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.
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.