Now I've been a fan of Halo for the longest of days. And as I played through the franchise, I've always wanted to note their strengths and their weaknesses. I've played through all the campaigns and multiplayer modes of Halo, and here's how I think I'd rank them.
So to start off, we'll go with the campaign. Now in my opinion, campaigns aren't really a strong suit of Halo (with the exception of CE). Ever since Halo 2, they've been a mixed bag. Now the best I'd say would have to go to Reach. Now the story of Reach really was its strong suit. I loved following Noble 6 through Reach as its destroyed by the covenant, and eventually seeing it all come to an end. The gameplay was good, though playing against hunters was a pain in the ass. It also had in my opinion the most open level design since CE. So Halo Reach was the best campaign for me. Halo 3 comes in just behind it, with a solid end to the story, and some genuinely shocking and sad moments (like how nearly all the characters die). The gameplay was also solid, and we saw the return of the assault riffle for godsakes! I can't believe Bungie gutted it from Halo 2. Overall another solid Halo game. Halo CE comes in behind Halo 3. Now while I thought the level design for the first 1/2 of the game was superb, and while the gameplay has aged fairly well, and its also the only stoy that doesn't have any significant plot holes. But the second 1/2 of the game felt so repetitive. We often played through the same levels again and again, and the goddamn library! Had the second 1/2 been better designed, I think it could've been the best campaign. But ultimately thats what holds it back. After Halo CE comes Halo 4. Now the only reason this is the 4th best is because Halo 2 and 5 are both fuck ups, though I'll get to that in a moment. Gameplay was ok, though it didn't feel special. Level design was linear, but it wasn't as bad as Halo 2 as far as I remember. Story was actually really deep, but its confusing as hell! I didn't who I was fighting, I didn't know who this didact was; hell, I thought I was fighting actual forunners (maybe I was)! It was hard to understand, and I wish 343 did better presenting it to the player. I also wish we saw more characters. The only new characters I remember were the didact and Lasky. Could've been so much better, but its still far from the worst. Now time for the two worst, Halo 2 and 5. Now I'd say both tie in this, and I'll explain why. Now lets start with Halo 2. Now I'll start with the good of it, since why not. Now we had so many memorable characters from Halo 2. Avery Johnson, Terrence Hood, Miranda Keyes. All of them are memorable, and they felt significant to the story! I also thought dual-welding was an excellent addition to the game, and while I wish we could through grenades and melee, I guess its a trade-off for balancing. And thats about it. Now the gameplay wasn't good, but removing the assault riffle from the game was a terrible choice! I mean why did it even need to happen in the first place? Seemed like a stupid choice, but I guess bungie wanted something new. The SMG (which replaced the assault riffle) was essentially useless if you weren't dual-welding, meaning you either had to have a crappy weapon, or not be able to user grenades and melees. I instead opted to always use the BR, which I thought was actually a good addition to the game. Next, the arbiter missions. Now this had so much potential, I mean imagine fighting against marines and spartans in a two way battle that eventually lead to a clash between the master chief and the arbiter. Nope! Instead they were show cases that made you kill flood enemies. And then the gravemind suddenly being able to convince the arbiter that his ways are wrong, and that humanity is right? Considering how long the covenant have indocrinated themselves to believe in their "great journey", I just think it was a cheap way of pushing along the story. But the worst two things from this game, its EXTREMELY linear level design, and an awful cliffhanger ending(kind of ironic 343 would do the same for their second game). Now I've already been ranting for awhile, and frankly I've been spending almost 20 minutes writing this, so now until Halo 5. Now why exactly they didn't learn from the mistakes of Halo 4, I'll never know! The story is confusing as ever! It doesn't explain well whats going on, we don't know who osiris team is, and they also gutted blue team! Now I liked that they added 3 other characters to play with, at least they did that right! Oh wait, we have no splitscreen! Now I'll admit this isn't as bad for me as some, as I rarely ever played it. But such a stupid decision for 343 to make. And then a cliffhanger ending... WTF! Did they seriously think that people would be happy if we were baited against just like with Halo 2? NO! The only redeeming qualities are that we have the reintroduction of the arbiter, addition of squad-based gameplay, and somewhat better level design from Halo 4. It disappointed, and its shocking especially considering Halo 4's campaign wasn't bad.
So overall, the ranking of the campaigns goes like this for me:
Halo Reach
Halo 3
Halo CE
Halo 4
Halo 2 and Halo 5 (tied)
Now its time for the multiplayer. Now I know I've already gone on long enough, so I'll try and make this quick. Starting at the top, Halo 3 and Halo 5. Now I think both of these can tie, as both have excellent gameplay, but also some advantages that put it above the rest. Halo 3 had excellent BTB gameplay, and I'd just spend countless hours in it. Its slayer gameplay was also excellent, and I was happy to see we had more weapons than ever. Onto Halo 5, we have extremely ballanced and excellent arena gameplay. The addition of Warzone also seems to be the biggest addition to multiplayer to Halo since Halo 2. So overall both of those tie. Up next is Halo 2. Now Halo 2 is what essentially CREATED the multiplayer FPS genre to consoles. Now I will admit I haven't spent lots of time on its multiplayer, but its quite solid and lots of fun to play even today. Then we're onto Halo CE. Now I know you could only use LAN on Halo CE, but it was still a hell load of fun. Obviously its quite outdated since you can't play with people around the world, but it was a lot of fun! You can play on the MCC (which I recently did), and it can be enjoyable especially due to its simplistic gameplay. Following Halo CE is Halo Reach. Now Reach really was a big downgrade from Halo 3, simply because it was extremely unballanced! Adding armour abilities such as jackpacking and the infamous armour lock essentially destoryed Halo's place in competitive gaming, but it also left a bad taste for many people. The gameplay instead wasn't 1/2 bad, but a bad bad mistake from Bungie indeed. Now for the worst multiplayer, Halo 4. Its kind of strange seeing 343 go from the worst to best in terms of multiplayer, while seeing the campaign go in the opposite direction. But anyway Halo 4 was garbage in its multiplayer sense. It kept many of the armour abilities, while also adding weapon classes! Any sort of ballance the game had is out the window! It was terrible, and it was no wonder that its population dropped like a rock. Its good to see 343 learning from this experience and making Halo 5 a lot better.
Multiplayer ranking:
Halo 3 and Halo 5 (tie)
Halo 2
Halo CE
Halo Reach
Halo 4
Overall, combining these two, the best Halo games in order (in my opinion) are:
Halo 3
Halo CE
Halo 2
Halo Reach and Halo 5 (tie)
Halo 4
How would you rank the Halo games? List it below (or vote in the poll).
Made a bet with LipeJJ and HylianYoshi that the XB1 will reach 30 million before Wii U reaches 15 million. Loser has to get avatar picked by winner for 6 months (or if I lose, either 6 months avatar control for both Lipe and Hylian, or my patrick avatar comes back forever).
