Mine has got to be Truth and Reconciliation. One of the hardest levels, one of the best levels in all the Halos (and maybe all video games). Co-op on Legendary is an absolute blast. T&R is how game levels are supposed to be.
I also really enjoy Silent Cartographer, Keyes, and The Maw. What’s your favorite level?
I enjoy Assault on the Control Room, The Library, and The Maw.
My #1 favorite is Two Betrayals.
On this level, Covies can be your greatest allies. I have pity watching Covies get pwned by Flood. The 1st huge outside battle is a prime example of this. A bunch of Covies with 2 Goldie commanders but the Flood begin to overwhelm them and when I come back, it’s a graveyard.
On Legendary difficulty, I took the time to keep the sword Goldie on the bridge alive and brought him all the way to the end battle where he helped the Wraiths kill the Flood.
My other favorites:
Truth and Reconcilaition - Stealth playing style, badass Chief
Silent Cartographer - Sandbox, open world level
AotCR - awesome encounters, ultimate battle (if you take the time to collect the AI)
The Maw - precursor of epicness
Attack On The Control Room and Two Betrayals.
I just loved that icy chasm.
There was also some subtle changes to the interior sections after the Flood was released. They show up in the original CE and when switched to the old graphics in CEA, I guess 343 overlooked these aesthetic changes when doing their graphic update. It’s understandable because of how minor of a change it was, basically just added fogginess to the panes of glass in certain areas.
The extra foggy glass panes I’m thinking of can be found in that room that had all the human combat forms in it. There are alcoves in the room that feature some sort of chute in the center on the floor with a pane of glass covering over it. In AOTCR these panes of glass will appear somewhat clean looking, but in Two Betrayals they will appear much foggier and kind of dingy around the edges. I guess it was meant to be some sort of Flood crud that just accumulates in places they hang out in long enough.
Also in AOTCR this would be that room where you encounter sleeping grunts.
Anyway I just thought that was a neat little detail Bungie originally added.
I like the level halo and the library.
Assault on the Control Room, Two Betrayals, and the Maw. I love the snow levels, they’re long and fun, and the Maw is deserving because of the Warthog getaway. Most memorable part of the game.
Halo
Two Betrayals
Two Betrayals, I remember exiting the doorway into a huge battlefield…
FINAL RUN FTW
I spent alot of time on Two Betrayals, I remember watching the battle, the Covenant held their ground bravely, but the Flood just kept coming. I mean, there needs to be someway to make Master Chief take a seat and just watch the battle rage, and walking through you have flood pards rolling around, weapons strewn around, bodies littering the floor, just MAGNIFICENT.
My favorite is Silent Cartographer, it’s got all kinds neat things in it, vehicular combat, tricks you can do, outdoor and indoor combat, pistol sniping (Which is after you get out of the security room), and you can submerge your warthog and get somewhere without anybody dying or getting damaged. My second favorite is The Maw, the Warthog Run, the Longsword escape, and the legendary ending that uplifted the serious tone a bit. And the epic battles in AOTRC and Two Betrayles, the beautiful landscape in Halo, the frightning encounter with the Flood in the Library and 343 Guilty Spark, the stealth in T&R (I’ve even mastered the skill of staying undected in the first encounter until the Covenant reinforcements arrive), the fear and sadness in Keys, and the sense of urgency trying to get off the ship in Pillar of Autumn.
Assault on the Control room is up there.Nice long level, surprisingly easy even on legendary, yet nothing to play carelessly at the same time. Plus, it plays alot of my favorite tracks. Walk in the woods, arborea above, perchance to a dream. 
> My #1 favorite is Two Betrayals.
>
> On this level, Covies can be your greatest allies. I have pity watching Covies get pwned by Flood. The 1st huge outside battle is a prime example of this. A bunch of Covies with 2 Goldie commanders but the Flood begin to overwhelm them and when I come back, it’s a graveyard.
>
> On Legendary difficulty, I took the time to keep the sword Goldie on the bridge alive and brought him all the way to the end battle where he helped the Wraiths kill the Flood.
>
> My other favorites:
>
> Truth and Reconcilaition - Stealth playing style, badass Chief
> Silent Cartographer - Sandbox, open world level
> AotCR - awesome encounters, ultimate battle (if you take the time to collect the AI)
> The Maw - precursor of epicness
Two Betrayals is pretty awesome, this is true. And yeah I too feel the pangs of a guilty conscience watching the Covies get roasted.
(I totally need to try getting the bridge Goldie to follow me – I’m new to the amazing things CE’s campaign offers.)
> > My #1 favorite is Two Betrayals.
> >
> > On this level, Covies can be your greatest allies. I have pity watching Covies get pwned by Flood. The 1st huge outside battle is a prime example of this. A bunch of Covies with 2 Goldie commanders but the Flood begin to overwhelm them and when I come back, it’s a graveyard.
> >
> > On Legendary difficulty, I took the time to keep the sword Goldie on the bridge alive and brought him all the way to the end battle where he helped the Wraiths kill the Flood.
> >
> > My other favorites:
> >
> > Truth and Reconcilaition - Stealth playing style, badass Chief
> > Silent Cartographer - Sandbox, open world level
> > AotCR - awesome encounters, ultimate battle (if you take the time to collect the AI)
> > The Maw - precursor of epicness
>
> Two Betrayals is pretty awesome, this is true. And yeah I too feel the pangs of a guilty conscience watching the Covies get roasted.
>
> (I totally need to try getting the bridge Goldie to follow me – I’m new to the amazing things CE’s campaign offers.)
Yep.
If you’d like, I could show you the way.
Assault on the control room is my favourite level. On legendary I can save 10 marines, though it is hard. You HAVE to save Sarge, he provids such hilarious commentary. If you can get sarge and 2 or 3 marines alive they’ll say funny things. When I played Halo for the first time and saw FINAL RUN I was so psyched. I love that music: Under Cover of Night. Second best level I’d have to say is… I’m mixed between Two Betrayals and Silent Cartographer. Escaping the map room, or watching the Covenant fight the flood is a must for me. There is a part on AOTCR where grunts are sleeping. There are afew, but one in particular where its all grunts and jackals, if you get all the grunts in one hallway and poke your head out, especially on legendary where you get the most grunts and they’re at their most tenaciousness, they will shoot each other to death by accident and call each other names. It’s so funny. Another part is in the same level where, actually afew parts, where you reach the control room pyramid on the bridge with the banshees where it says If I Had A Super Weapon… With the camo on I melee the first grunt on the left off the bridge and if you’re lucky he will say “What the?!” then as he goes down “Noooooooo!!!”
OMG I lauge my -Yoink- off everytime I hear that. Once you get down and see the sleeping hunters I get them to follow me in their feeble attempts to beat me up. I stand right in front of a sleeping grunt and let the hunter melee it. 3 hits to kill a Major, 2 for a Minor. It’s like grunt baseball, if done correctly the grunt will go flying! HOME RUN!!!
On the same level, on the dual bridges connecting canyons, if you throw grenades at elites they’ll evade and sometimes fly clear off the bridges to their deaths!
Silent Cartographer: escaping the map room, the music that comes on, where you have rockets and pistol ammo and 8 grenades = so much awesomeness.
T&R on legendary is where skill comes in, with no pistol and limited sniper ammo, you’re dead meat if you spend it all before getting into the ship. The marines are cannon fodder, but this level is what REAL battles are like: Hard, near impossible to keep your marines alive. Battles like this, or once inside against all the invisible sword elites, or in Halo at the first holdout site where 5 or 6 spirits drop reinforcements. Afew times I have saved all the marines there, and in Truth and Rec I got all 5 marines from the grav lift to the bridge though that only happened once and they said to each other that they were hurt bad. All this on legendary mind you.
I’m listening to Under Cover Of Night as I write this. I have the whole or near whole 1,2,3,Reach soundtracks on my computer. Though the reach tracks definitely have less replayability.
In 343 Guilty Spark one memory that stands out is when you find a pile of dead bodies, human and jackals who have clearly been fighting alongside each other against the flood. It always makes me sad seeing how against certain death they put aside that hate to fight against the common foe.
> Assault on the control room is my favourite level. On legendary I can save 10 marines, though it is hard. You HAVE to save Sarge, he provids such hilarious commentary. If you can get sarge and 2 or 3 marines alive they’ll say funny things.
>
> T&R on legendary is where skill comes in, with no pistol and limited sniper ammo, you’re dead meat if you spend it all before getting into the ship. The marines are cannon fodder, but this level is what REAL battles are like: Hard, near impossible to keep your marines alive. Battles like this, or once inside against all the invisible sword elites, or in Halo at the first holdout site where 5 or 6 spirits drop reinforcements. Afew times I have saved all the marines there, and in Truth and Rec I got all 5 marines from the grav lift to the bridge though that only happened once and they said to each other that they were hurt bad. All this on legendary mind you.
H1, where allies actually matter and where battles are actually life threatening, where you’re forced into cqc.
In H3 and Reach, I find myself wanting to kill marines. And it is extremely frustrating (not challenging. Enemies only contribute to their demise) to keep them alive since they drive off with vehicles and charge into battle. Their incompetence is the most appalling thing I’ve seen in a video game. I often find myself resorting to long range since I have no one to rely on (mostly in Reach. In H3, cqc is still possible, although extremely risky unless you have someone like Arby around).
> In 343 Guilty Spark one memory that stands out is when you find a pile of dead bodies, human and jackals who have clearly been fighting alongside each other against the flood. It always makes me sad seeing how against certain death they put aside that hate to fight against the common foe.
The only game where they set aside their enmity.
In H2 and H3, you know you’re going to get screwed in those mix-up fights if you don’t kill them all (Gravemind was disappointing for this reason. I would have liked to fight with those Ultras but I have to kill them to get the door to unlock. I would have liked to leave them alive and just sneak past them). In H1, you can actually fight alongside the Elites (notable moments include that battle on Keyes on the other side of the gap) and live to tell the tale.
Also, marines are like automated turrets. They see a Covie, they shoot and kill them. There’s no consideration at all, even if the enemy is unarmed. It’s disturbing (and annoying because I like having unarmed enemies).
> On the same level, on the dual bridges connecting canyons, if you throw grenades at elites they’ll evade and sometimes fly clear off the bridges to their deaths!
It feels the most rewarding when Goldies do it imo.
> There is a part on AOTCR where grunts are sleeping. There are afew, but one in particular where its all grunts and jackals, if you get all the grunts in one hallway and poke your head out, especially on legendary where you get the most grunts and they’re at their most tenaciousness, they will shoot each other to death by accident and call each other names. It’s so funny.
>
> Another part is in the same level where, actually afew parts, where you reach the control room pyramid on the bridge with the banshees where it says If I Had A Super Weapon… With the camo on I melee the first grunt on the left off the bridge and if you’re lucky he will say “What the?!” then as he goes down “Noooooooo!!!”
> OMG I lauge my -Yoink!- off everytime I hear that. Once you get down and see the sleeping hunters I get them to follow me in their feeble attempts to beat me up. I stand right in front of a sleeping grunt and let the hunter melee it. 3 hits to kill a Major, 2 for a Minor. It’s like grunt baseball, if done correctly the grunt will go flying! HOME RUN!!!
I have to try these!!
My top 5 Halo CEA maps:
5: 343 Guilty Spark. I love the mystery and eerie feeling that something is gojng to get you when you least expect it.
4: The Library. I love killing Flood, and I love the same eerie feeling carried over from 343 Guilty Spark.
3: Pillar of Autumn. An epic begining to both an epic game and an epic franchise.
2: The Silent Cartogropher. This level is too awesome and fun for words.
1: The Maw. The mixed emotions that I get when playing this level of feeling sad, angry, and awesome all at the same time. Plus I love seeing Covenant, Flood, and Sentinals fight at the same time is pretty cool.
Library. It has all the factors in it.
Sense of mystery, confusion, wonder, Tense, and FRUSTRATION WHEN TRYING TO COMPLETE IT ON LEGENDARY!
Silent Cartographer the maw and assault on the control room
The library. trololololol. But seriously, mine has to be Assault on the Control Room. The mission was so long and there was such a variety of encounters and spaces that you explored.
Assault on the Control Room. It’s the one true sandbox level. Tank? Works. Hog with sniper? Works. Ghost only? Works. On foot using the snipers, rockets and camos littered everywhere around the level? Works. Mixing all together, especially in co-op? Hell yeah it works!
You cannot ask me to choose between them. Unlike Halo2, 3 and Reach, there isn’t a level you can ask me to choose as my favourite out of the bunch.
ODST isn’t perfect, but like CE not having any one perfect level unto itself, the overall experience is such that because it was amazing to experience, it is all great.
Reach is great but nothing to which CE or ODST offered. The setpieces did fail to deliver (the PoA and the always Grunt drop-pods. Could have done soooo much more, but to just mix up the infantry types depending on the difficulty would have been something)
Halo2 and 3… it took a long while to grow some levels on me. The setpieces just weren’t realised enough throughout and though I disliked the Arbiter at first, his levels were the most fun. Halo3 gave me co-op campaign so the over-thought on level design was forgotten due to having 4 friends. Solo I do not like it nearly as much.
But CEA has me claiming the Library and Assault on the Control Room are by far the most replayable for either an experience of pure shooting, or an experience of everything the game has to offer.
Knowing what I know, I was glad I was wearing my air filtering helmet when speed running through the Library, the air looked pungent, thick and infectious