Halo Best Halo Game

[Tedium]

Here's a generic topic of discussion, but one I remain curious about. Which Halo game, in your opinion, was the best? Simple question, but one I'm sure you have strong opinions about

For me, ODST was the game which I enjoyed the most, by far. It didn't have its own multiplayer, but its offer of every single map pack wasn't one to overlook, especially if you're as late to the game as I was. My first view of the campaign was awe-inspiring, dripping with so much atmosphere that I was throwing it back up later that night. And the firefight. The firefight! I cannot explain how much I enjoyed that game mode, be it on my own or with my friends, tackling the Endure achievement for the nth time. So it's no wonder that Halo 3: ODST was the first game which I got all the achievements for. I'm not saying it was definitely the best - I'm just saying it was the game I enjoyed the most. Ahhhhh...

Now you do one!

 

[Titmar]

I was going to say H2 at first...
but H3's introduction of Forge and multiple years of Forge and custom games with the community pushes it up onto the top tier for me.

 

[Skyward Shoe]

Hard for me to say as accurately, as I came in late to Halo 3.

Campaign (Gameplay): Halo 3

Halo 3 had an amazing campaign. It was extremely varied and had no missions I had to slug through like Halo 1 and 2 did (and maybe 4.) Fighting Scarabs was also the best thing ever. Reach comes really close for me, but I think Halo 3 just tops it.

Over-arching Story: Halo 4

I felt that the one thing Halo 4 got absolutely right was the story. To keep spoilers to a min for anyone who somehow hasn't bought the game yet, Cortana really comes to life in this one, and her interactions with the chief are much more meaningful and well paced than in previous games. There are a few screwy characters like Del Rio, but fuck that guy anyway. Plus with Spartan Ops and other in game storyline connections (War Games, seeing where things take place in the infinity) Halo 4 wins this one.

Multiplayer: Halo 3

I didn't have Live for Halo 2, so that has to be cut out of the equation. Reach's Matchmaking sucked, plain and simple. Halo 4 I think had the potential to be the best ever based on the sandbox, but so many stupid things were done that it did not reach that level. So I have to go with Halo 3. It had an amazing map selection, an expanded and exciting sandbox, and it was overall very polished and gave a lot of choice. But damn, if they had just changed some things about Halo 4's... I think it could blow it out of the water. Maybe they'll do the same thing for Halo 5 and just polish the shit out of the current setup to make it perfect.

Customization: Halo: Reach

Halo 3 may have had slightly better game type options, and Halo 4's forge may have been slightly improved, but Reach had the best combination of Forge and custom game options. With how good the new forge was in comparison to 3, and all the great things that came from twisting (or just making good maps for) certain game types, Reach was the king of customization for me.
Edit: Halo 4 might have had load outs, and tons of superficial customization, but this is what matters to me.

Overall: Halo 3

While forge and customs in general improved in Reach, and while some features of Halo 4 can be said to be better, Halo 3 has the most solid gameplay of the 3 with the least problems. It has a great campaign, a strong story, an amazing multiplayer suite, and it was the beginning of forge and had some great customs options. Reach is my second place winner, with 4 close after, but Halo 3 really had the most polish.

 

[Wakko45]

I was torn between Halo: CE and Halo 3. Both of them are the ones I had most fun in. Halo: CE I played on the PC for years and had a great time playing competitively in a clan. I loved the competitiveness of it, something I think has been getting less and less enjoyable with a smaller skill gap in every sequel. Halo 3 however still had a bit of a skill gap but more importantly introduced Forge which led me to meet all of you. This is the game where I would love to play hours of creative games on all the original maps, Foundry, Sandbox with you guys and I'd have a blast. Both were probably my favorite two games ever but I'm going to have to side with Halo: CE slightly because I miss playing competitively and actually having a lot of skill

EDIT: Didn't realize I could vote for more than one, doh!

 

[Vincent Torre]

I couldn't pick

Halo 1 was the most iconic

Halo 2 was the most fun multiplayer since there was literally no competition

Halo 3 was fun for multiplayer and an improvement over Halo 2 but the maps weren't as good

Halo: Reach had an amazing campaign but the multiplayer was lackluster, and the maps were even worse

Halo 4 is proving to be fun, the multiplayer is actually enjoyable and I can play the gametypes I want to. The maps are also pretty good. The campaign was also good

Halo: ODST had a great campaign and firefight was awesome

Halo Wars I never played but for a console RTS it looked impressive

 

[Titmar]

i still stand by my choice of Halo 3,
but after thinking about it a little more i just want to add that literally nothing beats the old school awesomeness of the Halo 1 lans i used to have in my basement back then. setting up multiple TVs and building a cushion fort so the other team couldnt screen-look... we had tons of fun with that shit. such a classic experience. added bonus of being able to hear the other team cursing you out on the other side of the fort was always hilarious.

 

[Skyward Shoe]

i still stand by my choice of Halo 3,
but after thinking about it a little more i just want to add that literally nothing beats the old school awesomeness of the Halo 1 lans i used to have in my basement back then. setting up multiple TVs and building a cushion fort so the other team couldnt screen-look... we had tons of fun with that shit. such a classic experience. added bonus of being able to hear the other team cursing you out on the other side of the fort was always hilarious.

It's things like this that make me sad I missed those days. I only played Halo 3 matchmaking for the first time after Reach was already out, so those days were long gone by the time I was in the loop. I can understand more why people have a soft spot for Halo 1 reading this, because just looking at the gameplay I could never understand how 1 could be better than 3 or even Reach.

 

[Insane54]

My favorite (and what got me REALLY into it in the first place) is Halo 3. I had played Halo 1 casually and I would play Halo 2 every now and again with a friend, but I wasn't so ingrained in regular playing until Halo 3. H3 had a lot of really great mechanics, with the BR as the kind of "central" pulling factor. Some great maps, some not, but practically every map was at least fun. I'm not sure if we'll ever see the kind of plodding gameplay that H2 and H3 offered, where aiming wasn't quite so easy and you couldn't dash around the map. H4 is fantastic, and running is an awesome mechanic, but I miss that "feel" that Halo 2/3 offered. It was all about positioning and aiming, hitting a headshot was a "BOOM HEADSHOT WOOOOOO" moment. The rewarding feeling you got from doing something badass was truly unmatched.

That said, I think the future of competitive Halo is with running and armor abilities, balanced properly it could add a lot to its competitive nature. I think one of the biggest things holding Halo back is how good it was in the past, actually -- Halo 4 is a great title (arguably one of the best of the year all around), and us fanboys complain. But of course we do, when we want that indescribable feeling that the old titles gave us. Some of that was just "from the time", and I'm sure we'll look back on games like H4 and say "man that game was great" in the future. 343i knows that people are watching and waiting for a title that's better than H2/3, and living up to those games is a heavy burden to think about. I'm expecting H5 (off of complete guessing) to be very different from H2/3, but I also expect it to be the best game in the Halo series.

 

[Skyward Shoe]

I'm expecting H5 (off of complete guessing) to be very different from H2/3, but I also expect it to be the best game in the Halo series.

I'm really hoping Halo 5 will be a realization of everything Halo 4 should have been. Now I love a lot of Halo 4, and I certainly enjoy playing multiplayer more than Reach, but it also has a lot of new things that weren't quite fitting or there were decisions made that could arguably use some tweaking, including in its map design. It seems to me that it had the potential to be the greatest of the series, but wasn't quite. My hopes for Halo 5 is that they recognize all of this and learn from it, sort of like I have heard described that Bungie did from Halo 2 to 3. Less about revolutionizing the formula and more about perfecting it. I see the problems with Halo 4, but I also see the potential, and I hope they can fully reach it in the next game.

In the meantime though, I do really enjoy the current game, even with the parts I don't like there.

 

[corduroyCHUCK]

yeah it's truly hard to cut nostalgia out of trying to pick one of these.

but i suppose it's good that i recognize nostalgia is the driving force in me picking Halo 2 as the best. Halo 3 gave me plenty of good long nights full of hard laughs, but 2 just had more for me. On top of that, h2 was like a fight club, since it was all irl friends i saw at school every day, and we'd never mention our retarded nights in person during the day. Matchmaking, drunken matchmaking, customs, glitch games, split screen halo parties on the weekend. god damn i'm sad now.

halo ce LAN parties ruled.
halo 2 was the most fun in every aspect for me.
halo 3 sucked because i sucked, until customs
halo reach brought customs to new heights
and halo 4 has just been fun all around so far. and i don't totally suck because i play against shanon too much.

shout out to odst for being pure art.

 

[Tedium]

And Halo Wars loves you too, random citizen!

 

[Berb]

It has to be Halo 3 for me. Halo 3 customs and matchmaking increased it's lifespan and replayability so much that I was still playing it just before Reach came out. Reach was, in all aspects, lacking for me especially when it came to the matchmaking maps and lack of originality in the story. ODST and Halo 2 tie for my favorite campaigns, and I didn't have live when H2 was in it's prime. As for Halo 4, meh so far.

 

[GatorLaid]

Halo 2 had the best multiplayer of the Halo games between the speed of the gameplay and the maps. Oh the Maps! Halo 4 might actually be playable if it shipped with anything playable. Not to mention that Halo 2 featured the Arbiter. As far as replay-ability goes, I don't think any come close to Halo Wars. The gameplay is super dynamic and you can switch it up to keep it fresh. Seems like there are always 5000 plus people online still.

 

[ArmdNinja547]

Without a doubt I would have to say I enjoyed Halo 3 ODST and Halo 3 the most. Halo 3 ODST was pure beauty and I really wish Bungie could make something similar to it in the future. It's soundtrack was really amazing, and by the way if you haven't already heard the soundtracks by Martin O'Donnell you should do so now because they too are amazing. Halo 3 was all around perfect. Soundtrack - great Multiplayer - amazing, Custom games - Best thing ever. We need to bring those classics back guys!

 

[Tedium]

Without a doubt I would have to say I enjoyed Halo 3 ODST and Halo 3 the most. Halo 3 ODST was pure beauty and I really wish Bungie could make something similar to it in the future. It's soundtrack was really amazing, and by the way if you haven't already heard the soundtracks by Martin O'Donnell you should do so now because they too are amazing. Halo 3 was all around perfect. Soundtrack - great Multiplayer - amazing, Custom games - Best thing ever. We need to bring those classics back guys!

I like the way this guy thinks. Ohdeeahstee!

 

[ChingChongChewy]

Halo 2..simply because of matchmakeing..for me at least it felt like a PURE & RAW shooter with nothing complicated...You had to actually be good to win..i even liked how creative the hacks were LOL...Christmas Themed Lockout ON Christmas eve day with flying turrents!

 

[BdawgWolf98]

I thoroughly enjoyed Halo 3 for all its aspects. The campaign was iconic and the introduction to forge. Multiplayer was enjoyable also. I loved the campaign for Reach! Multiplayer was very fun and forge was way better. Halo 4 is also iconic because its a new begining! Forge is better and multiplayer is alot of fun. Campaign was decent too. Those are the best I think!

 

[Hate]

has to be halo 2 and halo 3 for me,

Halo 2 because of the memories, and halo 3 because it was when I started getting into the seriousness of competitive gameplay and so were my friends, we attended a lan and constant custom games with british pros and semi's.. couple run ins with american pros too on matchmaking

 

[Fuzzle]

Halo 1 for the PC all the way. I'm still playing it from time to time, server list was recently shut down though

 

[GatorLaid]

Halo 2 was always my favourite, I just loved the Campaign, especially the introduction of the Arbiter.

Marry me.