Why is Halo 2 the least of the Halos?

[Dosvidonya]

I've always been curious by this cause in my opinion it's the best. It has had the most gameplay changes out of any of the Halo's, it's graphics were great for it's time, and actually I think they still kind of holdup today, and story wise it's great. I thought the way they handled the Arbiters story was really cleverly done, and even the Chiefs parts were good in a very straightforward kind of good. It seems however everyone shits on Halo 2, solely for the cliffhanger ending and I think that's a really unfair point to criticize it on, especially for a middle chapter of a trilogy... I mean Half-Life 2's ending was a hell of a cliffhanger too, but no one calls it out for it. Anyway, just like to hear what other people think, and also what your favorite Halo was and why.

P.S. Only Halo! I don't want to hear how much you think KOTOR or Portal is sooooo much better than Halo in general, this thread is about Halo. I happen to love both those games, just not on this thread.

 

[alphamalet]

I'm of the mindset that Halo has gotten worse and worse with each installment. So, with that being said, I don't think Halo 2 is the worst. I'd probably give that award to either ODST or Reach.

 

[Skops]

Well you're comparing two completely different types of cliffhanger endings. HL2:ep3 was very tragic and "holy shit" worthy, and then there's "Finishing the Fight, sir" which is ridiculously cheesy and everyone felt like Bungie gave us a smiling middle finger.

edit: also ODST was pretty much a 60.00 expansion pack. I'm not a big fan of Halo, I'm quite indifferent about the franchise. But I've played each one, and everyone with the exception of ODST stands on its own merits.

 

[Vrex360]

I honestly don't know, I really liked Halo 2. It had a good campaign and I liked the multiplayer, I especially liked (read: adored) the Arbiter in that game because it was so shocking and so clever and interesting and also very bold to break the mold of the traditional 'space marenie shootah' by suddenly humanizing the aliens in question as something other than mindless baddies. Maybe if the game had been marketted with the Arbiter right from the beginning and made more clear that it wasn't going to be a battle on Earth the whole way through people might not have gone into it expecting it and therefore not have been dissapointed.

I admit there are a few issues with Halo 2 but honestly I found it to have a really great plot and I really liked it.In fact I probably wouldn't like Halo anywhere near as much had it not been for Halo 2 turning out the way it did.

 

[Zhukov]

The vehicle controls sucked.

They made the aliens boring.

The weapons lacked the punchy feel of the original.

For me there were only two memorable moments in the entire game: boarding the scarab and Cortana being abandoned. Everything else has just faded in my memory into one great big smear of blaaaaah.

 

[Ctmnt08]

I think Halo 2 is the "least" because of its terrible (some would argue nonextant) ending.

The fact that it opens with a sequence that you literally have to have read a book to understand doesn't help. Since I hadn't read said book, I opened with the following questions: "Wait, how'd he get back to Earth?" followed closely by "Wait, that guy died! Twice, if you played Legendary!" Not much was filled in and while the Haloverse was certainly made better with the plot expansions of Halo 2, the plot of the game remained murky and incomplete.

Not saying that 3 or ODST or Reach were great masterworks of writing, I think Halo 2 just started the trend.

 

[themechanic]

it was the best on xbox imo. The MP was balanced and fun. Campaign levels were well designed and varied. It made halo 3 a disappointment and halo 1 look old.

 

[StormShaun]

What...me and and my friend loved it. We played and finished the campaign together and then did Halo 3 together too. We love all the Halos...except Wars...and possibly ODST. Point of the story is that we loved it!

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I don't think it's the least. I like it. The change in perspective keeps it interesting and I think the environments were awesome.

 

[Wayneguard]

None of the campaigns since the first Halo have really had the same "impact" you know? Even though halo 2 is on earth and stuff, Halo 1 just felt much more important. Idk what I'm talking about.

OT: Yeah imo Reach is, by far, the worst. I've loved Halo since waaay back when and it just didn't feel right to me. The weapons didn't feel like they did enough damage. I didn't care about any of the characters (I realized this when a main character died... and I couldn't even remember the character's name). Halo 2 was immensely enjoyable (although the sound effects on the guns were puny as hell).

 

[Dosvidonya]

Well you're comparing two completely different types of cliffhanger endings. HL2:ep3 was very tragic and "holy shit" worthy, and then there's "Finishing the Fight, sir" which is ridiculously cheesy and everyone felt like Bungie gave us a smiling middle finger.

edit: also ODST was pretty much a 60.00 expansion pack. I'm not a big fan of Halo, I'm quite indifferent about the franchise. But I've played each one, and everyone with the exception of ODST stands on its own merits.

Right, I'm not talking about Half-Life 2. Not any of the episodes, they're all they're own self-contained games no matter how similar they are. The Ending to Half-Life 2 was abrupt as shit, and was a total let down in comparison to the rest of the game. Also you have to remember that they didn't make it knowing they were going to make a sequel to the Combine story. Valve writes each of their games as their own self-contained story, very much able to stand separate from the others.

 

[Dosvidonya]

The vehicle controls sucked.

They made the aliens boring.

The weapons lacked the punchy feel of the original.

For me there were only two memorable moments in the entire game: boarding the scarab and Cortana being abandoned. Everything else has just faded in my memory into one great big smear of blaaaaah.

Really! I think Halo has the best vehicle controls out of any game, even some racing games. All the other things are opinion. I disagree, but I respect yours.

 

[DarkishFriend]

I really did enjoy Halo 2 and honestly consider it the best Halo game I've played and one of the best online shooter experiences I've had in my entire game history, of course I was like 13 but still. I had never played any PC games other than Castle Wolfenstein when I was around 10 so I had no concept of mods or custom game types, so Halo 2's custom games, even while not very in depth, blew my mind. There were some incredibly fun custom game types made during Halo 2.