gollumsluvslave
Member
I've been working my way through MCC over last few months, and it's been really interesting to see how the games have challenged my preconceptions of what I thought were the best games in the series.
I just completed Halo 4, playing it straight after Halo 3 (which I played straight after Halo 2 Anniversary). I had Witcher 3 in between Halo CE Anniversary and H2A, and already posted how much better H2A as than what I remember here
Halo 2 Anniversary Thoughts
First things first, Halo 4 was so close to being AWESOME, but although few missteps let it down, it was MUCH better than I remember it being on my first playthrough, and a lot of the issues (disappearing weapons) I had with it didn't seem as problematic this time around. Maybe MCC addressed some of these.
What was really interesting to me is how disappointing the Halo 3 campaign was this time around sandwiched in beteen Halo 2 and Halo 4. It was just really underwhelming, in many ways, the huge scale I seem to remember wasn't as big as I remember, and Halo 4 really isn't as small scale and linear as it was critisicised for being when it came out.
The Observation deck in Halo 4 in the first level (Dawn) is a huge open play area, with many options on how to go about things, and there are many similar examples, just as there plenty of examples in Halo 3 of linearity and being herded down a path. The Storm, The Covenant and The Ark, are good levels, but really not as great as I remember and I had much more fun this time around on the Reclaimer level in Halo 4 with the Mammoth, Infinity is a cracking level. On the whole I just had more fun with it.
The issues I had with Halo 4 story first time around just didn't materialise, I don't know if that is to do with Halo 5, or how Halo 3 botched it's story execution. I still HATE the end of Halo 4 though, the Didact QTE is such a cop out. But the core game is fantastic, guns are wicked (Lightrifle rocks), encounters are as good as ever, and Prometheans >>>>>>> Brutes. Prometheans are not the bullet sponges they were made out to be.
Another thing, Halo 4 on MCC looks spectacular, it LOOKS so much better than Halo 3 it's crazy (and I know folks will trot out the scale arguments, but I don't think they hold much weight - at least not to me based on these play throughs), maybe my eyes are going bad, but I think Halo 4 looks so good it made a rod for Halo 5, which does look better but not by a huge amount IMO.
One thing about Halo 4 though is i've enjoyed it so much, especially the Chief / Cortana story, that I'm more annoyed than ever by the execution of the plot in Halo 5...which I'm going to need to play through next to see how it fares, I know it fixed some of the wee niggles in Halo 4, but this time they didn't niggle that much...plot execution is definitely much better in Halo 4, and Halo 5 takes the H4 plot and pretty much abandons it...
Before MCC run, my campaign ranking was as follows:-
Halo CE >>> Halo 3: ODST > Haloe 3 > Halo 5 > Halo 4 > Halo Reach >>> Halo 2
After MCC (with Halo 5 , Reach and ODST still to replay) I'm now along these lines
Halo CE > Halo 4 > Halo 2 > Halo 3: ODST > Halo 5 > Halo 3 > Halo Reach
I just completed Halo 4, playing it straight after Halo 3 (which I played straight after Halo 2 Anniversary). I had Witcher 3 in between Halo CE Anniversary and H2A, and already posted how much better H2A as than what I remember here
Halo 2 Anniversary Thoughts
First things first, Halo 4 was so close to being AWESOME, but although few missteps let it down, it was MUCH better than I remember it being on my first playthrough, and a lot of the issues (disappearing weapons) I had with it didn't seem as problematic this time around. Maybe MCC addressed some of these.
What was really interesting to me is how disappointing the Halo 3 campaign was this time around sandwiched in beteen Halo 2 and Halo 4. It was just really underwhelming, in many ways, the huge scale I seem to remember wasn't as big as I remember, and Halo 4 really isn't as small scale and linear as it was critisicised for being when it came out.
The Observation deck in Halo 4 in the first level (Dawn) is a huge open play area, with many options on how to go about things, and there are many similar examples, just as there plenty of examples in Halo 3 of linearity and being herded down a path. The Storm, The Covenant and The Ark, are good levels, but really not as great as I remember and I had much more fun this time around on the Reclaimer level in Halo 4 with the Mammoth, Infinity is a cracking level. On the whole I just had more fun with it.
The issues I had with Halo 4 story first time around just didn't materialise, I don't know if that is to do with Halo 5, or how Halo 3 botched it's story execution. I still HATE the end of Halo 4 though, the Didact QTE is such a cop out. But the core game is fantastic, guns are wicked (Lightrifle rocks), encounters are as good as ever, and Prometheans >>>>>>> Brutes. Prometheans are not the bullet sponges they were made out to be.
Another thing, Halo 4 on MCC looks spectacular, it LOOKS so much better than Halo 3 it's crazy (and I know folks will trot out the scale arguments, but I don't think they hold much weight - at least not to me based on these play throughs), maybe my eyes are going bad, but I think Halo 4 looks so good it made a rod for Halo 5, which does look better but not by a huge amount IMO.
One thing about Halo 4 though is i've enjoyed it so much, especially the Chief / Cortana story, that I'm more annoyed than ever by the execution of the plot in Halo 5...which I'm going to need to play through next to see how it fares, I know it fixed some of the wee niggles in Halo 4, but this time they didn't niggle that much...plot execution is definitely much better in Halo 4, and Halo 5 takes the H4 plot and pretty much abandons it...
Before MCC run, my campaign ranking was as follows:-
Halo CE >>> Halo 3: ODST > Haloe 3 > Halo 5 > Halo 4 > Halo Reach >>> Halo 2
After MCC (with Halo 5 , Reach and ODST still to replay) I'm now along these lines
Halo CE > Halo 4 > Halo 2 > Halo 3: ODST > Halo 5 > Halo 3 > Halo Reach
