Halo 3 on Legendary

[jro]

You all are QUITE right about this, all of it. I got Halo 3 at launch, just like everyone else on the planet that owns a 360. Started the campaign on normal, not really knowing any better... and promptly got bored out of my mind.

So, not really thinking much about it, not even meaning to do so, I pretty much just pushed H3 aside and played other stuff until I realized that I had played Halo maybe a total of two or three times in the month that it had been out. Not really desiring to play it any more than that, I traded it in when Gamestop had one of their "trade in x number of games for this much more credit" deals, and I only lost about a dollar on it (seriously, since my wife got a discount on it buying it for me at work and I got 40% extra on its still high trade value at the time at GS).

But, after reading this thread, and over time, I decided that I need to give it another shot (damn, that's been happening a lot, first Bullet Witch, now Halo 3), but on higher difficulty, so I picked up a used copy for $50 the other day. Since I'm no pro at the series, I set it to Heroic, rather than going the full Legendary monty, and I can definitely see a major difference in how it forces you to play like you actually have a brain in your head, rather than just charging straight ahead, guns blazing. Makes the game much more fun, far more rewarding and interesting to play.

Obviously, Legendary would be even more so, but I figured Heroic would be a good starting point since a lot of people say that's the sweet spot of fun but sharp AI.

So hell yes, thanks for making my dumb bunny ass see the light.

 

[Lastblade]

Normal difficulty is really boring. Heroic is at least what most gamers who have played any sort of FPS. Legendary is doable solo, except when you get to stage 8 or 9 (with that flood level). It is still doable just hard as heck.

H3 is good, but I enjoy a more tactical FPS like R6V.

 

[moonwhistle]

I thought Halo 3 on legendary was considerably more easy that the first 2 games. I was suprised at how easy it is to waltz right through. Not a single elite to fight against makes it a push over. The brutes are quite a cool design but they are far to easy to kill, even in packs.

Halo 1 has some really tough spots, and the 1st level of Halo 2 is ridiculously hard on legendary.

 

[Lagduf]

Even though I think Halo 2's campaign is mostly garbage, it was really fun to fight both elites and brutes.

 

[tsukaesugi]

Is that the level where you rescue Cortana? The one with all the flood? Because if so I agree.

And that level was only hard because those damned flood who could turn in to anything would keep turning in to those damned living turrets. I never did find a good way to beat those, except a good plasma throw and lots of bullets. Those turrets were so overpowered.

Yep, the Flood level was tough (the second hardest part of the game after Tsavo Highway IMO), and those turrets were a pain in the ass... but after awhile I discovered that all of the Flood just crumble when you whack them with the Brute Shot in melee attack. I'd shoot the turrets with just about anything, and then they'd fall off the wall, and I'd whack 'em.

I loved the Warthog escape at the end, that was fun on every difficulty, but Guilty Spark 323 had to be the easiest boss in the history of videogames, even on Legendary. Sheesh.

 

[Lagduf]

Yep, the Flood level was tough (the second hardest part of the game after Tsavo Highway IMO), and those turrets were a pain in the ass... but after awhile I discovered that all of the Flood just crumble when you whack them with the Brute Shot in melee attack. I'd shoot the turrets with just about anything, and then they'd fall off the wall, and I'd whack 'em.

I loved the Warthog escape at the end, that was fun on every difficulty, but Guilty Spark 323 had to be the easiest boss in the history of videogames, even on Legendary. Sheesh.

Yeah, that was hardly a real boss fight - and given that Halo doesn't really have boss fights I wasn't let down really.

I really liked the end driving sequence, it was really badass, and a great homage to Halo 1.

That Tsavo highway part is really hard, I think on Heroic I was able to move past it and get to the next sequence, but I beat it on Legendary.

How did I do it? I played it about 1000x times.

If you can kill the turret gunner it's not so bad (if you are so inclined to board the wraith to beat it down melee style).

My roomate also really struggled with that part too, as did I.

The damn wraith is like a sniper with that cannon though!

I also thought the part a section or two after that was difficult, where you basically have to fight those tanks on the Hill.

 

[Lagduf]

One more thing:

Halo 3 has absolutely terrible achievements, none that warrant any kind of replayability hardly at all.

Terrible MP achievements as well.

I really liked how CoD4 has decent achievements and those challenges which upped replay value considerably.

 

[tsukaesugi]

I really liked how CoD4 has decent achievements and those challenges which upped replay value considerably.

Yeah, Battlefield 2 had some good ones as well - getting them forced you to practice the different kits and skills until you were good enough to get the achievements.

 

[HeartlessNinny]

You all are QUITE right about this, all of it. I got Halo 3 at launch, just like everyone else on the planet that owns a 360. Started the campaign on normal, not really knowing any better... and promptly got bored out of my mind.

So, not really thinking much about it, not even meaning to do so, I pretty much just pushed H3 aside and played other stuff until I realized that I had played Halo maybe a total of two or three times in the month that it had been out. Not really desiring to play it any more than that, I traded it in when Gamestop had one of their "trade in x number of games for this much more credit" deals, and I only lost about a dollar on it (seriously, since my wife got a discount on it buying it for me at work and I got 40% extra on its still high trade value at the time at GS).

But, after reading this thread, and over time, I decided that I need to give it another shot (damn, that's been happening a lot, first Bullet Witch, now Halo 3), but on higher difficulty, so I picked up a used copy for $50 the other day. Since I'm no pro at the series, I set it to Heroic, rather than going the full Legendary monty, and I can definitely see a major difference in how it forces you to play like you actually have a brain in your head, rather than just charging straight ahead, guns blazing. Makes the game much more fun, far more rewarding and interesting to play.

Obviously, Legendary would be even more so, but I figured Heroic would be a good starting point since a lot of people say that's the sweet spot of fun but sharp AI.

So hell yes, thanks for making my dumb bunny ass see the light.

You should play co-op with me and my pals man. Doing that on Legendary is pretty cool.

 

[jro]

You should play co-op with me and my pals man. Doing that on Legendary is pretty cool.

I'll have to take you up on that, I'm sure that playing with 3 other people would pretty much kick all kinds of ass.

Do I just jump into whichever level you and your dudes are on, or do I drag you back into the level I'm on in my game? And how in the world does it work for Achievement points- put it this way, I guess- even though I'd love to get the achievement points for finishing on Legendary, it seems like I'd practically be cheating to jump into your game and get points for finishing with you.

 

[Nesagwa]

You can get all of the "Beat game on X difficulty" in online co-op. You can also get all the skulls and terminals (and the achievements that go with them) too. But it also has in your game stats what level you beat the game on in Single vs. Co-Op too, so theres that too.

The games host would pick the difficulty in the game lobby and everyone plays on the same level (but its pretty quick with 4 guys in Legendary)

 

[Lagduf]

You can get all of the "Beat game on X difficulty" in online co-op. You can also get all the skulls and terminals (and the achievements that go with them) too. But it also has in your game stats what level you beat the game on in Single vs. Co-Op too, so theres that too.

The games host would pick the difficulty in the game lobby and everyone plays on the same level (but its pretty quick with 4 guys in Legendary)

That is a cop out IMO, I hate retro-active difficulty achievements.

I prefer having to unlock difficulty levels, and playing them in order from Normal to the Hardest difficulty.

Halo 3 has terrible achievements though. None are really fun, and there are none you have to "work" to get, save the Legendary ones, you get way to many points for beating the game anyway.

The multiplayer achievements are also a joke. I wanted stuff like: get 10,000 headshots, get XX,XXX kills with weapons X, Y, and Z - you know cool stuff that will take awhile to get.

Instead it's lame shit like "get 5 sticks in a ranked game" - yeah, thats ok...but meh. The Overkill achievement isn't too bad, nor is the Laser double kill...meh.

The 4-player co-op is good times though.

 

[tsukaesugi]

I tried Tsavo Highway on Normal last night for the hell of it - it felt like I was fighting against department store mannequins. Holy hell, was that ever easy. I didn't even have to stay inside the bunker to snipe, I just ran amok at the base of the slope where all the Brutes show up. When the Wraith showed up I just boarded it.

If there's ever a Halo 4, they're going to have to ramp up the difficulty a bit.

Now I gotta try what Hentai Sama did and play Legendary again, but with all the Skulls turned on this time.

 

[Neo Geo MVS]

I never see the reason why someone would play ANY GAME on normal or easy after you beat the game technically you didn't beat it because it wasnt on the hardest setting

 

[Lagduf]

I never see the reason why someone would play ANY GAME on normal or easy after you beat the game technically you didn't beat it because it wasnt on the hardest setting

That doesn't make sense.

I'm all for variable difficulty levels.

The fact is, there are video game players of varying ability.

Since when did beating a game on the hardest difficulty equate to really "beating it.?

 

[jro]

I tried Tsavo Highway on Normal last night for the hell of it - it felt like I was fighting against department store mannequins. Holy hell, was that ever easy. I didn't even have to stay inside the bunker to snipe, I just ran amok at the base of the slope where all the Brutes show up. When the Wraith showed up I just boarded it.

If there's ever a Halo 4, they're going to have to ramp up the difficulty a bit.

Now I gotta try what Hentai Sama did and play Legendary again, but with all the Skulls turned on this time.

You know, I read one review that made a really interesting, and from what I could reason, very valid, point- it argued that there are lots (LOTS) of people out there who play Halo and only Halo. Or maybe Halo and Madden. Or maybe Halo and Madden and GTA, and that's it for the year. They show up at Best Buy once, or twice, maybe three times max to make their purchases, and they're most certainly not seasoned gamers.

And that's the audience that Bungee had to keep in mind when making the game, unfortunately, while still trying to also accomodate those dudes out there that have been playing an utter shitload of Halo from the very beginning and are fucking good at it. Thus the default difficulty is way too easy for the average gamer, really, due to the fact that a great many of the folks who fire up Halo are not, in fact, seasoned gamers. And Bungee didn't want to make those dudes yank the thing out of their 360s in anger... but thankfully, the Heroic and Legendary difficulty levels are still in there to allow better players to have a more enjoyable time with the game.

I'm sure I'm not good enough to get through Legendary by myself (though I'd certainly like to try after some practice with a foursome), but damn, what a difference it makes on Heroic. I went from cursing my purchase to kicking myself for being so stupid for not appreciating things sooner...

 

[tsukaesugi]

...And that's the audience that Bungee had to keep in mind when making the game, unfortunately, while still trying to also accomodate those dudes out there that have been playing an utter shitload of Halo from the very beginning and are fucking good at it. Thus the default difficulty is way too easy for the average gamer, really, due to the fact that a great many of the folks who fire up Halo are not, in fact, seasoned gamers...

Aha... good point. I hadn't thought about it that way.

I'm sure I'm not good enough to get through Legendary by myself (though I'd certainly like to try after some practice with a foursome)

I'm sure you could clear Legendary solo. Parts were very tough, but it certainly wasn't impossible. And I'm actually pretty lousy at Halo (in multiplayer anyway). I wasn't trying to brag in my above post, I just found that the Normal Mode was now pretty damn easy (for the reason you mentioned I guess).

Honestly, try melee-ing more. I found that the Brute Shot really puts the whomp on people no matter what the level of difficulty - and you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.

 

[jro]

Good stuff! I finally got to try out some Legendary co-op (Cortana level with Heartless Ninny and one other dude), and DAMN, wow, that's a trip. Sure enough, that is indeed a whole different game when you switch it up like that.

Awesomely fun. But WTF? My headset cut out completely after about 10 minutes, I couldn't hear anything from anyone, even when the icon would light up. I messed with the connector for a while, but no luck, so I finally just gave up and did my best to follow like a stray puppy.

Is that a common problem?

 

[HeartlessNinny]

Good stuff! I finally got to try out some Legendary co-op (Cortana level with Heartless Ninny and one other dude), and DAMN, wow, that's a trip. Sure enough, that is indeed a whole different game when you switch it up like that.

Awesomely fun. But WTF? My headset cut out completely after about 10 minutes, I couldn't hear anything from anyone, even when the icon would light up. I messed with the connector for a while, but no luck, so I finally just gave up and did my best to follow like a stray puppy.

Is that a common problem?

Haha, it's probably best you didn't hear my constant blather, consider yourself lucky.