Why is Halo 2's campaign so popular?

[Shlomosuke]

I really dont get it. It's repetitive, there's a huge lot of waiting time, checkpoints are garbage, colours are washed out, sniper jackals, legendary difficulty.

Playing the arbiter is great, except every single arbiter level is a chore.

The only saving grace is the story (well, obviously the soundtrack but it doesnt count since every single Bungie Halo game has an insane soundtrack).

[WhitePhantom]

Yeah it's actually pretty bad, and having it in the MCC really highlights how weak it is when compared directly to the other games in the series. The pace really slows down when you have to play as the Arbiter, and even as Chief the game is full of moments where you have to stand around waiting for waves of enemies to attack you as a way of artificially extending what was clearly a rushed campaign.

I'm guessing most people consider it good because of nostalgia - playing it recently in the collection they likely enjoyed the Earth portion up to the first Arbiter level then stopped playing.

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by WhitePhantom:

I'm guessing most people consider it good because of nostalgia

This couldn't be further from the truth.

I played through the MCC this summer for the first time ever, having never played any Halo games except the original PC port of CE. I found it to be dull and repetitive back in the day, and I only confirmed those feelings replaying it. The base combat loop is great fun, and it's the only thing keeping that game from being boring. That and the plot.

Halo 2 however immediately felt like a breath of fresh air with a huge variety of levels, enemies, weapons, dual wielding, alien vehicles, Arbiter levels - you name it. As a newcomer to the series I feel like Halo 2 was the most impactful in terms of bringing new stuff to the table, and was a huge leap from its predecessor. It's by far my favorite game in the franchise.

Although I can admit that Halo 3 did most things BETTER, it didn't do much new, but mostly polished on what Halo 2 had established.

[Leah]

The writing holds up the best out of all the Bungie games, and the Legendary has become notoriously tough as nails and become more of a challenge mode of itself.

Plus, fighting Brutes in 3 was never even remotely as fun.

[Goatseface Killah]

I never got the hate for the first Arbiter level. You get cool camo stealth, neat heretic reskins, a nice mix of forerunner brutalism with an industrial gas mine aesthetic, plus all the banshee blasting with Incubus math rock in the background, great stuff. Oracle blows from a gameplay perspective though, tons of flagrant padding and a tedious boss battle (although the blatantly cut banshee section is funny, you just fly 10 feet into a cutscene someone made an hour before gold master). And then you do the next two chief levels and it's the same pattern: cool level with lots of fun bits into elevators and arenas galore; at least the Regret fight plays into the game's mechanics properly.

[Tr0w]

It wasn't when it came out, it had a pretty big backlash actually, which is why Halo 3 went back to Chief only being playable and another warthog run at the end instead of a boss fight.

2004 on whole was great for shooters, we got Halo 2, Far Cry, DOOM3, and Half-Life 2 all in the same year.

[Delta_Assault]

Yup, it sucks. And the ending is awful.

[Shlomosuke]

I'm not satisfied, or at least not completly, with the answers pro-Halo 2, so I've done some thinking myself and here's what I came up with, 2 points:

1: What first made Halo 2 different is the ambition. Halo CE was already very ambitious as it is, but Halo 2 aimed for something different. The scale went from fighting on a single "planet" to exploring several different locations. We went from seeing everything from a single side to having the sides of multiple factions, and even inside those factions, we could see their political struggle, their hierarchy, their religion.

2: The characters and voice acting. The covenant carry Halo 2, especially the prophets, but Tartarus and the Arbiter are amazing too. The voice acting was great in Halo CE, but it's nothing compared to Halo 2.

Those two points bring me to my conclusion: the immersion.
Halo 2 brought the immersion to a whole new level.
We went from a dude in a spacesuit killing aliens for a "super weapon" to a huge, intricate story of power struggle, fight for humanity and so many other things. And everything is fleshed-out, although not entirely because of a lack of time, but still, it's fleshed-out.

I think that's what makes Halo 2 such a success today.
I can honestly watch the Halo 2 cutscenes (in the remastered version ofc) as if they were a movie. The voice acting is THAT good.

From a gameplay perspective, I really cant think of anything Halo 2 brought that made an actual difference, so I dont know what bullet's talking about.

What do you guys think?

[Dead PL ayerCZ]

Halo 2 is simply the the best, it upgraded already good halo CE to something god-like.
- Arbiter and you get to play as him.
- cool locations
- cool vehicles
- cool new mechanics
- great story

All Halo CE did right, Halo 2 did better. After that no Halo came close to being better than 2, 3 was decent but anything past that is pure AIDS.
Halo 2, to me, is the best game ever made and its crazy to think just how much content was cut due to the release date.

[Shlomosuke]

Originally posted by Dead PL ayerCZ:

Halo 2 is simply the the best, it upgraded already good halo CE to something god-like.
- Arbiter and you get to play as him.
- cool locations
- cool vehicles
- cool new mechanics
- great story

All Halo CE did right, Halo 2 did better. After that no Halo came close to being better than 2, 3 was decent but anything past that is pure AIDS.
Halo 2, to me, is the best game ever made and its crazy to think just how much content was cut due to the release date.

Point by point:
-Playing as the arbiter sucked because every single mission is a waiting simulator
-Agree with the cool locations, problem was the colours are so washed up they felt a lot less impactful than they should have (and do in Halo 2 A)
-I barely remember the new vehicles in Halo 2 lmao. I dont see how any of them were any good.
-New mechanics? The dual wielding was anecdotical... and I dont really see anything else? New weapons were pretty good tho. Although i'm not a fan of the covenant carabine.
-That we can agree on completly. The story is great.

Halo CE had a better ambiance. Halo CE had a better overall flow... I dont really know how to put it, but I never felt bored in Halo CE when I did, quite a lot actually, in Halo 2.
Soundtrack is the same quality, just different. The difficulty is awfully managed, ridiculous difficulty spikes next to waiting times next to vehicule sections that just require you to aim and shoot.
Both games also had amazing visuals (granted both have aged), landscapes, skyboxes and whatnot.
So no, Halo 2 isnt better in every regards. It had better voice acting, a more ambitious and fleshed-out story, more characters (arguably better too)... and that's it?
Halo 2 is also far too often a frustrating game.

With the release of the MCC, I finally had a chance to replay Halo 2 on PC. And it was a huge letdown compared to pretty much all the other Halos (3 is great, ODST is unique, CE is the best, Reach is average, 4 can suck an egg).

[I'm the walrus]

i have more fun playing halo 2 than half life 2 and im a pc guy

[RoadRager1904]

why do people keep responding to blatant bait posts? Just ignore them, and the bait posts will go away.

[MADOX-01]

Originally posted by RoadRager1904:

why do people keep responding to blatant bait posts? Just ignore them, and the bait posts will go away.

Because it's actually really boring. Sure the writing is good, but most of the levels are boring and a chore to play.

[Shlomosuke]

Originally posted by MADOX-01:

Originally posted by RoadRager1904:

why do people keep responding to blatant bait posts? Just ignore them, and the bait posts will go away.

Because it's actually really boring. Sure the writing is good, but most of the levels are boring and a chore to play.

you shouldnt acknowledge people like him. Just ignore and report. He obviously isnt looking for a chat, he is looking for attention.

[I'm the walrus]

Originally posted by MADOX-01:

Originally posted by RoadRager1904:

why do people keep responding to blatant bait posts? Just ignore them, and the bait posts will go away.

Because it's actually really boring. Sure the writing is good, but most of the levels are boring and a chore to play.

nah
for a 2004 game its amazing
unlike half life 2 which came out same year

[RoadRager1904]

Originally posted by Shlomosuke:

you shouldnt acknowledge people like him. Just ignore and report. He obviously isnt looking for a chat, he is looking for attention.

If you were really looking for answers, there's many Youtube videos with varying opinions. Instead you're posting "Halo [X] sucks, change my mind" nr. quintillion. Who's really looking for attention here? Have fun, I've already ignored my own advice, time to change that.