Seven years later, Halo 3 is still the best Halo campaign

Joint with Combat Evolved. The Covenant is a 'best of' level to me: Massive, expansive vehicle combat, wonderful Covenant corridor battling, airborne joy, a battle against two behemoths, a morbid and extremely eerie alliance, a satisfying finish, and (IMO) the best Flood moment in the series (the bit before and after Trith's death).

Seriously, it just felt perfect. Floodgate was also great in my eyes because it was so dark and scary when I was only wittle.

Also, it had near-perfect multiplayer. Forge was VERY welcome, and the new additions felt fresh and exciting. I honestly think that the only things wrong with it were the last two levels, which were... OK, at best. But it was still an amazing conclusion. I'm so glad it didn't end at Halo 2.

But... Although I welcomed Reach and ODST (especially the former, which is my favourite FPS of the last gen), I think Halo 4 has permanently stained Halo for me. I just don't see the point. It's a story that didn't need continuing.
 
Halo 3 is a brilliant game. I can't wait to play it again in TMCC. Custom games with Forge maps are gonna be crazy with some gaffers.
It might have my favorite campaign as well, it's definitely between 3 and CE.
 
It's still combat evolved for me but I'm interested to see if that opinion changes coming back to these games having mostly forgotten good portions of it and with zero hype and expectations.
 
Echoenigma said:
You have good intentions, but no.

Halo CE is easily the most well designed Halo campaign. Like it's not even close.
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Repetitive Level Design = Well Designed? Does that make it leagues above Halo 2, 3, ODST, and Reach?

I love Halo CE. Assault on the Control Room and Truth & Reconcilliation were my favorite levels. But saying it was waaaaaay better than the others just isn't true.
 
Halo 3 was not remarkable in any way (outside of it being better than Halo 4). The campaigns got progressively worse. Outside of The Library, CE still has the best campaign.
 
Halo 1 vs Halo 3 is really the only argument to have here.

The others don't do anything to excel in one particular area (aside from ODST but it's a bit too wishy washy in places).

But I fall on the Halo 3 line.

Its combat design and set ups are amazing and the best in the series. The Covenant is my favorite level in the series and a lot of it has to do with how amazing the fight set ups are (see: 2 Scarabs).

Halo 1 has better level design, I'd say, but it doesn't have quite the amazing punch of Halo 3's combat moments.
 
The Brute Chieftain encounter in Crow's Nest on Legendary is one of the most fun and intense fights in any shooter campaign. I can't wait to play Halo 3's campaign with my friends again.
 
I know opinions and all, but it still blows my mind how some people place Halo 4's campaign above the others. Particularly in comparison to 1 and 3, 4 didn't add anything meaningful to the established sandbox and didn't take advantage of what it did have in interesting ways. Felt very static.
 
I think the one thing that always bother me and hindered my enjoyment of halo 2 and halo 3 was that unlike the rest of the covenant, brute enemies were annoying and not fun at all to fight.
 
Come on man. They all are sweet. haha
Playing Destiny and thinking back to these games...THEY are so fkin good. EVERY Halo has its own unique flavor. But they all have those vehicles. That awesome co op experience. Playing them on this new collection will be awesome.
 
il Diavolo said:
I know opinions and all, but it still blows my mind how some people place Halo 4's campaign above the others. Particularly in comparison to 1 and 3, 4 didn't add anything meaningful to the established sandbox and didn't take advantage of what it did have in interesting ways. Felt very static.
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Unlike most people the sandbox levels were fun but I always enjoyed the more linear interior levels without vehicles. With that said Halo 4 is my favorite campaign behind Halo CE and that may be a good reason.
 
Reach probably has the tightest campaign of the lot, but ODST is my favorite. Halo 3 is all things to all people, though, and maybe the best to play with friends.
 
Betty said:
Halo 1 still has the best levels (Assault on the Control Room, The Silent Cartographer) and Cortana is a worse level than The Library, much, much worse.

Plus the story in 3 was dire, it wasn't that great in 1 either but the plot was designed around exploration and discovery so it worked from a gameplay perspective.

I prefer the Warthog run at the end of Halo 1 too, especially in co-op.



Puh-leaze. Cortana is given too much focus, the new enemies are awful and the repetitive 3 objective mission structure just kills the fun. It does have the best told story out of all of them though, even if the story is still lame.
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Bingo. It's why it's my favorite of them all. That story enhanced my enjoyment of the game proportionally. I also loved the new enemies, and even with the activate this, activate that aspect of some missions (which is a fair criticism) I still feel it was handled a hell of a lot better than major parts of Halo 3.

I'm also glad Cortana got focus; she deserved focus. The focus that was promised and expected of Halo 3 after the way Cortana and the Chief parted ways in Halo 2, but instead I felt they took the easy way out. Something bigger and more significant should have come from Cortana's time with the Gravemind, and it should have led to a far more interesting chain of events than what actually transpired. The 4 most emotional effective moments in all of Halo 3 involved... you guessed it, Cortana!

The beginning when she said how she chose the Chief, the moment when the Chief finally gets to Cortana, the moment when he was on the Elite ship and saw a recording of Cortana suffering, and finally the very end when the Chief said to Cortana "Wake me when you need me." All of Halo 3's best moments involve Cortana. It was very smart of 343i to focus on her.

JesseZao said:
Halo 3 was the weakest halo. Cod4 overshadowed it immediately.

CE best campaign
2 Best multiplayer
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I agree totally with this. I only play Halo games for the campaigns, and when a military shooter comes off as significantly more epic than the big finale in an epic trilogy that was hyped as the one that would "finish the fight," you simply don't expect that.
 
I'm looking forward to replaying Halo 3 later this year the jaggies were simply too much for me on the first playthrough. Very distracting.
 
Actually Reach is my favorite campaign. I even went so far as to beat the entire campaign LASO with 3 friends which took freakin forever. I feel like Reach took all the core design philosophies and gameplay mechanics of the series and polished them to perfection. I also enjoy fighting the Covenant a LOT more than Brutes or the Flood, so that's another part of it. And the DMR may have made me rage in MP, but somehow it felt right in the campaign.

CE a close 2nd because Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room.
 
Completely agree. Absolutely love halo 3. The middle of this game is flawless. Really felt like bungie knew exactly how to make the perfect shooter. Odst is good too but not as good.

Tsavo highway until cortana vaginal is without flaw and I did not lie.
 
I enjoyed Reach's campaign more. It's been so long since I've played either so I can't really quantify why though. I just remember enjoying the combat scenarios and set pieces and overall story and characters more.
 
legacyzero said:
Yep. And still the best Multiplayer, too.

Awesome set pieces as well.
halo-3-300_248606g.jpg
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This set piece was a huge let down after the initial reveal.

Combat Evolved and ODST are superior.
 
Y2Kev said:
Completely agree. Absolutely love halo 3. The middle of this game is flawless. Really felt like bungie knew exactly how to make the perfect shooter. Odst is good too but not as good.

Tsavo highway until cortana vaginal is without flaw and I did not lie.
Click to expand...

AMEN!
 
shinobi602 said:
Still Combat Evolved for me.
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I don't understand this. Combat Evolve was groundbreaking on so few moments, could it really make up for the entire rest of the campaign being ultra repetitive, copy pasted corridors, rooms and entire level you had to go through again at night ?
 
I think Halo 3 probably is the most polished Halo experience overall from SP perspective, but I'd still give the nod to CE as Halo 3 is in many ways simply a repeat of CE down to rushing around in a warthog in an exploding environment.

Narratively it didn't really oh anywhere or expand on anything much; a common flaw of third instalments wrapping up a story that end up repeating "the best bits" of what came before while racing to some sort of conclusion.

Also Silent cartographer and Assault on the control room are just too good. Plus I always love rolling thunder. Damn I'm going yo end up replaying CE again!
 
As someone who started playing Halo in high school when Combat Evolved came out, I actually think Reach's campaign was the best. I loved the set pieces, the character variety, armor abilities, the self contained story, and the ending.

Combat Evolved and Halo 3 are almost as good, though.
 
the vagina caves were terrible, and the only real misstep in that campaign.

but it was a real terrible misstep that remains the only thing i really remember of Halo 3.
 
Halo 3 is my all time favourite Halo campaign and Multiplayer. I'll enjoy it so much in the MCC.

I'll never understand people who are hating the Cortana level. Having a mission only dedictaed to the Flood is pretty cool. The level isn't really difficult either, it just takes a bit patience.
 
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