Halo 2, a legendary design flaw. (WARNING: Contains spoilers)

Liver-Lips

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

i've played through Halo2 on heroic and recently have started it again in Legendary and suprisingly have been flying through it. right now im coming to the end of the library level where you play as the covenant dude.
i was a big fan of legendary in the first game and feel that this is the only way to truly enjoy the Halo series because the AI is turned up a knotch and makes such a satisfying challenge.

however, i was dreading having to trudge throught the flood levels again mostly because i dont appreciate the step down half way through a game from revolutionary AI to sub-doom level spawning mindless drones and think it was a bad design decision to leave them in the 2nd game.
but to my suprise, its actually possible to run through huge swaths of the game if you find yourself a ghost or spectre. you can litterally just fly past all the action without dying, or if you do just keep trying different routes etc.
especially on the flood levels, even on foot, just turn invisible when you enter an area and run through it.

one the one hand it allows me to get the flood bits over with and then i can concentrate on the more enjoyable covenants, but is it a design flaw? does it negate the challenge of legendary? or does it give the player a choice of where to concentrate his efforts and ultimately reap the rewards that he/she desires?
i'de like to hear some views.

Len_007

From my memory of legging it past the flood, it was only a success when they themselves were knocking off the covenant. So I just let the two of them at it. Design flaw?

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

steviec

Is that really so bad? I haven't had a chance to play Halo 2 yet(bought it yesterday) but having the option of trying to escape particularly frantic battles by vehicle doensn't sound like a bad idea. If you want to fight you still can. I haven't played the levels yet though so could be wrong.

HyPeR ViPeR

I definitely reckon in Legendary,the game should be next to impossible tocomplete,and only the hardcore players and fans should be able to persevere to get through. This wouldinclude fixing the prob lem with the "vehicle cheat" being able to fly past all danger.

I reckon in the instances where it is possible to do that, thereshould be legions of flood in vehicles after you,or hordes waiting to jump onto the vehicle and punt you out of it.

As far as the Covenant figting theFlood is concerned, no matter how long you wait for them to 'duke it out',there should always be some left to lop yer head off with a plasma blade,or some other such gruesome method of execution.

But .. on the other hand,letting one side blow the ***t out of the other is always a perfectly excusable tactic in other FPS's,so why should that not be the same here also?

HyPeR ViPeR

steviec wrote:

Is that really so bad? I haven't had a chance to play Halo 2 yet(bought it yesterday) but having the option of trying to escape particularly frantic battles by vehicle doensn't sound like a bad idea. If you want to fight you still can. I haven't played the levels yet though so could be wrong.

It might be perfectly fine to fly past the enemy on the easy,normal and heroic levels, but I believe the point is that when you getto Legendary,you want a challenge,not an escape route

ShiverinEskimo

I found that there was usually one bollox with a heavy weapon ready to end my pussy-run through the middle of it..

Liver-Lips

your right, there is usually one bollox with a rocket launcher ready to blow you away but through trial and error i have found routes through almost all the big battles.
trying one route and if it doesn't work then maybe pausing behind a wall for a second or two more, then proceeding and the rocket misses you etc...

with regards to the overall difficulty, make no mystake, legendary is ROCK hard and i dont think anyone but the most competent gamer will be able to proceed through the game on that setting. due, in no small way, to the inclusion of a few very ingenius constriction points in each level that litterally throw everything the game has at you and theres no way to move on without working through them.
the battles are indeed extremely hectic and it always feels like escaping by a hairs length but the fact remains that it is possible to get through large parts of the game without too much effort.

personally i think its great because it allows you to choose your battles and again, makes for a more flexible and open gaming experience.

evad_lhorg

Len_007 wrote:

From my memory of legging it past the flood, it was only a success when they themselves were knocking off the covenant. So I just let the two of them at it. Design flaw?

sure cortana even mentions somethin about them and to let them kill each other cause it will keep them off your back.

Hydrosylator

Esign flaw? Nah, more like an easy escape for sissies. I mean really, what's the point in buying a shooter if you're not going to hunt down and kill every last lifeform available? (at the end of a long day, marines included). I think it's nice for people to have that option though. For me, the most annoying part with regard to vehicles is when I hopped out of the warthog in the car tunnel on earth, and one of the bloody marines hops in my seat and drives off, leaving me to fall asleep with the analog stick pushed forward.

As for the inclusion of the flood, they seemed a little "smarter" this time around, or so I thought, but I did think that it was a bit too much like Halo sometimes because of it. But I have to admit, in the level where you meet the Flood for the first (second?) time in the game, before you even know you're going to meet them, seeing tose tiny baby squid thingies in the water was a stroke of genius.