Finished on Legendary, ask me anything (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, August 02, 2026, 17:16 (9 hours, 16 minutes ago) @ Cody Miller

Someone was nice enough to send me the game to get the cutscenes. But now it's time to unlink my made up MS Account, and either send the disc back, or send it to someone else who wants it.

It is not a faithful remake at all.

Legendary is completely different, and weapon balance is not the same at all. Legendary is comparable to Halo 2, as you are about as weak.

Every weapon has a longer delay before it become active after you swap.

The magnum has more magnetism, so you can n00b combo with the plasma pistol way easier.
The AR has half as many rounds, and can be used long range because you can zoom in with any weapon now.
Plasma Rifle no longer stunlocks and it sounds terrible, so its only use is on Sentinels.
Plasma Pistol is similar.
Needler feels like the Halo 2 version.
Shotgun range is nerfed, and audiovisual feedback is not as satisfying. Also mistakes like the MC cocking the shotgun after you place new shells in when there are still some inside (he should only cock after a shot, or after reloading from empty).
Rockets can lock on and track vehicles and turrets trivializing encounters.
You can use the Sword, SMG, Beam Rifle, Needle Rifle, and Sentinel Beam.
Sword Lunge is reduced significantly over Halo 2 (probably to prevent sword flying), and will 1 shot hunters to the back on Legendary.
The Sentinel beam is very good at killing elites.

The game breaks a lot of rules:

Sticking an elite no longer guarantees a kill. Red Elites can survive being stuck on Legendary.
Vehicle and passenger healthbars are not shown, even though the values are still used.
Carrier forms do not have physics when they explode, so the insanity of chain reactions flinging carrier forms everywhere no longer occurs.
Popcorn flood do not chain react beyond one extra pop anymore. As a result, they hang around longer and are harder to get rid of.
Knocking over a turret onto an enemy is no longer an instakill.
Powerups are activated by the player, not when you pick them up.
Flood can have shields, even the ones that are human form.
There are no health packs, and your heath fully recharges.
Covenant vehicles do not obey OG physics, and the warthog control scheme is awful unless you change it back to classic.
Magnum bullet magnetism is off, so good luck trying to hit a Jackal's hands from a distance. The shots will be pulled to the shield's center.

Tons of encounters are completely different because of the new sandbox. Too numerous to list.

Performance is terrible on PS5. The last three levels struggle during large Covenant / Flood battles. Instead of dropping the framerate, the game runs the animations at what look like 1/4 speed, so projectiles, and enemies stutter through the air. It looks horrendous. Foe Hammer's ship looks like it's teleporting during the Maw Run. It's not excusable that a 25 year old game can't run at 60fps on hardware 100s of times more powerful than the original target. Insanity.

Silent Cartographer and AotCR look very bad. Unstable visuals on reflections of forrunner floor and walls, and the snow effect in the bridges does not work at all.

Invisible walls everywhere where the OG had none. Numerous hand holdy audio lines added because they think we are stupid. Levels often redesigned, for instance making the armory necessary to go through in order to get to the engine room (and the engine doesn't have shutters anymore, so you don't have to time your grenade or rocket).

Cortana's voice acting is horrendous, and she sounds bored the whole time. I do not blame the actor, I blame whoever directed her.

It is not a campaign evolved. Sad this will be the way some people experience Halo for the first time, especially with regards to the story presentation.