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[The Lamonster]

Someone compared Knights to Brutes recently as being the boring bullet sponges of Halo, but I think Brutes are WAYYY more fun to fight. Teleporting is just a gimmick. It doesn't add anything to gameplay. And shooting off that Brute helmet is more fun that popping the Knights' shields. At least I can get a nice hammer when I kill a Brute. What do the Knights give me? Worthless pulse grenades? Brutes can drive vehicles and their different ranks are more easily apparent.

Besides, Brutes are just badass. Knights are like ghost-robots or something.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

The fuck? I didn't like halo 3 much, but 4 is no where near halo 3. Hell i'd put halo 4 dead last out of all halo games. It had absolutely the worst campaign.

That's what I've seen here and there on Gaf, and I don't get it. It had issues, yeah, but it looked by far the best out of any Halo game, had great acting and dialogue, etc. The story could have been explained a bit better (Didact, Librarian, etc.) and the Prometheans could use a boost, but that wasn't enough to send it anywhere near last in my campaign rankings.

Halo 3 campaign just never jelled with me. I felt the story wasn't very good overall. Gameplay was great, and it was fun to play, but I just never had the hard on for it like a lot of people did. Loved the MP though.

Maybe just the simple fact that Halo 4 looks so damn good, has great music, has actual believable characters, and attempts to add a new arc to the well-known story did it for me.

Opinions, and everything.

 

[malfcn]

I got all the cheevos except the stomp and turret. May wait until the season pass is on sale or something.

 

[squidhands]

Eh, to each their own. You absolutely adore Halo 3 and I just never got deep into that campaign. Some great battles sure, but the plot didn't go anywhere and some of the levels just felt uninspired.

Not to say Halo 4's campaign is without flaws, it isn't, but I enjoyed it more than 3. Not sure if that was merely because it looks downright gorgeous and that cast a blindfold over some of the underlying issues or what, but I had fun digging through the Halo 4 campaign. That said the AI needs some work and we need more Promethean enemy types. I think I had the most fun fighting crawlers, just for the fact that you never knew what they were doing.

Those Forerunner interiors though. Drool. So much better than any of the other games.

In terms of combat flexibility, Halo 3's campaign is far superior to any of the other games in my opinion. I don't know how you can say some of the levels in 3 are uninspired when Halo 4 falls to a more linear combat design than any of it's predecessors. I also found it funny/sad that Halo 4 crams waypoints down your throat and brings hand-holding to a new high, but somehow creates an enemy class in the Prometheans that are difficult at best to understand and predict behavioral patterns.

But as you say, to each their own.

Someone compared Knights to Brutes recently as being the boring bullet sponges of Halo, but I think Brutes are WAYYY more fun to fight. Teleporting is just a gimmick. It doesn't add anything to gameplay. And shooting off that Brute helmet is more fun that popping the Knights' shields. At least I can get a nice hammer when I kill a Brute. What do the Knights give me? Worthless pulse grenades? Brutes can drive vehicles and their different ranks are more easily apparent.

Besides, Brutes are just badass. Knights are like ghost-robots or something.

I compared them to Halo 2's Brutes yesterday, which were dynamically stagnant bullet sponges.

 

[Rickenslacker]

The one really awkward thing in Halo 4's campaign that's an issue exclusive to Halo 4 are those few moments where an encounter will be through a doorway, only for the door to lock right behind you. Leaving you with little cover as you're being engaged.

 

[IHaveIce]

I just can't adjust to play against Jetpack and Camo.. All promises from 343 that they fixed these AAs is just not true. I can't like that.

Boltshot with damage boost is insane..every shotgun is.

 

[The Lamonster]

I compared them to Halo 2's Brutes yesterday, which were dynamically stagnant bullet sponges.

Ah yeah, H2 Brutes were the most boring. H3 Brutes were awesome, especially because of the encounters in which you faced them.

Here's hoping H5 improves the Knights. I'd also like to see the return of the Flood because Flood Knights would be giant freaking monsters.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Someone compared Knights to Brutes recently as being the boring bullet sponges of Halo, but I think Brutes are WAYYY more fun to fight. Teleporting is just a gimmick. It doesn't add anything to gameplay. And shooting off that Brute helmet is more fun that popping the Knights' shields. At least I can get a nice hammer when I kill a Brute. What do the Knights give me? Worthless pulse grenades? Brutes can drive vehicles and their different ranks are more easily apparent.

Besides, Brutes are just badass. Knights are like ghost-robots or something.

I remember thinking after hitting the last button (so many buttons), pleased don't spawn anyone behind me please don't spawn anyone behind me please don't FUCK. I wanted that mission to end right after it started.

As you said, they're just not fun to fight. Their signature move, teleportation, is just very badly thought out. It's just not fun to plan out an approach, engage an enemy, then have them disappear (complete with invincible animation frames) and pop up somewhere else. Or to be engaged with an enemy who then pops up in your face instantly. I never did figure out how to avoid getting punched when they did that. And to be clear, the problem isn't randomness, the problem is fairness. Dudes would teleport away and I'd be like, what the hell am I supposed to do about that? Yawn.

I'd take Halo 2 Brutes any day. As you said, at least the classes were clear, we could tell what they carried, and we had a set of effective methods for taking them out, with precision or brute force (har).

 

[Arnie]

I wouldn't hesitate to rank Halo 4's campaign as the worst of the lot, and that's largely due to how un-engaging the Prometheans were to fight. They're literally bullet sponges, and as others have mentioned, don't even compare to Halo 3's Brutes. The game suffered as a result, and any section in which we were forced to fight them became immediately tedious.

Of course there are a raft of problems on top of that which contribute to my general apathy towards the campaign, but I think that's key.

 

[The Librarian]

but the plot didn't go anywhere

It's a videogame. A videogame. The most important thing is to make sure you're having fun playing it.

and some of the levels just felt uninspired.

I would understand this for Crow's Nest, and while I think you can make the argument that Halo 3 had uninspired environments for the first half of the game, that's not the same as having an uninspired sandbox and encounter design, which is far more important, and where the game shined. If anything, Halo 4 has uninspired sandbox and encounter designs.

Halo 3 has you fighting a Scarab in a dried-up lakebed that drops off into a Covenant-formed crater with a Forerunner ship in the middle. You have access to Mongooses with rockets, Choppers, Ghosts, Warthogs, stationary (or mobile) missile cannons, and cranes you can use to hop onto the Scarab.

Where is that kind of inspiration in the sandbox and encounter design in Halo 4? Where does Halo 4 similarly push the sandbox forward?

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Can someone explain to me how Elites are not bullet sponges in the exact same way as Prometheans? I get the whole weapon and color differential between Elite classes, and that they dodge, but Elites are just as bad at times as Prometheans.

I dreaded Elites in Reach because you poured round after round into them and nothing.

Note; I'm not defending the Prometheans here, just curious how everyone adores Elites when they are just as bad and soaking rounds.

 

[Overdoziz]

I compared them to Halo 2's Brutes yesterday, which were dynamically stagnant bullet sponges.

At least Brutes in Halo 2 could easily be taken down by a couple of shots to the head. Knights on the other hand...

 

[The Real Napsta]

Can someone explain to me how Elites are not bullet sponges in the exact same way as Prometheans? I get the whole weapon and color differential between Elite classes, and that they dodge, but Elites are just as bad at times as Prometheans.

I dreaded Elites in Reach because you poured round after round into them and nothing.

Note; I'm not defending the Prometheans here, just curious how everyone adores Elites when they are just as bad and soaking rounds.

pp plus 1 dmr round equals dead elite.

Just a pro tip for you.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

pp plus 1 dmr round equals dead elite.

Just a pro tip for you.

This isn't my first rodeo, I know that.

Thing is, you can do similar to the Knights. Needlers work amazingly on them, as do Scattershots. PP and DMR does the trick too.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Can someone explain to me how Elites are not bullet sponges in the exact same way as Prometheans? I get the whole weapon and color differential between Elite classes, and that they dodge, but Elites are just as bad at times as Prometheans.

I dreaded Elites in Reach because you poured round after round into them and nothing.

Note; I'm not defending the Prometheans here, just curious how everyone adores Elites when they are just as bad and soaking rounds.

In comparison to Reach's Elites, there are two things:
1. The gradual flaring of their shields. Whereas prom shields are subtle to the point of not being noticeable.
2. Easy to get headshots afterwards. Proms need to open their masking after their shields are removed to be headshot, resulting in prolonging the encounter after breaking their shields (assuming they don't teleport away and regain shields, that you can't tell once you've re-engaged).

 

[squidhands]

Ah yeah, H2 Brutes were the most boring. H3 Brutes were awesome, especially because of the encounters in which you faced them.

Here's hoping H5 improves the Knights. I'd also like to see the return of the Flood because Flood Knights would be giant freaking monsters.

I enjoyed fighting the Brutes from Halo 3 onward, for sure (once the Needler became effective, lol). Not sure how I'd feel about Flood forms taking over PromKnights in their current form. I'm of the opinion that the Promethean class needs to undergo an overhaul to make them more interesting to fight, because teleporting-instant-death-melee Knights, armored space dogs, and muttering RC drones just doesn't do it at all for me.

 

[Arnie]

Can someone explain to me how Elites are not bullet sponges in the exact same way as Prometheans? I get the whole weapon and color differential between Elite classes, and that they dodge, but Elites are just as bad at times as Prometheans.

I dreaded Elites in Reach because you poured round after round into them and nothing.

Note; I'm not defending the Prometheans here, just curious how everyone adores Elites when they are just as bad and soaking rounds.

Firstly, they actually demonstrate some immediate concern when being shot at, by, as you say, dodging and strafing, and you're distracted from the amount of bullets it takes to strip their shields because you have to track their movements. Fighting an Elite is unpredictable, they might go one way, or the other, or charge you, or retreat. They might throw a plasma grenade, which could kill you in one.

Prometheans didn't demonstrate this wily attitude, they're wholly predictable, they don't move at much speed and they don't care to being shot. They just trudge along eating your bullets, and the terrible feedback system doesn't do much to reward you for shooting them. And they might teleport every now and then, which is your cue to turn your attention elsewhere.

 

[Louis Wu]

At the last checkpoint (which is the final light bridge you have to turn on), I had a Light Rifle and Scattershot. There is infinite ammo for both guns if you drop down from the light bridge platform.

Just wanted to point out - it's not infinite. (I've run out. )

take out the other Knights by throwing the Promgrenades right at them

I read this as 'pomegranates'. Not sure which I like better, now...

That last fight was so annoying. The only part of the game that gave me trouble.

You know that rack that holds Scattershots, in the first area? It holds Incineration Cannons in the second one. Makes Knights trivial, even on Legendary. (You still have to fight through the first half of the platform to get to it, but the second half - and the entire third platform - become a cakewalk.)

 

[Overdoziz]

This isn't my first rodeo, I know that.

Thing is, you can do similar to the Knights. Needlers work amazingly on them, as do Scattershots. PP and DMR does the trick too.

I said it before: AI behavior and visual feedback aside, a big problem with nearly all Promethean encounters is the lack of plasma weapons. There's no way to quickly strip shields from a Knight unless there happen to be Covenant enemies around or if you're at extremely close range using a Scattershot/Bolshot/Supressor. The former rarely happens and the latter is suicidal on higher difficulties. At least when fighting Elites there's usually Plasma Pistols, Storm Rifles or Needlers lying around.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

In comparison to Reach's Elites, there are two things:
1. The gradual flaring of their shields. Whereas prom shields are subtle to the point of not being noticeable.
2. Easy to get headshots afterwards. Proms need to open their masking after their shields are removed to be headshot, resulting in prolonging the encounter after breaking their shields (assuming they don't teleport away and regain shields, that you can't tell once you've re-engaged).

Firstly, they actually demonstrate some immediate concern when being shot at, by, as you say, dodging and strafing, and you're distracted from the amount of bullets it takes to strip their shields because you have to track their movements. Fighting an Elite is unpredictable, they might go one way, or the other, or charge you, or retreat. They might throw a plasma grenade, which could kill you in one.

Prometheans didn't demonstrate this wily attitude, they're wholly predictable, they don't move at much speed and they don't care to being shot. They just trudge along eating your bullets, and the terrible feedback system doesn't do much to reward you for shooting them. And they might teleport every now and then, which is your cue to turn your attention elsewhere.

I said it before: AI behavior aside, a big problem with nearly all Promethean encounters is the lack of plasma weapons. There's no way to quickly strip shields from a Knight unless there happen to be Covenant enemies around or if you're at extremely close range using a Scattershot/Bolshot/Supressor. The former rarely happens and the latter is suicidal on higher difficulties. At least when fighting Elites there's usually Plasma Pistols, Storm Rifles or Needlers lying around.

Thanks all. Makes sense. Reach's Elites infuriated me though, maybe that prepared me for Promethean Knights better. It always seemed like Reach's Elites would dodge at the slightest beeze, so they were always just hopping back and forth. Not necessarily because they got shot, more just to annoy you.

EDIT: Maybe I liked fighting the Crawlers the best because they were unpredictable like the Elites were, but you could take them out easily and quickly if you were a solid shot?

 

[mhi]

havent played much since they nuked koth.

 

[The Lamonster]

I enjoyed fighting the Brutes from Halo 3 onward, for sure (once the Needler became effective, lol). Not sure how I'd feel about Flood forms taking over PromKnights in their current form. I'm of the opinion that the Promethean class needs to undergo an overhaul to make them more interesting to fight, because teleporting-instant-death-melee Knights, armored space dogs, and muttering RC drones just doesn't do it at all for me.

This is the best description of Prometheans I've seen.

 

[squidhands]

At least Brutes in Halo 2 could easily be taken down by a couple of shots to the head. Knights on the other hand...

Right, the only thing fun about Knights is that the AI is so bad that they literally forget that you're there and you can make a run to assassinate them.

Just wanted to point out - it's not infinite. (I've run out. )


I read this as 'pomegranates'. Not sure which I like better, now...


You know that rack that holds Scattershots, in the first area? It holds Incineration Cannons in the second one. Makes Knights trivial, even on Legendary. (You still have to fight through the first half of the platform to get to it, but the second half - and the entire third platform - become a cakewalk.)

The bold is interesting. I emptied the LR crate in the last section before the checkpoint, and later accidentally backed into the backside of the crate, fully reloading my LR. I was able to do it for the rest of my run despite being sent back to the checkpoint multiple times, too. Weird.

To the last part, I stupidly emptied my Incineration Cannon on the other Knights and Crawlers before I got to the final checkpoint. I thought there was another crate of them later on, but I was wrong. :-(

 

[Reagan's BR]

Seriously, why don't you guys go on amazon and buy Halo 2 vista?

It's $15. You guys spend more to get banned playing DLC.

It runs fine on any PC (or bootcamp mac!) that has vista or higher on lowish end systems and you can plug in your 360 controller (even a wireless one with the $15 adapter) and get the same controlls and aim assist, at 60+ fps and play customs with a game browser and dedicated servers. This is most of all the things you guys want!


This is not a rhetorical question, I actually want to know why.

Also, why do some of you instead play it over a convoluted and laggy XBC in SD without proper widescreen?

I have it and I play it. I just got a mac though so I need to get windows to play it via bootcamp.

 

[kylej]

Halo campaigns are what needed a fundamental refresh, not the multiplayer.

 

[Reagan's BR]

Halo campaigns are what needed a fundamental refresh, not the multiplayer.

Well they haven't had a great story since Halo 2.

 

[Poker Face]

id play halo 2 vista, it just has a shitty framerate for some reason and im not sure how to fix it :/

 

[kylej]

Yeah. Be bold. Do something unique. I was so tremendously disappointed to see grunts and old enemies back in this campaign prior to release. Why on earth would you play it so safe? You can do anything after the end of Halo 3. Do something beautiful and interesting. Some of the greatest mass-market stories ever told are space operas. So much potential. Oh well.

 

[BlueScrote]

This isn't my first rodeo, I know that.

Thing is, you can do similar to the Knights. Needlers work amazingly on them, as do Scattershots. PP and DMR does the trick too.

The Prometheans in general just have poor encounter design. The invincible frames, predictable encounter path, teleport, unclear head hit detection, unrecognizable enemy classes, and indistinct weapon designs on the enemies all contribute to issues when dealing with the prometheans.

 

[JHall]

id play halo 2 vista, it just has a shitty framerate for some reason and im not sure how to fix it :/

Lower the resolution through your game menus. If you have it on a high one it becomes extremely choppy.

 

[wwm0nkey]

id play halo 2 vista, it just has a shitty framerate for some reason and im not sure how to fix it :/

Force V-sync in the Nvidia control panel.

 

[Reagan's BR]

Yeah. Be bold. Do something unique. I was so tremendously disappointed to see grunts and old enemies back in this campaign prior to release. Why on earth would you play it so safe? You can do anything after the end of Halo 3. Do something beautiful and interesting. Some of the greatest mass-market stories ever told are space operas. So much potential. Oh well.

You're right there were a ton of things they could have done. They had a blank slate with the end of Halo 3.

Thing is the new enemies they introduced were more annoying to fight than the covenant.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

The Prometheans in general just have poor encounter design. The invincible frames, predictable encounter path, teleport, unclear head hit detection, unrecognizable enemy classes, and indistinct weapon designs on the enemies all contribute to issues when dealing with the prometheans.

I do think one thing where 343 really hurt themselves with the Promethean design was doing the whole orange vs blue colors. Meaning every Promethean had to be the exact same color. Making the Elites distinguishable between classes was easy because you could make them different colored, and have different armor. With the Prometheans they all had to be orange, so 343 back themselves into a corner as far as design goes.

In Halo 5 they need to add much more variety to design so I can tell a Scattershot Knight apart from a melee Knight.

 

[CyReN]

Is there really a patch to remove the map packs?

 

[The Librarian]

Well they haven't had a great story since Halo 2.

But above all else, and what's most important, is good gameplay.

 

[Poker Face]

Lower the resolution through your game menus. If you have it on a high one it becomes extremely choppy.

Force V-sync in the Nvidia control panel.

i will try that now. thanks
edit: yea it worked , but i cant find my wire to allow me to use my 360 controller

Is there really a patch to remove the map packs?

yes.

 

[Arnie]

Yeah. Be bold. Do something unique. I was so tremendously disappointed to see grunts and old enemies back in this campaign prior to release. Why on earth would you play it so safe? You can do anything after the end of Halo 3. Do something beautiful and interesting. Some of the greatest mass-market stories ever told are space operas. So much potential. Oh well.

That's a nice request in principle, but name me one thing from a design perspective that 343 actually knocked out of the park? If they couldn't create an enemy class to rival the Brutes then what makes you wish for them to replace the covenant? As sad as it is to accept, fighting the covenant in variations of the same encounters I've been playing for over a decade was the most fun I had with Halo 4.

 

[Rickenslacker]

I could have definitely gone with a radically different approach to the campaign as opposed to the weird MP choices they insist on making. You were stranded in orbit, with a mysterious planet just waiting to be explored. They could've taken a more open world approach to it or something, but instead I guess you fight the Covenant and then find humans and go through the motions.

 

[BlueScrote]

I do think one thing where 343 really hurt themselves with the Promethean design was doing the whole orange vs blue colors. Meaning every Promethean had to be the exact same color. Making the Elites distinguishable between classes was easy because you could make them different colored, and have different armor. With the Prometheans they all had to be orange, so 343 back themselves into a corner as far as design goes.

In Halo 5 they need to add much more variety to design so I can tell a Scattershot Knight apart from a melee Knight.

I'm still don't really understand the blue vs orange thing. Is blue w/o didact control and orange w/ didact control?

They could have went with changing the color accents (blue,orange,green,black) etc to signify different ranks or types.

 

[Overdoziz]

Yeah. Be bold. Do something unique. I was so tremendously disappointed to see Complex and Vortex in this multiplayer prior to release. Why on earth would you play it so safe? You can do anything in the War Games simulation on Infinity. Do something beautiful and interesting. Some of the greatest maps ever made weren't canon. So much potential. Oh well.

 

[Fracas]

Campaign would have been so much better if the covenant were not involved and if chief and cortana were by themselves.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Campaign would have been so much better if the covenant were not involved and if chief and cortana were by themselves.

Honestly though with how the proms turned out it's probably for the best it ended up as it did. Imagine if prom-like enemies were the only source of combat in the game.

 

[789shadow]

How is it possible that nobody told 343 they were idiots for even conceiving of the Boltshot.

 

[Fracas]

Balls, I'm pretty sure UPS lost my copy of the Walking Dead game

 

[The Lamonster]

How is it possible that nobody told 343 they were idiots for even conceiving of the Boltshot.

It's a cool gun, even though its role is redundant. It needs to be nerfed though.

The railgun is also cool, except it needs to be buffed. The thing should not have such a long reload time. It's on par with the incineration cannon which is much more powerful.

Needs either more rounds per clip, or a much faster reload.

 

[kylej]

That's a nice request in principle, but name me one thing from a design perspective that 343 actually knocked out of the park? If they couldn't create an enemy class to rival the Brutes then what makes you wish for them to replace the covenant? As sad as it is to accept, fighting the covenant in variations of the same encounters I've been playing for over a decade was the most fun I had with Halo 4.

Well, yeah. 343 couldn't get feature parity with a 5 year old game. I'm talking pipe dreams here. I have zero faith in the entirety of 343, they seem to be wildly incompetent when making the few things they didn't outsource to someone else.

 

[789shadow]

It's a cool gun, even though its role is redundant. It needs to be nerfed though.

The railgun is also cool, except it needs to be buffed. The thing should not have such a long reload time. It's on par with the incineration cannon which is much more powerful.

Needs either more rounds per clip, or a much faster reload.

It is not a cool gun, it's a borderline offensive gun that should be patched out of matchmaking.

 

[CrazedArabMan]

I enjoyed the campaign (the story, MC and Cortana relationship, etc...) while it isn't on the scale of Halo 3 or Halo 1, I thought it was better than Reach and Halo 2 (though Halo 2's campaign did have some great moments, it was just a little long and some of the later levels were pretty bad). Now the MP on the other hand for Halo 4........

What I think we need is more WOW moments or memorable moments, while there were some in Halo 4, I still look at Halo 1 and Halo 3 as the pinnacle in moments that are remembered. Ex: Halo 1: (AOTCR, Silent Cartographer, Two Betrayals, Halo) Halo 3: (The Ark, The Storm, The Covenant, Tsavo Highway).

We just don't have those same moments in Reach and Halo 4 (though I can see that they tried at least in 4, Reach also had a few but far less than the others).

 

[User 73706]

I played Infinity and Reclaimer solo legendary last night for the first time.

What the hell are you guys complaining about?

Maybe things will be different on levels like Forerunner or Midnight but I was hardly having any problems. Never really ran out of ammo, enemies weren't health sponges. Hell, early on in Infinity before you get any precision weapons I used a Suppressor to take out a Knight's shields and it worked fine! Am I missing something? I did my first run on Heroic/Normal and this is only my second venture into campaign and I have to say it seems like the easiest one so far.

 

[Computron]

Force V-sync in the Nvidia control panel.

i will try that now. thanks
edit: yea it worked , but i cant find my wire to allow me to use my 360 controller



yes.

I would use D3DOverrider if you are going to VSync older Direct X games.
You can actually find a gaming side thread that was recently made which contains a decent explanation of it, although it is rather simple.

Playing in windowed mode can help the jerkiness with Halo 2 Vista specifically.

The charge cable, I think, IIRC, does not work as an adapter for PC gameplay with the 360 gamepad.