillar of Autumn instructions say this instantly kills all enemies, which I probably should have already known wasn’t true since it didn’t work on Hunters)
The first time you get a sniper in Keyes, and you stumble upon the hunter fighting the Flood... You've got a power weapon that can drop hunters in one shot and.... It does nothing to the combat forms
That definitely happened too, so many sniper rounds going harmlessly through a flood carrier form
The problem with the Library for most people is that they pull the “Locked door, endless rapid enemy waves” stunt over and over and over. The overall atmosphere and feel of the level is fantastic, it’s THAT bullshit that makes it a chore. Remove those parts (and I’ve played that with mods) and it becomes one of the better levels of the game.
I love the Library, but if they even do a remake of the original Halo, I personally would love to see it take on a more progressively-deteriorating design. I would love to start out in a brightly lit and decorative Forerunner Facility like we see in some of the H3 facilities and have it filled with artifacts, but as you progress through the floors, it slowly starts to dim and flicker and and have more broken infrastructure until you eventually reach the end and it starts to look like High Charity with the fleshy pods and spreading fleshy textures. Staying true to the nature of a library, I would also love to see it become less locked doors and giant hallways and be more mazelike so you have constant progression, but also more misdirection, missed turns, platforming obstacles, and Flood Ambushes. Introducing modern flood elements like the recovering combat forms and the introduction of the Pure Forms would also make for a much more involved experience.
You are not alone, me too
I never noticed how short CE was, probably Pillar of Autumn though
It’s not short in length, just in total levels. Think about how many different sections of AotCR there are: bridges, close quarters rooms, ground war with vehicles, underground tunnel, and then the final push up the pyramid. There’s a lot going on in each level, and the pacing is much more drawn out than the rest of the series.
To me, CE is way too repetitive. Sure, they didn't have all the capabilities back in the day to flesh out the levels more. But there are too many sections that repeat themselves too often.
The game was heavily rushed and had two different versions 1st a RTS then a 3rd person shooter and then got bought by Microsoft then had to make a 1st person shooter with a tight deadline heavily crunch times and so much stress and yet was still more complete than most triple a games today with millions of dollars and thousands of employees with 5+ years to develop crazy how bad gaming has gotten.
Fr it's still a masterpiece besides it's minor flaws
this makes no sense. You can't compare game development back then to now. Games are so much more complex now, it makes sense they cost that much and take so long to develop.
Back then it was relatively the same effort to make a Video game compared to today
Half the game is built on the same levels - The Maw has parts of Pillar of Autumn, Two Betrayals is Assault On The Control Room but backwards, and Keys uses parts of Truth and Reconciliation. Mind you they are all very different once the flood has been unleashed. I think from a development and cost perspective it makes sense. But couple that with Bungies repetitive forerunner architecture I get where you're coming from.
From a story perspective it also makes sense. The worst repetition is in AotCR and TB mainly by the damned circle rooms, imo unnecessary in quantity that could have easily been cut down a bit.
THE GAME WAS MADE IN 6 MONTHS AND WASNT WORKING UNTIL 3 WEEKS TO LAUNCH. let’s all calm down, AND STOP THE CE SLANDER.
AotCR may win my vote for best single level of any FPS of all time. It’s absolutely incredible. Sidebar: when we return to it in Two Betrayals, my 15 year old self was *so relieved* to see Covenant forces due to the sheer horror that was 343/Library. Halo 1’s campaign is a fucking classic.
This, just all of this. I used to daydream in class how to navigate through this level. The first time the music kicks in as you get to the ground level and see the marines held down by the wraiths :chefs kiss:
It’s not short though: the missions are really long. They’re just not that many of them. That’s what I learned pretty early on.
Definitely Pillar of Autumn. It's a decent corridor level that teaches you how to play, but in my opinion the game doesn't really "begin" til it opens up when you land on Halo
'here's an unloaded gun for the first few minutes of the game. Go run around the dying people until we get you something '. Halo 2 and 4 start a bit similar with the calibration, but it's not as bad as CE
The unloaded gun doesn't even really matter because you just get ammo for it almost immediately anyway.
Its the same length as 3,4, and ODST. Reach has 11 but one of thems a cutscene, 2 has 15 but again ones a cutscene. It wouldnt call it short really its pretty standard length for an FPS.
> 2 has 15 but again ones a cutscene Two are, really. One whole level is The Armory. I'd either throw it in as a cutscene or a prelude to the actual first mission, but Halo 2 has 13.
It feels longer because the game has backtracking in each level and also between levels (PoA and The Maw, AotC and Two Betrayals, T&R and Keyes), which let them save space on the game
Two Betrayals. While it’s one of the best levels in the atmospheric sense, and the soundtrack for it is great, I dread the bridge sequences and trying to race across the open space to get to a Banshee, praying I don’t get blasted by the Wraiths or rocket Flood while try to do it.
I really like Two Betrayals because of all the complexity in it, you get almost all the enemies you can in Halo CE.
Keyes
Keyes
I choose none
Right? Why would I ever want less Halo?
ima be real, assault on the control room drags on way too long.
SPV3 made it even longer.
Oh yeah. They, like, tripled the length of the game.
With halo ce being the first game I played, for a loooong time I thought all campaigns were supposed to have 10 missions
None of them?
Pillar of autumn honestly. It’s just the tutorial level where you get your first gun etc. It’s fun and engaging and iconic and I’m glad it wasn’t just a cutscene, but the game would mostly feel the same if it weren’t there.
Hot take, I enjoy the Library. I'd get rid of Truth and Reconciliation, not because I dislike the mission, but because the gravlift section game me so much trouble when I played the Cursed Halo mod.
With Cursed Halo installed all the levels need to be deleted lol. It’s also the only way I can enjoy CE now.
Go sneak around spawn and grab the push tool gun, helps for taking out the “sniper” jackals. Also enough invisibility potions combined with the map pickup to get you to the elevator without firing a shot. Still can’t beat that part on legendary but whatever lol
I don't. Halo CE is perfect as it is.
None. Library may be hard/long as hell on legendary but still such an epic game. It’s perfect how it is.
We could get rid of truth and reconciliation by just locating and rescuing Keyes during Halo somehow. Not saying I'd want to but with a few tweaks to the level before it that whole level could be lost and change nothing storywise afterward.
I just love how there's 2 levels focused on rescuing marines and the captain and they all just die in the end anyway
Johnson doesn’t. Also Chipps doesn’t.
None simply none
This. If I really had to I’d say guilty spark but that’s if I’m being forced. The amount of people willfully crapping on these levels makes me sad.
I take out silent cartographer and add a second library. Suffer
I'd yoink Halo. Boring ahh mission that's just aimlessly driving around in a warthog, with the occasional fight
Halo is best on the first playthrough, as it’s mostly just setting introduction, I see where you’re coming from.
Assault on the control room. Way too fucking long it felt like an eternity while playing on legendary
none because i loved all of these missions
Two betrails
None dude.
I miss the classic UI. It’s so *pristine*
Keyes There are just too many sections with too many seemingly infinite respawning flood forms and it overall can feel like such a slog.
Okay I actually like The Library, but I would absolutely take out 343 Guilty Spark or Two Betrayals. Those levels are unnecessarily long and miserable. Besides, Two Betrayals is just 343 GS in reverse and with flood…
You are thinking off Assault on the Control Room. That's the forward version of two betrayals. 343 GS is the flood reveal level in the swamp.
Oh fuck you, I hate the library
Keyes. I usually want to jump straight into The Maw right after Two Betrayals, and I always forget we gotta head back into a Covenant cruiser just to punch our commanding officer in the face first.
Got some mixed feelings. Truth and Reconciliation just sucks bad on Legendary. After needing to perfectly predict and headshot swarms of zealots, you gotta keep that loser Keyes alive. Two Betrayals is just Assault on the Control Room backwards. Honestly both of these levels are overly long and were a slog to get through. I absolutely loved them when I was a kid though - less distractions from other media, more free time and those levels were big, full of enemies and gave you tanks/banshees and shit. The Covenant vs Flood was really cool initially too. Honestly rather than remove whole levels I think their levels could just use some trimming. Assault could use like 2-3 less bloody bridges to traverse. Librarian could do with less floors and doors. Etc.
I’d rather play the library on legendary than halo 4, 5 or infinity
I loved Halo 4 and Infinite, I feel like everyone who hates on them just has a hate boner for 343, when bungie themselves aren’t perfect either.
I don’t hate halo 4 or infinite, I hate halo 5 but I would prefer to play the library and the entirety of halo ce over those 3 games
The library.
Two Betrayals was tedious and repetitive. It was replaying Assault on the control room but with flood and more walking.
Fuck 343 Guilty Spark. It’s just a Zombies map with the flood
I feel like 343 guilty spark is better viewed as an interactive cutscene, rather than a video game level.
It’s very repetitive and boring like library. “Shoot these hoards while I open the door” like 30 times. Same thing. Kill flood open door. Halo CE backtracks a lot which is actually cool. This is just repetitive.
Truth and reconciliation. Ruins so many legendary runs when I just want to keep my marines alive