This review contains spoilers
played on master chief collection, only reviewing campaign ~ damn man, a challenging one, bc it's hard to know which of my thoughts are purely valid, bc i unfortunately feel like i did halo 3 kinda dirty ): mainly at first, it brought me the realization of the co-op campaign curse. when i first played halo 1 campaign, i played with james bc i wasn't planning on starting/even loving halo, so co-op was the perfect way to begin, & it was at the time, it def helped ease into the game. i then went onto playing halo 2 campaign by myself & it was awesome, still my best halo experience & i got to rly immerse in the lore & game in general. after 2, i was so excited to go to 3 & "finish the fight" & originally i was gonna go right into it like the day after i beat 2. & mannn in retrospect i wish i did. if anything, it would've at least gave me a way more accurate read on how i felt.
but instead i made the decision to wait for james to come back to town so i could play it co-op with him, thinking it would be more fun... shittttt lol. by the time i got around to playing it, hella time had gone by, i had forgotten the key facts of where i left off in halo 2 & had lost the momentum of the plot in general. not to mention i had only played a halo solo campaign once at that point so i had finally just gotten used to rly playing the game but was not fully established in being comfortable in my halo playing abilities, so by the time i played 3 my skills were p gone again. when first starting it up, the graphical difference was huge & the game looked so beautiful, the jump from 2 was crazy. but before hopping in i was already v unprepared in both story & gameplay. & then comes the co-op campaign curse. james is just a halo veteran man. been playing forever & has beat these games hella times. it worked playing CE & having help introducing myself into the series, but now man i realized i'm just being cucked out of the full first-time experience lol. this man is killing hella more folks than me, running ahead to the next objective as i'm just trying to catch up, there was legit times where i'm dead waiting to respawn while watching him do some epic huge mission ending shit on his screen haha. i never got to fully adjust to the halo 3 gameplay/control differences until like the end of the game since i never had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes myself. & with things being beat for me & the game progressing even without me, the story just kept moving forward without me rly fully understanding what was even going on. obviously not wanting to be a dick & just stop the game i ended up finishing the whole game not playing well, & not fully knowing what was happening, but of course spoiling all the major plot points in an unfufilling way, & ending the game not feeling the best about it.
fast forward i decided to replay the series, partly to try to do 3 justice, but partly just bc i wanted to. aside from wanting to actually fully experience it, i had things i didn't think i liked that much about the halo 3 campaign that i wasn't sure if it was valid or if it was just bc i did the co-op thing. i never played the remastered for CE & 2 yet so i did that & i knew it would help me fully refresh on the story & gameplay so that i could be as prepped for 3 as possible & try to do it justice the second time thru, solo this time. & it did actually end up a lot better than i thought it would. long ass lead up to this but halo 3 campaign is still great yknow. the ending of the classic trilogy of course it's good. being able to actually learn the new features like the power ups was fun & the missions were all around fun & cool. i guess part of the thing is, it rly is just "finishing the fight". which in theory isn't a bad thing but it rly does kinda feel like one long extended mission. which coming from 2 where you're switching sides, constantly doing a new dynamic plot progression maybe it made the difference seem more harsh. crazy watching the dev commentary on halo 2 & all the shit they had to cut out tho bc it rly feels like if it was possible at the time, halo 2 could've just been like 3 more insane epic missions at the end & in theory you could've finished the fight then & made halo 2 like the best campaign of all time. but the "final fight" is stretched through a whole game which like i said is still cool & the missions were p great. but i kinda just wanted a lil more epic scale. i understand the hardware limitations at the time & i can't rly fault them but i guess i just wish in game at the very least was more covenant integration. which above all is my one biggest complaint about 3's campaign
man in 2 arbiter is half way the main character!! from playing half an entire game as him & ending the game on an arbiter mission, it just seems so unfortunate that in 3 he's reduced to a co-op player 2 skin, basically the 2nd clone master chief from halo CE co-op lol. it's so sick at times in theory that in co-op one person is chief & one person is arbiter it makes so much sense, but at other times it's like wait arbiter is supposed to be off doing other shit right now, this shit's not canon! this co-op arbiter is not the real arbiter! lol & then when the big war climaxes you get maybe a lil cutscene of marines & covenant trading some weapons, & of course covenant ships painted green flying with marine ships & i mean that shit was beautiful! i just wish there was more of it! even if arbiter wasn't a main focus anymore i would've absolutely loved to see more USMC/covenant alliance tie ins. it was like my favorite part about 2 having shit like johnson & arbiter team up so strongly to take out a common enemy. & again i understand there could be limitations of the time & they could only do so much in one campaign, but co-op curse & everything else aside, i think it's valid for me to wish that my fav charachter & his people that were sooo important in the previous game, were more represented in the big grand finale of the series.
but that's bout it tho man, sucks i did halo 3 kinda dirty, but it's still an amazing campaign forsure. even tho i semi-spoiled the glory of the hugest moment's in 3's story, playing it thru the second time & fully understanding what was happening, it was still epic af. the huge deaths were crazy & the team up with the temporary flood was so fuckin sick, even though it wasn't exactly how i'd wished, it still had a lot of iconic ass missions & story segments. if they would've just given arbiter & the covenant more shine i know i would've thought that shit was absolute perfection. & at the same time i know i'm only reviewing the campaigns for these games which doesn't even come close to giving the justice that the full games respectively deserve. when halo 3 came out i was like 9 just playin whatever lil games i could at the time bc i was a kid. def didn't have my own xbox or 360 with online. i wasn't consciously around an active prime halo era until reach & even then i still wasn't able to fully partake haha! campaign nit-picking aside of course i have all the respect in the world for this original trilogy & could only imagine how amazing it must've been to be active in this shit in it's prime & to play multiplayer & forge & all that shit with your friends & the world at the time. regardless halo is goated af & what a journey it's been with just these 3 games from being a dumb ass ignorant "alien shooter" hater just a few years back haha.
but instead i made the decision to wait for james to come back to town so i could play it co-op with him, thinking it would be more fun... shittttt lol. by the time i got around to playing it, hella time had gone by, i had forgotten the key facts of where i left off in halo 2 & had lost the momentum of the plot in general. not to mention i had only played a halo solo campaign once at that point so i had finally just gotten used to rly playing the game but was not fully established in being comfortable in my halo playing abilities, so by the time i played 3 my skills were p gone again. when first starting it up, the graphical difference was huge & the game looked so beautiful, the jump from 2 was crazy. but before hopping in i was already v unprepared in both story & gameplay. & then comes the co-op campaign curse. james is just a halo veteran man. been playing forever & has beat these games hella times. it worked playing CE & having help introducing myself into the series, but now man i realized i'm just being cucked out of the full first-time experience lol. this man is killing hella more folks than me, running ahead to the next objective as i'm just trying to catch up, there was legit times where i'm dead waiting to respawn while watching him do some epic huge mission ending shit on his screen haha. i never got to fully adjust to the halo 3 gameplay/control differences until like the end of the game since i never had the opportunity to learn from my mistakes myself. & with things being beat for me & the game progressing even without me, the story just kept moving forward without me rly fully understanding what was even going on. obviously not wanting to be a dick & just stop the game i ended up finishing the whole game not playing well, & not fully knowing what was happening, but of course spoiling all the major plot points in an unfufilling way, & ending the game not feeling the best about it.
fast forward i decided to replay the series, partly to try to do 3 justice, but partly just bc i wanted to. aside from wanting to actually fully experience it, i had things i didn't think i liked that much about the halo 3 campaign that i wasn't sure if it was valid or if it was just bc i did the co-op thing. i never played the remastered for CE & 2 yet so i did that & i knew it would help me fully refresh on the story & gameplay so that i could be as prepped for 3 as possible & try to do it justice the second time thru, solo this time. & it did actually end up a lot better than i thought it would. long ass lead up to this but halo 3 campaign is still great yknow. the ending of the classic trilogy of course it's good. being able to actually learn the new features like the power ups was fun & the missions were all around fun & cool. i guess part of the thing is, it rly is just "finishing the fight". which in theory isn't a bad thing but it rly does kinda feel like one long extended mission. which coming from 2 where you're switching sides, constantly doing a new dynamic plot progression maybe it made the difference seem more harsh. crazy watching the dev commentary on halo 2 & all the shit they had to cut out tho bc it rly feels like if it was possible at the time, halo 2 could've just been like 3 more insane epic missions at the end & in theory you could've finished the fight then & made halo 2 like the best campaign of all time. but the "final fight" is stretched through a whole game which like i said is still cool & the missions were p great. but i kinda just wanted a lil more epic scale. i understand the hardware limitations at the time & i can't rly fault them but i guess i just wish in game at the very least was more covenant integration. which above all is my one biggest complaint about 3's campaign
man in 2 arbiter is half way the main character!! from playing half an entire game as him & ending the game on an arbiter mission, it just seems so unfortunate that in 3 he's reduced to a co-op player 2 skin, basically the 2nd clone master chief from halo CE co-op lol. it's so sick at times in theory that in co-op one person is chief & one person is arbiter it makes so much sense, but at other times it's like wait arbiter is supposed to be off doing other shit right now, this shit's not canon! this co-op arbiter is not the real arbiter! lol & then when the big war climaxes you get maybe a lil cutscene of marines & covenant trading some weapons, & of course covenant ships painted green flying with marine ships & i mean that shit was beautiful! i just wish there was more of it! even if arbiter wasn't a main focus anymore i would've absolutely loved to see more USMC/covenant alliance tie ins. it was like my favorite part about 2 having shit like johnson & arbiter team up so strongly to take out a common enemy. & again i understand there could be limitations of the time & they could only do so much in one campaign, but co-op curse & everything else aside, i think it's valid for me to wish that my fav charachter & his people that were sooo important in the previous game, were more represented in the big grand finale of the series.
but that's bout it tho man, sucks i did halo 3 kinda dirty, but it's still an amazing campaign forsure. even tho i semi-spoiled the glory of the hugest moment's in 3's story, playing it thru the second time & fully understanding what was happening, it was still epic af. the huge deaths were crazy & the team up with the temporary flood was so fuckin sick, even though it wasn't exactly how i'd wished, it still had a lot of iconic ass missions & story segments. if they would've just given arbiter & the covenant more shine i know i would've thought that shit was absolute perfection. & at the same time i know i'm only reviewing the campaigns for these games which doesn't even come close to giving the justice that the full games respectively deserve. when halo 3 came out i was like 9 just playin whatever lil games i could at the time bc i was a kid. def didn't have my own xbox or 360 with online. i wasn't consciously around an active prime halo era until reach & even then i still wasn't able to fully partake haha! campaign nit-picking aside of course i have all the respect in the world for this original trilogy & could only imagine how amazing it must've been to be active in this shit in it's prime & to play multiplayer & forge & all that shit with your friends & the world at the time. regardless halo is goated af & what a journey it's been with just these 3 games from being a dumb ass ignorant "alien shooter" hater just a few years back haha.