Is Halo 2's Legendary Difficulty Broken?

when you're playing Halo 2 on legendary it's extremely important that you get a Plasma Pistol for easy Noob combo kills I cannot believe I just missed the Halo 2's legendary difficulty is in one word Infamous I've seen Reddit posts YouTube videos comments blog posts smoke signals everything about how Halo 2 on legendary is really really hard I even took a passing shot at it in my Bungie video when I was talking about Combat Evolved legendary feels challenging but not unfair like some other entries in the franchise there's plenty of factors that make Halo 2 on legendary really hard and I'm not going to single out anything in particular but it's so hard that many Halo fans think it goes overboard and I've even seen some call it broken I replayed levels on legendary here and there and I've tried a bit of speed running but I couldn't remember the last time I had sat down and played through the whole game on legendary just casually so I spent a couple days on and off beating the game on legendary and in this video I'm going to look at Halo 2's campaign as a whole including the story levels characters Etc and we'll go through the entire game I'm going to keep track of a couple numbers first the time it takes me to beat each individual level and I'll also keep track of my total time throughout the game all deaths for level as well as a running total deaths specifically from sniper jackals as well as a running total finally deaths from boss fights on levels that have them as well as a running total this is all one attempt at each level I didn't restart or anything if I was unhappy this was me playing through the game like a normal person would with all that consider this video a look at Halo 2's campaign as a whole where we also answer the question is Halo 2's legendary difficulty broken first thing before we get into the actual gameplay I want to highlight the opening cut scene it sets the tone immediately and you know right away that this game is going to have a much deeper story than in Combat Evolved not even to mention just how much higher quality this cutscene is than anything in the first game from the cinematography to the animations to the voice actors Keith David is awesome as the Arbiter Michael wincott kills it as Prophet of Truth and even Marty O'Donnell's dad has a memorable line may it was Harrison getting into the actual gameplay Cairo station is a pretty easy level relatively speaking it's legendary so they're all hard it's my personal favorite opening level in any Halo game I love the ship environment I love the space sections and I think it functions really well as both the tutorial level and just a fun level to play through that being said one of the first issues with Halo 2 on legendary pops up on this level that being your place dial is heavily restricted if you want to get through this level you pretty much have to have a plasma pistol and a battle rifle I will say I beat this level on legendary as a child at one point and I didn't know what a noob combo was so I'm not saying it's impossible to get through without using a Plasma Pistol it'll just take you a lot longer you could also be a crazy speedrunner who can sword fly all over the map but that's definitely not me at this point after every level I'll play a death Montage tallying up my total deaths at any Jackal sniper or boss battle deaths show my time to complete the level and then show my running totals across all levels for each I beat Cairo station in 19 minutes and 46 seconds and didn't die a single time so no death Montage for this level and my totals thus far are pretty simple outskirts is up next and it's one of two levels on Earth I'll start off with this I always run on the rooftop so I haven't played the first half of this level in years and I had absolutely forgotten just how bad the second major issue with Halo 2 legendary is and boy does it rear its ugly head in the first half of this level Jackal snipers oh boy I know I'm beating a dead horse but getting insta killed and not knowing where you got shot from and having to memorize sniper spawns it's more aggravating than fun and I don't know why but they loaded this level up with him there are so many you have to look out for on the positive side you can play with something other than the Plasma Pistol and battle rifle on this level I use the sniper in the battle rifle the entire level but once you get past the hotel and out of town you may even say to the outskirts the level opens up at the warthog section your first vehicle section of the game and I think it gets much better but I said the snipers annoyed me I'll let you see for yourself how I went down with my first death montage foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] movement I had a clean run the rest of the level so that puts my total deaths on outskirts of 13 with 10 of those being from sniper jackals my final time is 21 minutes and 12 seconds bringing my total time to 40 58. next up the tank level the cut scene before Metropolis features the voices of David Cross and Michelle Rodriguez which I think is pretty cool Johnson's dialogue also changes depending on the difficulty but your objective in this mission is to follow a Scarab and destroy it you start off in a tank making your way through the bridge you are speed running you'd actually grab a partially hidden warthog and drive past everything but again I was playing this game the way you're intended to until I got further ahead to a point where you're supposed to get on the gun of a goshaw I always drive because as far as I'm concerned this section is not possible unless you're driving a bit further on you come across a couple Jackal snipers and a couple wraiths there's a hidden rocket launcher so I always grab it give it to a passenger and then kill everything with a Goss rocket hog then you attack the Scarab which in this game unlike in Halo 3 is basically just a set piece that doesn't really do anything but leading up to the Scarab I died a whole lot of times [Music] oh It's Just Happening that's called a mountain I died nine times total on Metropolis three of which were from Jackal snipers there was also one team killing one suicide but we aren't tallying those my final time is 31 minutes and 47 seconds so far I have 22 total deaths 13 from Jackal snipers and my total time is 1 hour 12 minutes and 45 seconds and now I hope you're excited to meet the Arbiter prior to the Arbiter starting you watch one of the longest cutscenes in the game that hopefully not too many first-time players skip through where they'd be in for one heck of a surprise afterward but in this cutscene the profits make Fel vadame in Arbiter which basically means he runs whatever special ops of profits wanted to with the expectation that one of these missions will kill him at some point on the way to the Mining facility where a group of Heretics are hiding out you meet the shipmaster played by Robert Davi who again delivers a fantastic performance the Arbiter as a playable character was controversial when this game came out because people wanted to play as the master chief the Arbiter also gets stuck with some of the worst levels in this game and we'll get to that but I love the Arbiter as a character and I think it's his half of the story that really elevates Halo 2 and is why Halo 2 has my favorite story of the entire franchise as far as the actual gameplay on this level I think it's a great change of pace from the first three levels I didn't use a Plasma Pistol at all and as you'll see in the upcoming death Montage I didn't really need to you're introduced to the Covenant carbine there's no Jackal snipers you get to use active camo for the first time and you get a sword and this was presumably unintended by Bungie but the Heretics don't do any melee damage so the sword is really good to use against them that's all I got for this one so on to the death montage [Music] birthday I only died four times my final time for the Arbiter was 12 minutes and 56 seconds this brings my total deaths to 26 of my time to 1 hour 25 minutes and 41 seconds this level went pretty well spoiler alert the next one would not when I was a kid my Halo 2 playthroughs would always end here because I was absolutely terrified of the flood as an adult I think this is one of the tougher levels to get through primarily because the first half is not very interesting so the flood is introduced you listen to the heretic leader played by Miguel Ferrer who again does a 10 out of 10 job and then after fighting infection forms you get to ride on an elevator I didn't die a single time on this elevator yet it'd still take up about 20 percent of my entire time playing through this level then after that holdout section you get another holdout section that's also long and somewhat tedious after that this level really opens up and gets really good there's backtracking but I think it's actually neat to see where you came from now that the station is in free fall and there's flood everywhere I think again like the previous level this does serve as a good change of pace from the beginning of the game I also normally when playing this level use a trick on the elevator to the cables that gives you invincibility I didn't use that this time which meant that this was the first time I fought the heretic leader without invincibility in years and I didn't have a Plasma Pistol I'll let you see how it went in the death montage [Music] and show us the passage of time [Music] [Music] maybe I just don't know the right strategy but that boss fight was absolutely brutal I finished the Oracle with 15 deaths 10 of which were from the boss fight my final time was 30 minutes and 17 seconds this brings my total desk to 41 my boss battle desk to 10 and my total time to 1 hour 55 minutes and 58 seconds luckily for me the next mission did not have a boss fight Delta Halo is up next this is one of the most beloved Halo levels across all the games and deservedly so it does the same thing as the level Halo in Combat Evolved it introduces you to a beautiful ring world with ancient structures where you get to drive around and kill aliens I really like the design of the Forerunner structures on Delta Halo and I'm glad they didn't just to reuse everything from the first game as far as playing through this level on legendary this one isn't that bad but I do think this is where the difficulty does start to pick up a bit [Music] [Music] I had 10 deaths two of them from Jackal snipers but I think that had more to do at this level being long than it being difficult my final time was 37 minutes and 30 seconds this brings my total deaths to 51 my Jackal sniper deaths to 15 and my total time to 2 hours 33 minutes and 28 seconds oh boy regret I both love and hate this level it's a continuation of Delta Halo it's beautiful I like pretty much every section of this level from the above ground fighting in the Forerunner structures the gondola rides to the underwater sections except for one aspect The Jackal snipers they are ridiculous on this level I think between them and the regret boss fight and just about everything else in the level this is in my unpopular opinion the hardest level in the game most people say grave mine grave mine is long and definitely harder to speed run but I think there's more skill to it than regret regret for me at least was full of cheap deaths and controller throwing inducing moments I'll let you see it for yourself [Music] [Music] once remind everyone [Music] when playing this I thought that a jackal Sniper got me but on the replay you can see that my beam rifle shot actually bounced off of the Hunter's Shield back at me back to the Montage time the things [Music] I can't put into words how relieved I was when I finally killed regret this level filled up every category I died 28 total times 10 of those were from Jackal snipers and seven were during the boss battle my final time ended up at 59 minutes and 24 seconds this raises my total deaths to 79 my Jackal sniper deaths to 25 my boss battle deaths to 17 and my total time to 3 hours 32 minutes and 52 seconds after what you just watched I'll let you decide whether regret is the hardest Halo 2 mission or if I just suck I'm going to move on to sacred icon the sacred icon is another run killer for me not because it's hard but because it's definitely my least favorite level in the game and I would go as far as to say that it's a bad level it's essentially a slightly better version of the library on the bright side it's much shorter than the library this is also the point of the game where the flood gets much harder and the Oracle you can one shot every combat form of the carbine in this level the human combat forms take a lot of shots to bring down until you get the shotgun and the elite combat forms are given Shields [Music] it's a tricky level and I have some deaths to show off foreign was pretty clean I finished with seven deaths and my final time is 27 minutes exactly this raises my total deaths to 86 my total time to 3 hours 59 minutes and 52 seconds for making it through my least favorite level of the game I was then rewarded with a chance to play my second least favorite level of the game as much as I love the arbiter's story they really did screw him with the levels he gets when I was a kid I always couldn't wait to get through quarantine zones so I could get back to playing as a master chief partly because I was scared of the flood and partly because this level in sacred icon really create a lull in the game between the awesomeness that is the first seven levels and the last four I do like this Mission better than sacred icon although playing it on legendary this was probably more frustrating getting one-shotted by rocket flood when I'm in a scorpion tank with full health was not enjoyable it is really neat that they allowed the flood to drive vehicles in this game and story-wise it hints that maybe the flood on Delta Halo are more intelligent on the flood in Combat Evolved and maybe there's some kind of hive mind controlling them or something similar the gondola section is not good but we'll get there after the death montage [Music] big things [Music] I did in the level by going out of bounds on the elevator thing but in my defense that section is really easy anyway and it's just boring I ended up with 17 deaths and my final time is 25 minutes and 22 seconds this brings my total deaths over 100 to 103 and my total time to 4 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds now on to my favorite level in the entire franchise I love grave mind besides Cairo station it's probably my most replayed level in Halo 2's Campaign which just to be clear on my own bias I have played grave mine a lot more than regret which may be why I think regret is harder the opening to this level is Infamous because you can die pretty much right as the screen turns from White I would say this opening room is probably the toughest part of the level outside of the prison in Mausoleum primarily because you don't have a carbine to begin with and are stuck with a Needler and a plasma rifle this level introduces the brutes for the first time in gameplay I've been using this phrase a lot but I think the brutes are a good change of pace I'm more of a fan of the brutes in this game than I am in Halo 3. in Halo 3 they pretty much just feel like Elites except their armor doesn't regenerate in this game brutes are different and feel like their own thing in the sections of this game where you're fighting both brute factions and Elite factions are awesome and this level has so much Variety in combat because every Covenant enemy in the game is being thrown at you this is a personal thing but I also just really like the aesthetic of playing on a Covenant Ship Truth and Reconciliation is my favorite Halo 1 level 2. I think the feeling of sneaking around High charity while a civil war is going on is pretty cool when I say I think regret is harder than this level don't think I'm saying grave mine isn't hard I have a whole lot of deaths to show you it's not better [Music] that's what you need call the mountains this level pretty much single-handedly destroyed my Jackal sniper death ratio I died 28 total times and only one of them was from a jackal sniper my final time was 57 minutes and 48 seconds this brings my total desk to 131 in my total time to 5 hours 23 minutes and 2 seconds my Jackal sniper deaths of course are only going up 1 to 26. Uprising is one of my other favorite levels in the game the score at the beginning of it is gorgeous and probably my favorite piece in Halo 2. like grave minus level also starts off pretty tough because you don't have a headshot weapon but as long as you're patient you can get through just fine you work your way through a structure fighting alongside other Elites and grounds against brutes jackals and drones on the other side of the structure you get a vehicle section with a ghost this is another section that I had not played in years because you can pretty easily get on top of the map and Skip everything but I didn't do it this time and the death Montage shows off the results of that decision oh this is and every where see this is where playing through normally hurts because nine of my 12 deaths were in a section that I normally skip entirely nonetheless I finished with 12 deaths total and seven of those were Jackal snipers my final time was 25 minutes and 23 seconds this brings my total deaths to 143 my Jackal sniper deaths to 33 and my total time to 5 hours 48 minutes and 25 seconds the next level I was not looking forward to playing prior to actually playing High charity again I would have told you it's a bad level now I think it's the best flood level in the game it's pretty short and doesn't drag on like other Infamous flood levels and it absolutely Nails the horror atmosphere that the flood should bring looking at the levels in order going back to Combat Evolved it's the best example of this since 343 guilty Sparks I felt genuine dread playing this level watching the coveted Homeworld getting completely overrun and delving further and further into it where there's no sign of life at all outside of the flood it's what a flood level should be it's a complete 180 from the Epic Sci-Fi Action of a covenant level I never want to play it again but in this case that's actually a good thing and oh yeah I died a few times come on this crisis there was the one room where I died six times but for the most part High charity wasn't that bad I died 13 times three from Jackal snipers and my final time was 13 minutes and 24 seconds this brings my total desk to 156 my Jackal sniper desk to 36 and my total time to 6 hours 1 minute and 49 seconds and oh boy we've made it to the last level it's actually unfortunate that this ended up being the last level the original plan was to have the ending be on Earth where basically the same events that happened in Halo 3 would have happened in Halo 2 instead minus Cortana being rescued in the flood being destroyed the Arbiter and master chief were supposed to team up and kill the Prophet of Truth inside the ark instead the game ended on one of the most notorious Cliffhangers ever and as the Arbiter and not master chief which also further led to more Arbiter Hate Story aside as far as actual gameplay goes I think it's a solid ending and feels Grand enough although of the three original games it's definitely the most anti-climactic the last of the three boss fights happens in this level and it's definitely my favorite of the three there's also a great cutscene preceding it what happened everyone is asking every other strategic option my career has activated the Rings the in all additional centiped in three radio at the galactic center died would you like to see the relevant data the profits have betrayed us Keith David is a National Treasure I said a lot about regretting grave mind being hard this level for me was right up there with him in terms of deaths although as you'll see the majority of those happen during one very frustrating sequence foreign foreign the Banshee section on this level nearly broke me but nonetheless I died 29 times once from a jackal sniper and three times during the boss fight my final time in the great journey was 46 minutes and 55 seconds this brings my total deaths to 185 my Jackal sniper deaths to 37 my boss fight deaths to 20 and my final time is 6 hours 48 minutes and 44 seconds couple takeaways from the final numbers my nearly seven hour time means I probably won't get invited to gdq anytime soon unless they want someone to pull another Cody Miller Jackal snipers accounted for 20 of my total deaths despite only appearing in 8 of the 13 levels boss fights accounted for 11 of my total deaths despite only appearing in three of the 13 levels together this means that 31 of my total deaths were either Jackal snipers or during boss fights finally 46 of my total deaths occurred across three missions regret grave mind and the great journey so what does it all mean going into this I thought that Halo 2's difficulty was a bit overrated because of Jackal snipers and boss battles and without them it really wouldn't be that bad those are definitely the most lopsided things adding difficulty but no Halo 2's legendary is really hard straight up do I think it's broken or unfair or just too hard no there are specific aspects that maybe are unfair like sniper jackals or any melee attack killing you instantly but for me it just feels challenging not unfair unless you're in a Banshee trying to fight two banshees at once then I feel like throwing my controller but outside of that every time I died it always felt like I did something wrong and I just needed to play better if I was to label a game unfair that would mean that even doing the right thing leads to death and you're relying on luck Halo 2 to me still feels like skill as far as the campaign in general it's definitely my favorite in the franchise I think story Wise It's hands down the strongest the cinematics are the best in the series the voice acting is phenomenal and outside of the lull of sacred icon in quarantine Zone the levels are all a blast so even though I've taken passing shots at Halo 2 in some of my past videos I love Halo 2. that's it for this video if you're new to this channel I have a couple other videos about Halo and Bungie you should watch I'll catch you later

Channel: Frogarchist

Views: 190,539

Keywords: halo 2 legendary, is halo 2 legendary possible, is halo 2 legendary the hardest, why is halo 2 legendary so hard, halo 2 legendary jackal snipers, halo 2 legendary in a nutshell

Id: Quw1ReAIVGs

Length: 27min 13sec (1633 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023