What is your favourite Halo FPS campaign level of all time, and what is so great about it?
Consider physical layout, weapons and vehicle placement, enemies and allies, objective, environmental visuals, atmospheric audio, music, cutscenes, linearity versus openness, etc.? What do you enjoy most about this level? What elements from this level would you like to see in future Halo games?
If your struggling to pick a single level, which levels are you considering? Why?
Personally I really enjoyed The Pillar of Autumn. I piked that you were waking up the unknown, as you had no idea what was happening at first, but as the level progressed it started to feel like you had being fighting the Covies for half your life, and it became obvious that you were the thorn in their side. Maybe I’m a little basic with the selection, but I enjoy what I enjoy.
If not that, then The Package from Halo: Reach for sure. I loved the slow introduction, as you thought you were just being sent in for a Demo Op, but it was in fact just a pretext to send you to Halsey. I always try to keep the ODST team I’m with alive too, which I normally succeed in, and the Tank gameplay is fun as hell. The music that plays really tugs on my emotions too, as it just adds to the eeriness of the war going on in the background. Lastly, the ending cutscene where we hear that Reach is doomed, and our final hope rests on the information gleaned from the artifact, along with D.O.T saying about how the Covenant is racing to the shipbreaking yard adds to the atmosphere. Writing this has just gave me goosebumps, so that should show how impactful it is.
That would be Assault on the Control Room.
The reason I choose this level starts from the fact that it’s a Halo CE level. The reason I think that’s an important point is that you can’t really talk about a level separately from the gameplay of the game it appears in. Sure, the level would probably work if you just transferred it to another Halo, but it wouldn’t be as fun to play with gameplay design I find less enjoyable. There are levels I think are about on par in terms of level design and such, but are in games that have less solid core gameplay in campaign.
When it comes to the level itself, it has great pacing with varied and well crafted encounters. I enjoy levels that aren’t just constant, fast combat but have substantial sections of rest and slower action, because that emphasizes the more frantic sections and leaves time to appreciate the environment and the atmosphere. I don’t believe every level should be like this, but I feel like this is something that’s been missing in later Halo games where the missions just wheel you from one encounter to another without leaving substantial time to take in the environment. This is partly emphasized by the fact that CE combat is very forgiving for your shields, whereas in the later games your shields go down very fast during combat. Again, can’t separate the level from the gameplay.
The style of encounters on AotCR are essentially determined by the size of the play space, which is why most indoors sections are fast, why outdoors are slow. I believe this might be partly a technical limitation on the number of AI Bungie could put into a single section, but it really works for the atmosphere also because the sections that are the most impressive are precisely the large spaces where the player should be able to slow down and properly take in the space they are in.
The variety of encounters on this level is fairly impressive. There are the standard close-range indoors encounters, a tank section, and even an opportunity to fly a Banshee. On top of that, there’s a potential stealth section. And while this section is over pretty quickly if you want to move on, I’ve always found it cool that it presents an opportunity for a spontaneous mini game of sorts when you try to kill all the enemies in the room without alerting anyone. I feel like these kinds “mini games” are very valuable. Situations where the player is given the opportunity to do something, but there’s no prompt, no requirement, no achievement, only the opportunity to figure something out, and do it because it’s fun without ulterior motives. It’s very refreshing in the reward-focused modern environment of games.
Beyond that, the bridge encounters get a honorable mention, because they put the player in this just really cool play space. The first time, there’s actually nothing even special about the encounters itself. As far as the gameplay goes, apart from the Banshee, it might as well be a long indoor corridor. But the fact that it is a bridge, high above the canyon floor where you will play later, the first time you actually see outdoors on the level makes it a really powerful encounter. The bridges could as well have just been across some nondescript bottomless pit, but the fact that they connect with a later (or in the case of the second bridge, an earlier) section of the level is such a neat design technique. On the second bridge, you of course also have the quite unique bridge-to-bridge combat, which again adds variety to the encounter design.
When it comes to the aesthetic of the level, the indoors and the architecture is of course Bungie’s classic Forerunner design, which just feels ancient, dormant, mysterious, and elegant in itself. Outdoors, you have the snowy canyons which have a very peaceful feel to them. You have the high canyon walls disappearing into the white fog, which I feel has an important contribution to the sense of isolation and loneliness on the level, because you can’t even see the sky, which is as if there’s no universe outside these canyons. Apart from these, you also have the hallmarks of Forerunner architecture in the massive pyramid of the control room exterior, as well as the couple of massive indoor spaces. Here, too, the imagination of how these environments are used is admirable. I mean, the start of the level is an aerial insertion… from underground, which introduces the player right away to this breathtaking Forerunner architecture in a really interesting way.
AotCR holds lots of lessons for level design. The pacing I think is the biggest thing future Halo games could learn from, but I don’t think that’s possible to execute fully without also bringing back more CE-like gameplay, so it’s a significant commitment. Variety, of course, is something useful also, but frankly I don’t think that’s something Halo games struggle with, and I don’t think every level needs to or even should have all styles of play crammed into one. After all, the more you do a thing, the less special it becomes. if all the levels in CE had a Warthog run, you’d be bored of it by the time you get to the final one. Beyond that, there are lots of small things in level layout and enemy movement in the indoor spaces for how to design encounters you can dance in, and how to create stealth in a game that’s far from a stealth game, but nothing particular I can point at and say “I want this”.
Uprising has been my favorite level since I first played it. Always loved the elites in the halo universe and I feel like the whole level just really set the mood of the internal fighting between brutes and elites really well.
The Covenant from Halo 3 has remained my favorite level for years. I see it as an homage to another level I love dearly, The Silent Cartographer. It starts with a beachhead invasion, then transitions into a mechanized assault with a warthog (or mongoose if you choose). From there it transitions to an indoor section and a mini boss fight. Then you get to fly a brand new vehicle, the Hornet, before assaulting another indoor section and mini boss fight. THEN you get to fight the Flood and witness good ole fashioned three-way fighting between the Flood, the Covenant, and you and your allies. THEN AGAIN you get to drive a scorpion to satisfy your power fantasy before taking on a third mini boss, the two scarabs. From there you get to actually ally with the Flood for a brief period before they turn on you. The level finally ends with the glorious reveal of Installation 08 (04b).
What really makes me love this level so much is the variety. You fight on grass, indoors, the air, and on snow. You drive so many different vehicles, and can drive even more if you steal the covie ones. You can use long range or short range weapons depending on the environment. And in the end, when you fight the scarabs, you can choose to stick with the scorpion or grab a hornet and conduct an aerial assault.
It’s such a fun level and every time I play I wish it wouldn’t end.
Last level of Halo 3. I think it’s the nostalgia but I love it!
Delta Halo - H2.
Badass drop into, badass motivation behind the badass drop, and to physically beat the Prophets -Yoink- bare knuckle style was awesome! Also flying g tanks cause of energy shields that come back. It was way to fun.
halo 3, the covenant alliance. killing the prophet and all that
Tip of the Spear in Halo: Reach was my favorite level, the opening cutscene was awesome and I liked the all-out war setting, kinda reminded me of “War of the Worlds”.
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> What is your favourite Halo FPS campaign level of all time, and what is so great about it?
> Consider physical layout, weapons and vehicle placement, enemies and allies, objective, environmental visuals, atmospheric audio, music, cutscenes, linearity versus openness, etc.? What do you enjoy most about this level? What elements from this level would you like to see in future Halo games?
> If your struggling to pick a single level, which levels are you considering? Why?
343 guilty spark. The anniversary edition doesn’t do it much justice, I talk about the original version from 2001. The atmosphere it builds in every single detail, from the darkness of the swamp, the massacred covenant, the absurdly large forerunner halls that this time feel diseased and in a state of alert, the ambient sound, the music… It made me realize how can you involve someone in a game in ways you can’t in other media. The reveal of the flood is simply genious, one of the best plot twists in gaming history hands down. About the gameplay - one of the reasons CE and 3 are my favorite ones is because the levels feel open, you can explore them without a sense of direction. This level took advantage of that and combined it with CE’s repetitive corridors and rooms. This is the only time it’s totally justifyied, as it truly immerses you in the clautrophobia and terror of the situation. Combat turns into a desperate attempt of surviving and escaping hell. Sure, it isn’t as balanced and cheesy like fighting elites, but the game wants you to feel overwhelmed. Same with veichles. Finding the shotgun feels like finding a glass of water in the desert and adds to the pacing. Going out in the open away with the marines this time and having to search for flood running in the fog was intense, and then findibg the sentinels made you rethink everything about Halo and the forerunners. I’d love Infinite to have a mission as excellent by learning these lessons.