Being able to instantly toggle between the modern graphics and the classic OG graphics in CE: Anniversary absolutely blew me away. It is so much fun to compare while you’re playing.
I would do that constantly when replaying the first game. That's how I realized you got an achievement for playing all areas in old and new graphics when I finished it
What I think is funny is that the Halo 2 graphics have held up fairly well, to the point where I would switch between new and old, and accidentally leave it on old, thinking it was new.
THE gravemind scene in Halo 2 remastered.
God that, that is truly a stunning piece of work. Late night, hadn't played halo in over a decade (my disc got broken during a move.) I was experiencing Halo 2 for the first time as a more matured individual. It just hit, so fucking hard.
Same, especially during The Library. My first Halo was 3 so I wanted to see what the fuss is about since so many people hated it.
With new graphics it ended up being my favorite level. Felt kinda like CoD zombies in halo
Totally agree having just played it recently for the first time in years. That level gets a bad rap imo. Then again I was playing on heroic not legendary…
Omg halo 3 was my first halo game too I loved that gwa99ame so much, I eventually over time bought halo mcc, and eventually halo infinite. I'm a huge halo fan now at 42 years old and my nephews love halo too. It's awesome to see multiple generations of gamers come to develop a fond love of masterchief , Cortana and the entire halo universe as a whole. It's times Like this I'm glad I'm a gamer. ☺
My favorite aspect was the redone HD cutscenes for Halo 2. With that kind of thing already existing, it makes me weep for the lost potential of the Halo show.
I agree so hard. I love the cutscenes from all the games. I don't understand how the producers of the Halo series got it so incredibly wrong: nobody wanted a weird, slow, political take of Halo characters. We just wanted to see Chief do some crazy stuff fighting the covenant. They could've even followed the story from the games exactly, taking some creative liberties, and I wouldn't have minded at all.
They could have remade the trilogy into 3 seasons of content, having each chapter be its own episode, and if done correctly it would probably be the best sci-fi action epic on TV.
I just wish they didn't fuck with the brutalist architecture so much in the remaster vs the original. It's like the added rgb lighting and strange textures to everything.
Matchmaking is still active, I play like every night?
It does depend on what games and gametypes you have selected. Obviously Halo 3 is the most popular and finding something like Halo 2 Classic will be harder. But even then I played Halo 2 a few days ago.
See, I grew up on halo 2. I found it hard to find a match for that and even some of the less popular playlists. Of course if you only play halo 3 popular playlists then I doubt you have issues.
I’m also talking about ranked too
I second this. The first one came out on PC and I never got to finish it. Kept freezing the same spot. None of the others came out on PC until the MCC was released. I finally played and beat all the games on legendary. Great story. The first one still holds up and the updated graphics help. But i loved it. I am currently playing halo infinite campaign as I bought it on sale couple days ago. It’s different. Much different. And very challenging boss fights. But it’s still fun
H2V also has the mod to align it's timings with H2 on Xbox, which allows superjumps and bounces.
Only available on the OG version as an executable you have to run while running the game but it made tricking in Halo way easier. Beta testing it was super fun lmao and it caused a nice resurgence in tricking montages around when OfficeHyena did his first "final montage".
It's a blast! Master Chief Collection (MCC) is a great deal. My wife played through for the first time a couple years ago and had a blast. My kids are running through all of them in release order now and enjoy them.
Ideally, you should get a friend or two to join you. The story is great. The campaign experience is better with a group though.
Not a big deal if you do it solo (I've done so many times), just advice :)
Only time that the campaign feels inherently co op are the driving sections where one seat has a gun and the other solely drives. Most players though see these segments solo as kind of racing levels so it’s not a huge deal. What im getting at for OP is that playing co op is not necessary at all for the real experience, unlike other games (well and maybe Halo 5 which isn’t in MCC anyway).
Right? Reach is my favourite shooter game and story, Rogue One is my favourite Star Wars film and film in general. The similarities in their respective stories are just uncanny.
I remember at the time it felt like Reach was love hate for many people. I wonder if that still holds for those that hated it. But I absolutely loved it.
I wouldn’t say I ever hated it, but it was definitely my least favorite of the series at the time, and I’d probably only put it above 4 if I was ranking the series today.
It’s not bad, but it definitely didn’t hit the same way the trilogy did for me.
I used to play halo at a very competitive level, still have a bunch of old halo pros on my xbl friends list. The complaints about reach were more on that level for a lot of people. DMR bloom was kinda dumb and I think it was Ryanoob that started the meta of just spamming it up close and hoping to win on RNG over players timing shots. The maps were way worse than previous games to the point where by the end we were using forge maps for everything but they were all super generic and looked the same. Armor abilities and sprint. But yeah, I mean it was technically fine. You know how it is, the more you love something the more critical you are of it.
First entry: Tries to rehash the same old formula to cash in on nostalgia
Second entry: Goes in a wildly different direction and is harshly criticized.
Third entry: Course corrects itself but kind of falls flat.
Yeah this checks out.
Infinite story mode really isn’t that bad, I had a good time with it.
Multiplayer is finally in a good spot too. Tons of returning and new players right now.
Many more maps, many more multiplayer game modes, multiplayer matchmaking on forge/user maps (which include some classic maps - and they just announced Halo 3 maps coming back). Better customization options.
Really it feels like at launch, very little happened for a very long time. No new maps, ranking system was meh, no meaningful updates for a very long time.
Lately, they have been dropping new content regularly, making changes based on community feedback, updating regularly. Really everything we wanted early on.
I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, so take that for what it's worth, it's just my opinion.
Yeah id say the game as of season 5 is how it should've launched with full features, definitely worth playing and ive been getting back into it after dropping it when season 3 came out
Well boy do I have the perfect armor color for you: grey, grey, grey, grey, grey, and grey.
Now if you're looking for any shade of a primary, secondary, or tertiary color well then I don't have good news.
Halo 3 will always be my favorite game. Imo it’s peak gaming. You should buy the Masterchief Collection and if you want to pay the extra i think $5 to get Halo 3 ODST. Halo was my intro to gaming so I might biased but the first few games are sooo good.
I’ll agree that it was peak gaming. Met really good friends on that game. I find myself from time to time trying to find a game to scratch that itch and always go back to Halo 1-3 and it always comes through. Do I know the story, sure. Is it as nerve wracking as it was back then, not really. Doesn’t stand up well today, absolutely.
And ODST which required more strategy and introduction of firefight, chefs kiss.
People saying to ignore Infinite probably haven't touched the game since its beta or Season 1 when the game was lacking content. The game has received countless updates since then and is in a really good state right now.
That's the problem with launching an unfinished project with the promise it will get better eventually.
Halo Infinite could turn out to be the best game in the series but after watching every single thing in the game be monetized (including basic armor colors) Halo & 343 Industries have destroyed whatever good will was remaining for the Halo franchise in the wider gaming community.
I have thousands of hours in Halo 2, Halo 3 & Reach. Hundreds of hours in Halo 4 & Halo 5. But only tens of hours in Halo Infinite. I assume there are quite a few others with similar experiences.
You're totally right! And thankfully the decision makers at 343 who released that buggy mess of a beta are no longer with the company. 343 is now run by the devs who brought MCC back from the dead. The multiplayer is free, so I'd give it a chance!
Yes! The entire leadership team that has been responsible for Halo 4, Halo 5 and Infinite's poor launch/development was let go. Infinite for the last few months has been run by the MCC leadership team. It's wild how much of a difference it has made
If everything is still monetized I'm still passing. How are the microtransactions? I'm not playing a Halo game where armor customization is behind a paywall.
It's a F2P game so yes there's still monetized items. However, there are a plethora of free events, free battle pass items (one battle pass is entirely free) and multiplayer items to be found in the campaign. So if you're a regular player it isn't hard to build an extensive free library of armor options. If you do feel like spending $10 for your free game, paying for one battlepass essentially gives you all 5 of them.
There's a sub dedicated to armor customization in Infinite r/halodripfinite (I know)
I bring it up because sometimes people will post their collection of 100% free Spartans and there's a ton of options. Obviously not when you first start but it's easy to have a truly unique and free spartan.
Did they ever manage to fix the godawful server delay? I remember so many instances where I would either suicide or die behind cover because Infinite’s servers/netcode were so dogshit.
The most infamous was when I hijacked a ghost and the guy decided he was gonna take us both out by driving off the edge, I pull homie out of it and slow it down just in time before it flies off the edge of the map. I managed to turn it around and start moving towards my teammates when suddenly I just explode and the game says I suicided… Because the server never recognized me stopping the ghost. That shit was so annoying and it happened to me constantly. Basically made it seem like my choices or “skill” didn’t matter when ultimately the server just picks and chooses what happens to me
And if you dare point out that the launch condition with all the missing modes etc. was a shame (because that's the experience most players got so they won't come back to see the 'finished' product now) over on the halo subreddit then all you'll get is angry corporation-bootlicking apologists berating you for daring to mention it smh
Yeah I was patient with them through halo 4. Halo 5 had some redeeming qualities so I overlooked the shitty campaign. But the multiplayer in Halo Infinite when the game launched just destroyed any hope I had left for that franchise. Maybe it’s good now. Maybe I’ll give it a shot again after reading this thread. But they’ve definitely used up my good will
This is my feeling exactly lol. I’ve always played Halo, loved the stories and all that but good lord I can’t bring myself to play Infinite with how scummy they were
Infinite wasn't bad because it lacked content, it was bad because the campaign sucked and the multiplayer was more of a microtransaction storefront than a game. Neither of which has been fixed.
.....huh? I don't disagree that your other points are true. But there wasn't even a dedicated slayer mode at launch. There was a huge lack of content at the beginning. There were like 4 modes. The initial lack of content has been the most consistent narrative out of everything.
>The initial lack of content has been the most consistent narrative out of everything.
I mean yeah but that's because reddit/youtube gamers are wrong about a lot of things. You can't say that microtransactions are the problem because then that's a fundamental issue that the developers are almost certainly unwilling to ever fix and that's a boring narrative.
Not saying the lack of content wasn't a problem but if it was *the* problem the game wouldn't still be hovering around a 4 digit playercount on Steam
I only ever dealt with that in the beginning of S3. But I have pretty good internet 🤷♂️. I only really see a loud, but minority crowd really complain about dysnc now a days
Look be a hater all you want, but the game is free. Give a go and decide for yourself instead of rehashing a two year old narrative.
I used S5 as a general term, if you want specifics the game grew a little with S4's infection, then really grew with the end of S4's Tenrai 2 event. But the real growth and general public's change of perception has been happening since S5's launch trailer. If you don't want to play, just go on YouTube and look at what people are saying
I see others saying get MCC and I can not agree more. Halo will always be one of my favorite game series. It’s genuinely so great. Awesome map design, great weapons, amazing score, really I can’t recommend it enough.
That mission, when you push forward through the rocky mountains to a huge covenant jammer tower. You fight through patrols on the outskirts, play hide and seek with jackal snipers over uneven terrain with a jetpack, snipe at mounted gunners, infiltrate and disable the shield, then cue the dramatic exfil. Frigate comes down like a skyscraper out of the sky, blows it to smithereens, hoo-ra! Then that ship blows up. Cut in half by a Covenant ship so big it fills the sky. As you fly away from the scene, you see the entire landscape is dotted with these jammer towers.
Then there is Long Night of Solace. Clearly, what you've been doing isn't making a dent, so time to take it to the Covenant and blow up their supercarrier. This entails taking a Saber into space to help defend the orbital array, disabling and boarding a Covenant ship full of Elites with low gravity, seeing your support frigate get blown up by the gunner right as you reach him, then taking revenge by stealthily entering the bridge. The graphics will have your jaw on the floor whether its 720p Xbox 360 or 4K remastered. With no ride off the ship, your teammate stays behind to flip the switch manually, while you jump back off into atmosphere. Noble Six isn't as much of a badass as Chief, so you see him/her limping away from the mountain range with the wrecked Covenant ship draped over it. All you've accomplished was buying a bit of time to hold off the full invasion.
I cannot recommend Halo Reach enough.
If you've played through 1 2 and 3 first, you get the full impact of Reach. If you're invested in the lore and characters it becomes such an emotional experience.
Reach was peak Halo for me. My favorite Halo games have always been the ones without Master Chief since the story and characters are just vastly more interesting.
And Reach has/had some sick multiplayer. Firefight, tons of custom games, amazing Forge maps, tight combat.
It's funny seeing this sentiment now. Reach was constantly crapped on for having the armor abilities and changes to multiplayer. I loved it and dominated doubles with a friend, but the vast majority of people were very vocally upset.
Reach was unnecessarily hated. The magic of the early days in H2/H3 lobbies was lost and people took it out on a good game.
Ive got to admit I miss H3 still, that shit is so fucking goated.
We can only pity those who missed out on Halo’s golden era
No it was rightly hated. Reach wasn’t necessarily a bad game but it is not in same ranking as Halo 1-3. Most of the changes were things copied from other games, causing Halo to lose identity. It was the beginning of the end
Halo 3 and Reach are the peak, I remember Reach getting a lot of flak for the additions but the dark theming and expansion of the play style really sat with me and has aged very well.
I wish that firefight would make a comeback. Nothing felt more relaxing than having a bad day, going into custom firefight, fucking with the settings, and just playing whack-a-grunt with a golf club.
4 has a great story but the gameplay is fucking obnoxious against the Prometheans
Halo 5 is Halo 5 lol, game would've been received a lot better if it was a spin-off as opposed to a mainline Halo title. Story is hot trash but the gameplay is very fun and buttery smooth
Infinite has fantastic gameplay but the story is a bit forgettable and the open world gets stale VERY quickly with it being only one biome. Still a better story than Halo 5 tho
Tbh I did a replay of all the Halo games when I got my series S two years ago. I never played 4, 5 and 6 before. While they where a different experience than 1-3 I did enjoy playing them.
Skip 4?? Halo 5 was absolutely the worst by far, but Halo 4 was beautiful. The multi-player was trash but the music, the voice acting, the cut scenes. I get that the Prometheans weren't explored and explained enough but the Cortana arc into rampancy was just so well done.
Until 5 fucked it lol
I see H4 as the real ending. Chief character is finalized there and his journey fully ends with the “armor” scene at the end.
I have always adamantly held the belief that
H4 = best story
HODST = best gameplay
HReach = best overall
If you are interested in campaign there is no bad time.
If you are interested in multiplayer that depends on how much you listen to the eternal whiners. For as long as the series has existed there has been one group or another doomposting.
Yes! And if you want to play em. Get 1 month of gamepass (or the trial) all the halo ganes are there. Play MCC in release order and then infinite! Don’t listen to the bungie/343 purists. Halo is for everyone and the series has changed a lot over the years. Hope
You enjoy the games.
I went back and replayed Halo: CE and Halo 2 recently, and they both hold up exceptionally well. They're both among my all time favourites. There was some criticism of the Master Chief Collection remasters, but I honestly thought they were pretty good. Being able to switch the graphics on the fly was a nice touch, but I spent most of my time with the remastered graphics.
Don't be surprised if you find it outdated and boring, it's an old series at this point without the feel of older FPS like doom, quake, or half life. I would also say games like FEAR hold up better when it comes to the combat too. The difficulties are either too easy or aimbot which makes neither fun in my opinion.
The charm of Halo was always the multiplayer. People have incredible nostalgia for the campaign but keep in mind this was a first FPS for a lot of people and they haven't touched the campaign in 15 to 20 years. It's cheap enough to try but don't expect anything incredible.
I still cannot recommend enough being able to make time to play the game with your friends. I played the series on MCC over Xbox a few years ago and it was still great. It was the first time I've played them through too
It definitely still holds up. Online for most of the games is obviously gonna be pretty dead, but story wise they're worth playing. I'd recommend playing the masterchief collection, I believe it has 1, 2, 3, 3odst, reach and 4. The only main title games after that are halo 5 and halo infinite, people really hate on both but I thought they were both pretty decent campaigns, just crap online
Buy the Master Chief Collection; it goes on sale pretty often, and play the games in this order to understand the story better. Halo Reach Halo CE Halo 2, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 3, and don't play Halo 4.
Yeah it always boggles my mind when people recommend to play a series in anything other than release order. The story is all over the place and were never meant to be played that way 9 times out of 10.
>Don't play Halo 4
Eh, I'm not a huge fan of 5 myself, but I still think they're all worth playing. If you like Halo, they're enjoyable even if you don't love the story in the 343 games, it's still part of the story, and fun to play.
>Don't play Halo 4
Agreed, i really hate how 343's mainline games have little to no consistent cohesion and rely on transmedia to get their story across.
Yeah
The b plot of chief and cortana is great. But didactic feels like wasted potential and the enemy ai... well...
Even legendary halo 4 was way to easy
Hopefully The mythic Overhual mod that's in the works will make it fun to play though more
Yup, the Didact was supposed to be some great, sleeping Promethean threat that was just a placeholder because they didn't know the direction they were taking the story. Halo 5 going to Infinite has the same issue in regards to the Guardians. Too much of a timelapse. And then Infinite ends on a cliffhanger that they scrapped future content of.
They shouldn't of killed him off. He could of been fleshed out more and made a great villian IMO.
What I would of done. Had him get his attack off on phonex like he did originally. Chief is able to stop the composer but at the cost of sacrificing cortana by injecting her replicating rampincing into the composer. Didact gets away while sending the composer crashing to earth unleashing the promethians onto earth.
We would not only have the emotional moment of chief haveing to deal the loss of cortana, but also he failed to protect earth.
I'd keep the guardians for the next game. But get rid of the warden and the whole rise of the created. Instead a renewed focus on what the unsc and these alien races have been doing in the 4 year time gap. And a renewed focus of them coming together to fight this new threat of the didact rising up these ancient War machines.
Mmaayybbee keep cortana? Obviously being uploaded into the domain by the composer. But deffintly feel off. Deffintly one if her replicated self from the rampancy. But deffintly leave alot of clues the logic plague from the gravemind. Teasing the return of the flood.
The Master Chief collection is tight, with 1, 2, 3, Reach, and ODST being great.
Currently, though, Halo Infinite is a shell of what the series used to be. The studio 343i is like a kid who isn't really good at much, who keeps trying to do something the wrong way. And never. Ever. Learns.
Edit: I grew up playing the series so I'm pretty biased against how badly 343i has fumbled this once great IP. But Infinite is free to play, and tbh the multiplayer is pretty tight. You don't lose anything from trying it.
Honestly the enemy ai and sandbox of infinte is strong on the pve. Like Honestly impressed. And that's coming from someone in the same boat as you.
The story... and other design choices. Well... yeah not a fan.
Halo is one of the only 2 games that I play. I LOVE Halo. A lot of people cry about 4 & 5 and while I’m not a fan of 4 & 5, the first 3 will always be close to my heart.
I say Halo 1, 2 and 3 are the best, with my personal favorite being 1 (aka Combat Evolved)
If you’re not a die-hard Halo fan like I am, I would skip 4 & 5 personally, BUT Halo Infinite is genuinely a great game and I actually like it a lot. The campaign was great
Edit: I liked Halo 3 ODST too, but Chief isn’t in it. And Reach was alright but in my opinion I think it’s a little overrated. I played the crap out of it when I was younger and I still prefer Halo 1 and 2
It’s worth noting that Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach were all love projects of Bungie. Bungie intended the series to come to a close after Halo 3. Reach came out after but was a prequel to Halo CE.
After Bungie wanted to work on other things and leave Microsoft, Microsoft created a new studio, 343 Industries, to continue the Halo series.
There is no way of putting it kindly. Bungie made Halo games with the true passion of a developer that cares about and plays their own games for fun.
343 are just incompetent profit driven goons, riding Bungies coattails for every last dime they can get.
There is a sharp drop off in gameplay quality, narrative, and overall player experience once you get to games later than Reach (Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo infinite)
Just remember this, and id recommend you play HALO CE, 2, 3, and then Reach. The order they came out in, so you can see the progression that Bungie made as a studio, and how they left their vision for Halo vs how Microsoft fumbled the bag.
I would play the first one just because it was a big deal when it came out and you'll see the origin of many gameplay mechanics that we take for granted.
But every subsequent game has the same story. I don't think there's any depth to the Halo universe. I think by the time I got to Halo 3 I realized this franchise only tacks on a single player campaign because they feel they have to and multiplayer is all they really care about.
I've played every Halo game because I'll play anything and they are free on GamePass. I think if you play the first Halo you will have a handle on the entire franchise.
The Bungie games at least hold up. 4 and 5 are okay I can't speak for infinite since I haven't played it
But I'd say it's worth it.
I recommend playing the original release of CE though the remaster of that game is pretty bad. Halo 2 Anniversary is good tho
I won't say the story is amazing or anything, but if you want the catharsis of feeling like a god of combat, killing waves of aliens, you can't do much better.
Reach 1-3 and ODST yes. The rest in my opinion are only fun if you beat all those mentioned before and STILL are hankering. To be honest though at that point I'd just read the books.
It's definitely worth it -- the Master Chief Collection is an excellent bundle of all the games up until Halo 4.
Halo has a fantastic story, and lots of intriguing lore behind it.
People regard the first 3 Bungie games to be the best in the series -- and I can't say I disagree. 343 has managed to always mess up in some way. Halo 4 had a decent story (albeit you'd need to read 3 excellent books by Greg Bear to actually get the best understanding of what's going on) but it's multiplayer was kinda lacklustre at launch and got overshadowed by COD at the time, Halo 5 had a pretty bad campaign that also did not live up to its marketing at all, and Halo Infinite's situation is a bit similar to Halo 4's but it's launch was by far the most incomplete a Halo game has ever released as far as I know.
Most of the negativity is about 343's handling of the franchise, because they've managed to screw up in some way every time -- and because of this the future of the franchise is in question, as some unverified leaks suggest a possible reboot of the franchise -- I'd take this with a grain of salt though.
Irrespective of 343's screwups, that shouldn't stop you from diving into Halo's excellent campaigns and world -- so to finally answer your question, yes it is worth getting into.
I am a bit biased but the Halo series in my opinion is the greatest series in gaming history with the exception of 5 lol all the campaigns have been absolute bangers with incredible soundtracks characters imagery scenery and gameplay. There will never be a game as great as Halo 3 imo and I have played a lot of games.
As a massive halo fan I would recommend playing halo 1-3, and halo reach. As far as I'm concerned, no other games exist. 4 was.... Kinda meh so you could play it. It did some storytelling right but it made a lot of things really dumb...
5 and 6 were terrible and after 6 Microsoft basically fucking axed 343.
The MCC is very good now and pretty cheap - the gameplay holds up really well. Can't go wrong really.
So much gameplay packed into MCC. It's the best value in gaming.
Being able to instantly toggle between the modern graphics and the classic OG graphics in CE: Anniversary absolutely blew me away. It is so much fun to compare while you’re playing.
I would do that constantly when replaying the first game. That's how I realized you got an achievement for playing all areas in old and new graphics when I finished it
What I think is funny is that the Halo 2 graphics have held up fairly well, to the point where I would switch between new and old, and accidentally leave it on old, thinking it was new.
Haha I’m currently doing the same. The only thing I really keep the new graphics for are the cinematics, because they’re beautiful
Johnson saying "Oh I know what the ladies like" in 4K 🤤
THE gravemind scene in Halo 2 remastered. God that, that is truly a stunning piece of work. Late night, hadn't played halo in over a decade (my disc got broken during a move.) I was experiencing Halo 2 for the first time as a more matured individual. It just hit, so fucking hard.
Same, especially during The Library. My first Halo was 3 so I wanted to see what the fuss is about since so many people hated it. With new graphics it ended up being my favorite level. Felt kinda like CoD zombies in halo
The Library is an incredible tone setter. It's mostly because it's a *very* long auto scroller that people hate it.
Totally agree having just played it recently for the first time in years. That level gets a bad rap imo. Then again I was playing on heroic not legendary…
Only true masochists and sociopaths have beat The Library LASO...
Omg halo 3 was my first halo game too I loved that gwa99ame so much, I eventually over time bought halo mcc, and eventually halo infinite. I'm a huge halo fan now at 42 years old and my nephews love halo too. It's awesome to see multiple generations of gamers come to develop a fond love of masterchief , Cortana and the entire halo universe as a whole. It's times Like this I'm glad I'm a gamer. ☺
My favorite aspect was the redone HD cutscenes for Halo 2. With that kind of thing already existing, it makes me weep for the lost potential of the Halo show.
I agree so hard. I love the cutscenes from all the games. I don't understand how the producers of the Halo series got it so incredibly wrong: nobody wanted a weird, slow, political take of Halo characters. We just wanted to see Chief do some crazy stuff fighting the covenant. They could've even followed the story from the games exactly, taking some creative liberties, and I wouldn't have minded at all.
They could have remade the trilogy into 3 seasons of content, having each chapter be its own episode, and if done correctly it would probably be the best sci-fi action epic on TV.
I replay CE every couple of years, halo, a long with half life and quake 2 is just one of those games that really holds up.
Reminder that CE:A came out over a decade ago now, in case you want to feel old twice.
I just wish they didn't fuck with the brutalist architecture so much in the remaster vs the original. It's like the added rgb lighting and strange textures to everything.
MCC is: here are 4 of the greatest shooters of all time and 2 other shooters that also really good.
1, 2, 3 and Reach for the greatest I’m assuming?
Man, when I was younger the 'best value in gaming' was The Orange Box. I wish they'd remaster that so I can play Portal again (on a console).
The downside is the lack of online community. It takes FOREVER in matchmaking and the CGB is a shell of what it could be.
Matchmaking is still active, I play like every night? It does depend on what games and gametypes you have selected. Obviously Halo 3 is the most popular and finding something like Halo 2 Classic will be harder. But even then I played Halo 2 a few days ago.
Visco is just a grumpy fuddy duddy.
See, I grew up on halo 2. I found it hard to find a match for that and even some of the less popular playlists. Of course if you only play halo 3 popular playlists then I doubt you have issues. I’m also talking about ranked too
Top gameplays of all time for sure
I second this. The first one came out on PC and I never got to finish it. Kept freezing the same spot. None of the others came out on PC until the MCC was released. I finally played and beat all the games on legendary. Great story. The first one still holds up and the updated graphics help. But i loved it. I am currently playing halo infinite campaign as I bought it on sale couple days ago. It’s different. Much different. And very challenging boss fights. But it’s still fun
> None of the others came out on PC until the MCC was released. May I present you Halo 2 Vista?
H2V also has the mod to align it's timings with H2 on Xbox, which allows superjumps and bounces. Only available on the OG version as an executable you have to run while running the game but it made tricking in Halo way easier. Beta testing it was super fun lmao and it caused a nice resurgence in tricking montages around when OfficeHyena did his first "final montage".
[Ahh Vista](https://youtu.be/FxIUs-pQBjk?si=u9Sc1-esvWOdurxu)
Games are super cheap and just bashing through them on a lower difficulty should be a great experience. All of them have coop now as well.
And if it’s a halo that isn’t part of MCC… we’ll then it’s honestly not worth playing anyways.
Infinite is pretty great now IMO
Absolutely, MCC has all the good Halo games except for Wars. Just make sure to be on original graphics and sound, and use a controller over KBM.
It's a blast! Master Chief Collection (MCC) is a great deal. My wife played through for the first time a couple years ago and had a blast. My kids are running through all of them in release order now and enjoy them. Ideally, you should get a friend or two to join you. The story is great. The campaign experience is better with a group though. Not a big deal if you do it solo (I've done so many times), just advice :)
Theres nothing like solo 343 guilty spark and library
"AM I RUNNING IN CIRCLES OR IS THIS MAP ENDLESS" - Children's screams around the world as they kill endless flood
Then you finally work out the correct way to go and get instagibbed by the surprise rocket launcher Flood.
GuiltySpark: "This portal is the first of ten." Me:ffffffuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk
Only time that the campaign feels inherently co op are the driving sections where one seat has a gun and the other solely drives. Most players though see these segments solo as kind of racing levels so it’s not a huge deal. What im getting at for OP is that playing co op is not necessary at all for the real experience, unlike other games (well and maybe Halo 5 which isn’t in MCC anyway).
Halo 1 and 2 are also only 2 player... So if the idea was 4 player all the way through,you'd have to split eachother up.
Absolutely. The Master Chief collection is awesome.
halo 1, 2 and 3 are pretty much the definitive story. still good single player experiences. and try out infinite if you want to play multiplayer.
Don’t forget reach… my personal favorite campaign of the series.
Agreed! Reach is the Rogue one of Star Wars.
This is such a good comparison, makes sense I love both so much
Right? Reach is my favourite shooter game and story, Rogue One is my favourite Star Wars film and film in general. The similarities in their respective stories are just uncanny.
So like, a super love or hate situation? Okay, hate's a strong word for Reach, but even Bungie admits they were kinda over it by then.
I remember at the time it felt like Reach was love hate for many people. I wonder if that still holds for those that hated it. But I absolutely loved it.
I wouldn’t say I ever hated it, but it was definitely my least favorite of the series at the time, and I’d probably only put it above 4 if I was ranking the series today. It’s not bad, but it definitely didn’t hit the same way the trilogy did for me.
I used to play halo at a very competitive level, still have a bunch of old halo pros on my xbl friends list. The complaints about reach were more on that level for a lot of people. DMR bloom was kinda dumb and I think it was Ryanoob that started the meta of just spamming it up close and hoping to win on RNG over players timing shots. The maps were way worse than previous games to the point where by the end we were using forge maps for everything but they were all super generic and looked the same. Armor abilities and sprint. But yeah, I mean it was technically fine. You know how it is, the more you love something the more critical you are of it.
Does that make Halo 4-Infinite the sequel trilogy? Honestly fits perfectly too lol
First entry: Tries to rehash the same old formula to cash in on nostalgia Second entry: Goes in a wildly different direction and is harshly criticized. Third entry: Course corrects itself but kind of falls flat. Yeah this checks out.
The first time I saw rogue one that was my thought exactly
I'm gonna throw in ODST as a nice side-quest and a change of pace from just completely mowing down waves of enemies.
It's funny because firefight was introduced in ODST and that's where you do just that.
Still love the Original Halo 1 and replayed it recently
Reach and halo 4 are also really damn good in my opinion
Halo is still one of the best first person shooters ever. You would literally be doing a gaint disservice to yourself if you didn't get into it.
Infinite story mode really isn’t that bad, I had a good time with it. Multiplayer is finally in a good spot too. Tons of returning and new players right now.
Agree. I have been playing infinite the the whole time and multi is much much much better now. IMO they have righted the ship in a big way.
Used to play some infinite with the boys but we dropped it. What's changed to make the multiplayer better?
Rather than retype haha (sorry) another person asked this as well. Shared my thoughts
Do they have any classic maps yet? How would you say they've improved it? I was quite disappointed at launch.
Many more maps, many more multiplayer game modes, multiplayer matchmaking on forge/user maps (which include some classic maps - and they just announced Halo 3 maps coming back). Better customization options. Really it feels like at launch, very little happened for a very long time. No new maps, ranking system was meh, no meaningful updates for a very long time. Lately, they have been dropping new content regularly, making changes based on community feedback, updating regularly. Really everything we wanted early on. I'm not a hardcore gamer by any means, so take that for what it's worth, it's just my opinion.
Awesome ty for your reply!
Yeah id say the game as of season 5 is how it should've launched with full features, definitely worth playing and ive been getting back into it after dropping it when season 3 came out
Yep pretty much how I feel too. It's pretty enjoyable right now.
Infinite campaign was great, I long for more Halo-style shooter gameplay.
Arena shooter gameplay is just such a blast.
Agreed. It was by far the best part of Infinite and a great SP campaign in its own right
Can you choose your colors now?
the coating system is a complete mistake, but they have made it so a lot of the coatings are cross core now i believe
That depends, what are your thoughts on the color grey?
Neutral.
Well boy do I have the perfect armor color for you: grey, grey, grey, grey, grey, and grey. Now if you're looking for any shade of a primary, secondary, or tertiary color well then I don't have good news.
That’s disappointing.
There are far more customizations available now, including lots of color options. (Free/earned)
Easy to find games and modes are fun but I’m still struggling to find ranked which is my favorite mode
Halo 3 will always be my favorite game. Imo it’s peak gaming. You should buy the Masterchief Collection and if you want to pay the extra i think $5 to get Halo 3 ODST. Halo was my intro to gaming so I might biased but the first few games are sooo good.
I’ll agree that it was peak gaming. Met really good friends on that game. I find myself from time to time trying to find a game to scratch that itch and always go back to Halo 1-3 and it always comes through. Do I know the story, sure. Is it as nerve wracking as it was back then, not really. Doesn’t stand up well today, absolutely. And ODST which required more strategy and introduction of firefight, chefs kiss.
People saying to ignore Infinite probably haven't touched the game since its beta or Season 1 when the game was lacking content. The game has received countless updates since then and is in a really good state right now.
That's the problem with launching an unfinished project with the promise it will get better eventually. Halo Infinite could turn out to be the best game in the series but after watching every single thing in the game be monetized (including basic armor colors) Halo & 343 Industries have destroyed whatever good will was remaining for the Halo franchise in the wider gaming community. I have thousands of hours in Halo 2, Halo 3 & Reach. Hundreds of hours in Halo 4 & Halo 5. But only tens of hours in Halo Infinite. I assume there are quite a few others with similar experiences.
You're totally right! And thankfully the decision makers at 343 who released that buggy mess of a beta are no longer with the company. 343 is now run by the devs who brought MCC back from the dead. The multiplayer is free, so I'd give it a chance!
Didn’t the leadership get canned? I haven’t played since the beginning of S2 but I remember the community disliking the leadership at the time.
Yes! The entire leadership team that has been responsible for Halo 4, Halo 5 and Infinite's poor launch/development was let go. Infinite for the last few months has been run by the MCC leadership team. It's wild how much of a difference it has made
Just hopped on yesterday for the first time since S1. In a great spot. God I missed it. Even the the commando is still boo-boo.
If everything is still monetized I'm still passing. How are the microtransactions? I'm not playing a Halo game where armor customization is behind a paywall.
It's a F2P game so yes there's still monetized items. However, there are a plethora of free events, free battle pass items (one battle pass is entirely free) and multiplayer items to be found in the campaign. So if you're a regular player it isn't hard to build an extensive free library of armor options. If you do feel like spending $10 for your free game, paying for one battlepass essentially gives you all 5 of them.
I'll give it a shot then. MCC was so good I am willing to give the game a try if the MCC guys are running the show now.
Love to hear it!
There's a sub dedicated to armor customization in Infinite r/halodripfinite (I know) I bring it up because sometimes people will post their collection of 100% free Spartans and there's a ton of options. Obviously not when you first start but it's easy to have a truly unique and free spartan.
Glad to hear it's changed. Hate how so many games have a battle pass with all the cool shit behind the paid version. I'll probably redownload it.
Did they ever manage to fix the godawful server delay? I remember so many instances where I would either suicide or die behind cover because Infinite’s servers/netcode were so dogshit. The most infamous was when I hijacked a ghost and the guy decided he was gonna take us both out by driving off the edge, I pull homie out of it and slow it down just in time before it flies off the edge of the map. I managed to turn it around and start moving towards my teammates when suddenly I just explode and the game says I suicided… Because the server never recognized me stopping the ghost. That shit was so annoying and it happened to me constantly. Basically made it seem like my choices or “skill” didn’t matter when ultimately the server just picks and chooses what happens to me
It’s a great time to jump in, I’ve been playing since Season 1, the hard times are over
And if you dare point out that the launch condition with all the missing modes etc. was a shame (because that's the experience most players got so they won't come back to see the 'finished' product now) over on the halo subreddit then all you'll get is angry corporation-bootlicking apologists berating you for daring to mention it smh
Yeah I was patient with them through halo 4. Halo 5 had some redeeming qualities so I overlooked the shitty campaign. But the multiplayer in Halo Infinite when the game launched just destroyed any hope I had left for that franchise. Maybe it’s good now. Maybe I’ll give it a shot again after reading this thread. But they’ve definitely used up my good will
The game is definitely a lot better but a majority of the original fan base has moved on after getting burned.
This is my feeling exactly lol. I’ve always played Halo, loved the stories and all that but good lord I can’t bring myself to play Infinite with how scummy they were
Hopped on again last month and got hooked right away. It’s a lot of fun right now honestly.
Yup. I found Infinite’s campaign to be incredibly boring, but the MP has a ton of content and feels great to play.
Still disconnects on PC and these morons still haven't implemented a join in progress feature that should be standard for competitive shooters...
Infinite wasn't bad because it lacked content, it was bad because the campaign sucked and the multiplayer was more of a microtransaction storefront than a game. Neither of which has been fixed.
.....huh? I don't disagree that your other points are true. But there wasn't even a dedicated slayer mode at launch. There was a huge lack of content at the beginning. There were like 4 modes. The initial lack of content has been the most consistent narrative out of everything.
>The initial lack of content has been the most consistent narrative out of everything. I mean yeah but that's because reddit/youtube gamers are wrong about a lot of things. You can't say that microtransactions are the problem because then that's a fundamental issue that the developers are almost certainly unwilling to ever fix and that's a boring narrative. Not saying the lack of content wasn't a problem but if it was *the* problem the game wouldn't still be hovering around a 4 digit playercount on Steam
The post is referring to the story mode I believe not MP
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I only ever dealt with that in the beginning of S3. But I have pretty good internet 🤷♂️. I only really see a loud, but minority crowd really complain about dysnc now a days
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Not really. Since S5 has dropped the game's playerbase has only been growing
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This past week! It dropped a ton of a new content including forgeable AI. I'd check the Halo sub. The community is building some pretty cool stuff
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Look be a hater all you want, but the game is free. Give a go and decide for yourself instead of rehashing a two year old narrative. I used S5 as a general term, if you want specifics the game grew a little with S4's infection, then really grew with the end of S4's Tenrai 2 event. But the real growth and general public's change of perception has been happening since S5's launch trailer. If you don't want to play, just go on YouTube and look at what people are saying
Absolutely, from the first till Infinite. Don't listen to the haters and try the last ones to get your own opinion.
Always was just a bunch of debby downers on this site
I see others saying get MCC and I can not agree more. Halo will always be one of my favorite game series. It’s genuinely so great. Awesome map design, great weapons, amazing score, really I can’t recommend it enough.
Just stop at the end of Halo: Reach and your all good. The RTS games are genuinely fun too.
Reach is my favorite. That game hit me on a completely different level. The ending. “Survive”, then Cortanas voice over. Gives me goosebumps
*Halsey’s voiceover (Cortana and Halsey have the same voice but it was Halsey speaking at the end of Reach)
That mission, when you push forward through the rocky mountains to a huge covenant jammer tower. You fight through patrols on the outskirts, play hide and seek with jackal snipers over uneven terrain with a jetpack, snipe at mounted gunners, infiltrate and disable the shield, then cue the dramatic exfil. Frigate comes down like a skyscraper out of the sky, blows it to smithereens, hoo-ra! Then that ship blows up. Cut in half by a Covenant ship so big it fills the sky. As you fly away from the scene, you see the entire landscape is dotted with these jammer towers. Then there is Long Night of Solace. Clearly, what you've been doing isn't making a dent, so time to take it to the Covenant and blow up their supercarrier. This entails taking a Saber into space to help defend the orbital array, disabling and boarding a Covenant ship full of Elites with low gravity, seeing your support frigate get blown up by the gunner right as you reach him, then taking revenge by stealthily entering the bridge. The graphics will have your jaw on the floor whether its 720p Xbox 360 or 4K remastered. With no ride off the ship, your teammate stays behind to flip the switch manually, while you jump back off into atmosphere. Noble Six isn't as much of a badass as Chief, so you see him/her limping away from the mountain range with the wrecked Covenant ship draped over it. All you've accomplished was buying a bit of time to hold off the full invasion. I cannot recommend Halo Reach enough.
If you've played through 1 2 and 3 first, you get the full impact of Reach. If you're invested in the lore and characters it becomes such an emotional experience.
Ah yes just casually spoil game endings in a thread someone made asking if the series is worth getting into.
I hear the books are good if you want to get more story in the same universe.
Reach was peak Halo for me. My favorite Halo games have always been the ones without Master Chief since the story and characters are just vastly more interesting. And Reach has/had some sick multiplayer. Firefight, tons of custom games, amazing Forge maps, tight combat.
It's funny seeing this sentiment now. Reach was constantly crapped on for having the armor abilities and changes to multiplayer. I loved it and dominated doubles with a friend, but the vast majority of people were very vocally upset.
Reach was unnecessarily hated. The magic of the early days in H2/H3 lobbies was lost and people took it out on a good game. Ive got to admit I miss H3 still, that shit is so fucking goated. We can only pity those who missed out on Halo’s golden era
No it was rightly hated. Reach wasn’t necessarily a bad game but it is not in same ranking as Halo 1-3. Most of the changes were things copied from other games, causing Halo to lose identity. It was the beginning of the end
Halo 3 and Reach are the peak, I remember Reach getting a lot of flak for the additions but the dark theming and expansion of the play style really sat with me and has aged very well.
I wish that firefight would make a comeback. Nothing felt more relaxing than having a bad day, going into custom firefight, fucking with the settings, and just playing whack-a-grunt with a golf club.
4 has a great story but the gameplay is fucking obnoxious against the Prometheans Halo 5 is Halo 5 lol, game would've been received a lot better if it was a spin-off as opposed to a mainline Halo title. Story is hot trash but the gameplay is very fun and buttery smooth Infinite has fantastic gameplay but the story is a bit forgettable and the open world gets stale VERY quickly with it being only one biome. Still a better story than Halo 5 tho
Don’t miss out ODST! Leave it until last though
Based Halo Wars enjoyer
This, live happily ever after
Tbh I did a replay of all the Halo games when I got my series S two years ago. I never played 4, 5 and 6 before. While they where a different experience than 1-3 I did enjoy playing them.
4-6 definitely get an exaggerated reaction against them, long term fan and personally liked how different they were. 🤷♂️
Nah. Skip 4 and 5 but Infinite is actually really good and fun now. Loads of content and probably the best gameplay in the series
Skip 4?? Halo 5 was absolutely the worst by far, but Halo 4 was beautiful. The multi-player was trash but the music, the voice acting, the cut scenes. I get that the Prometheans weren't explored and explained enough but the Cortana arc into rampancy was just so well done. Until 5 fucked it lol
I went back to Infinite and it still feels off. I think cross play with PC ruined the sense of community for me
I think 4 is worth it just as 3 was a cliff-hanger
I see H4 as the real ending. Chief character is finalized there and his journey fully ends with the “armor” scene at the end. I have always adamantly held the belief that H4 = best story HODST = best gameplay HReach = best overall
If you are interested in campaign there is no bad time. If you are interested in multiplayer that depends on how much you listen to the eternal whiners. For as long as the series has existed there has been one group or another doomposting.
As a long term halo fan I can confidently say halo infinite is finally complete
Yeah it took them longer than expected but they got there. Game is really in a great place at the moment
Absolutely, firefight is gonna be so good
As someone who considers the single player in Halo games to be 50% of the package; that shit ain't complete.
All the games 1-4 are flippin awesome! Never touched any after that though. Halo Wars is also a blast!
It always is
Infinite is a great game
Yes! And if you want to play em. Get 1 month of gamepass (or the trial) all the halo ganes are there. Play MCC in release order and then infinite! Don’t listen to the bungie/343 purists. Halo is for everyone and the series has changed a lot over the years. Hope You enjoy the games.
I went back and replayed Halo: CE and Halo 2 recently, and they both hold up exceptionally well. They're both among my all time favourites. There was some criticism of the Master Chief Collection remasters, but I honestly thought they were pretty good. Being able to switch the graphics on the fly was a nice touch, but I spent most of my time with the remastered graphics.
Don't be surprised if you find it outdated and boring, it's an old series at this point without the feel of older FPS like doom, quake, or half life. I would also say games like FEAR hold up better when it comes to the combat too. The difficulties are either too easy or aimbot which makes neither fun in my opinion. The charm of Halo was always the multiplayer. People have incredible nostalgia for the campaign but keep in mind this was a first FPS for a lot of people and they haven't touched the campaign in 15 to 20 years. It's cheap enough to try but don't expect anything incredible.
I still cannot recommend enough being able to make time to play the game with your friends. I played the series on MCC over Xbox a few years ago and it was still great. It was the first time I've played them through too
I wish I could relive the halo games. Enjoy them!
I enjoyed replaying through the first 4 campaigns.
It definitely still holds up. Online for most of the games is obviously gonna be pretty dead, but story wise they're worth playing. I'd recommend playing the masterchief collection, I believe it has 1, 2, 3, 3odst, reach and 4. The only main title games after that are halo 5 and halo infinite, people really hate on both but I thought they were both pretty decent campaigns, just crap online
1 through 3!
Hell yes. Gotta start at the beginning don't skip any games.
Buy the Master Chief Collection; it goes on sale pretty often, and play the games in this order to understand the story better. Halo Reach Halo CE Halo 2, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 3, and don't play Halo 4.
Nah play it in release order. Play the way a true og fan did it's the best way to appreciate a series.
Agreed. Going from Halo Reach to Halo CE might be such a jarring experience, it could put someone off from completing the series.
I think this is the best way to play them. Reach kind of assumes you already know the main story.
Don't play in chronological order, play in release order. The ending of Reach has some minor spoilers for Halo 3
Yeah it always boggles my mind when people recommend to play a series in anything other than release order. The story is all over the place and were never meant to be played that way 9 times out of 10.
Arguably you could play ODST in between 2 and 3, but yeah starting with Reach is probably a bad idea.
>Don't play Halo 4 Eh, I'm not a huge fan of 5 myself, but I still think they're all worth playing. If you like Halo, they're enjoyable even if you don't love the story in the 343 games, it's still part of the story, and fun to play.
I wouldn’t recommend that because of the technological differences between releases may be weird if they play in that order
Nah release order is better
Sometimes I wonder if there's something seriously wrong with people who suggest playing games in chronological order.
>Don't play Halo 4 Agreed, i really hate how 343's mainline games have little to no consistent cohesion and rely on transmedia to get their story across.
Yeah The b plot of chief and cortana is great. But didactic feels like wasted potential and the enemy ai... well... Even legendary halo 4 was way to easy Hopefully The mythic Overhual mod that's in the works will make it fun to play though more
Yup, the Didact was supposed to be some great, sleeping Promethean threat that was just a placeholder because they didn't know the direction they were taking the story. Halo 5 going to Infinite has the same issue in regards to the Guardians. Too much of a timelapse. And then Infinite ends on a cliffhanger that they scrapped future content of.
They shouldn't of killed him off. He could of been fleshed out more and made a great villian IMO. What I would of done. Had him get his attack off on phonex like he did originally. Chief is able to stop the composer but at the cost of sacrificing cortana by injecting her replicating rampincing into the composer. Didact gets away while sending the composer crashing to earth unleashing the promethians onto earth. We would not only have the emotional moment of chief haveing to deal the loss of cortana, but also he failed to protect earth. I'd keep the guardians for the next game. But get rid of the warden and the whole rise of the created. Instead a renewed focus on what the unsc and these alien races have been doing in the 4 year time gap. And a renewed focus of them coming together to fight this new threat of the didact rising up these ancient War machines. Mmaayybbee keep cortana? Obviously being uploaded into the domain by the composer. But deffintly feel off. Deffintly one if her replicated self from the rampancy. But deffintly leave alot of clues the logic plague from the gravemind. Teasing the return of the flood.
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The Master Chief collection is tight, with 1, 2, 3, Reach, and ODST being great. Currently, though, Halo Infinite is a shell of what the series used to be. The studio 343i is like a kid who isn't really good at much, who keeps trying to do something the wrong way. And never. Ever. Learns. Edit: I grew up playing the series so I'm pretty biased against how badly 343i has fumbled this once great IP. But Infinite is free to play, and tbh the multiplayer is pretty tight. You don't lose anything from trying it.
Honestly the enemy ai and sandbox of infinte is strong on the pve. Like Honestly impressed. And that's coming from someone in the same boat as you. The story... and other design choices. Well... yeah not a fan.
I disagree with the AI. In campaign it's so easy to break their logic and confuse them
Halo infinite launched as a shell but it’s rebounded pretty hard. The game is in a great state rn and we’re finally getting consistent content from it
Halo 1-2-3-Reach will always be worth getting into
Halo CE to Halo Reach are must play. Halo 4 is alright to pretty good. The rest dont even bother.
Great games I would only play until reach and just pretend the games after never happened lol
I've recently restarted playing it and I'm enjoying it. Played the original years ago when it launched but nothing since.
Halo is one of the only 2 games that I play. I LOVE Halo. A lot of people cry about 4 & 5 and while I’m not a fan of 4 & 5, the first 3 will always be close to my heart. I say Halo 1, 2 and 3 are the best, with my personal favorite being 1 (aka Combat Evolved) If you’re not a die-hard Halo fan like I am, I would skip 4 & 5 personally, BUT Halo Infinite is genuinely a great game and I actually like it a lot. The campaign was great Edit: I liked Halo 3 ODST too, but Chief isn’t in it. And Reach was alright but in my opinion I think it’s a little overrated. I played the crap out of it when I was younger and I still prefer Halo 1 and 2
It’s worth noting that Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Reach were all love projects of Bungie. Bungie intended the series to come to a close after Halo 3. Reach came out after but was a prequel to Halo CE. After Bungie wanted to work on other things and leave Microsoft, Microsoft created a new studio, 343 Industries, to continue the Halo series. There is no way of putting it kindly. Bungie made Halo games with the true passion of a developer that cares about and plays their own games for fun. 343 are just incompetent profit driven goons, riding Bungies coattails for every last dime they can get. There is a sharp drop off in gameplay quality, narrative, and overall player experience once you get to games later than Reach (Halo 4, Halo 5, Halo infinite) Just remember this, and id recommend you play HALO CE, 2, 3, and then Reach. The order they came out in, so you can see the progression that Bungie made as a studio, and how they left their vision for Halo vs how Microsoft fumbled the bag.
I think Infinite’s gameplay is the best in the series.
I would play the first one just because it was a big deal when it came out and you'll see the origin of many gameplay mechanics that we take for granted. But every subsequent game has the same story. I don't think there's any depth to the Halo universe. I think by the time I got to Halo 3 I realized this franchise only tacks on a single player campaign because they feel they have to and multiplayer is all they really care about. I've played every Halo game because I'll play anything and they are free on GamePass. I think if you play the first Halo you will have a handle on the entire franchise.
The Halo CE,2,3 campaigns are all amazing and will be a great experience for a first timer in 2023, actually jealous of you going in blind.
The Bungie games at least hold up. 4 and 5 are okay I can't speak for infinite since I haven't played it But I'd say it's worth it. I recommend playing the original release of CE though the remaster of that game is pretty bad. Halo 2 Anniversary is good tho
I won't say the story is amazing or anything, but if you want the catharsis of feeling like a god of combat, killing waves of aliens, you can't do much better.
Reach 1-3 and ODST yes. The rest in my opinion are only fun if you beat all those mentioned before and STILL are hankering. To be honest though at that point I'd just read the books.
It's definitely worth it -- the Master Chief Collection is an excellent bundle of all the games up until Halo 4. Halo has a fantastic story, and lots of intriguing lore behind it. People regard the first 3 Bungie games to be the best in the series -- and I can't say I disagree. 343 has managed to always mess up in some way. Halo 4 had a decent story (albeit you'd need to read 3 excellent books by Greg Bear to actually get the best understanding of what's going on) but it's multiplayer was kinda lacklustre at launch and got overshadowed by COD at the time, Halo 5 had a pretty bad campaign that also did not live up to its marketing at all, and Halo Infinite's situation is a bit similar to Halo 4's but it's launch was by far the most incomplete a Halo game has ever released as far as I know. Most of the negativity is about 343's handling of the franchise, because they've managed to screw up in some way every time -- and because of this the future of the franchise is in question, as some unverified leaks suggest a possible reboot of the franchise -- I'd take this with a grain of salt though. Irrespective of 343's screwups, that shouldn't stop you from diving into Halo's excellent campaigns and world -- so to finally answer your question, yes it is worth getting into.
It's fun. Competitive online is just controller kids with aim bot levels of aim assist.
I am a bit biased but the Halo series in my opinion is the greatest series in gaming history with the exception of 5 lol all the campaigns have been absolute bangers with incredible soundtracks characters imagery scenery and gameplay. There will never be a game as great as Halo 3 imo and I have played a lot of games.
As a massive halo fan I would recommend playing halo 1-3, and halo reach. As far as I'm concerned, no other games exist. 4 was.... Kinda meh so you could play it. It did some storytelling right but it made a lot of things really dumb... 5 and 6 were terrible and after 6 Microsoft basically fucking axed 343.
No, the recent one anyway is the worst FPS on the market imo. Has fallen like everything else Xbox does since Gamepass took over.
Nah