First some context for what my perspective on Halo is: I'm someone that was introduced to Halo on a pre-owned cheap computer that came bundled with the old Gearbox port of CE, despite the issues with that port I milked it for as much as I could throughout my childhood.

As for Halo 2, when I got my hands on the PC port for Vista from 2007, it was really broken and hard to run even on just Windows 7, Games for Windows Live and all. This prevented me from replaying the game as I just didn't feel like it, and when I later did the game simply didn't want to run.

So I spent a lot of time following the development of Halo games and other media but it was never enough to make me consider the Xbox as an option just for one series, and by the time MCC came to PC I had already lost a lot of interest. Recently though I bit the bullet and got MCC, so after revisiting CE I decided to play 2 again to get it fresh on my mind, as CE is something that I played so much but 2 was always a bit off to the side for me.

I had forgotten most of the game and now I know why. But first impressions are great in some ways: the story is much better presented, characters get more developed and the conflict actually feels grand, this is especially true with the Anniversary cutscenes. I was never really a fan of this game visually, the classic graphics are very held back by their hardware and the anniversary graphics are great and have a lot of work into them, but don't feel like the same game exactly, as well as replacing some music tracks with new ones that don't fit the game at all and shocked me when I heard them, and in general butchering (imo) the sound design in favor of something closer to Halo 4 and 5. Still, I decided to play through with the Anniversary edition for the most part, for the sake of something new.

Biggest technical improvement compared to CE, perhaps, is the level design. More linear, but still grand in scale and does a good job of leading you into what feels like a journey. We get some extra weapons and enemy variety with the introduction of Brutes and more Elite variants, although we lose the classic assault rifle in the process, fine though.

But something holds back this game for me, and it's the balancing. A lot of weapons flat out feel useless, especially covenant weapons like the plasma pistol and blue plasma rifle. Enemies feel tanky from normal difficulty upward no matter what, and your health pool is so low. Regardless of difficulty, there will be many situations where enemies can take you out in a blink and you can't do anything about it unless you play extremely carefully.

Eventually, levels fill up with annoying enemies like Brutes and Hunters, so despite the level itself being fairly straightforward in concept, the weapon and enemy balancing make the final stretch of the game a pain. I understand that it is due to the troubled development which forced Bungie to crunch and rush, but sadly knowing that doesn't solve the issue, this game really needed a delay for polish.

Final thing I'll touch on: the story. As I already said it's presented way better and is much more developed, establishing a lot of the lore and character the series would get. Only problem is that it ends midway, and the rest is found in Halo 3. Learning of this back then made me quite upset, and it still stings although way less because 3 is already out, but I still consider this a big negative when the narrative is so enthralling and, at the time, it forced you to wait 3 years and buy a new console to see through to the end.

Overall I appreciate this game's vision and what it did for the series, but the balancing needs serious work and it holds it back from being better than CE in my eyes, although nostalgia may be playing some part in this. I wish I could like this more, but I still consider it a great play, if anything just to see how the game evolves over CE and sets up greater things to come, as upsetting as it was back then.

Trailblazing, such a jump from Halo CE, Bungie outdid themselves, milestone for storytelling in action games and so on and so forth. Anyway.

This game is fucked up on legendary. Anybody that thinks Halo CE is bad on legendary, no. Fuck no. Halo CE on legendary is like a walk in the park. Halo 3 Legendary and onward is like playing modern triple A games on easy by comparison. What the fuck were they thinking. Here is one of the most influential shooters since Doom, also we are about to tear your ass up like confetti.

I was going to write an actual review, like for the other games, but I have tunnel vision on this one. No joke, legendary turns Halo 2 into a puzzle game, in which you need to solve every encounter with the correct mix of strategy and luck. Sometimes this can be really fun and rewarding. Then there's Gravemind.

I don't want to complain too much. This game was barely crunched out the door, knowing this it's almost insane how good the game is. These building blocks would later form the greatest highest difficulty setting in video gaming, next to Dante Must Die.

Give it a go, I can wholeheartedly recommend the anniversary edition. It looks and plays great, some visual clarity is lost, but overall I'd call it an upgrade.

Evolução natural que se espera de uma sequência em relação a gameplay, com pequenos ajustes e adições.

A história aqui também é bem mais interessante devido a adição de um certo personagem. O level design recebeu um baita upgrade, nada de sensação de andar em círculos igual ao primeiro jogo.

Ah, e as cutscenes refeitas são sacanagem, é de cair o queixo de tão bonito.

O que resta? "Finalizar esta luta"

Played on the Master Chief Collection.

I beat this game a couple of years back. Playing this again, straight after beating the first one, I struggled. I didn't like using the covenant weapons, and playing as the arbiter, as always is not what I want to do. I want to be Master Chief, dammit.

Anyways, I struggled on quite a few of the levels. And when the achievement at the end popped up for beating it on normal or above, I realise I must've played it on easy last time. Which is fine by me as enjoyed it a whole lot more.

Weapon placement in this is dogshit, and being forced to shed your weapon every time you finish a level, despite picking up where you left off, was infuriating at times.

Something felt off about this one, following directly from the first game. I'd always preferred 2 over 1, but this time around, I wasn't feeling it anywhere near as much. Probably the weapons. Just give me a shotgun and a sniper rifle. That's all I ask for.

Anyway. Onto Halo 3 next. Onwards and upwards.

Halo 2 is a great game, that really builds on the best parts of Halo CE. Better story/writing, new features (dual wielding, playable elite, boss fights, etc). One thing that I would consider a negative (but not really), was that the Arbiter missions, in my opinion, were so much more fun than the Master Chief missions. The story and lore had more depth and the ability to use invisibility was much more fun than the MC's flashlight. Overall, this has been my favorite Halo game so far (H2A, Reach, HCEA)

(Played through MCC; New Graphics)
I love this game. Loved it back when I first played it many years back, and love it even more playing it now (partially because I don't suck at this game as much anymore). It's got some annoying parts at points (namely the escort part at the end from how many enemies you have to fight and I feel some of the levels being a bit too easy to get lost in), but otherwise it's great, and improves on Halo 1 in many many ways.
The story is better and deeper (also introduced best boi Thel/Arbiter)
The gameplay is improved, adding things like two playable protagonists, dual wielding, stealing and attacking enemy vehicles directly, and teammates being able to drive vehicles (though they're not very good at it), and removing stuff like the health system (in favor of just a faster recharging shield) and fall damage.
The music is great (not to say 1's is bad, though (little unmemorable to me but I digress))
The graphics (both OG and Anniversary) look great (though the latter does still kinda suffer from some levels being made too bright, ruining the point of the flashlight, and weird changes like Arbiter's last two levels not being as cloudy)

This is a great one, definite recommendation (just not on Legendary because I hear this game is like unfun hard on that difficulty)

Tomando como referencia lo dicho anteriormente respecto a la primera versión, esta segunda versión tiene puntos que mejora al primero, pero otros que lo empeoran bastante más, teniendo estos más relación con lo que supongo que es la optimización del remaster.

Empezaré con los puntos negativos, y es que venir de un juego donde está todo perfectamente doblado a un buen español, pasar a un juego que está todo en completo inglés excepto algunos subtítulos en español, es toda una bajona. Cuando estás en misión, las conversaciones están únicamente en inglés, ni si quiera subtitulado (aún poniendo dicha opción, no hay subtítulos ni en inglés). Por otro lado, tiene caídas de FPS. No entiendo el porqué, pero no es un juego exigente como para que ocurra. Al punto que me llegó a crashear en una ocasión.

Respecto a los aspectos positivos, resulta que mejora en todo a la primera parte. Aquí tenemos una historia mucho más rica, controlando a dos personajes y viendo como sus tramas se intercalan. Se expande mucho más el mundo y la información que obtenemos del entorno. Los secundarios también tienen más carisma, siendo más relevantes que los dos contados que hay en el primer Halo. Yo que vine por esto, me quedé bastante más satisfecho. Además, el final se queda bastante sabrosón, típico de telenovela que te deja ahí con el la miel en los labios justo en el final.

Del gameplay está también bastante más mejorado: más armas, más enemigos, maneras de afrontar cada situación con mejoras y nuevas habilidades, repite muuucho menos el tema de ir-venir por los sitios o escenarios reciclados... En conclusión, es una mejora en todos los aspectos jugables.

Como experiencia me parece más completa esta segunda parte, me ha dejado con mejor sabor de boca si no fuera por los problemas técnicos que en mi opinión, empañan demasiado el producto final. Este juego con su merecido doblaje (o como mínimo subtítulos en las conversaciones en misiones y no únicamente en las escenas) y sin caídas de frames, habría estado un puntito por encima del primero. Aún así le cascaría un 7 también.