Friends, citizens…whatever that other word was, I am pleased to announce that I, T-Man, have found the full experience of Halo!
What do I mean, you ask? Why, I've beaten both Halo: CE and Halo 3 by myself, of course! (I skipped Halo 2) Previously, I had cut through all three games with my cousin on co-op. Unfortunately, the co-op experience isn't as good as the single player experience. Fortunately, for the past two weeks, I've been working on Halo 1 and 3 again, and completed both campaigns by myself. My opinions have changed for both games; Halo 3 only slightly, but Halo 1 drastically.
For school, I've been reading Halo: Fall of Reach (Eric Nyland), and it's gradually been giving me a profound craving to play the games. So, one day, I got done with school (I'm home schooled), and played Halo. After going through the game on single player, I've finally realized how truly great the game is.
For starters: Holy Crap. Those two words, which I've never said for any other game at all. Holy Crap. The Halo games are the only games that deserve such a strong proclamation. One of the best things about Halo: CE is that it doesn't start out as slow as the other two games (Halo 2 and 3 don't necessarily start out "slowly," they just don't start out as excitingly as Halo 1). It puts you right in the fray. Almost immediately, you'll be showering Elites with pain or flipping Grunts over with headshots. Once that's done, you'll be looking for survivors of the crash on Halo, which seems much easier to me now.
In the next stage, you get a sniper rifle. The mother of all awesome weapons. You'll be picking off Grunts and Jackals from hiding, and it's so much fun. But by the time you're beamed aboard the Covenant ship in that stage, it'll probably be out of ammo.
To tell the truth, things don't really get hard until "Assault On The Control Room." THAT'S when things start getting REALLY tough, as hard as Heroic is on Halo 3 (I've started the campaign over on Heroic, and I'm not doing too well). Expect to die a lot from that point on, cause the stage you enter after that…serves as the introduction for the well-named Flood.
Too bad I've just spoiled a surprise for those of you who haven't played the game yet. I wasn't really that surprised, since I knew about the Flood before I even started playing Halo, and yet I could still admit that they are introduced in about the coolest way ever. It all starts with the Jenkins cutscene, during which Master Chief goes through the log of a marine he finds dead in a Covenant base. He fast forwards through his log, and at the end, he sees Flood feasting on people. Immediately after the cutscene ends, Flood start…flooding the room. The tiny ones aren't that hard…but soon the big ones start busting through the wall. Ominous, yet fast-paced and fitting music, starts playing as you try to destroy this new threat before it destroys you. From this point on, you'll learn to love the shotgun; melee doesn't do anything to the Flood, so you need a lot of firepower. After that stage, I faced a terribly degrading embarrassment: I had to play through the next stage on Easy. Thankfully, that was the only time I had to do that.
I've come to realize that Halo: CE isn't stupid hard…just hard. You'll be having a tough time throughout the final levels. Personally, I think that the Flood added an interesting new dimension for a game that wasn't even getting old in the first place. But don't think that the Covenant are gone just yet. They're back, too…and harder than ever. When it comes to Wraiths (their equivalent of a Scorpion), be afraid, be very afraid. Also, take note that you CANNOT ride them in this game, so don't go killing yourself trying to get in one.
Although CE is great, Halo 3 is better in every respect. Although the campaign is considerably shorter, co-op is better than ever. One of the reasons is that the story makes more sense with it; rather than playing with a clone of that stage's particular character, you play as the Arbiter if you're player 2. I've heard that that two other people can play, and they'll play as Elites. There is very little lag, and you can play co-op online now. Also, generally, vehicle interface has improved. Wraiths and Scorpions now have turrets for your friends to man. I know it was the case in Halo 2, as well, but most vehicles can boost. Did I mention that the Mongoose was super cool?
Then there's the multiplayer. Yeah, that's right. I've taken Halo online, and it. is. awesome. No more needs to be said.
So, there you have it. A second opinion on Halo 1 and Halo 3. Now, I would rate both of them a 5 out of 5. They're just so…awesome.
What do I mean, you ask? Why, I've beaten both Halo: CE and Halo 3 by myself, of course! (I skipped Halo 2) Previously, I had cut through all three games with my cousin on co-op. Unfortunately, the co-op experience isn't as good as the single player experience. Fortunately, for the past two weeks, I've been working on Halo 1 and 3 again, and completed both campaigns by myself. My opinions have changed for both games; Halo 3 only slightly, but Halo 1 drastically.
For school, I've been reading Halo: Fall of Reach (Eric Nyland), and it's gradually been giving me a profound craving to play the games. So, one day, I got done with school (I'm home schooled), and played Halo. After going through the game on single player, I've finally realized how truly great the game is.
For starters: Holy Crap. Those two words, which I've never said for any other game at all. Holy Crap. The Halo games are the only games that deserve such a strong proclamation. One of the best things about Halo: CE is that it doesn't start out as slow as the other two games (Halo 2 and 3 don't necessarily start out "slowly," they just don't start out as excitingly as Halo 1). It puts you right in the fray. Almost immediately, you'll be showering Elites with pain or flipping Grunts over with headshots. Once that's done, you'll be looking for survivors of the crash on Halo, which seems much easier to me now.
In the next stage, you get a sniper rifle. The mother of all awesome weapons. You'll be picking off Grunts and Jackals from hiding, and it's so much fun. But by the time you're beamed aboard the Covenant ship in that stage, it'll probably be out of ammo.
To tell the truth, things don't really get hard until "Assault On The Control Room." THAT'S when things start getting REALLY tough, as hard as Heroic is on Halo 3 (I've started the campaign over on Heroic, and I'm not doing too well). Expect to die a lot from that point on, cause the stage you enter after that…serves as the introduction for the well-named Flood.
Too bad I've just spoiled a surprise for those of you who haven't played the game yet. I wasn't really that surprised, since I knew about the Flood before I even started playing Halo, and yet I could still admit that they are introduced in about the coolest way ever. It all starts with the Jenkins cutscene, during which Master Chief goes through the log of a marine he finds dead in a Covenant base. He fast forwards through his log, and at the end, he sees Flood feasting on people. Immediately after the cutscene ends, Flood start…flooding the room. The tiny ones aren't that hard…but soon the big ones start busting through the wall. Ominous, yet fast-paced and fitting music, starts playing as you try to destroy this new threat before it destroys you. From this point on, you'll learn to love the shotgun; melee doesn't do anything to the Flood, so you need a lot of firepower. After that stage, I faced a terribly degrading embarrassment: I had to play through the next stage on Easy. Thankfully, that was the only time I had to do that.
I've come to realize that Halo: CE isn't stupid hard…just hard. You'll be having a tough time throughout the final levels. Personally, I think that the Flood added an interesting new dimension for a game that wasn't even getting old in the first place. But don't think that the Covenant are gone just yet. They're back, too…and harder than ever. When it comes to Wraiths (their equivalent of a Scorpion), be afraid, be very afraid. Also, take note that you CANNOT ride them in this game, so don't go killing yourself trying to get in one.
Although CE is great, Halo 3 is better in every respect. Although the campaign is considerably shorter, co-op is better than ever. One of the reasons is that the story makes more sense with it; rather than playing with a clone of that stage's particular character, you play as the Arbiter if you're player 2. I've heard that that two other people can play, and they'll play as Elites. There is very little lag, and you can play co-op online now. Also, generally, vehicle interface has improved. Wraiths and Scorpions now have turrets for your friends to man. I know it was the case in Halo 2, as well, but most vehicles can boost. Did I mention that the Mongoose was super cool?
Then there's the multiplayer. Yeah, that's right. I've taken Halo online, and it. is. awesome. No more needs to be said.
So, there you have it. A second opinion on Halo 1 and Halo 3. Now, I would rate both of them a 5 out of 5. They're just so…awesome.