All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Bungie developed? Sure. Bungie Published?

Not so much

Do you count Abuse as developed? Just curious.

No. Bungie really only published Abuse.

They did improve it, apparently.

It's been a while… I did ask Dave Taylor about it years ago. I should go through that interview again.

All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Bungie developed? Sure. Bungie Published?

Not so much

Do you count Abuse as developed? Just curious.

No. Bungie really only published Abuse.

They did improve it, apparently.

I always found the dual scarab encounter to have some tight design despite its size. I'm always worried about danger.

And this?

It also has a sloppy setup, with things like the impact sites being super-obviously drawn onto the dirt and snow even before the scarabs land. Furthermore, while it's not the only spot that the game has a pelican awkwardly drifting around doing nothing, it's staged in a way that makes these sorts of things stick out. It's very much a "how the sausage is made" kind of encounter.

Eh. None of this really matters.

One, it's sort of sloppy. There's too much stuff simultaneously interacting with everything else to have any kind of tight encounter design.
It manages to incorporate a fair amount of real decision-making*, but the mechanics around most of this feel a bit cheesy and forced.

Two, it's got staging issues.
It suffers from the common Halo 3 problem of how to combine the land war with the space war. Two scarabs is a lot bigger than a standard squad of Covenant, but when it's being posed as the last stand of the Covenant fleet, it's kind of "that's it?"
It also has a sloppy setup, with things like the impact sites being super-obviously drawn onto the dirt and snow even before the scarabs land. Furthermore, while it's not the only spot that the game has a pelican awkwardly drifting around doing nothing, it's staged in a way that makes these sorts of things stick out. It's very much a "how the sausage is made" kind of encounter.

*Like, if you grab the hornet, choosing how aggressively to try and preserve the aircraft for tackling the second scarab.

Halo 3 is still the best Halo game, and I honestly don’t even think it’s close.

It's up there.

If I were to rank the games by how easy it would be to argue that the encounter design is the best in the series, Halo 3 would definitely top my list.
It's also very clear that a lot of impressive effort was made tuning the sandbox.

However, I think a lot of that effort happened farther downstream in the design pipeline than it should have, and the solutions couldn't always be perfect. It also grapples with baggage carried from Halo 2, particularly how to deal with regenerating health. (The benefits that ODST had from going back to non-regenerating health are a big part of why I hold it in similar overall regard to Halo 3, even though I think that Halo 3 has largely superior level design.)

I still regard CE as being a step above Halo 3: it's not as impressive in areas like encounter design, but I think the elegant underlying mechanics preclude it from needing to be.

All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Bungie developed? Sure. Bungie Published?

Not so much

Do you count Abuse as developed? Just curious.

No. Bungie really only published Abuse.

All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Bungie developed? Sure. Bungie Published?

Not so much

Do you count Abuse as developed? Just curious.

All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Bungie developed? Sure. Bungie Published?

Not so much

All of the games that Bungie developed have their own high points and advantages over one another, but it's amazing how well they've all withstood the test of time.

Eh each halo has a special place in my heart for a variety of reasons.

https://old.reddit.com/r/YourJokeButWorse/

Cringe.

I was going to make those links to my critique and your fix, but I can't find them right now.

Halo 4 might have been the best 343 Halo but it was not great by any means.

It has several memorable set-pieces, including but not limited to:

1. The Mammoth section.
2. The Mantis section.
3. The first appearance of the Prometheans. (Technically a QTE, but memorable)
4. The space section in the final mission.

This is more than you can say for Halo 5 or Halo Infinite.

You may have a point about set pieces but I've yet to finish Halo Infinite. Of the 343 games, the latter comes closest to capturing the Bungie gameplay feel, IMHO.

Infinite feels incredible moment to moment, it’s just fucking boring otherwise. They traded away too much in favor of a bland open world with nothing to do. There’s no Scarab fights, no good tank moments, hell there’s not even a good Warthog section. They left behind actual set pieces in favor of a bunch of random little things scattered around the map that aren’t actually all that fun to engage with.

Infinite’s gameplay with a linear campaign in well designed levels and interesting encounters would be incredible, but unfortunately that’s not what we ended up with.

Have you tried any of the remakes in Halo Infinite. Silent Cartographer was pretty good.

It has several memorable set-pieces, including but not limited to:

1. The Mammoth section.
2. The Mantis section.
3. The first appearance of the Prometheans. (Technically a QTE, but memorable)
4. The space section in the final mission.

This is more than you can say for Halo 5 or Halo Infinite.

You may have a point about set pieces but I've yet to finish Halo Infinite. Of the 343 games, the latter comes closest to capturing the Bungie gameplay feel, IMHO.

Infinite feels incredible moment to moment, it’s just fucking boring otherwise. They traded away too much in favor of a bland open world with nothing to do. There’s no Scarab fights, no good tank moments, hell there’s not even a good Warthog section. They left behind actual set pieces in favor of a bunch of random little things scattered around the map that aren’t actually all that fun to engage with.

Infinite’s gameplay with a linear campaign in well designed levels and interesting encounters would be incredible, but unfortunately that’s not what we ended up with.

It has several memorable set-pieces, including but not limited to:

1. The Mammoth section.
2. The Mantis section.
3. The first appearance of the Prometheans. (Technically a QTE, but memorable)
4. The space section in the final mission.

This is more than you can say for Halo 5 or Halo Infinite.

You may have a point about set pieces but I've yet to finish Halo Infinite. Of the 343 games, the latter comes closest to capturing the Bungie gameplay feel, IMHO.