After Halo 5’s campaign, something felt off about it that all the rest of the halos seemed to have, that Guardians was missing. I went back and played 3 and Reach again. And I figured it out. Halo 3 is still my favourite campaign, solely because of pure epic moments and great dialogue. After Johnson dies and chief actives the Ark. He looks all epic with the beam behind him. After escaping on FUD, the halo activist behind him is awesome. When the Arbiter goes back to back woth chief. Finding Cortana and so many other epic moments, Guardians lacks. And Reach. That game was the darkest of them all, using emotion to its best in the franchise. I want these sorts of things back. (Oh yeah, and the flood). The Halo universe is extremely dark but that is rarely shown.
Me and my brother played some Reach split screen last night. Still my favorite Halo game, H3 is my second.
I never found Halo 2 or 3 dark, to be perfectly honest. I mean, Peril, a track from Halo 2, is as far from “dark” as you can possibly get. Reach and ODST were somewhat dark, but the music was definitely the mood setter, compared to standard Halo fare.
Yeah, my point was that Reach was dark and 3 was epic. I want both 
reach felt like an emotional roller coaster. Goosebumps all day.
h5 was just ‘oh look chief got punched, oh look cortana wants to extinct all life… what the hell am I playing?’
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> reach felt like an emotional roller coaster. Goosebumps all day.
> h5 was just ‘oh look chief got punched, oh look cortana wants to extinct all life… what the hell am I playing?’
Ok. As you said that I was reminded of the fight. The bit where chief just got his visor cracks and turns around was pretty cool. That’s about it for epic. Going down the guardian was nice though.
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> > 2533274820441404;5:
> > reach felt like an emotional roller coaster. Goosebumps all day.
> > h5 was just ‘oh look chief got punched, oh look cortana wants to extinct all life… what the hell am I playing?’
>
>
> Ok. As you said that I was reminded of the fight. The bit where chief just got his visor cracks and turns around was pretty cool. That’s about it for epic. Going down the guardian was nice though.
Those were both epic scenes, also the opening scene.
The grit and mystique is gone… everything feels so over-the-top now, where the older games felt a lot more real and grounded, despite being epic Sci-Fi.
The combat also feels too “arcade-y” in Campaign… MP feels great but in the story modes there is a certain “intensity” missing that (CE especially) had going for it.
The overall “feel” of the series has gone downhill honestly since the release of Halo 2. No Halo has ever felt like a true sequel to the original, I would argue. I just want a Halo game that is able to capture the magic of CE and take the series down THAT path again.
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> The grit and mystique is gone… everything feels so over-the-top now, where the older games felt a lot more real and grounded, despite being epic Sci-Fi.
>
> The combat also feels too “arcade-y” in Campaign… MP feels great but in the story modes there is a certain “intensity” missing that (CE especially) had going for it.
>
> The overall “feel” of the series has gone downhill honestly since the release of Halo 2. No Halo has ever felt like a true sequel to the original, I would argue. I just want a Halo game that is able to capture the magic of CE and take the series down THAT path again.
In many ways i agree, the only campaign that has come close to CE is reach in my opinion but even that didnt have the truly epic feel that CE had. Personally, i have accepted that its never likely to happen, some of it no doubt is pure nostalgia anyway.
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> Yeah, my point was that Reach was dark and 3 was epic. I want both
Reach was dark because of the lore behind it and how Bungie did an amazing job with setting up the environment and characters throughout the game. The marketing campaign for the game was one of the best for the series as well, in my opinion. “From the beginning, you know the end.” Also, what I’ve noticed from playing the Bungie games is that the scenery and type of action you see go hand-in-hand and nostalgia plays a major role in keeping you hooked. This was especially true in H:CE after you assault the control room and backtrack, remembering the marines that died fighting alongside you and the battles with covenant forces as you pass by each checkpoint, finally ending up at the Autumn which reminded you of how the game began.
The 343i games have been too repetitive and all lacked flow to their campaigns.
We need our solo chief saving the Galaxy. Even if it isn’t solo I feel h5 truely has suffered from a lackluster campaign especially driving a way casual plays since there is not a true casual experience. Halo 3 campaign is replayable and one that I know I replayed beginning to end more times than I can count. Halo 5 drastically needs a campaign expansion that ties into multiplayer i.e. Amour unlocks.
Halo was never dark to begin with.
Best scene in the game was jumping out of the ship in the first cut scene
Shall I have to get started on all the problems halo 3 and reach’s campaign had?
From the looks of it, [Halo 5 spoilers] Cortana already controls the Halo Rings, UNSC and what remains of the covenant. If 343 have learnt anything from Halo 5 then there will undoubtedly be many epic scenes that show us how badass Blue Team or Osiris is and heartbreaking moments revealing that these Spartans are still human.
Whatevet the next game is, it should feel a lot more better, (or else 343 dun goofed)… To be fair though, running down the Guardian as Osiris is probably up there in one of my favorite moments in gaming (with the Halo 3 warthog run in first)
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> Shall I have to get started on all the problems halo 3 and reach’s campaign had?
Please don’t. Especially Reach. But despite that, Reach was still a great story in an enclosed environment, but was essentially one giant retcon. I loved Reach’s dark storytelling, but I don’t believe that we need that in every game. MC is not Batman.
As far as epicness, I think you’re mistaken. Halo 5 had plenty of epic moments, but they lacked substance. The Osiris and Blue Team intro cutscenes are some of the best in the Franchise. We fought on Sanghelios with Thel in a Sangheili civil war. We ran down the spine of a nearly 5,000 foot tall Forerunner Construct. But we didn’t care, because the story failed to grasp you. Epic =/= Good storytelling. Otherwise Michael Bay would be considered amongst the greats. I hate to go on a personal attack, but Brian Reed needs to go. Other than Halo 4 (which he was not in charge of), everything he has been a part of at Halo has ranged from meh to -Yoink- nightmare. Spartan Ops, the worst volumes of Halo Escalation (which already wasn’t that incredible, so that’s saying something), the godawful Fall of Reach comics, and the Grandaddy of all of the snooze-fests, Halo 5.
I don’t know who they should bring in. Maybe Karen Traviss. I loved the Kilo-Five Series, and her piece in Halo Evolutions. As well as her Gears of War writing, which includes the third game. Does anyone know what happened to Chris Schlerf, the Halo 4 lead? Maybe Peter O’Brian (Reach Lead) or Joseph Staten, the writer of several Halo novels and Halo CE, 2, and ODST, as well as co-Lead for 3. Despite his claims for leaving Bungie/Activision because of “creative challenges”, he released a fine novella in Shadow of Intent. I just wish that 343 had been more transparent in the fact that it would be a novella, but I digress.That all being said, I do think that Halo 5 suffered from “middle of trilogy” syndrome. Even though this might not be a trilogy. I’m not gonna discuss my full thoughts on where we stand (as I did that already and go zero responses on here, so screw it), but I think we have many interesting possibilities going forward. But I think that Reed would pick the most mundane of those possibilities, and say “Let’s go with that”
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> Shall I have to get started on all the problems halo 3 and reach’s campaign had?
Those problems paled in comparison to Halo 5’s campaign and have nothing to do with 343i’s current storyline.
I thought Halo 4 was pretty dark. Chief seeing his close AI companion going through what is essentially a rapid mental deterioration. Dealing with his own humanity, being ordered to be arrested by Captain Del Rio, seeing everyone on board the Ivanoff Station composed and failing to prevent that, detonating a nuclear warhead with the intention of sacrificing himself only to then realize he was saved by his dying friend only to then realize she sacrificed herself to save him #cryforever
… of course, then they ruined it WITH THIS
Have people forgotten that Combat Evolved was a thing?
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> Have people forgotten that Combat Evolved was a thing?
I know right? That game easily had one of the best campaigns in series, yet very little mention of it is made.