I have been an avid Halo fan since I was 8 years old and Halo: CE was released. Since then I have prided myself in finishing every Halo game solo on Legendary before playing a single match of MM. Halo 4 was an exception because my friend and I attended the local midnight release and beat it with out stopping on Legendary Difficulty in just under 6 and a half hours.
With the release of the Halo 5 announcement, I decided to finish Halo 4 solo and revisit all of the previous Halo games. This made me realize what I loved best about Halo, being a Spartan. You get to feel like a powerful hero while facing similarly skilled opponents in Campaign. I found this experience in CE- ODST. In both Reach and 4, I found the Legendary Experience to be incredibly dull. Take an assault rifle and get their shields down, and then get a headshot. Rinse and repeat.
In my opinion, Legendary should be about facing similarly powerful opponents that have good AI, not overpowered enemies standing still with you sitting behind a rock picking them off from afar. Additionally, the vehicle missions were all incredibly easy compared to when you’re on foot. I don’t know if I’m playing it wrong, but all the AAs seemed useless except Active Camo which was OP in the campaign. It was the most boring grind I have experienced.
When I put in any other Halo, Legendary is rewarding. Both side are equally powerful, skill is what makes Legendary easy in those games; Except Halo 2, that is just memorizing where the Jackal snipers are….
To end, I beg that 343 makes Solo Legendary fun and rewarding again. Make it skill based by increasing Enemy AI and giving them more powerful weapons, not by making their Plasma Pistols stupid strong, knowing exactly where you are, or having shields so strong it takes a full clip just to kill them. I would also love 343 forever if they made The Covenant speak English again. IWHBYD has almost no effect because no one is around to make any witty remarks. Halo 4 was one of the better Halos, please break out the Bungie’s shadow and break away from some of what Bungie did in Reach, I abhor that game.
Gulp
L-L-Legendary…? Solo…? begins sobbing
I CAN’T DO A FULL LEVEL WITHOUT BREAKING DOWN!!!
Clears throat
Ahem… yes, I still have some thoughts on this, though. Although I’m not as brave as you when it comes to solo difficulty, I know a thing or two about this ordeal.
First off, let me say that you are absolutely right. AI smartness should accelerate with difficulty. I can live with the health boosting just a tad (as a gamer, NOT as a Spartan… :P), but a very small tad. Legendary should feel like skulls are already on when they’re not, IMO. But just increasing damage and health won’t necessarily do.
Heck, giver every Grunt a Fuel Rod Cannon for all I care and some more health. Having a Plasma pistol kill you in 3 hits, hyperbole, is not cool. Especially when it feels like you have a nerf gun. Go play CE and compare it with the assault rifle from 4, they feel completely different power wise. Additionally the AI never even try and chase you down, just stand around waiting for you to kill them/shooting at you intermittently. I really liked how Brute’s power armor never regenerated.
yes, yes, yes !
that’s why the legendary-difficulty never interested me quiet much.
enemies got tougher, but not smarter. it was mostly too…hide-&-seek-ish.
jumping & running from cover to cover & simply invest more ammo
isn’t a challenge i’d enjoy.
but yeah, if the enemy-AI would increase & their behaviour improve
with higher diffculties, it would be way more fun & challenging IMO.
I want Legendary to be that difficulty that almost seems impossible to beat. The newer titles are challenging but are not fulfilling that “impossible” quota. I hope that with Halo 5 they make Legendary really hard and rewarding. Ending wise, Halo CE’s legendary ending is still hilarious and my favorite. Although, the ODST legendary ending was pretty funny. XD
As long as the mere mentioning of Halo 5’s Legendary difficulty invokes fear and suffering in the minds of mortals, I’ll be happy. Halo 4’s seemed like Halo 2/3’s Heroic difficulty more than an actual Legendary.
…With the possible exception of a few points in the game, but for the most part the difficulty got knocked down a few notches since past games it seemed.
I would have to say the most rewarding experience playing and beating legendary would have to be HALO WARS.
That game was truly difficult even on normal. Sure as with any Halo game the AI get ridiculous at times but Halo Wars always mixed it up and it always boiled down to if you can outsmart the enemy AI with either brute power or clever hit and runs.
> As long as the mere mentioning of Halo 5’s Legendary difficulty invokes fear and suffering in the minds of mortals, I’ll be happy. Halo 4’s seemed like Halo 2/3’s Heroic difficulty more than an actual Legendary.
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> …With the possible exception of a few points in the game, but for the most part the difficulty got knocked down a few notches since past games it seemed.
I wouldn’t even give it that much credit. Halo 4 Legendary felt like playing normal in Halo 2.
> > As long as the mere mentioning of Halo 5’s Legendary difficulty invokes fear and suffering in the minds of mortals, I’ll be happy. Halo 4’s seemed like Halo 2/3’s Heroic difficulty more than an actual Legendary.
> >
> >
> > …With the possible exception of a few points in the game, but for the most part the difficulty got knocked down a few notches since past games it seemed.
>
> I wouldn’t even give it that much credit. Halo 4 Legendary felt like playing normal in Halo 2.
Bear in mind though that I’m an “Average-ish” player, so Legendary was still a bit difficult for me in H4, just not as much as in Reach or prior. So what’s difficult for me may very well be something others could do while drinking a cup of coffee and watching the news on their laptop and having one eye closed.
> I would have to say the most rewarding experience playing and beating legendary would have to be HALO WARS.
>
> That game was truly difficult even on normal. Sure as with any Halo game the AI get ridiculous at times but Halo Wars always mixed it up and it always boiled down to if you can outsmart the enemy AI with either brute power or clever hit and runs.
YES.
Completing all of those 15 missions on par time with a gold medal on legendary would seem more challenging than any other Halo games. The AI is smarter, has more units, more defense, more power, and more Mega Turrets!
Having the games to be more like this(without the positive skulls) would be very ambitious, especially for an fps one.
I do think that Halo 2’s was a bit too extreme, but that is only my opinion, many others would disagree. Honestly, I can see why, don’t try me with that statement.
I really loved h1’s legendary. Been kinda meh on the rest. H2’s was hard but felt cheep between charging bullet spunges and hard to see snipers that kill you if they hit you anywhere.
Halo CE had to best Legendary, in my opinion. Enemies were challenging and the player was weak, but the enemies weren’t bullet sponges. These days, it’s nothing but plasma pistol-headshot combo. It’s boring and doesn’t make people want to replay the game.
Halo 2 was good, but I hate the co-op legendary (ugh!).
Reach did something right by scaling encounters based on the number of player. As far as I can tell, this was absent from Halo 4, and needs to return. Again though, don’t make enemies into bullet sponges. Their damage resistance on Legendary shouldn’t be much higher than on Easy or Normal.
If Halo 5 can find a balance between Halo CE and Halo Reach, that would by my ideal Legendary difficulty.
I’ve done CE Legendary Solo (but I was a much more beast Halo player then), as well as most of Halo 3 Solo, and all of Reach Solo. I started Halo 4 Solo and it went smoothly until it got promethean heavy. Their pansies and they eat all your ammo on Legendary, it was just stupid. The Prometheans ruined the Legendary difficulty setting. They’d eat up two of you’re clips(a bit of an overexaggeration) while you evade their overpowered shots, and then as soon as the kill shot is available. They teleport away like pansies and hide and regenerate. Ridiculous.
And what the monitor above me stated about Reach weighing the number of enemies based on players is spot on. It does need a return. It was very well done and a good idea in general. Good ideas should never be cut unless they don’t work. It worked.
> Halo CE had to best Legendary, in my opinion. Enemies were challenging and the player was weak, but the enemies <mark>weren’t bullet sponges</mark>. These days, it’s nothing but plasma pistol-headshot combo. <mark>It’s boring and doesn’t make people want to replay the game.</mark>
This…
> Reach did something right by scaling encounters based on the number of player. As far as I can tell, this was absent from Halo 4, and needs to return. Again though, <mark>don’t make enemies into bullet sponges. Their damage resistance on Legendary shouldn’t be much higher than on Easy or Normal</mark>.
…and this!
I didn’t appreciate H4 Legendary mainly because of this (and also I found Prometheans boring to fight).
More OT, I voted Halo CE and Halo 2. Like many on this forum, I beat CE Legendary campaign a few tens of times, especially 3 or 4 levels which I did close to a hundred times, since I didn’t have Xbox Gold for a long time. I could still spend time on it today because I love it.
Halo 2 Legendary was aslo pretty cool and hard at the same time if I remember well.