## Halo 2
Just about anything that Halo 1 did right Halo 2 fucks up.

I have to start with the difficulty for the rest to make sense.
Again, I went with Legendary assuming the game knowns the definition of insanity.
I quickly learn that 1v1-ing an Elite face-to-face always kills me
and even a single Grunt is a serious threat to my life.
Then, in the very first map, I am locked in a room with waves of enemies;
the real problem being that I'm missing all my tools.

I have no ammo.
The cap has been brought lower on human guns and I'm not allowed to backtrack.
Even if I were to bring a different gun here, I would be fucked.

I have no space to maneuver.
I am physically locked in a room the size of something
that you would expect from a Call of Dáty campaign.

I am given heaps of grenades,
with the asterisk that the blast radius is smaller
and not even a direct hit can kill an Elite.

So, I swallowed hard and lowered the difficulty to Normal.

---

What followed was laughable.

I performed the w+M1 equivalent of a controller.
The new SMG in particular has the dps of an orbital cannon.
You can just run head-first into gunfire and your gun
that requires no aiming will mown EVERYONE down.

There are vehicle sections that go on for way too long.

I am constantly waiting for some shitty ship to land, or a door to open.

I am running from meaningless-short-cutscene to short-meaningless-cutscene.

I can not tell where I'm going.
Often times I walk into what seems to be a dead-end,
only to find it has a narrow passage on a random side
that loops back to the general direction I came from.
Other times I cover so much empty ground forwards
that I start to wonder whether I broke the game somehow.

---

Then, I am given as a mission as an Elite.
It looked actually exciting.
Look, I am even given a plasma sword and the cloak ability!

5 minutes later I find myself with a broken sword,
thinking about that I am not given the opportunity to use my poorly polished cloak,
while I am casually shooting at my teammates because there is
no visual distinction between them and us.

Aaand there are bossfights now?
Except it takes longer to kill a Hunter than this flying nigger.
For the next one,
you have to beat up the elderly,
which is fine, except he bleeds if you stab him.
Therefor, it takes me 10 minutes to realize that I should be
jumping onto his space-wheelchair with X to start dealing damage.

---

I just sort of zoned out during the mid section.
The combat became harder,
however, most of the time I can just skip encounters.
I have no inceptive to fight -its not fun and there is no reward-,
so I'm just running forward.

### The Gravemind
Then comes The Gravemind and the last 3 levels following it
and gameplay takes a 180.

The level design returns to its roots;
now my positioning actually matters.
I catch myself paying attention to my ammo.
The new Covenant enemies, Brutes, mean business.
Their reaction to getting shot is comparable to that of a brick wall;
yes, like the rest of the enemy AI,
but their large health pool and general demeanor justifies it,
making it a non-issue.
They also go berserk from time to type, caving your skull in with their fists.
This alone makes the game feel much more responsive.
Plus, Elites that I'm killing are visually distinct:

### Difficulty
And, as implied, the difficulty goes up.
I would say that the last 3th on Normal is slightly below of what was Legendary in Halo 1.
Which -as established- is my preferred difficulty.

Now, without sperging about difficulty curves (as that deserves its own schitzo rant),
Halo 1 has flat difficulty, while Halo 2 is increasing.
The problem is, that this is a game where I choose my difficulty.
I was asked to input my expectation and I did.
Then, the first game provided with just that while keeping the encounters diverse,
while the second spit in my face and provided me with easy-normal-hard regardless.
That also means that I would have had the most fun with Halo 2
if I had been increasingly lowering my difficulty setting.
Do you see how that's a problem?
I honestly think this roots from the designers misinterpreting what a difficulty curve is.

### Verdict
I would say play it from The Gravemind onwards,
but funnily enough you only get access to the mission select after beating the game.
I think you should pass.