The X button! Most of Halo 2’s speed was from the use of the X-button. Sword flying, sword canceling, and most button combos (to fire, melee, and reload quicker) needed the X button.
The ability to cancel a recoil i.e. after a melee attack allowed for back to back attacks in one direction (or a flurry of attacks). The speed was up to the user. One was not forced to recoil and wait to strike again.
If the user canceled an attack to soon they wouldn’t do the first attack and if they did it to late others would have the upper hand in a melee battle etc.
To my understanding other Halo’s make one go through the full animation before being able to attack again or reload.
To me one of the main reason Halo 2 is the fastest Halo is because of the X button.
I disagree that it’s the main reason, Halo 2 was simply fluid. The movement and responsiveness was just right.
Melee cancelling was in my opinion a tad cheap. But completely part of the game, especially at a competitive level. If you couldn’t BxR or at the very least BxB your going to have a bad day when you reached that level 30+ mark. Though sword flying and sword cancelling was damn fun, especially when getting out maps. Many fun times were had.
I do miss those FFA MLG-based customs though I must say. Just a bunch of dudes kicking -Yoinks!- on Midship or Lockout. Good times.
> I disagree that it’s the main reason, Halo 2 was simply fluid. The movement and responsiveness was just right.
>
> Melee cancelling was in my opinion a tad cheap. But completely part of the game, especially at a competitive level. If you couldn’t BxR or at the very least BxB your going to have a bad day when you reached that level 30+ mark. Though sword flying and sword cancelling was damn fun, especially when getting out maps. Many fun times were had.
>
> I do miss those FFA MLG-based customs though I must say. Just a bunch of dudes kicking -Yoinks!- on Midship or Lockout. Good times.
I think something was lost when canceling like in Halo 2 was removed from newer Halo’s. Like sword flying, sword canceling and combos as you mentioned.
I think Halo 2 was less clunky then the other Halo’s as well but the main reason (for me) for Halo 2’s speed being so noticeably faster than any other Halo was because of the X button.
Being able to pull of so many attacks (as well as reloading) in such small time periods makes all other Halo’s feel slow to me and most other games.
CE also had cancel. But yeah, I wish the newer games didn’t remove cancelling. Cancelling was purely optional and you were welcome to go through the campaign without it (for better immersion). It’s sad that the only interactive remnant from H2 (besides BXR and double melee which are broken as hell) is:
-giving allies a weapon that needs to be reloaded, restoring the ammo
How the hell could Bungie get rid of all the tactical stuff but still leave us with this cheap exploit? It’s because they only had mp in mind when they removed button combos. Even basic cancelling was removed (quicker reload).
Reload times in Reach = unbearably slow
cqc in Reach = suicide
> CE also had cancel. But yeah, I wish the newer games didn’t remove cancelling. Cancelling was purely optional and you were welcome to go through the campaign without it (for better immersion). It’s sad that the only interactive remnant from H2 (besides BXR and double melee which are broken as hell) is:
>
> -giving allies a weapon that needs to be reloaded, restoring the ammo
>
> How the hell could Bungie get rid of all the tactical stuff but still leave us with this cheap exploit? It’s because they only had mp in mind when they removed button combos. Even basic cancelling was removed (quicker reload).
>
> Reload times in Reach = unbearably slow
> cqc in Reach = suicide
When I came to the forums (to protest Halo 2’s remove from XBL) I’d say Halo 2 just felt faster. I started to relieve that one of main reasons was the ability to cancel.
One can cancel the maneuver and change what they are doing almost right away.
So I agree. Forcing the user to go into an animation and not have a way out of it wasn’t a very good thing for the Halo series. I spent most of my online games in Halo 3 in animations. Halo 2 I was moving fast from one thing to the next.
One of my biggest annoyances in new Halo’s is there grenade throws are stuck in animations for far to long… so annoying.
Let me say one thing, I’d much rather have Halo 2’s melee system, with animation cancelling despite it being based heavily on latency at times rather then this ‘enter melee fight, now both of you are dead’ mutual kill system we have.