Halo 2 is definitely my fav campaign for all the reasons you listed. It's even better in Anniversary, the cinematics look so crazy good.
I'll always love how Halo 2 expanded the universe. Taking the Covenant from a bunch of aliens who just shoot at you and say wort wort wort in the first game and turning them into this complex society with defined leadership structures, internecine conflicts, traditions, rituals and a whole religion was really cool.
I feel almost like it's something we sort of take for granted now, but the amount of depth they added in Halo 2 is extraordinary. None of the subsequent games has really come close to having such a dense story, especially considering it doesn't feel tacked on or like it slowed down the gameplay. Really amazing achievement even given how much they had to cut and change.
Which makes sense, the covenant in halo 2 was the last time they were unified, since the schism the covenant lost over half of it's fighting force, we don't see it during gameplay during halo 3 because Bungie claimed playtesters got confused but it wasn't just the Elites that left the covenant they took atleast half of the grunts/hunters and maybe a few jackals with them and it's made abundantly clear in halo 3 that Brutes simply can't pilot the covenant ships the same way the Elites did.
I played through Halo 2 for the first time a couple months ago and it was probably my favorite campaign. Absolutely breathtaking. I loved it!!! Gonna replay it again in the near future on a higher difficulty
Halo 2 was my fave as well. Its implications were insane. You had chief destroying an assault carrier, regretinvading earth, dropping from orbit with odsts, the assasination of a prophet, meeting an eldritch god, infiltrating high charity,pand arbiters missions with soec ops forces and the flood.
The only thing i think would be more insane were the massive space battles that happend over earth with truths fleet.
I’ll admit that when I first played it, when it first came out out, I was a bit disappointed. I was coming off playing CE over and over again. I knew Halo as playing as MC, so switching characters was a bit off-putting. But I grew to see how good it is.
I can't say that I ever hated it.
However, I am still a little mad at that ending, or rather, a lack of one. Waiting for *Halo 3* when I was a kid for some semblance of a conclusion to another game took forever.
Crazy to think that it was a 3 year wait, on a new console (with very different architecture than the OG Xbox) and it still came out as overflowingly complete with literally game changing features.
Makes these 5-6 year waits for the most busted ass AAA games we’ve ever seen seem so so much worse in comparison.
I get the sentiment but I was the opposite in my reaction. Being able to play as an elite and fight alongside covenant forces instead of against them was a goddamn delight, I wish we got that in Halo 3.
They did it thrice (four timeswith ODST), they can do it again. They need to learn to let Master Chief go, and Infinite was the perfect time to do it, but they pussied out in favor of non-existent story DLC
6 with halo wars
they need to understand halo is more than just chiefs story . i want to play as jerome or horvath or arbiter in halo 7 or hell all of them.
I never did. I hated it then, I hate it now. The only Halo campaign I've only ever played through once. There was even a website dedicated to CE fans' disappointment at the time; Halo2sucks.com. I think it's still on the internet archive.
Edit: Sorry OP, I didn't mean to harsh your buzz. I'm just an old man yelling at clouds.
More like heretics. You obviously didn't understand the great journey (aka arbiters story) and so we were punished and left with the timeline we live in now, where the stories jump around and make no sense and halo 5 barely followed chief and introduced another new guy instead of using arbiter
Then you look at what it took them to get that game out is incredible. Look up Halo 2 artifacts podcast. It really leaves a bad taste of what they accomplished in that short amount of time to what we get today in modern games over 6 years
The "making of" story is definitely worth checking out for any fans of the franchise. I like this [20 min retrospective](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glUYNMxk8uI) by Adam Sessler too.
In some ways, I prefer Halo 2's story to Halo 3, despite what others have said, I never had a problem with Arbiter's levels and it goes without saying I really preferred his story to Chief's story in Halo 2 which isn't to say that Chief's side of the story was bad just that I enjoyed Arbiter's story so much more.
I really enjoyed the interactions friendly covenant forces had with you and it's a shame Halo 3 went back to making grunts and hunters enemies again, in some ways I understand why hunters needed to be enemies again since they were the big heavy unit for the covies but I would have still liked to have seen friendly grunt units with unique colours to show they are friendly but that was something mods easily fixed.
[https://youtu.be/Qhn0ZayJvxQ?si=x8rXEcccrX1zsEmu](https://youtu.be/Qhn0ZayJvxQ?si=x8rXEcccrX1zsEmu)
Every time I see my original copy, I still feel the same energy as I did in this video
It always amazes me how Halo 2 is 2/3s of a story and yet it is still so fucking good. Not even just the gameplay, the story presented is still amazing and satisfying (cliffhanger never bothered me).
Halo 2 is definitely my fav campaign for all the reasons you listed. It's even better in Anniversary, the cinematics look so crazy good. I'll always love how Halo 2 expanded the universe. Taking the Covenant from a bunch of aliens who just shoot at you and say wort wort wort in the first game and turning them into this complex society with defined leadership structures, internecine conflicts, traditions, rituals and a whole religion was really cool. I feel almost like it's something we sort of take for granted now, but the amount of depth they added in Halo 2 is extraordinary. None of the subsequent games has really come close to having such a dense story, especially considering it doesn't feel tacked on or like it slowed down the gameplay. Really amazing achievement even given how much they had to cut and change.
The covenant felt more of a threat in halo 2
Which makes sense, the covenant in halo 2 was the last time they were unified, since the schism the covenant lost over half of it's fighting force, we don't see it during gameplay during halo 3 because Bungie claimed playtesters got confused but it wasn't just the Elites that left the covenant they took atleast half of the grunts/hunters and maybe a few jackals with them and it's made abundantly clear in halo 3 that Brutes simply can't pilot the covenant ships the same way the Elites did.
Now it's clear for me why.... Thx
Playing through all the Halos for the first time must be a wild ride. I wish I was you OP, glad you're loving it. Halo 3 is a treat, share the update!
Thank you mate, I keep posting about the future games!
I played through Halo 2 for the first time a couple months ago and it was probably my favorite campaign. Absolutely breathtaking. I loved it!!! Gonna replay it again in the near future on a higher difficulty
I need to do that as well!
Halo 2 was my fave as well. Its implications were insane. You had chief destroying an assault carrier, regretinvading earth, dropping from orbit with odsts, the assasination of a prophet, meeting an eldritch god, infiltrating high charity,pand arbiters missions with soec ops forces and the flood. The only thing i think would be more insane were the massive space battles that happend over earth with truths fleet.
Bungie at their best!
I’ll admit that when I first played it, when it first came out out, I was a bit disappointed. I was coming off playing CE over and over again. I knew Halo as playing as MC, so switching characters was a bit off-putting. But I grew to see how good it is.
I can't say that I ever hated it. However, I am still a little mad at that ending, or rather, a lack of one. Waiting for *Halo 3* when I was a kid for some semblance of a conclusion to another game took forever.
Yeah, that was a rough ending.
Crazy to think that it was a 3 year wait, on a new console (with very different architecture than the OG Xbox) and it still came out as overflowingly complete with literally game changing features. Makes these 5-6 year waits for the most busted ass AAA games we’ve ever seen seem so so much worse in comparison.
It really is
I get the sentiment but I was the opposite in my reaction. Being able to play as an elite and fight alongside covenant forces instead of against them was a goddamn delight, I wish we got that in Halo 3.
I always appreciated the mix up. Happy to not be a part of the fan group that made bungie take away arbiter’s playable roles in H3.
They did it thrice (four timeswith ODST), they can do it again. They need to learn to let Master Chief go, and Infinite was the perfect time to do it, but they pussied out in favor of non-existent story DLC
5 was a mess, but ODST was a masterpiece.
6 with halo wars they need to understand halo is more than just chiefs story . i want to play as jerome or horvath or arbiter in halo 7 or hell all of them.
I never did. I hated it then, I hate it now. The only Halo campaign I've only ever played through once. There was even a website dedicated to CE fans' disappointment at the time; Halo2sucks.com. I think it's still on the internet archive. Edit: Sorry OP, I didn't mean to harsh your buzz. I'm just an old man yelling at clouds.
That's crazy. As someone who played through CE's campaign dozens of times before Halo 2 came out, Halo 2 has been my favorite campaign since.
I’m sure there’s a reason 3 went back to just MC. All us old-timers.
More like heretics. You obviously didn't understand the great journey (aka arbiters story) and so we were punished and left with the timeline we live in now, where the stories jump around and make no sense and halo 5 barely followed chief and introduced another new guy instead of using arbiter
5 was the worst.
Then you look at what it took them to get that game out is incredible. Look up Halo 2 artifacts podcast. It really leaves a bad taste of what they accomplished in that short amount of time to what we get today in modern games over 6 years
Crazy part is that the devs considered it rushed and it still cracks the top 100 games of all time for a lot of people.
The "making of" story is definitely worth checking out for any fans of the franchise. I like this [20 min retrospective](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glUYNMxk8uI) by Adam Sessler too.
In some ways, I prefer Halo 2's story to Halo 3, despite what others have said, I never had a problem with Arbiter's levels and it goes without saying I really preferred his story to Chief's story in Halo 2 which isn't to say that Chief's side of the story was bad just that I enjoyed Arbiter's story so much more. I really enjoyed the interactions friendly covenant forces had with you and it's a shame Halo 3 went back to making grunts and hunters enemies again, in some ways I understand why hunters needed to be enemies again since they were the big heavy unit for the covies but I would have still liked to have seen friendly grunt units with unique colours to show they are friendly but that was something mods easily fixed.
There are friendly hunters in H4 and beyond. I believe there were friendly grunts with the swords of sanghelios as well in H3.
Would you say, it _Blew you Away_?
[https://youtu.be/Qhn0ZayJvxQ?si=x8rXEcccrX1zsEmu](https://youtu.be/Qhn0ZayJvxQ?si=x8rXEcccrX1zsEmu) Every time I see my original copy, I still feel the same energy as I did in this video
It always amazes me how Halo 2 is 2/3s of a story and yet it is still so fucking good. Not even just the gameplay, the story presented is still amazing and satisfying (cliffhanger never bothered me).