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[Kritz]

I enjoyed The Library more than that horrible level. For some reason I miscounted how many levels I had played, and I believed that Cortana was the final level in Halo 3. It was horrible thinking that the game would end on such a low, low point.

But then I started "Halo". My face vomited with happiness.

 

[DIrtyWeasel]

Half of the deaths I had in Halo 3 were probably from this level. I think I remember just running through the level slashing anything that got in the way with the plasma sword to beat the level.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Have just started it, this game is quite shit compared to 1 and 2, everything seems to have gotten worse except the graphics.....

 

[Spirit3]

Eep. I actually enjoyed this level. I found the constant flood of, well flood, to be quite nostalgic back to the original Halo where you are entering the Covenant ship to "rescue" Keyes. There's always the sense of "hallways full of baddies = death" if you're not careful and use your team mates weapons wisely.

And of course there is the beautiful cut scene where Master Chief and Cortana find each other.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

Horrible mission, probably the one I was least looking forward to on Legendary. As it turns out I didn't have TOO many troubles on Legendary, however the one enemy that kept repeatedly taking me down is those god damn wall swelling sniper machines. Not only do they fire at you from great distance, but they have possibly the strongest 'automatic' weapon in the game! I found myself stood behind cover just repeating "Left..pew pew pew...Right..wait for shield recharge...". I longed for a vista with Brutes, Grunts and vehicles galore.

I had a little more respect for the level when I figured that the flood were not infinitely respawning, ala CoD4, but there were a set number in each section. I hate infinite respawns, that gameplay mechanic belongs in 1996.....or possibly Tetris.

I hope Bungie never do a zombie-based combat again. If they pick up the rights to Dead Rising 2 then I'll send them my bitter tears in the post.


Hint: The first part of the level you can just run through. I ran right through until you drop down into the room where you find the skull. Then you have to start taking it one step at a time.

 

[FFChris]

Why the hell didn't you let me fight Gravemind Bungie? That's what I was looking for in that shitty level, and I didn't get to do it!

 

[RubberJohnny]

Have Bungie released a patch yet that lets me turn off the Gravemind/Cortana flashes in the game.

They should have known it'd get irritating after a few playthroughs, like Gears' radio.

 

[Deleted member 21120]

The best Flood level Bungie's ever done is easily Quarantine Zone (Halo 2), which was traversed almost entirely in a vehicle. I figured Bungie would have learned from that, and used that type of level in Halo 3's Flood encounters, but sadly, they didn't. No matter how many people complained about not liking the Flood, they couldn't be removed from the game, for story reasons. I just wish they had looked to the past and seen which levels we liked and which levels we didn't like, and modeled Halo 3's Flood encounters using that knowledge.

I would seriously like to talk to Cortana's level designer. Honestly, I would. I just want to ask, "did you think people would like this level? Then why did you make it?"

 

[carbonbased]

Have just started it, this game is quite shit compared to 1 and 2, everything seems to have gotten worse except the graphics.....

thanks for the insight!

 

[Gattsu25]

Melee attacks served me well, in that stage. Out of the three HALO games...I thought it was the least dissapointing Flood level.

edit: only one or two of the various flood could survive a melee attack...just spam the B button

 

[Walshicus]

So...did anyone actually enjoy this level?

I revisited the game while traveling home this past week, since I never got around to beating it on Heroic by myself, and I figured co-op would make it much easier.

Who thought this stage was a good idea?

Honestly? I hated it the first time I played it. I thought "oh great, infinite hordes of melee attacking Flood". But that's not how it plays at all, and once I realised it on my second play through, I found the level a lot easier and a lot more fun.

- Legions upon legions of respawning, heavily armed flood, including those bastards that stick to walls and drain your shields in seconds from across very long distances

Um, I'm fairly certain there are *no* respawning enemy encounters in the entire game. That would break the scoring system. In fact I distinctly remember having to adapt from the usual tactics against the flood from previous games, to treating them like normal - finite - encounters.

- Assholes for entrances

Heh, the level is horribly beautiful in my opinion. It's gross, but the detail and attention paid to making it gross is very high. Zoom in on some of the puss bags, for instance...

- No real boss, despite the overwhelming buildup of Gravemind being somewhere in the vicinity

GOOD! Bosses suck.

- Corridor combat was always the weakest part of the Halo games' level designs, and now all the corridors are a very identical orange

Hmm, I can see that. I'm a fan of both so it didn't bother me, but I won't begrudge you that opinion.

- And it's a backtracking level

That never really bothered me either, considering the encounters and the basic imperatives change.

I haven't played the original Halo in quite some time, so I can't compare it to the original Library from memory, but I think this may take the cake as the worst level in the entire trilogy. I just find it difficult to understand when so many of the combat set pieces in Halo are so well constructed, that this had to be there, even as a plot device.

Again, I disagree. I think this is a very well made level that only really fails if you're stuck in a mindset of how the Flood played from the last two games. It's sickly beautiful.

 

[JB1981]

I was actually loving the single player campaign up to that point. But, as I drew closer to it, I had the recurring thought:

"Please don't let there be a flood level. For the love of God, please don't let there be a flood level."

.

 

[Feindflug]

As much as I love Halo 3 that level was simply awful (at least it was smaller than the Library...), in fact fighting with Flood in general is pretty boring and pointless IMO - seriously Bungie why bother with Flood when you have maybe the best AI on the market?

 

[A Human Becoming]

All flood levels suck. This is the only level I haven't gotten the meta-game achievement for yet. I hate it too much.

 

[shintoki]

Because you're being constantly attacked from all sides with no cover by enemies who only react to explosives and shotgun shells?

If you know the layout I can see how you could just sprint through to the checkpoints (it's how I managed to keep my sanity in the flood levels in Halo 2), but the first time through it's brutal, thanks to the orange factor.

No, you don't need to do that. Even on Legendary the flood aren't difficult. They just take allot of hits is all. They weren't dangerous at all. To be frank, it was all just kiting or popping in and out. Most of the flood also don't seem to chase. If you go in there guns blazing, bang bang cowboy. You are just going to die. It doesn't matter if they only react to some guns because all of them damage em. It just takes some time is all. They aren't respawning or anything.

 

[Walshicus]

Yeah, and if you're still using a shotgun against the Flood by the time you get to that level... well you have to be pretty silly. Two Plasma Rifles are all you need; they cut through Flood like butter in Halo 3.

 

[Aegus]

Hated the level. Took me ages to complete it on Legendary even though I ran through entire sections by the skin of my teeth. It did make me like the needler a lot though.

 

[Sean]

Heh, the level is horribly beautiful in my opinion. It's gross, but the detail and attention paid to making it gross is very high. Zoom in on some of the puss bags, for instance...

Yeah, as much as I hated playing through it, the level did have some pretty nice graphics. It truly did feel yucky/slimy and claustrophobic which I guess is what they were going for.

from jet1911 in the official photomode thread:

 

[Barnolde]

I think they made that level just to vindicate the Library as the worst Halo level.

That stage was stupid, the story had just gotten to fan-fiction levels of goofy by then and I had stopped caring.

At least the last level was good, but goddamn Bungie, that level shouldn't have even been part of the game, or at least it shoulda just been a tiny section in the last level.

 

[65536]

Brute Shot + Melee = win.

It's only tough on legendary really, and even then most of it's not bad if you just take your time clearing everything out. (it's much easier if you can avoid hitting the pustules on the walls too)

On the lower difficulties, you can practically just run through it.

Have Bungie released a patch yet that lets me turn off the Gravemind/Cortana flashes in the game.

How about adding subtitles for them...

 

[Diablohead]

First run (heroric) I missed the

Spoiler

ammo at the crashed pelican

and other things like the flamethrower that basicly make the first sections damn easy, I would run out of ammo and rely on a 10% plasma battery to kill a room full of flood.

Second time in both single player and co-op to get achiements I found so much more ammo then before the level worked out to be just as normal as the rest, only annoying thing is that some flood can come back from the dead if you let those seedling things get to them.

In fact in one run I always had a sword as 2nd weapon, when it was nearly empty I always bumped into another hidden somewhere.

 

[Mojovonio]

thank god I'm not the only one. I bitched about it the day the game came out and took lots of shit for it.

 

[rollingstart]

yeah, that level was garbage.

I do wonder if bungie put it in to piss the player off, because they had 2 games worth of feedback to figure out what people like or dislike, but it only seems like they took multiplayer criticism to heart.

 

[Walshicus]

yeah, that level was garbage.

I do wonder if bungie put it in to piss the player off, because they had 2 games worth of feedback to figure out what people like or dislike, but it only seems like they took multiplayer criticism to heart.

Bungie *did* change the Flood in nearly every way probably in response to fan criticism. Seriously, maybe you guys actively avoid that level because it has Flood and for no other reason, but the Flood in Halo 3 are nothing like the Flood in Halo 1 or 2.

 

[jet1911]

Yeah it's the worst level of the game but I think it's one of the best looking. Also the only level where I hated the Flood.

 

[X26]

Hated the level. Not because of difficulty or anything, hell it was one of the easier levels during my legendary playthrough surprisingly, but it just felt out of place, goofy and was just an overall lame experience.

 

[JSnake]

I love the Flood. Then again I'm one of those people who hate large open spaces full of vehicles and brutes.

That said, I am not looking forward to this level.

 

[Chao]

Bungie *did* change the Flood in nearly every way probably in response to fan criticism. Seriously, maybe you guys actively avoid that level because it has Flood and for no other reason, but the Flood in Halo 3 are nothing like the Flood in Halo 1 or 2.

I never played the campaign mode on Halo 1 or 2, so I didn't know a shit about the flood, and I hate them in Halo 3. Most annoying and boring enemies ever. As OP stated, Cortana level was such a pain in the ass. A friend of mine quitted playing the game for a while when he reached Cortana, and he was constantly asking me if I wanted to play CoOp with him just to get through the level, because he fucking hated it.

So, add two "no fans" who hated the flood to death at first sight.

 

[siamesedreamer]

Worst level in the Halo trilogy.

 

[DKehoe]

That level is the reason I will probably never play through the campaign mode again, it just made me want the game to end.

 

[Instigator]

Actually, the level Cortana is one of the easiest levels, even on Legendary. It's just that you can't storm through it, all guns blazing. If you stick to specific areas with good cover and methodically take on every Flood, you will make it through even though it will take some time.

I agree there are still questionable design decisions in the level and how the Flood is handled in Halo 3. But it's a shame we don't get the other side of the coin on this issue, with at least two high-level Bungie employees posting at GAF.

And as already mentionned, it's one of the prettiest levels in Halo 3 though.

 

[Piper Az]

That stage was visually appealing, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was a good atmosphere change from run and gun stages.

 

[urk]

It's actually modeled after Frankie's colon, right down to the projectile flood variants.

 

[Mr Spliff]

I think I'm one of the few gamers that liked the Library level in Halo 1, great challenge on higher difficulties and i liked the "one-man army" feel to the level. However, I feel that all the challenge and fun was sapped out of the flood partially in Halo 2 and completely in Halo 3. Yes, Cortana level sucked. I'm not so astute with game design to talk about what they had changed with regards to the flood, all I know is that I thought they were the most fun in Halo 1.

 

[GauntletFan]

I must be one of the only people who got through this level quickly and without issue. I thought graphically it was outstanding.. some amazing shader fx and lighting.

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

You forgot to mention those annoying Cortana messages that constantly overlay your screen every 2 minutes on that level.

Yeah, these were really annoying, especially when replaying the levels. I always assumed the reason they were there and slowed you to a crawl was a way to hide load times or something, kind of like metroid primes delayed doors. If not, then it was a terrible decision to put them in.

 

[Blader]

I thought "Cortana" actually got easier as the difficulty increased. I found it much easier on Heroic and Legendary than on Normal.

 

[The Elite]

I didn't mind the level at all. IMO it isn't comparable to library since the main complaint about library is that it is repetitive. I didn't feel that the level design here was repetitive but it was fucking challenging. I loved having to really strategize my next move and how I was going to get past the next pack of enemies. The snipers were fucking tough but this is one level where I actually felt like I was Master Chief and it required a great deal of smarts to overcome each encounter on Legendary.

Of course, I tend to disagree with NeoGAF on pretty much everything so we can just add this to the heap.

 

[tak]

I cannot believe the level made it past the product testing group. The people that dislike that level far out the weigh the people that like it.

It is by far one of the worst levels in the Halo series. Those Cortana messages did not need to be there on every play through.

 

[urk]

I love the Library. They loaned me out a copy of Solaris a few weeks back and I was late in bringing it back and they were like, "Eh, no big deal" and they didn't charge me. Awesome.

Also, the Flood are much better in Halo 3 then they were in either predecessor. Halo 1 didn't have enough variety and in Halo 2 they were tedious at times. Halo 3 still has its issues with the parasite (yeah, the projectile form is frustrating), but for the most part, I found them much more interesting to combat. And their introduction was awesome.

 

[Proelite]

Even on the bungie podcast, one of the interviewees who worked at Bungie hated the level. I guess something went on internally that we aren't supposed to know about.

 

[Spruce Moose]

I can't believe a company like Bungie, with all it's experience and talent, would go ahead and make a crap level like "Cortana" in the last game of the series. It really boggles my mind.

What were they thinking?

 

[Imperial Hot]

I actually liked the Cortana level. I didn't think it was too hard, and it wasn't that long either. The Flood in this game aren't bullet sponges like last game, so it is more about taking on hoards of them at a time, then actually having to work hard to gun them down.

I also thought it was one of the best-looking levels in the game. The ship really looked like it was totally consumed by a living, breathing organism in the way the walls pulsated and were slick with goo. From a gameplay standpoint, it was very different from your typical Halo gameplay. It wasn't so much about being a bad-ass and kicking the shit out of everything, it was more about picking your battles and getting to Cortana.

If you went into it trying to kill every single guy you will get your ass handed to you. It is more about get from point a to point b and kill whatever is necessary to get their and not to go out of your way to kill anything else.

Maybe I am weird, but I thought it was a pretty cool level.

 

[itsinmyveins]

Flood may very well be the most mindnumbingly dumb design choice for an enemy and level I've ever seen. And they've fucking put it in all of the games as well!

This migh be a bit overreacting since those part stand out so much from the other good parts of the game, but still.

 

[tombur]

Yeah, and if you're still using a shotgun against the Flood by the time you get to that level... well you have to be pretty silly. Two Plasma Rifles are all you need; they cut through Flood like butter in Halo 3.

Not on legendary... my god, not even a grav hammer touches some of the flood forms.

 

[urk]

Nope, I enjoyed it too. You're spot on about the progression. If you want to stand your ground and set up shop, it plays a whole lot differently then if you grab a couple of weapons and plunge through the hordes, picking your battles as you go.

And it's definitely one of the best graphical levels going. If you stop the action in a saved film, you can zoom in and see tiny spores floating around in the hazed air. They're not just little specs either. When you get close, you can see little tails and tentacles. They're little floating Flood organisms. Walls look slimy, lighting is amazing, buttholes make butthole noises. Really wild stuff going on.

 

[TDG]

I didn't love the level, but I didn't think it was awful. Just mediocre. Fighting the flood in narrow corridors is proven not to be fun, but the way the flood have been refined in H3 makes this level much more playable than the repetetive disaster that is The Library. The way you have to be resourceful with your ammo and careful with your weapon choice works really well, and several encounters are very complex and require you to be careful, but take some risks. And, unlike The Library, the environment is somewhat interesting and the level ends on a strong note. Much better level than the Library.

As Cocopjojo mentioned, Quarantine Zone from H2 was a really awesome flood level, and it was an encouraging sign that perhaps Bungie was learning how to best use the flood.
In Halo 3, the flood got an awesome makeover, and 2 of the 3 flood levels are really awesome, because they're set in cool environments with open space, and they don't drag on at all.

All flood levels suck. This is the only level I haven't gotten the meta-game achievement for yet. I hate it too much.

Wrong.

- Legions upon legions of respawning, heavily armed flood, including those bastards that stick to walls and drain your shields in seconds from across very long distances

I'me pretty sure that there aren't any respawning enemies. However, the infection forms of the flood can revive other forms of the flood, meaning that you need to be careful when fighting.

- No real boss, despite the overwhelming buildup of Gravemind being somewhere in the vicinity

And thank god for that. Seriously, I know some of you think you want to have a boss fight against gravemind, but you don't. What, shoot the tentacle, then throw a grenade in Gravemind's 'mouth' when it opens? Did you people play Halo 2's boss fights? They were horrendous. All of them. I can't remember ever having fun in an FPS with a boss battle, with H3's scarabs being the exception. The level ended on a strong note. The lack of a boss was a VERY good thing.

 

[Brannon]

When Bungie releases this for PC, THEY HAD BETTER FUCKING MAKE A NEW PENULTIMATE LEVEL.

 

[golduck342]

I'm not one to rush through levels, but after the frustration of clearing out entire rooms just to die and have to do it all again, I said fuck it and just ran through the level. I felt like it was designed to be like that cause it was a lot better.

 

[MechaX]

The best Flood level Bungie's ever done is easily Quarantine Zone (Halo 2), which was traversed almost entirely in a vehicle. I figured Bungie would have learned from that, and used that type of level in Halo 3's Flood encounters, but sadly, they didn't.

I was gone to come in here and say this very thing as well. Quarantine Zone was single-handedly the best Flood level in the entire series (and one of my favorites as well) solely due to how Bungie tried to mix things. I mean, what was your initial reaction when you saw the Flood driving Ghosts and Scorpions? There are some solo parts and some ally parts, so the atmosphere is at least switched up every once in awhile.

Cortana is pretty much my most hated level in all of H3, and among my personal worsts in the entire series (Although, it does come pretty damn close to The Library and High Charity). The first time playing it, it was almost like a war of tedium due to the fact that it was almost like the Flood and I were battling for territory. That, and those Flood Juggernauts (Hell, I don't know their real names) and those Sniper Turrets were things that were just a bit too powerful for their own good. On my next playthroughs, I might just treat the level like High Charity and just slow-MC-jog through the level entirely.

What really provided a merciless kick to the groin was the missed opprotunity for a Gravemind boss fight. Or at least seeing it in the level would have made the tedium somewhat worth it.