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Wrapped up replaying #Halo 3 and found it to be pretty decent and still mostly holds up. Definitely an improvement over #Halo 2 though not quite as engaging as #CombatEvolved. This game definitely set the standard for what future Halo games would look like. Let's dig in...Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +5 🙂
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The level design in particular stands out. Lots of interesting spaces with unique encounters. This was the first game I didn't skip any levels because none seemed boring or bland.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -1 🙁
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I started out on Heroic, but added Mythic, Thunderstorm, and Tough Luck skulls when it seemed a bit easy. I really like using skulls to customize difficulty. I didn't want to switch to Legendary, as I figured it would be more fun to have tougher enemies than a weaker player.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +12 🙂
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Earth looks a lot better now, not so dull and brown, though it still has a bit of an uninspired aesthetic. The Ark looks cool from space, but on the ground it's just another ring world. In particular, marine and Brute armor looks ridiculous, and I just can't take them seriously.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -4 🙁
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My biggest complaint is the enemies. This game doubled down on Brutes as the primary antagonists, giving them armor and shields. This makes them function just like Elites, but still dumber because they rush you as soon as their armor breaks.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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They're weaker in close quarters compared to Halo 2, so they just rush you and die in one punch. This is why I needed the skulls to make it more interesting. Either Brutes should be more defensive and recharge shields from scratch, or they should be more dangerous up close.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -3 🙁
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I really enjoyed the "Brute squad" encounters, where a dozen brutes work together in a semi-coordinated fashion. This resulted in some really interesting encounters and I had a lot of fun with them. Chieftains in particular added some great extra spice to a battle.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +10 🙂
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Flood are somehow trivially easy and painfully annoying. Most Flood can just be melee'd which makes them far less intimidating. They even break into pieces and can't be revived! Melee'ing Flood is the cardinal sin of Halo 2 & 3 which makes them too easy and boring to fight.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -8 🙁
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The first exception to this are Flood Elites, who have the most *inconsistent* shield strength ever. They sometimes take one punch, sometimes 4 fuel rods, or a *dozen* sword swings. Each one is just a roll of the dice, making it really hard to strategize or anticipate in battle.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood 0
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The second exception are the ranged pure forms. These guys seem to have no weak point and are too far for swords. You either need a lucky stick or to burn half your ammo and 20 seconds on them. I mostly just ran past these guys and avoided them as much as possible.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood 0
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Equipment gets a lot of crap in this game and I do see why. There are only two or three "good" equipment items and everything else is varying degrees of useless. I mostly forgot I had the equipment and only really used it in extreme situations, usually against Brute squads.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -3 🙁
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I think adding a lot more equipment would encourage players to spend them more regularly in combat and potentially get more use out of them. #Reach tried a reusable approach, which has its own issues, but that's a tweet for another time.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +2 🙂
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There are new Brute weapons but they mostly all suck. Spiker in particular is awful and the Mauler is just a poor man's shotgun. The BR and Carbine are still top-tier. Especially since they can "headshot" pods in the Flood (a cool idea that just makes the good guns even better).Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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There are now 4 types of grenades with maximum 2 of each. However, the spike and incendiary grenades are functionally equivalent to plasmas. That means it's harder to manage and use these grenades without really getting much additional value out of them.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood 0
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The story is... par... for Halo games. Characters are still pretty "meh". Miranda and Johnson die but I don't really care (#SpoilerAlert). Cortana is barely in it and the Arbiter has nothing to do because he can't be 10 feet away from Chief or else co-op would be weird.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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Guilty Spark comes back just to make Chief press the button for Installation 04b and then turn on Johnson. He's a pretty crappy boss fight. In fact, both control rooms were crying out for a Gravemind boss fight we never got. The coolest villain gets no send off.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -9 🙁
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Truth goes out with a whimper (kinda fitting, but he killed Miranda so it's also underwhelming). This should be Arbiter's moment, but it just doesn't land. It seems to me that a lot of stories and characters were forced to an end, and none of them have the time to breathe.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -4 🙁
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I never realized how often the main objective is "blow up anti-air cannons". Then the *first* time you get in a hornet, there are at least 3 AA wraiths which are trivially destroyed. Like, dudes, these things fire slow as hell and have a range limit, why do you need my help?Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -5 🙁
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On that point, hornets are really boring. So slow and simple compared to banshees, nothing comes close to banshee dogfights in Combat Evolved.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood -4 🙁
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Also, the game really forces you into using tanks. I've never cared for tank combat, but Halo games usually give you non-tank alternatives. Here, there is so much enemy armor that on higher difficulties, you really have no choice but the tank.On twitter.com
Mood -4 🙁
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On the more positive side, Scarabs are now standard enemies with AI, making them much more fun to interact with. Jumping onto a moving Scarab, taking out the enemies, blowing up the engine, and getting away is an awesome experience and some of the best moments in the game.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +9 🙂
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This has been kinda negative overall, but I did enjoy the game a lot. Brute squads are tons of fun, level design is on point, scarabs are great; definitely set the standard for Halo going forward. I think I'll skip #ODST and move onto #Reach, interested to see how that holds up.Permalink On twitter.com
Mood +10 🙂