Halo 2 in every way was my favorite game and if they put up the servers again I’d be one of the first online.
While at the time I was predominantly a campaign/story player I occasionally went to a friend’s house and played online. God the glory days…
Where is ODST? :S
Best to worst.
Halo 3
Halo 3: ODST
Halo Reach
Halo 4
Halo CE
Wars
Did not play 2
I’m just going to comment on the campaigns because I love them the most about halo.
HALO’S CAMPAIGNS
Halo CE: Great Campaign and start to the story.
Halo 2: Awesome Campaign, It was long, more worth the money and great story development from different perspectives) - Should be done more.
Halo 3: Awesome Campaign, great conclusion to the original trilogy just a tad too short.
Halo ODST: Fresh feel to halo and a good short campaign (which was intended to be a short story anyway) Also the best bad-a $s pistol in the halo series in my OP.
Halo Reach: Great Campaign, a true good game and story (just a couple missions short from perfect)
Halo 4: Amazing hyped campaign, delivered excitement and played fantastic, but not enough story movement and I’d say missing about an additional 3 or so missions, (maybe a drop on a halo or something battling the Didact for the composer, I dunno =p)
Overall, from best to worst:
Halo CE
Halo Custom Edition
Halo PC
Halo 3 ODST
Halo 2 Vista
Halo 2
Halo Reach
Halo 4
Halo 3
why are 3 and 4 so low?
o and my favorite.
Halo 3: just amazing
Odst: loved campaign
Halo 4: overall pretty good
Halo CE: Only played it once, but loved CEA so…
Halo 2 never played so…
I’ve played them all at their respective times and I’ve got to go with Halo 3. Halo 2 had a better story and probably a better MP (though I didn’t have XBOX Live back then :() but 3 just impressed me on every layer it had. The introduction of Forge and Theater made the game much more fresh, fun and enjoyable and the story was just the epic climax I wanted it to be. The graphics were at their best (in terms of the artistic vision, obviously Halo 4 looks better)- bright and beautiful. The gameplay was the best overall IMO (though it does have strengths and weaknesses as you’ve said, overall it is the best): Dual Wielding, a non-scripted Scarab, Vehicles at their best, amazing BTB (and I bearly play BTB on Reach and 4), the maps (Guardian, Sandtrap, Valhalla, the Snowbound remake and of course Sanbox in all its Forgeable glory), the last truly even-from-the-start Halo game before COD influence managed to get to every -Yoink!- developer (don’t get me wrong, I love Halo 4, but I would prefer it if 343i would have taken a different route), the terminals and COLLECTIBLE skulls, the Ark mission, in fact, all the missions! I love that game so much. I don’t think I have one complaint about it and I don’t think I ever had.
Reach was the worst. It lacked the magic that Halo used to have and that 343i have (mostly) managed to retain- the Forerunners, the Halos, the Flood. The heart of the story was missing in Reach and paired with depressingly dull graphics a multiplayer that wasn’t too sure of itself laying between Halo and mainstream (COD) with the whole Loadout fiasco- at least 343i went the whole way there. Trying to get the best of both worlds only made Halo Reach a clunky and unsatisfying experience in the long run. Also, Forge World got old very fast with the rough graphics and the green blue and gray theme but Bungie didn’t address that issue, and Firefight paled in comparison with its ODST counterpart, feeling more like an Arcade shoot-sh*t game mode than actual survival.
Halo 1 and 2 were both fantastic and new, introducing the console world to a refined version of many classic FPS features and making some new ones along the way. You didn’t mention ODST and Wars which were both fantastic for what they were, and I guess Anniversary was all it tried to be (which is very good).
Halo 4 had too short a campaign though what was there was done well. The multiplayer is fun, but it seems more things are falling in place months after release rather than at release (which is a shame but is better than nothing). The Forge is great though there are technical issues (like having to buffer every time we switch to human- extremely annoying and time consuming- and the fact that there is no percision editing) that hinder the experience a bit. One thing that is actually bad in Halo 4 is Theater- we can’t do anything with it anymore and that’s very sad. Spartan Ops was great, but like Multiplayer, it had many problems at its beginning, the second half was better and hopefully season 2 will be leaps and bounds ahead of both. It seems like Halo 4 was 343i learning curve and I think Halo 5 will be much better.
All in all, I think 343 should look at Halo 3 in terms of the major three: Story, Gameplay and Graphics- they probably won’t go back on the Loadout system (which is fine) but in terms of moment to moment gameplay, anything can happen 
best to worst:
halo ce - the original. interesting campaign and most pivotal/innovative mp since golden eye.
halo 4 - engaging campaign. improvements to mp. far and away most impressive visually.
reach - surprising campaign. a new twist on mp.
odst - new story telling method in campaign.
halo 3 - predictable campaign with no feeling of gravity. dual wield was dumb.
halo 2 - awful campaign. far and away the worst. dual wield was dumb.
It is far too hard to pick a favorite, but because the variety of missions and longevity of the campaign along with fantastic storytelling I’d have to say Halo 2, but Halo 3 is not that far behind.
I played the halo’s sort of backwards. I had a PS2 so I missed the first two, but I did watch my mates destroy people on halo 2 never leaving the house and sweating over their level 50s haha.
I played them in this order.
Halo 3
Halo 2
Halo CE
Halo ODST
REACH
Halo 4
h2/3 by far.
> why are 3 and 4 so low?
Because Halo 3 was pretty much an all-around downgrade to everything from Halo 2. Dual Wielding returned, but weapons received a nerf when held in pairs. Hitscan was removed and weapons were made random. The BR and Carbine were nerfed, making the game play an an overall slower pace. The melee was too powerful, and the maps were all-around mediocre.
For Halo 4:
Sprint
Lack of options to disable Sprint
No descoping
Personal loadouts
Personal ordinance
Lack of Camo powerup
Forge is a downgrade from Reach
No way to have static weapon spawns
Weapons despawn far too quickly
I thought of adding ODST but it was more of an expansion to H3. And I have not played it unfortunately.
4 doesn’t make me sad, but plenty of aspects of it are definitely underwhelming.
I wish I could say I played H2 during it’s glory days online but alas I cannot.
I can respect that list. I too love the campaigns. I do think 2 was great in some parts but the Arbiter sections and the ending were quite lackluster. I pretty much just remember the underwater and the moving bridge and ruins level. That was a classic.
Reach should be higher (:
Honestly I would have agreed with you about Reach a couple years ago but I have grown very fond of it. It had the best campaign design and really put you in the shoes of a spartan. And yeah Halo 3 really upped the ante for the genre with it’s additions as you mentioned. All the original trilogy added their own amazing stuff to the formula. I feel that Reach was it’s own story and when looked at that way and as a sum of all the best parts of previous games is the most polished game. Good points thanks!
Halo CE: Pros- Gameplay. Universe. Story. A.I… Enemy action/reaction and three way combat. Great ending sequence. Characters. Fantastic music.
Cons: Backtracking. Some invincible vehicles. Install kill vehicle nudges.
Halo 2: Pro: Story. Dual sided campaign. Vehicle play. Continuation of plot and increased size of problem. (All haloss activated and on standby. Gravemind.) New enemies. (Brutes, charging punks. Scarabs.) Enjoyable boss battle at the end. New weapons. New Covenant characters, who were likable. Playable Elites.
Cons: Short story, cliffhanger ending. Dual wielding. Didn’t add much. Addition of BR. A few exploit glitches. Bxr I think it’s called. Lotsa magnetism.
Halo 3: Pros: Campaign levels. Fun, large, varied environments. Vehicles were great. New vehicles and new enemy types. New weapons. Increased player customization. Visible alternate weapon. Addition of Forge. Theatre mode. Helping Machinima. New multiplayer types.
Cons: Really underwhelming and boring story. I’d even say bad. Cortana not detonating the Halo ring to stop the Flood from getting away. Master Chief having some kind of Cortana spam virus thingy. Pointless character deaths. Underused villains who kinda just interact with you once then you go on until you kill them. Terrible final boss. Floaty jump physics. Multiplayer Achievements. Under used allied characters, faction. (Arbiter, Elites.)
Halo ODST: Pros: A cast of likable protagonists, a new cast and main protagonist. Firefight. Removal of dual wielding. Open world exploration. Another look at a Covenant species. Shows Spartans aren’t the only cool guys in the universe. Conveyed threat of Brutes well, showed believable character injury as well. New enemy interaction. (Engineer shields.)
Cons: No match making for Firefight. Over priced. Pretty short. Unexplained protagonist ESP abilities.
Halo Reach: Pros: The best player customization in Halo yet. Addition of function and play style to Firefight. Addition of fun assassination animations. Entirely optional as well. New weapons and vehicles, new enemy type. New style of play. (Space combat.) New abilities to change how you play. (AA’s.) New multiplayer types. (Invasion was fantastic.) Persistent character customization in all modes. A new cast of character and introduction of Halsey from books. Dramatic storyline, all too often we never fail as MC, but this shows the downside and more believable side of the war when you’re always fighting a losing battle. Shows how Spartans would sacrifice themselves for the greater good. (Jorge. Noble 6. Carter.) Good new music. A absolutely fantastic ending to the game. Robust forging system.
Cons: Lack of character development for Spartans, lacking the dramatic sting that should have been displayed. But over the course of a eight hour shooter with a large focus on multiplayer, necessary evil. Issues with AA’s, but first go and not terrible. Loadout system kept most people on a even level, but allowed variety with AA usage. Lack of a good vehicle level. Spoiled end at the very beginning.
Halo 4: Pros: New weapons. New enemy types. A more dramatic focus on Cortana and MC. (Though, this was only possible due to the prior Halo 1-3 games. Without those, this story would have been laughable underwhelming.) New characters. New Elite villain. Dramatic twists.
Cons: Terrible Promethean villain. Unexplained force powers, Unexplained prison ball that can be used by said prisoner as a ship, and as a bridge for a even bigger ship. Covenant remnant being entirely unexplained. Worsened art style. Removal of Firefight. Spartan Ops being online only. Lessened multiplayer suite. Unnecessary loadout and level system. Bad unlock system. Short campaign. A.i. Unimpactful music. Two uninteresting driving segments. (Plane. Ghost.) Ordnance system.
In closing: No, I didn’t cover everything, but this is the things that kinda of popped up in my head when thinking about these games. Kinda didn’t say much on music because only CE and Reach have tracks I explicitly remember. xD And I haven’t done enough on Wars to throw that out here.
I know the dislike of BR is entirely my opinion, but I had to throw it in there.
wow, that was quite thorough! Awesome points. I didn’t mind the villan of 4 so much as that last boss battle. I can’t even call it that. It was just more quicktime which is soo lame. It should’ve been an actual fight.
Bungie’s Halo Campaign Pros:
-brilliant vehicle sections
-strategic level design/optional encounters
-strong marine presence
-worthwhile exploration/out of maps
-worthwhile easter eggs
-massed AI battles (had to throw this in, far too memorable. Kept me engaged in the trilogy)
-enemy variety
-vehicle variety
-art style
Bungie’s Halo Campaign Cons:
-artificial AI (alien/sped up animations, high alert levels)
-false difficulty (damage sponges, useless allies)
-excess invisible barriers
-punishing scripting/immersion breaker (collateral damage, teleporting, killing off enemies)
-lag (mainly Reach)
-frequent deloading (mainly Reach)
-story (beginning with H3)
-graphics
343’s Halo Campaign Pros:
-story
-graphics
-art style
-decent weapon sandbox
-decent marines
-maneuverable vehicles (noticeably Ghost and Wraith)
343’s Halo Campaign Cons:
-artificial AI (believable animations for Covies but their AI is still reminiscent of Reach. Prometheans are cheap)
-false difficulty (enemy spam, enemy power weapon usage)
-excess invisible barriers (particularly Infinity)
-punishing scripting/immersion breaker (collateral damage, teleporting, blowing up vehicles)
-frequent deloading (AI, weapons)
-strong marine absence (Spartan IVs are not memorable)
-lackluster vehicle sections
-strategically limiting encounters
-pointless exploration/out of maps
-lackluster easter eggs
-lacking vehicle variety
-lacking enemy variety
Halo 2 had the best overall Campaign (plot, etc.), gameplay, physics, music, style, multiplayer maps, layout, designs, and general feel by far. Halo 3 definitely had the best overall Multiplayer and great music, along with the prettiest art style (Halo 2’s was the most “realistic” looking as opposed to weird and plasticy like Reach and 4). Both Halo 2 and 3 also had very memorable menus, but Reach’s UI layout definitely takes the cake.
Oh yeah thats another thing reach was amazing at was the user interface. It was really really cool! Speaking of which, Reach also had the best AI.