The Master Chief Collection will finally allow me to see what all the fuss about Halo 2 was about. The majority of people here seem to think that this was the best Halo. Is that the nostalgia talking, or is Halo 3 truly a downgrade compared to it?
As for the story goes. Halo 3 falls behind 2’s IMO. I never got into multiplayer, I didn’t care at the time.
I’ll say Halo 2 is the best because of how innovative it was.
Dual weilding mechanics.
Hijacking/boarding.
Vehicle battles.
Sandbox diversity.
A lot of things make 2 a great game.
in my opinion it was the best story, with all the plot twists and surprises in the campaign. the multiplayer was were I learned to snipe, though sys link only. the best thing about it though was just how much fun you had, imagine moving with the speed and grace of reach or h4 MP while shooting guns that made halo 3’s look like a bunch of pea shooters (save for the BR, I never could get the hang of that oddball weapon in 2. it was just an awesome game and perhaps what should be the par for future games. I don’t say that lightly because of all the spam that will probably happen now (Sorry for that btw) but 3 felt like a tank when it came to moving and 1 had its bugs (read flood scaring me witless) reach was overcooked (too many things over tuned up or nerfed when all said and done) and 4 was underdone (thus needing all the post lunch weapon fixes… though I am still sad to see the gauss hog nerfed, I went 51 and 1 on that turrent!!!) halo 2 was balanced in ways you could never dream of( beside little glitches like RBX) and never grew hold. even with it a decade old I still whip it out to play the campaign just to hear the voice actors talk about this switch that needs to be flip or that cable that needs to be cut (Post please if you get the ref) and don’t bother wondering when I will get to play because I enjoy the story that much. any way sorry for the long list and preachy ness of this commit, I just loved h2 the most and its the sole reason behind me getting an xbox one and paying for 1,3 and 4 again.
you know oreo? halo ce was simply oreo but halo 2 is like dipping oreo in milk.
With over 4000 multiplayer games under my Halo 2 belt, it effectively caused my friends and I to drop grades in early high school.
I believe what made Halo 2 (multiplayer) so innovative and addicting is how matchmaking worked. Nowadays, we see games (as well as Halo 4) who use the “leveling” system type of multiplayer. You level up, unlock some kind of perk/weapon/ability/etc and you continue. This was not a true type of skill based multiplayer. Anyone can level up, regardless of win or loss, and in the endgame, everyone will be on the same playing field.
Halo 2 didn’t do that. Halo 2 made everyone even on the same playing field at the BEGINNING and entirely skill based. The ranking system was a true test of your skill (minus those who modded their systems or used cheats) to be paired with others of similar ranks. So, for instance, a level 20 would be paired against those who were around level 17-23, for a more even match. You would never have a level 1 paired against a level 50, unless of course, someone made a new xbox live account and was paired with a friend in a party.
This type of ranking system allowed you to progress within yourself and your team. It forced teamwork as everyone was working towards the win, as winning was the only way to get closer to ranking up. If you lost, you would lose experience, and consecutive losses would cause you to lose a rank.
This is also the same type of ranking system that is coming back and I’m soooooooo excited 
Anyway /nostalgia.
Halo 2 is great because everyone spawned with the same weapon (usually BR) and abilities. So you knew exactly what to expect from the get go. H2 has the best set of maps of all the games and with a BR start the game is very balanced. Grenades preform better than in any other Halo. The gameplay just fits the maps so perfectly and each map supports different game types to perfection. For example Midship was great map for slayer,oddball, CTF, and KOTH while other maps such as Lockout dont play CTF great but play the other 3 perfectly.
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More insight on the Covenant and the Flood.
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Multiple plots.
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Challenging campaign.
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You play as both John and Thel.
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Boss battles.
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A multiplayer that truly escalated what CE’s multiplayer was.
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BR doesn’t have ridiculous weapon spread.
Started playing Halo year one and the way I continued to play it and the friends I made caused Halo 3 to be my favorite game. Everyone experiences everything at every instance in a new, unique way. My path made Halo 3 such a perfect blend of gaming and innovation. Halo 2’s great, as with all of the games so far. It’s just up to opinion on which is best.
For example, my little cousin started playing video games a few months back. He first played Halo 4 before any other game and it’s grown to be his favorite game. The experiences he has on there have similar impact as my experiences on 3 in middle school. One day he’ll look back and remember it the same way most people here look at Halo 2. Life is a matter of circumstance at any given time or interval, people here just tend to fall into the Halo 2 timeframe. I fall into the Halo 3 one. Simple as that. 
For me it was always the balance and competitiveness of matchmaking. In order to move up you had to win, that was it. If your team lost, you lost and went down. It forced team cooperation. It also didn’t allow party chat, so it was easier to meet new people and make new friends. Granted, you ran across the -Yoink- every once in a while, but for the most part it was positive. Even the chirping after the match was great, and ended up causing several custom games to match up again with a certain team because of all the smack talk that took place during the game because of proximity chat.
> you know oreo? halo ce was simply oreo but halo 2 is like dipping oreo in milk.
Oh stick that Oreo in there and swish it all around until it’s all soggy and wet and delicious… Num num num
> > you know oreo? halo ce was simply oreo but halo 2 is like dipping oreo in milk.
>
> Oh stick that Oreo in there and swish it all around until it’s all soggy and wet and delicious… Num num num
oh yeah!
Yes Halo 3 was a downgrade. Halo 2 has faster paced multiplayer. A layer of skill added by the glitches!
I don’t think the newer players will like it though. They just don’t understand what the Classic Halo’s were.
If you liked Halo 3 you’ll most likely like Halo 2! Imagine Halo 3 but better shot registration and faster paced.
It’s debatable which game had better multiplayer. Sure 2 had a lot of innovations, but those also carried over to 3 and 3 had a lot of improvements. The forge, for example, made custom games way better in 3 than in 2.
The ranking system in 2 was great but actually flawed, and it seemed to group most people in the 20s rather than accurately representing how they compare to the rest of the playerbase. 3’s may have been better, but it actually seemed to push people towards 50, based on the number of people I hear got to 50. I think I preferred 2’s but neither were perfect ( a perfect representation would have an even distribution of players between 1 and 50, rank 1 being the bottom 2% and rank 50 being the top 2% )
Also, if you’re into a more community-oriented game then 2 would definitely be better for you. The clan feature was a great way to hook up with people and find groups to play with. Instead of expanding on it which they should have, they decided to take it out for some reason.
As for gameplay, 3 was on the right track adding equipment that you could use with your team. Team play always makes games more tactical and I like tactical combat. However, 3 seemed to mess up the formula a little when they reintroduced the AR. If I recall the AR didn’t do much less damage than dual wielding, pretty much making dual wielding obsolete and removing that component of tactics.
The last difference I can think of was the quality of the maps. There were just more memorable maps in 2 that seemed to flow better than the ones in 3, and I think that’s the deal-breaker for me. Overall 2 was a little more tactical, more community oriented and had more well-designed maps. I might be a little biased though because I didn’t play 3 nearly as much as 2
I get to see and understand the motivations for the Covenant. Not including an Arbiter storyline was very disappointing in Halo 3.
Because it’s Halo !! It’s nice to see this video, how the audience react when they see tha dual wielding, highjacking or Hog driven by AI marine.
well people just had great memories on halo 2 thats y it is the best and it was the first halo to have online mutiplayer and hijacking came out so did duel wielding it was just a great game
Let’s not forget about the music.
Story is action packed. Multiplayer was great. All that needs to be said.