Here is one of the most important, if not the most important reason, why Halo 2 is/was better than Halo 4:
MARKET SHARE
Halo 2 took and kept a much larger share of its market than Halo 4 did. Whine and complain, and make all the excuses you want to for Halo 4, but ultimately the goal of any Halo game is to take the largest share of its market that it can get, and Halo 2 succeeded in that much more so than Halo 4.
Maybe if 343 had decided to take Halo CE/ 2/ 3 and improve that type of game’s QUALITY, rather than “improving” that game’s GAME PLAY (by changing it with all this new stuff), then Halo 4 would have managed to gain a market share comparable to Halo 2!
But I know, I know, people here obsessed with new flashy things will defend 343 and their failed game Halo 4 as if it actually succeeded. Its cool if you enjoy it, but its ridiculous argue based on the actual goals of why Halo games are made (gaining market share) that Halo 5 should not have CE/ 2/ 3 game play.
Not to disagree for the sake of disagreement but H2 was by far the best game on the market and one of , if not the only multi-player competition other than sports games on the original xbox. It easily held the biggest market share as COD had not exploded yet and Gears was still on the horizon. H2’s market share is not a good argument because their was no market to share before H2 as far as online games go.
If you are saying it sold better than other xbox games , no question. Again , however , I point to the fact it was the only competition based shooter available at the time.
And to add to what Sundance said, you want them to just improve quality without touching the gameplay, but that’s exactly what CoD does. Each Halo has it’s own thing that sets it apart, it’s own tweaks. They can’t just up the graphics between each iteration and let the gameplay stagnate.
Not saying halo 2 only got played because there was nothing else , just saying that with out other online games to compare it to at the time we cannot say it would have done as well. If fifa and mine craft didn’t exist today who’s to say those people wouldn’t be playing Halo 4. Not a great example but you get my point.
Halo 2 was great but it was the only great online game on the market so it undoubtedly made crazy money. Now you have BF3 , Gears 3, MW , BLOPS , and any number of sports and arcade games. The people only barely interested in shooter games have far more choices and therefore a smaller market is available. If arcade and other forms of online competition didn’t exist Halo 4 would be more popular just because the people on the fringe would pick it up just to see what the fuss is about , good or bad.
A lot of people who never played Halo CE picked up Halo2 after six months or so(if you could find a copy) because everyone at school or at work was talking about it and hooked many because it was different than most console games available.
Well… There’s “objective reason” why Wii Sports is better than all Halo games combined.