Rank the Halo Campaigns

Community General Discussion
1

Rank all of the Halo Campaigns(That you’ve played) in order from your favorite to least favorite. For me:

  1. Halo 3- My favorite Halo game all together. The music, gameplay, story, etc. were incredible.
  2. Halo 4- Absolutely loved the Campaign story. Don’t understand the hate. Gameplay wasn’t as good as previous Halo’s, but it was still a great, underrated game nonetheless.
  3. Halo 2- My favorite moment from all of Halo is in this game, “To give the Covenant back their bomb.” One of the best moments in video game history imo. Absolutely badass.
  4. Halo Reach
  5. Halo Ce
  6. Halo 3: ODST
  7. Halo Wars 1
  8. Halo Wars 2 (Also, when comparing which game i prefer overall, between HW1 and HW2, I actually like HW2 more)
  9. Halo 5- (Forgot to say, I really enjoyed the gameplay of Halo 5, but the story was its main issue. Needed more Chief among other things)
  10. Spartan Ops
  11. Halo Spartan Assault
  12. Halo Spartan Strike

I only ranked them based on campaign, so no multiplayer or other aspects considered. With regards to the campaigns, I mostly considered the story when ranking them, but the music, gameplay, etc had a part to play in the ranking as well.

So how do you rank the campaigns?

2
  • ODST - 4 - 2/2A - CE - HW2 - HW - 3 - 5G - ReachTop three shuffles around depending on what kind of mood I’m in, but it’s always going to be 2, ODST, and 4. Just no set order.

Not gonna rank SA and SS because it doesn’t really feel fair to compare their campaigns with the other games.

3

> 2533274967114481;1:
> Rank all of the Halo Campaigns(That you’ve played) in order from your favorite to least favorite. For me:
>
> 1. Halo 3- My favorite Halo game all together
> 2. Halo 4- Absolutely loved the Campaign story. Don’t understand the hate.
> 3. Halo 2- My favorite moment from all of Halo is in this game, “To give the Covenant back their bomb.” One of the best moments in video game history imo. Absolutely badass.
> 4. Halo Reach
> 5. Halo Ce
> 6. Halo 3: ODST
> 7. Halo Wars 1
> 8. Halo Wars 2
> 9. Halo 5
> 10. Spartan Ops
> 11. Halo Spartan Assault
> 12. Halo Spartan Strike
>
> I only ranked them based on campaign, so no multiplayer or other aspects considered. With regards to the campaigns, I mostly considered the story when ranking them, but the music, gameplay, etc had a part to play in the ranking as well.
>
> So how do you rank the campaigns?

Halo 2
Halo 1
Halo 4
Halo 3
Halo reach
Halo odst
Halo wars
Halo wars 2
Halo 5

4

> 2535437652903765;2:
> - ODST - 4 - 2/2A - CE - HW2 - HW - 3 - 5G - ReachTop three shuffles around depending on what kind of mood I’m in, but it’s always going to be 2, ODST, and 4. Just no set order.
>
> Not gonna rank SA and SS because it doesn’t really feel fair to compare their campaigns with the other games.

I enjoyed the gameplay of SA and SS, but the campaign stories weren’t as good as the others imo. I understand not ranking them though because it is a stretch to compare different game genres. Can let it slide for HW 1+2 though because they have better stories that are at least comparable to the fps games imo.

I feel like ODST and 4 don’t get enough love. Both underrated.

5
  1. Halo 3
  2. Halo: Reach
  3. Halo: Combat Evolved
  4. Halo 3: ODST
  5. Halo 2
  6. Halo 4
  7. Halo 5: Guardians

I like all of the Halo campaigns except 5. Just because 2 and 4 are low on the list doesn’t mean I think they’re bad. In fact, I think both of those games have the best stories. Halo 2 also by far has the best soundtrack. I have issues with the gameplay though, which is the most important thing for me in a video game.

If I were to rank them based on story and gameplay, it would look like this:

Story:

  1. Halo 4
  2. Halo 2
  3. Halo: Combat Evolved
  4. Halo 3: ODST
  5. Halo 3
  6. Halo: Reach
  7. Halo 5: Guardians

Gameplay:

  1. Halo 3
  2. Halo: Reach
  3. Halo: Combat Evolved
  4. Halo 3: ODST
  5. Halo 2
  6. Halo 5: Guardians
  7. Halo 4
6
  • Halo reach - Halo 3 - Halo 5 - Halo ODST - Halo 2 - Halo CE - Halo 4This is just my opinion I know most people won’t agree with where I ranked halo 5 but it was fun for me
7

> 2533274844890742;5:
> 1) Halo 3
> 2) Halo: Reach
> 3) Halo: Combat Evolved
> 4) Halo 3: ODST
> 5) Halo 2
> 6) Halo 4
> 7) Halo 5: Guardians
>
> I like all of the Halo campaigns except 5. Just because 2 and 4 are low on the list doesn’t mean I think they’re bad. In fact, I think both of those games have the best stories. Halo 2 also by far has the best soundtrack. I have issues with the gameplay though, which is the most important thing for me in a video game.
>
> If I were to rank them based on story and gameplay, it would look like this:
>
> Story:
> 1) Halo 4
> 2) Halo 2
> 3) Halo: Combat Evolved
> 4) Halo 3: ODST
> 5) Halo 3
> 6) Halo: Reach
> 7) Halo 5: Guardians
>
> Gameplay:
> 1) Halo 3
> 2) Halo: Reach
> 3) Halo: Combat Evolved
> 4) Halo 3: ODST
> 5) Halo 2
> 6) Halo 5: Guardians
> 7) Halo 4

I like all of the campaigns too in general, but the story for Halo 5 not so much. The story for Spartan Ops, SS and SA were ok as well, but not up to standards with the other games including both the Halo Wars. My ranking for story and gameplay specifically is probably very close to yours.

However, that being said, I did like Halo 5’s gameplay more than Halo 4’s, and since Spartan Ops is in Halo 4/Same Gameplay, and it’s longer than any other campaign, I’d much prefer to play Halo 5 over again rather than play through Spartan Ops multiple times. Although some missions are fun in it. So that’s one reason why I have 5 over Spartan Ops in my overall ranking.

I agree Halo 4 has the best story. That’s part of why it’s ranked so high on my list. And when you just play through the campaign, I don’t feel the grievances of the gameplay as much as I did when I played through Spartan Ops lol. If that makes any sense.

The reason why I made this post though is because I started re-playing all the Halo games, starting with HW1, at the end of September around when Awakening the Nightmare was released. Right now, I’m up to Halo 5, so almost there lol. I held off on playing Awakening the Nightmare though so I hope I enjoy it. I’ve played through all of the campaigns on Legendary before, but this playthrough I decided to play on Heroic so I wouldn’t cause myself unwanted stress lol. Absolutely sucks getting stuck somewhere for a while on Legendary, especially if you just want to have fun and enjoy the story.

Now I realize I’ve rambled on too much lol. I have a habit of doing that when talking about things I enjoy XD Anyway, thanks for sharing your ranking! And thanks to the others who have shared already as well. I’m interested in seeing everyone’s opinion and where Halo 5 falls on their ranking in terms of Campaign. (I know it’s multiplayer is it’s stronger point)

8

> 2535415472426404;6:
> - Halo reach - Halo 3 - Halo 5 - Halo ODST - Halo 2 - Halo CE - Halo 4This is just my opinion I know most people won’t agree with where I ranked halo 5 but it was fun for me

That’s cool mate, I respect your opinion. I admit Halo 5 was fun at points for me as well, but I just wish it focused more on Master Chief than Locke.

9

here is my list on the top halo games in two catagories:

Campaign

  1. Halo 2/anniversary
  2. Halo: Reach
  3. Halo: Combat Evolved/ anniversary
  4. Halo 4
  5. Halo 3
  6. Halo: odst
  7. Halo wars
  8. Halo 5: Guardians

Multiplayer:

  1. Halo 5: Guardians
  2. Halo: Reach
  3. Halo 2
  4. Halo 4
  5. Halo 2 anniversary
  6. Halo: Combat Evolved
  7. Halo 3
  8. Halo wars

Reason I didn’t add the following games is because I have not played them yet:

  • Halo wars 2
  • Halo: Spartan assault
  • Halo: Spartan strike
10

> 2535412594931294;9:
> here is my list on the top halo games in two catagories:
>
> Campaign1. Halo 2/anniversary
> 2. Halo: Reach
> 3. Halo: Combat Evolved/ anniversary
> 4. Halo 4
> 5. Halo 3
> 6. Halo: odst
> 7. Halo wars
> 8. Halo 5: Guardians
>
> **Multiplayer:**1. Halo 5: Guardians
> 2. Halo: Reach
> 3. Halo 2
> 4. Halo 4
> 5. Halo 2 anniversary
> 6. Halo: Combat Evolved
> 7. Halo 3
> 8. Halo wars
>
> Reason I didn’t add the following games is because I have not played them yet:
> - Halo wars 2
> - Halo: Spartan assault
> - Halo: Spartan strike

Nice! I should’ve included my multiplayer ranking as well.

Multiplayer:

  1. Halo 2/2A
  2. Halo 5
  3. Halo Reach
  4. Halo 3
  5. Halo Wars 2
  6. Halo 4
  7. Halo 3: ODST (Firefight)
  8. Halo Ce
  9. Halo Wars 1
  10. Halo Spartan Assault

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every Halo’s multiplayer though aside from Spartan Assault, but that’s probably because I wouldn’t find a game often. Halo Wars 2 online is a lot better/more fun than HW1 online imo. And Halo 5 and 2/2A compete for number one very closely. Also, if you even want to count ODST firefight as multiplayer, then that’s where it’d land for me. I liked it for sure, but not enough to place it higher than the others.

11

> 2533274967114481;8:
> > 2535415472426404;6:
> > - Halo reach - Halo 3 - Halo 5 - Halo ODST - Halo 2 - Halo CE - Halo 4This is just my opinion I know most people won’t agree with where I ranked halo 5 but it was fun for me
>
> That’s cool mate, I respect your opinion. I admit Halo 5 was fun at points for me as well, but I just wish it focused more on Master Chief than Locke.

That’s the reason I liked halo 5 so much it focused on someone else aside from chief that’s why reach halo 5 and halo 3 are up there I enjoyed playing as the arbiter in halo 3

12
  1. Halo 3 for it’s music, game play, open level design, and overall story
  2. Halo 2 for pretty much the same reasons as Halo 3
  3. Halo 3 ODST for its amazing music (arguably best in the series), characters, and overall fun I had while playing it. Unfortunately short.
  4. Halo: CE for its story and level design, even though it’s pretty linear
  5. Halo Reach for its feeling the music gives you and the characters
  6. Halo 4 for its emotional story, but doesn’t have a very good level design
  7. Halo 5 was awful, but had pretty good level design that I would like to see in the coming Halo games
13

H2>HCE>H3>H4>HR>H5

5 is the only one I don’t like.

H2 and CE are top two because they just introduce you to beautiful environments. Plus the soundtrack to go with that is AMAZING.

As for non mainline games:

H3:ODST>Halo Wars

thats about it. Haven’t touched HW2 as I didn’t like the first one but ODST was alright, was nice playing something besides a spartan and seeing a non spartan perspective on things.

14

-Halo 2

Amazing story, epic and emotional tone, the arbiter was a great addition, and the anniversary has by far the best graphics of any halo game.

-Halo reach

In my opinion this is the campaign with the least issues, great story with a perfect tone, and having your spartan as the main character is neat. The only reason it’s number 2 is because halo 2 has a lot more greatness. And since I’m not a lore -Yoink!-, I don’t care that it contradicts the books :slight_smile:

-Halo Combat Evolved

A true classic with much replayability, and by far the best gameplay of any halo game ever (feels a lot like half life to me)

-Halo 4

By far the best story next to halo 2, the most emotion we’ve seen in any halo game, and if you didn’t cry during cortana’s death then you’re a monster. The story does have flaws, for example te didact wasn’t terrible but rather underused. Unfortunately the gameplay of the campaign sucks sangheili cloaca, the level design is repetitive and linear. There are a few missions i like, composer was definitely my favorite. But besides that aspect, halo 4 is amazing.

-Halo 3

Halo 3 is not good, not bad but not good. The game is epic don’t get me wrong, but that’s all it is. There are so many plot holes in the game that it distracts me. For example: apparantly Sargeant Johnson was just HANDED the forward onto dawn and goes ALONE on this big ship when the game could of just had him get there from a pelican. The story is fun but it has too much wrong that i notice that it can’t be excused.

-Halo wars 2

An average story with gameplay that is not very fun, but that’s more because I’m not a fan of RTS games. The game is okay, but the game seems to get a good rap simply because of the artstyle change. While the artstyle change is good, it doesn’t automatically make a game groundbreaking.

-Halo 3 ODST

I just found the game boring and not fun in the slightest, playing as an odst is interesting but only gets you so far.

-Halo 5 Guardians

Do I even have to explain? The story is -Yoinking!- terrible with absolutely no redeeming qualities. Even though the gameplay is fun but it doesn’t save this from being the worst campaign… well, second worst

Halo wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare

The game counts it as a separate campaign so i will as well. Halo 5 is bad, but this is the only campaign that straight up pissed me off. I bought halo wars 2 only for the story, i don’t care about the gameplay of this campaign or the multiplayer. So when i saw the E3 trailer i had a hunch that halo was going to get good again, did it deliver? No, it delivered less than halo 5. This campaign is so short and so anticlimactic. I understand halo 5 more than i understand awakening the nightmare. Is the flood destroyed is the flood still out on the loose? I have no f*cking idea because this game doesn’t explain it. I was excited for halo 6, but after this i am legitimately frightened that halo 6 will be another disappointment.

15

> 2535420568109893;14:
> -Halo 2
>
> Amazing story, epic and emotional tone, the arbiter was a great addition, and the anniversary has by far the best graphics of any halo game.
>
> -Halo reach
>
> In my opinion this is the campaign with the least issues, great story with a perfect tone, and having your spartan as the main character is neat. The only reason it’s number 2 is because halo 2 has a lot more greatness. And since I’m not a lore -Yoink!-, I don’t care that it contradicts the books :slight_smile:
>
> -Halo Combat Evolved
>
> A true classic with much replayability, and by far the best gameplay of any halo game ever (feels a lot like half life to me)
>
> -Halo 4
>
> By far the best story next to halo 2, the most emotion we’ve seen in any halo game, and if you didn’t cry during cortana’s death then you’re a monster. The story does have flaws, for example te didact wasn’t terrible but rather underused. Unfortunately the gameplay of the campaign sucks sangheili cloaca, the level design is repetitive and linear. There are a few missions i like, composer was definitely my favorite. But besides that aspect, halo 4 is amazing.
>
> -Halo 3
>
> Halo 3 is not good, not bad but not good. The game is epic don’t get me wrong, but that’s all it is. There are so many plot holes in the game that it distracts me. For example: apparantly Sargeant Johnson was just HANDED the forward onto dawn and goes ALONE on this big ship when the game could of just had him get there from a pelican. The story is fun but it has too much wrong that i notice that it can’t be excused.
>
> -Halo wars 2
>
> An average story with gameplay that is not very fun, but that’s more because I’m not a fan of RTS games. The game is okay, but the game seems to get a good rap simply because of the artstyle change. While the artstyle change is good, it doesn’t automatically make a game groundbreaking.
>
> -Halo 3 ODST
>
> I just found the game boring and not fun in the slightest, playing as an odst is interesting but only gets you so far.
>
> -Halo 5 Guardians
>
> Do I even have to explain? The story is -Yoinking!- terrible with absolutely no redeeming qualities. Even though the gameplay is fun but it doesn’t save this from being the worst campaign… well, second worst
>
> Halo wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare
>
> The game counts it as a separate campaign so i will as well. Halo 5 is bad, but this is the only campaign that straight up pissed me off. I bought halo wars 2 only for the story, i don’t care about the gameplay of this campaign or the multiplayer. So when i saw the E3 trailer i had a hunch that halo was going to get good again, did it deliver? No, it delivered less than halo 5. This campaign is so short and so anticlimactic. I understand halo 5 more than i understand awakening the nightmare. Is the flood destroyed is the flood still out on the loose? I have no f*cking idea because this game doesn’t explain it. I was excited for halo 6, but after this i am legitimately frightened that halo 6 will be another disappointment.

I love Halo 2 Anniversary. The blur cutscenes are absolutely amazing; and I don’t understand, how did this game get hate when it was first released? (Referring to Halo 2, not the MCC here)

Reach I really enjoyed too. I haven’t read any of the expanded lore, but I’m planning on doing so because it seems interesting to me, and I’ve been a huge Halo fan since I was a kid (As I’m sure many others are too)

With regards to Halo 4, I agree that the story was the best and the Didact was definitely underused. I wish we got an actual boss battle at the end though instead of killing him with a cutscene (Just like Jul ‘Mdama). I also agree the gameplay was 4’s biggest issue. Part of the reason why Spartan Ops fell so low on my ranking, because the length of that with the 4 gameplay got kinda tiresome. I still enjoyed it though.

With Halo 5, it definitely needed more Chief/Blue Team, and less Locke/Osiris. Also don’t really like how Cortana is a villain now. We’ll see how it turns out in 6 though. I think it would be pretty cool if the main villain switches to be Atriox from HW2 sometime in the campaign, instead of Cortana. And don’t have her be the main villain through the whole story. Also, I don’t want to see Chief die.

Im bummed to hear you didn’t like Awakening the Nightmare. I mentioned it in one of my other posts that I’ve been replaying all of the campaigns, so I was looking forward to that. (Only played the first mission of it so far I think, but decided to wait)

16

This is very difficult as some campaigns has some highlights and some sections that I truly hate but this will be the final result.

  • Halo 2A - Halo 3 - Halo CEA - Halo 4 - Halo Reach - Halo 3 ODST - Halo 5 GuardiansThe main reason why Halo 2A did land at the top is because of all the customization opportunities you have because of all the skulls you can use to diverse the game. Few of my favorite skulls in Halo 2A are Grunt Funeral, Boom, Bandama,Sputnik, Feather, Pinata and Scarab and I wish all of them including few more return in Halo 6. This is also the reason why Halo CEA got the third position of the list.

On the other hand, the reason why Halo 5 got to the button of the list is that it’s the only Halo Campaign I hate to play. The main reason for that is lack of diversity in combat sections and pretty much none of the fight are fun. In higher difficulties, the only option to play the game is to kill everything from a distance instead using different strategies for different combat sections.

17

My favorite Halo Campaigns (First person shooters) I’m not counting HWars, HWars2, HAssault, HStrike, HRemasterEditions

1: Halo Reach:
My favorite. Love having your own character in the games and having a team of Spartans with awesome abilities going into battle with awesome varieties of missions and story with great backgrounds on characters. Definitely a campaign to replay over again.

2: Halo 4:
Why so much hate? I loved this campaign. I thought It had a great story. It brought more to Masterchief & Cortana and showed more between them. This campaign brought a lot of emotions to players when playing. There were many great missions and it kept me wanting to play to finish the story. There were a few things that could have been better but for it being 343’s first Halo game, I think they did a great job.

3: Halo ODST:
I loved how it gave a different feel to campaign. Love the stealth involved and I thought it had a good story.

4: Halo CE:
Definitely a solid game. This brought us the Halo story to begin with.

5: Halo 3:
I thought it had a good story, loved the duo with Chief and Arbiter. I rate this lower in my opinion because to me it felt really long and repetitive. I’m not saying this is a bad campaign because I know statistically it was a lot of peoples favorite. This is only my opinion.

6: Halo 2
Pretty much the same feelings I had for halo 3. I will say this campaign brought the bad–Yoink- side of Chief. He was wicked cool.

7: Halo 5
I thought the trailers for this game and the approach AT FIRST was awesome but the outcome of the story and character background really needed to be worked on. I thought that having blue team was a cool idea but the execution of Locke’s team and the relationship between him a Chief was unnoticed. This campaign felt bland and needed more flavor. Also the whole thing with Cortana turning against everyone was not a good way to continue the halo story. Lastly cut scenes needed to be better and same for the dialog. I just hope Halo 6 will be better. Good luck 343

18

overall campaign

  • halo 2 - halo 3 - halo reach - halo ce - halo odst - halo wars 2 - halo 4 - halo wars - halo 5
    I didn’t rank the spartan titles as I haven’t played enough of them to make a strong opinion, and I tie spartan ops into halo 4.

but if I were to break them down by each aspect of what I think a good campaign needs then it’ll be

Story

  • halo 2 - halo wars 2 - odst - halo wars - halo 4 - halo ce - halo 3 - halo reach - halo 5
    gameplay

  • halo 3 - halo 2 - halo 5 - halo wars 2 - halo reach - halo ce - halo 4 - halo wars - odst
    atmosphere (combo of artstyle, music, immersion, and overall feeling of the game)

  • halo ce - halo odst - halo 2 - halo wars - halo wars 2 - halo 3 - reach - halo 4 - halo 5

19
  1. Halo 3
  2. Halo Reach
  3. Halo 2
  4. Halo: Combat Evolved
  5. Halo 3: ODST
  6. Halo Wars
  7. Halo Wars 2
  8. Halo 4
  9. Halo 5: Guardians
20

> 2533274889282194;18:
> overall campaign - halo 2 - halo 3 - halo reach - halo ce - halo odst - halo wars 2 - halo 4 - halo wars - halo 5I didn’t rank the spartan titles as I haven’t played enough of them to make a strong opinion, and I tie spartan ops into halo 4.
>
> but if I were to break them down by each aspect of what I think a good campaign needs then it’ll be
>
> Story - halo 2 - halo wars 2 - odst - halo wars - halo 4 - halo ce - halo 3 - halo reach - halo 5gameplay - halo 3 - halo 2 - halo 5 - halo wars 2 - halo reach - halo ce - halo 4 - halo wars - odstatmosphere (combo of artstyle, music, immersion, and overall feeling of the game)
> - halo ce - halo odst - halo 2 - halo wars - halo wars 2 - halo 3 - reach - halo 4 - halo 5

I agree with your placements on Halo 5 for the 3 categories. It’s gameplay is actually really fun and great imo, but it’s lacking in story and atmosphere compared to the other Halo’s.