Both Captain Keyes and Jenkin ends were horrible cause by the Flood hands. Keyes being slowly strip of his memories. Jenkins, a prisoner in his own body.
@@hamzahsajjad7952 All you have to do is clear out the top floor. When the banshees come in you can just jump down to it and get in as soon as the elite gets out. You'll be quick enough to trigger the cutscene before dying.
One of the most visceral scenes in the series, gets me every time. The terminal is also a rare case of the anniversary edition actually elevating things too, it's amazing and rather horrible!
@@BenPlaysGames The terminal heavily pulls from the original book adaptation (rather than give 343 too much credit for doing a great job themselves ;). Iirc the flood doesn't actually talk to Keyes directly like it does in the terminal. Better that way imo but probably difficult to portray effectively.
I couldn't play Halo when it came out, in fact I played Halo CE until 2013. I only played Halo 2. But when I first played Halo CE and found Keyes, I thought it was my mistake and got really scared xD
@zeroxz2159 Yeah. It's written more like keyes is thinking to himself and his thoughts wonder and he questions himself why his thoughts wonders before he reaches the conclusion he's captive and cycles over
@@balanoidik I think all of his criticism was valid even if his gameplay wasn't the best. And who knows, maybe he simply didn't want to use shotguns in order to handicap himself?
One of my favorite details about the Keyesmind is that you can find a tentacle hanging off the edge of the podium area, still clutching Keyes' pipe. Just a small detail but massively impactful when I first discovered it years ago.
I myself played Halo: CE for the first time last week and some of the later levels were quite difficult, it doesn't help that I don't usually play FPS games and played it on Heroic difficulty. Combat Evolved is still a great game but it's definitely showing its age, especially because of some repetitive levels like Library which honestly got pretty boring after 10-15 minutes.
legendary is very tough, but unlike in 2 it feels fair, like any death is your own shortcomings rather than the enemy having an unfair advantage like the sniper jackals
Personally, i really enjoy how dark this level is. It's the only level in Halo CE (and by extension the whole trilogy) where you absolutely have to use the flashlight, as well as monitor it's battery. It comes in handy in other levels, but Keyes really forces you to treat it like a resource. Though i'd have to agree the infinite spawn areas are a bit unbalanced. Love the video! Keeping me entertained during Australia's lockdown
I'm probably in the minority here, but Keyes is my favourite mission in Halo CE and always has been, and I disagree with most of your gripes with this mission. Seeing the Covenant fighting for their life to stop the Flood from taking over the ship and repairing it just shows how truly dangerous the Flood is. I love that parts of the ship are still under Covenant control and others are taken over by the Flood, with the stockpiling of bodies for biomass, and once you see the Spec Ops squads of Elites and Grunts, which we haven't seen before, it shows how damn serious the situation is. The level is messy, tight corridor fighting, and I love seeing the Covenant and Flood go at it all over the ship. I really don't see the issue with the infinite waves of Flood. If you actually go on and clear them out, they will stop spawning in the majority of cases, otherwise clear what you have in front of you and keep moving. And again, isn't that the whole point of the Flood? A seemingly endless horde? It makes more sense here than in 343 or Library as they are actively fighting, killing and assimilating the Covenant, so it would be expected to have massive amounts of Flood around. And the darkness of coolant pool section is not a problem, you should be using your radar to anticipate the direction the Flood are coming. It actually makes using the flashlight worthwhile, unlike in most of the game. You definitely have the tools you need to successfully approach every encounter. The amount of grenades going off can be an issue, admittedly, but if you're running straight into Carrier Forms, fuel rod Grunts and grenades, then what do you expect? The fuel rods take a good 2 or 3 seconds to explode, and are very easily noticeable that the Grunts have black armour and carry something large and green, not to mention when they die and let off the green gas. You should be beyond accustomed to Carrier forms and what they do by this point, so the only thing that should be killing you, ideally, are chaining explosions, which can feel a bit random sure, and that comes down to the player being perceptive enough and not committing the same mistake again and again. This level punishes you heavily if you just run into every fight, and I don't think that is bad or lazy game design. Knowing when to back off is something that is thrown at you the moment you encounter and fight the Flood and is their whole combat cornerstone through the franchise and is very present here. The Library is a much more atrocious level in terms of combat and space, especially at higher difficulties.
There's something I find incredibly disturbing about Keyes contacting you in the level is how he attempts to turn you away, even outright ordering you to do so. Did the Flood "force" him to say that in a clumsy attempt to fool Cortana and the Chief into leaving it alone so it could finish assimilating the Captain? The fact that Keyes can scream in agony near the end heavily implies he was still aware on some level. Even if the Chief had arrived several minutes earlier while Keyes was still conscious, there was nothing to be done, even if part of Keyes consciousness remained his body was thoroughly infected by the Flood, and the Master Chief would have had to kill him anyway.
Halo CE have the most fair legendary difficult. In Halo 2 you will die one shot if you find a combat form with a shotgun, and rocket flood are cancer to vehicles since they have homing against you.
@@BenPlaysGames like I understand your complaints for sure I just really love seeing the flood and covenant go at it and seeing how messed up the ship is and how desperate the covenant are
I actually LOVE the little part of the hunters and the endless waves of infection and carrier forms, it shows that it doesn't matter how badass you are, the flood will eventually overwhelm you. Bungie did a fantastic work of showing just how much of an all consuming serious threat they are and it conveys a potent feeling of helplessnes to the player.
That's a good point. Bungie deliberately created a world in which those hunters can't possibly win, and illustrated why these things are called the Flood.
Credit to Pete Stacker for portraying his fight against the Proto-Gravemind with so much authentic pain in his voice. Reading it in the Flood novel was traumatising enough but that terminal was on another level.
I thought you meant Sgt stacker till I realized both the character and stack have the same name. Still don’t know how stacker survived reach, both installations, earth, the ark, and the shield world.
It's a good video, but I disagree with it immensely. Keyes is one of the best levels in CE, in my opinion - not only because of its environmental storytelling, but I also think it is the only time fighting the flood by themselves is interesting. You fight Covenant a few times, to be sure, but always on a distinct backfoot from their end, and the small corridots that loop on each other still allow you to maneuver around the horde in interesting ways whilst making you consider how you deal with the different forms, with a distinct push and pull to fighting the masses of corpses that is as interesting as the Flood can get without the third party component to them. Not that related, but I also do think the hate on the 'reverse' levels of CE is overdone. Keyes is a great remix of Truth and Reconciliation that I feel, at least compared to the *ship* parts of Truth and Reconciliation, far beats it in playability and fun factor - the Covenant are ironically really uninteresting to fight in corridors, comparatively, and the level features a lot of doubling down. Two Betrayals is eons better than Assault on Control Room, featuring the highlights of threeway (and even fourway, in a sense) fights, plenty of great vehicle sections with more varied approaches possible compared to Assault. Nevertheless, decent video that shares your thoughts on the topic. I agree the level is more 'closed', but that isn't a bad thing necessarily, not with the Flood. My one huge disappointment with this level, personally, is that even if you manage the jump over the coolant hole using grenades, you'll be in a locked off, gated version of the hangar that you can't proceed from.
This. I argue that the remix and reusing of the levels is very intentional: In the earlier missions Pillar of Autumn, Truth & Reconciliation (T&R) and Assault on the Control Room, you got used to the environments you were in, and fighting only Covenant. Then the end of the game flips it up by throwing you Flood & Sentinels to give the player the feeling of what an absolute clusterfuck the whole Halo ring is becoming into. This clusterfuck feeling wouldn't had worked if they used entirely new levels; simply because there wasn't any similar environments to benchmark and compare too. Whereas for example in this Keyes mission, you can compare to your experience with T&R, and witness what an absolute clusterfuck T&R has turned into. Which then gives the brilliant atmospheric feeling of a "before & after" comparison. That was how I felt as a teen playing Halo 1 for the 1st time; seeing the same levels but now everything's getting extra fucked up everywhere, add to the sense of horror and also urgency in completing your mission. In a way, if for example some foreign city gets damaged, would you had cared? But if it's a city that you visited a few times, and seeing it damaged, won't you feel a sense of dread? Because you're familiar with the latter rather than the former. And that is precisely why I think Bungie chose to reuse these levels, to achieve this atmospheric effect in the later part of the game. Hence in that regard, I never understood the criticism of Bungie reusing the levels; it was intentional to maximize a certain storytelling element of the campaign.
Your just being contrarian. The hate on the "reverse" level certainly isn't "overdone", it was very real and makes total sense. Backtracking was a thing of the 90s, done to pad game time and save the developers from having to make new levels. It's litterally called Combat Evolved, so to have such a old game design in a game meant for the new millennium, was extremly insulting. Especially as GTA 3 had released just a month prior, and showed what could be achieved with open worlds, ect. As for Two Betrayels, it's only better, if your not playing on the harder difficulties. Otherwise it's a total slog and a immensly frustrating level. (Flood with Bazooka's, and Banshee's attacking you on the bridge). Assualt on the control room, don't have these kind of problems on Heroic or Legendary. Levels being "closed" in a Halo game is infact a bad thing. Halo was litterally marketing itself on the vastness of their levels.
@@Orcawhale1 I'd rather you didn't try to dismiss my opinions as contrarian when I've provided arguments for them. The backtracking was yes, largely informed by their limitations - but I do think on occasion, the limitations can make a product better. While at the time there was a perception of backtracking as 'lazy', I'd argue Halo did what very few games back then managed to or even bothered - it changed enough about he levels and added story context that it rarely felt like you were just being put through the exact same rooms. They changed the order, the enemies, even the assets in the revisit to the ships (Covenant and Marine ship both) There's definitely spots where it gets a bit old - specifically the infamous copypasted rooms of control room, even backwards and reduced in frequency with vehicles and other shortcuts, get a bit old - but the reason Two Betrayals is my favorite is that I consider it much better than the 'first' go at the level. More vehicle sections, a lot of factional infighting whcih is great, and varied environments for fights comparatively (by using some vehicle arenas as on foot sections and vice versa) Yes, we used to be big on 'big levels are better!' back then, and some of Halo's best levels are absolutely the wide big ones. But I'd argue this isn't always the case, and this is specially true with the flood. The Flood are utterly uninteresting to fight in a big wide room, or god forbid, a huge open area. They're chargers who fire the occasional pot shot, and in that sense, they're much more interesting to fight in close quarters. I didn't find the repeat levels significantly harder on Legendary outside of, obviously, RPG flood. I don't think anyone will say those were a good idea.
I think one of the design flaws of CE is how the flood is mechanically presented in their first two missions - in each encounter, you're locked into a scenario where you *have* to fight them, setting a precedent for player expectation in the remainder of the campaign. In Keyes, the steady stream of infinite flood of course seems antithetical to what the player's been taught up until this point, and trying to kill off every flood enemy they come across will lead to frustration - instead, I find that Keyes becomes a lot more fun to play with a "Fight OR Flight" mindset, where you have to actively decide what particular battles you want to engage with and which ones should be simply avoided.
I always liked the missions where multiple factions of enemy NPC are fighting and you can just chill out and let the enemy destroy each other and mop up whats left if you want to me thats one of the thing that I remember making Halo so interesting and different when it came out
This is true! I think for me though, Keyes is a bit too cramped and I much prefer the multifaction battles out on the snow in Two Betrayals where there's a bit more room to manoeuvre.
Repetition is not a problem in Halo's second half, it's an awesome way to re-explore the game now that The Flood have been unleashed and to see how they have affected the areas we've already been through. Backtracking through the game was one of my favourite parts about Combat Evolved, it's super cool to see the game play out effectively twice, I've never understood why everyone hates on it. The infinitely spawning carrier forms against the hunters aren't a problem either, because 1) they're there to show how much of a threat the Flood are and how insurmountable they are as a foe, and 2) they stop infinitely spawning as soon as you jump down and hit the land the hunters are on.
yeah, all you have to do is be aware and skilled, unlike in h2 where the difficulty is more artificial and thus irritating, the difficulty in halo ce is down to your own skill
@@tatotaytoman5934 I know where you're coming from but H2 isn't just mindless bullet sponge. If you play it poorly it is but the huge buffs enemies get make skillful and tactical play that much more important. The H2 legendary elite AI is incredible. I've probably beat H2 legendary dozens of times. All I had to play as a kid. I enjoy the difficulty. It sucks the other games aren't as hard. Reach legendary was pretty good, H3 legendary felt like I was playing Heroic. Just walking up and punching brutes to death. I mostly enjoy H1 on heroic as I enjoy using the assault rifle. Not really viable on Legendary
@@Theviewerdude Definitely down to personal preference, I personally play on Heroic in every game because it's the most fun - beat all the games on solo legendary once just to say I've done it but it's not fun at all in Halo 2 (to me). Agree mostly that Halo 3 is a bit easy and Halo Reach was quite difficult, but Reach was at least fun unlike Halo 2's cheap insta-death nightmare and I still lose sleep over Gravemind haha
Repetition and backtracking is a huge problem for Halo CE, because it's what truly dates the game, and makes it feel older than it is. Backtracking is only done to save development time and pad game time, which is why it's so hated. Combine that with the endless corridors which all look the same, and it's recipe for disaster, for anyone looking to revist the game. What's more, you mention that the flood change the level, which they simply don't. Keyes is the only level, wherin the level is actully changed in any meaningfull way. Try and play the entire campaign again without the nostalgia glasses, and you quickly realize why it's so hated.
@@Orcawhale1 I play the entire game regularly, I can't count how many times I've done full playthroughs. I can acknowledge the game's flaws but backtracking isn't one of them, especially when you consider that going through the levels literally backwards are completely different, with the exception of Two Betrayals. It's not just retreading the campaign, they give you different routes to take, different enemies to fight, weapons to use and even mission lengths, to say nothing of my initial comment and give the player a look at how things change with the Flood on the field now. They could have chosen to do 4 new levels instead, but then the player only sees levels like The Library where the only time we get to experience them is as Flood-Infested messes. What does the Library itself look like without the Flood being there, no one knows, so we have no context until mission 8+
Never thought about how the narrative similarities in T&R/Keyes (kind of) explain the reused level design. I still think Two Betrayals is my favorite mission in the second half of CE but my respect for the mission just went up after watching this video
I don't know why people dislike Two Betrayals. Sure the mission's layout is "Assault on the Control Room" going backwards, but the mission offers so many great enemy encounters and environmental storytelling.
Keyes is one of the only missions that I think benefits from the remaster, the dark canyon areas are lit up by the glowing coolant, and there are even bits of flood fog leaking into the ship itself through the vents. I also like the look of the proto gravemind and love the terminal in its room.
Yeah I think you need to look at this level again. It was by far one of the best story missions of CE. The delimma between getting Truth and Reconciliation back up and running and trying to eradicate the flood with the Covenant plot. Chief was only there to find Keyes and we see that even the strongest wills can be taken over by the flood. We also see how similar we are with the original humans and forerunners with this specific mission. The clips we see in future games show how quickly friends can be turned into enemies and enemies into friends because of the flood. This mission was amazing in getting us to realize that the flood are the endgame.
Keys is one of my favorite missions (2nd only to Two Betrayals in CE). I know the waves flood are annoying, but that in itself is story telling. Covanant- the alliance that has humanity on the ropes- is trying in vain to retake the ship. Spec opps teams, valiant last stands... all for naught; they cannot stop the flood through conventional means. This is what awaits the galaxy if you dont stop it now. Like I said, I love this mission.
I thought this mission was so impossible when I was young, and replaying it recently I figured out that you're not meant to fight everyone. You simply have to take advantage of both sides fighting and to help one more than the others to have an easy passage. I think it's a smart level design element where you have to act differently since you're alone now against two armies at the same time. The enemy of my enemy they say...
It's nice to see some Halo CE analysis, especially using the real graphics. Definitely my favorite Halo game. Although, I really enjoy Keyes, and Two Betrayals is my favorite Mission!
You know despite how disappointing 5 is, I would be curious to see you try to analyze one of its levels thou not sure how much in detail analysis you could do
I've actually thought about working on 4 and 5, but I find a lot of the levels quite bland and I don't want to force a video if I don't have enough to say. So, I've actually just recently started playing Halo 4 through with a view to doing one video for the entire campaign.
@@BenPlaysGames Would be very interested to see. The gameplay of 4 is so backwards compared to the other games I’d love to hear your thoughts on damage feedback/visual clarity, ammo capacity or weapon variety, just to name a few.
@@BenPlaysGames Will you be doing every mission from the original trilogy or the entire franchise? Can't wait to see how you analyze Infinite's missions.
@@BenPlaysGames Can't wait for that video as 4's story does have some redeeming qualities to it, while the gameplay and sandbox feel lacking compared to what has come before it. Halo 5, while largely incoherent, I do remember enjoying some levels, especially the last snow level where the environment opens up for once instead of ramming players down a narrow corridor.
I actually think *it* is the worst mission because I think The Library is better. Not sure why, but I’ve always found this mission more tedious than The Library. By the way, this mean you’re going to make videos on every level in CE just like you did with Titanfall 2 right? Either way, thanks for another great video.
@@BenPlaysGames Haha, I thought you'd done it already. Anyway, I think you very well could do. You always manage to have an interesting angel on the leve, regardless of whether the level is good or bad. I sure hope the devs of future Halo's are watching your videos!
Your takes on missions are sus! The mission Keys was unbelievable in story telling. The fact that you go to save him and he’s already gone by the time you get to him and showing the first ever proto gravemind is the real only Point of this mission besides the neural implant
Halo spv3 take on this level was amazing in my opinion because they toss in the audio from the Halo CE terminal of him fighting the flood in his mind. You can hear him saying it over the course of the level as you get closer to him. Giving the sense of he's getting tormented as ya fight to get to him.
Completely disagree, flood and covenant, especially the special ops, packed into a tight space offers something completely different and I love the chaos of it.
Beaten the game a few times on legendary myself, IMO the problem with this level isn't that its unfair so to speak but it requires vastly different strategy than the rest of the game. Using the ample supply of grenades to pre-clear flood respawn points then rushing past with the shotgun made most of this level a joke. Plus the carrier forms actively help you if you can kill them while they're in a crowd.
I think most of your problems with the level, going by the footage, are that you are completely failing to adapt your tactics to counter the flood, and thus are having a lot of trouble fighting them.
@@Sapoman2211 it about efficiency using a plasma rifle shot gun combo is how you take em out one good for both covenant and floor and one good at clearing hallways
Rocket Launcher Flood in CE are actually rather fair, once you know of them. There are virtually no randomly generated rocket launcher flood, and all are placed in generally wide open, decently lit areas (i think the tightest being a bridge on two betrayals). An experienced player can play their approaches to scenarios around them. This actually made them rather interesting threats to me. I don't think they can spawn randomly in halo 2 either, though they are much rarer, appearing only during vehicle bits, and that one in the super dark room in High Charity (the later of which i particularly hate). Halo 3 seems to have opted out of them entirely, which I'm kind of sad about, as it feels like an odd exclusion.
Yeah but in Halo 2 they spawn in vehicle sections and have the AI homing rockets, so you're literally fucked if you don't pre-empt them, it's a bit bull. Think the tightest rocket spawn in CE is during Two Betrayals in the corridor, and in a sense you're warned about it most of the time by it absolutely wrecking the two elites in the doorway as you approach.
Despite the shit with Keyes, I loved the combat loop in the ship how it alternates between the flood and covenant, as annoying and ridiculous as it can be when you're trapped and overwhelemd by the food, the cycle of shooting your gun, Throwing your grenade and watching flood fly never gets old. Then encountering the damn special forces caught me as a kid (literally, I ended up shouting in surprise when i saw the grunts throw the grenades)
I’m sorry but as amazingly in depth your analysis are I believe strongly that the outdoor environment should not be brighter. honestly It kind of shocks me that you think so after seeing your hot take on 343 Guilty spark. Just no.
The description for this level on the original Halo CE (Something like "Stage a 1 cyborg assault and bring back the captain") made me so happy when I first played it. The Flood are now a massive threat and we've not seen any other humans since they were unleashed, so hopefully at least the Captain will survive along with the Master Chief and Cortana once this is all over. The sucker punch of the Captain being killed off really hit me.
Keyes was always one of my favorite missions. The dark and claustrophobic tunnels in both the canyon and ship help add to the frantic tension in trying to rescue the Captain. Up to this point, the Covenant were always seen as your hated enemy, one that's pushed humanity into a corner and on the verge of extinction but now they're desperately trying to fight off a more deadly threat and I kinda felt bad for them. So much in fact, I spent most of my time focusing on killing the Flood and only killing the Covenant troops only when necessary. Is Keyes a perfect level? No, biggest complaint is how many times I've had to stop because, like you said, there are a lot of carrier forms that will explode. The carrier forms exploding also set off chain reactions from the littered grenades on the ground, grinding everything to a halt. I can't remember how many times I've camped in a hallway, fighting off Flood and Covenant only to die because I was waiting for the explosions to die. The constantly spawning Flood is a double-edged sword. It's very annoying but it also adds to the frantic situation that's occurred now that the Flood has been released. You're not meant to fight them all off and it's a motivator to keep moving, but like you said, the design flaw of having too many carrier forms setting off chain reactions works against what you're supposed to do.
The best part of the terminal cutscene is the entire thing is almost line for line pulled from the The Flood novel, it's just a shame the other side characters and stories in the novelization didn't get the same treatment as the Keyes scene.
I felt like every terminal in Anniversary should've revolved around the side stories from The Flood. I didn't get much from the Guilty Spark terminal except for the Didact foreshadowing in the last one and the secret Threshold terminal. Other than that, the Keys terminal was the only one I would actively search for in subsequent replays of Anniversary.
Personally I find Keyes to be a very good mission. I believe they were going more for atmosphere which they did very well. All through out the game the survivors of the pillar of autumn never fully went toe to toe with the covenant, they resorted to small raids and hit and run tactics because a pitched battle would have lead to a decisive defeat. So this being in mind seeing the covenant using all of their effort to push back the flood and failing makes the mission seem apocalyptic. The darkness of the level adds a fear of was that a shadow or a combat form. I don't mind the endless flood either it just shows that no matter how many you kill they will never stop coming they are infinite and you are hopeless. I feel though they should have had the library go easy on the flood since it was still in its earlier outbreak stage maybe fighting a mixture of flood and covenant survivors then on Keys just full sending it.
the unlimited flood for me was really nice at the hunter part, because alot of this mission gives you the option to sit it out and wat ch them kill eachother and save ammo, or get involved makes every encounter feel like 2 options are present
I think Keys is one of CE's best levels in terms of set design, and the contrast between seeing TnR operational vs seeing it utterly wrecked by the flood. Unlike the library, this level is fantastic for really selling how relentless and overwhelming the flood are by showing what is happening aboard the ship. It's chaotic, the covenant are noticeably cornered and panicked, and it really feels like ship and the Covenant are falling apart and flood filling in the cracks. I just wish the gameplay and encounter design were as good as the environment design.
You mentioned not liking Two Betrayals that much since it's just a backwards trek through Assault On The Control Room, and it is absolutely that, but I've always actually enjoyed that level. It gave me a real sense of "everything's changed now". Before, it was me, the lone super soldier saving humanity from evil aliens and feeling badass while doing so. But after the Flood's introduction the whole universe of Halo grew. Suddenly everything's changed and now it's just a desperate scramble for survival and Two Betrayals does a great job of conveying that. In AotCR the environment is bright and visible with triumphant action-packed music to get you pumping throughout it. In Two Betrayals however, it's dark and snowy and the music is far more melancholic. It gave me a sense of longing for when things were easy like they were in AotCR, but now I have to try and survive against endless alien zombies while trying to achieve my goal of blowing up one of the most significant findings in human history (up to that point of course). And I dun' care what anybody says, despite how great future Halo games might have been, none of them could match my two favourite moments in gaming (ODST as Rookie piecing together the story and Jorge's big bang in Reach came kinda close). Reunion Tour (2nd level, Halo) and Final Run (on Two Betrayals). The music in Reunion Tour gave me the most amazing sense of adventure while driving up that hill in the warthog, and Final Run's great piece of musical timing was simply awe-inspiring for me. Made me appreciate the epic journey I had been on and steeled me for the final push to the last objective before we could deal with Halo itself. Of course, the level IS still a stupid, long, grueling ordeal and fighting through both a flood army AND a covenant army just to get to the last banshees was an utter dick move. And don't get me STARTED on those damn bridges. But despite that, I still think of the level fondly!
I actually agree with you on this mate, while I think the actual level design featured in Two Betrayals is uninspired to say the least, I love the battles out on the snow between Chief, the Flood and the Covenant. Blew me 13 year old me away back in 2001!
Dude this game play takes away from his commentary, like he's trying to make a good intelligent point, but in the background he sees like 3 infection forms and just unloads a whole AR mag into the floor around them and even then barely gets them😭😭😭😭😭
In the hangar section if you don't attack the covenant forces they will start to fight eachother for space on the incoming transport. This level gives you a few different opportunities to use the covenant and flood as a temporary ally to fight the others.
I can confirm that at the part where you have to jump down into the coolant, the waves of flood that spawn to encourage you to jump are not infinite and it is possible to kill all of them however it is not really worth it unless you are going for 100% kills or going for par score achievements.
Definitely dude, you can see from the repetition in the second half of the campaign that Bungie was working to a budget/deadline and so concessions had to be made. The first half of Combat Evolved in particular is ridiculously good.
I really enjoy the mission for the fact that Covenant is clearly in the midst of fighting a war with Flood. I usually try avoid fighting the Covenant too much in the mission and more or less use them as means to control the hordes of Flood and keep the mission from getting out of hand.
Ha I like the flood in the right situation, but they're a tricky proposition as they're often paired with very repetitive environments which isn't where they shine. A lot of people really dislike Two Betrayals in CE, but I actually really like it, as I think the flood work best in open areas with other factions in the mix.
Personally my favorite way to play Keyes is on heroic difficulty with the bandana skull on. I've found that infinite ammunition, and by extension infinite grenades, balances out the endless Flood areas of the level to where they're a lot more enjoyable. They're still a little jank especially with how many carrier forms there are, but it does quite a bit to make it more fun. Also, playing Keyes with the boom skull on is an extremely chaotic and funny experience. It's ridiculous and impractical, but there's something very comedic about it too. And it's also very satisfying when you manage to deliberately set off a grenade chain reaction without getting killed yourself, and watch Covenant and Flood alike get thrown flying through the air in all directions.
Finished CE for the first time today and I didn't have too big of an issue with this mission. Yeah the endless respawns were annoying at first, but after a minute or two, I figured you just had to plow right through the area and going through Flood with a shotgun in hand is always fun. And unlike everyone else, I didn't have an issue with the darkness of the canyon and I was playing on classic graphics. Also one of my personal favorite parts of this level is that after discovering Keyes, if you immediately head to the exit door, the Covenant will emerge at the same time as the Flood in the adjacent door and they'll take each other out for you, pretty relaxing to watch if I might add lol
Ben, I love both your thoughts and your commentary, but I couldn't disagree more with you on this one. Keyes is one of my favorite missions in the game. I do agree that the outdoor section could have been done better, the lack of proper lighting is frustrating at times and some of the "pool of ship coolant where infinite carrier forms spawn" is not terribly fun to play through. I know most people aren't big fans of the anniversary graphical overhaul but I actually think the outdoor section of Keyes is an area where it shines. The improved lighting and additional detail breathes much needed life into the environment, not only making it easier to see but also evoking a stronger sensation of being in a canyon underneath a heavily damaged starship. And also the coolant looks more like coolant and less like mint flavored mouthwash. For the interior sections, the original graphics hold up much better. I really loved that you mentioned the moment when Cortana points out that the Flood are gathering bodies in one of the hangar bays. It's one of the most unsettling moments in the entire game in my opinion, and the added detail of the blood streaks dragged across the floor felt sincerely disturbing to me. It really gave me the sensation of being trapped, inside this gigantic machine, with all these mazes of hallways and corridors, with everything that's dead. The ceiling gaps that spawn endless carrier forms in a couple sections are...less than satisfactory, I will concede that. But the entire sequence from moment Chief steps into the giant three floored hangar bay to the end of the level is fantastic. There's so fucking many Covenant and Flood, and they fight one another in many points. Going into the second floor hallway on the far end of the hangar begins and encounter with grunts running from combat forms. The spirit dropship that drops off the spec ops grunts and elites on the ground floor when you get to the third floor is super cool. And I find it genuinely humorous to cause massive chain reaction explosions by killing fuel rod wielding grunts only for their weapon to detonate and in turn blow up piles of grenades on the floor. There's something hysterically funny about it to me for some reason.
if only bungie released a reimagining of the original halo.....it'd be a weird one but damn i'd love to see atleast some developers view on that and what they would do...
One thing most don't notice about the Proto Gravemind, is in Vanilla Halo CE (maybe anniversary too I'm not sure) you can still hear the voices and screams of the Marines inside the Proto Gravemind, it's hard to hear and they're far and few between but if you clear out the flood and covenant in the area after the cutscene you can wait and listen as you can still hear the screams of the Marines inside.
How did you not notice keyes in the first part of the mission. Haha when i was a kid i remember noticimg it and being fustrated cortana couldnt overide one of the doors
I think that CE Aniversary did few things better but for sure the Keyes terminal added so much to that mission. The raw emotions that it adds supplement the mission making it that so much better.
Interesting, not a fan of the level backwards or forwards! I must admit I have a real soft spot for Assault on the Control Room due to the large scale battles outside, but boy are the indoor areas uninspiring...
The outdoor areas aren't *_too_* bad, generally speaking. (Except some of the bridge fights.) That said, my biggest grip with AotCR is it's length. It drags on and on, esp. if you die quite a bit, which tends to happen to me.
That's from the terminal you can find directly underneath where Keyes in located in the mission. In the anniversary edition only, there's one hidden in each level and they all have cool little 2D scenes like that one.
If level reusing is a problem to you i get it but if it isn't then two betrayals is amazing. It shows the scale of the factions at war and it's fun to watch the ai, same with keyes. Plus ce had a fucking insane developement and very limited time. Tho constant respawning flood is bad but i personally give is a bit of a pass because they can be taken out fast
@@BenPlaysGames If you do, just thought I should point out that there are optional environmental story telling prompts (Hold x to speak with your soldiers) like the cinematics in Halo. I'll post this again on your next vid in case you don't see this reply.
It would have been interesting if the Covenant AI had been able to see you as a potential ally depending on your actions. If you aided them in shooting Flood they could support you and move alongside you as a unit (maybe even have some dialogue noting how this is only temporary). Before completion of the level, or once all Flood in an area are cleared, they finally turn on you. It might've been tricky to implement, and could have probably been exploited to make the level too easy, but would have really shaken up the dynamic towards the end of the game.
So I'm not sure if you take suggestions for videos but something I've always wanted to see as a concise video is what Halo 2/3/ODST/Reach/4/5 never explored again from CE. Example 1. The Silent Cartographer and Halo the missions open ended nature of pick a path and then backtrack to go to another area. But sometimes when backtracking the area will actually change. Example 2. The "big battles" like the fight below the double bridges before reentering the hallways on Attack on the control room.Or the final banshee grab on Two Betrayals if you don't immediately grab a banshee.Or entering the silent cartographer building if you go to the security room first. Example 3. Enemy exclusive weapons and vehicles IE Energy Sword, Fuel Rod, gun and the Wraith Example 4.Boomer shooter esq Power ups in campaign
This level does suffer from a design issue, especially with how close quarters everything feels, but as a narrative it really works. Hearing Cortana scream at Chief to hurry and try to save Keyes is so damn chilling. Love how desperate the situation got, also the build up to getting to the control room is very underrated, the title “The Captain” is kept quiet, the only sounds are the ambiance and the players own thoughts. Really good direction.
The repetitive nature of the flood quickly disappears when you play on something other than normal difficulty... Also, you seemingly forget that Bungie had to make due with what they had anno 2001. That's where the reversed maps come in and especially the infinitely spawning flood. The original xbox doesn't have the hardware to spawn in large quantities of flood at once. So the alternative is endless spawning to make it seem like there are many.
Saying "im not going to spoil things" only to say "it ends badly" makes it obvious what happens especially after just saying in the level you're comparing it to you successfully rescue the captain then say the next level has an unhappy ending is obviously telling us "he obviously doesnt make it"
I think you are missing part of the point, they did plenty to tell the story with the environment the claustrophobic crash side washed in endless flood, the desperate fight to rescue the captain below and onboard the ship is meant to feel like you yourself are being drowned in the flood. The endless flood also push you to keep moving through the fights around you, disorientated and only just able to keep yourself alive. The point is not to get you stuck locked in these battles, but to further enforce the powerlessness, in the part of a game you should have mastered pretty well at this point. You just barely make it, you were just a moment too late and you were almost swallowed in the process. Linger and your fate will be the same, linger and the flood will take over the ring. Humans, Covenant, Whatever, this is the way it all ends. The slugging to a crawl is the point. We can agree that carrier forms triggering grenades is a bit crap though. Any surprise you died and it wasn't your fault, has no place.
I think a big problem is the carrier forms and when they’re flying through the air they’re practically invincible, then they have to go through the whole landing and explode animation. Results in a lot of cheap RNG deaths.
I played all of the halo games on legendary with my nephew(so fun, I sucked majorly but my nephew guided me since I've never had an Xbox and haven't touched halo for almost 10yrs) when we played this one mission, I was shocked man. He showed me the clip(terminal I think?) and I was like, "bruh u always skip these" and this one mission affected my soul man💀 it pained me watching and listening then just seeing him dead like that, it was a lot. I h8 the flood, they're so gross lmaoo. I both love and h8 this Mission
I just binge watched a bunch of your Halo videos lmao. Dude, I’d love to get you involved in this project I’m working on. I followed you on Twitter but you don’t seem to be active. Do you have something I could contact you on?
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Poor old Keyes - worst death in the series?
Must run in the family - Miranda’s was pretty bad too
Both Captain Keyes and Jenkin ends were horrible cause by the Flood hands.
Keyes being slowly strip of his memories.
Jenkins, a prisoner in his own body.
Which one
The reason keyes and truth and reconciliation look similar especially the canyons is because the ship in Keyes is the truth and reconciliation.
Fun fact: I only recently discovered that you can head down the normal way instead of jumping down during the section with Spec ops elites at the end.
God I hated that section. Ended up hiding in a corner while the flood and covenant fought each other
@@hamzahsajjad7952 All you have to do is clear out the top floor. When the banshees come in you can just jump down to it and get in as soon as the elite gets out. You'll be quick enough to trigger the cutscene before dying.
@@MintyLime703 yup I did on my first playthrough this january lmao I didn't knew what I did
I tried doing this to clear out every Elite for an achievement and was floored by how many spec ops you have to fight through.
@@MintyLime703 oh shit you guys meant the hangar, my bad. I thought the bridge room after you find keyes, man fuck that part
Seeing the Keyes-Gravemind with a big gaping hole where his head would be was extremely visceral for me as a kid back in the 2000's.
One of the most visceral scenes in the series, gets me every time. The terminal is also a rare case of the anniversary edition actually elevating things too, it's amazing and rather horrible!
@@BenPlaysGames The terminal heavily pulls from the original book adaptation (rather than give 343 too much credit for doing a great job themselves ;). Iirc the flood doesn't actually talk to Keyes directly like it does in the terminal. Better that way imo but probably difficult to portray effectively.
When I played that shit for the first time as kid is scared me so bad didn't touch halo for a good 2 weeks lol
I couldn't play Halo when it came out, in fact I played Halo CE until 2013. I only played Halo 2. But when I first played Halo CE and found Keyes, I thought it was my mistake and got really scared xD
@zeroxz2159
Yeah. It's written more like keyes is thinking to himself and his thoughts wonder and he questions himself why his thoughts wonders before he reaches the conclusion he's captive and cycles over
Gotta be honest, I really don't know how much I can trust your opinion on CE levels after watching you pass over 2 shotguns on a flood level 😂
I know right
yeah and then he says fuel rod grunts are anoying, when he dosent head shot them and let them blow up the elites
THIS. I think it might be a serious case of game journalist illness... This is a kind of person to never learn how to kill marauders in Doom Eternal.
@@balanoidik I think all of his criticism was valid even if his gameplay wasn't the best. And who knows, maybe he simply didn't want to use shotguns in order to handicap himself?
@@zafelrede4884 Uuuuuh-huh...
One of my favorite details about the Keyesmind is that you can find a tentacle hanging off the edge of the podium area, still clutching Keyes' pipe. Just a small detail but massively impactful when I first discovered it years ago.
Keyes was like "Bro just one more hit, I'm begging you" 😂😂😂
It's an achievement on MCC to spot it now
I finished CE's campaign not too long ago, this mission caused me trauma. Not because it was scary, but the fact that it took me 3 days to finish
What difficulty were you playing in?
How’d the Library go?
I myself played Halo: CE for the first time last week and some of the later levels were quite difficult, it doesn't help that I don't usually play FPS games and played it on Heroic difficulty. Combat Evolved is still a great game but it's definitely showing its age, especially because of some repetitive levels like Library which honestly got pretty boring after 10-15 minutes.
legendary is very tough, but unlike in 2 it feels fair, like any death is your own shortcomings rather than the enemy having an unfair advantage like the sniper jackals
@@h.knight the game shines in the levels such as Halo, death island and assault on the control room.
Personally, i really enjoy how dark this level is. It's the only level in Halo CE (and by extension the whole trilogy) where you absolutely have to use the flashlight, as well as monitor it's battery. It comes in handy in other levels, but Keyes really forces you to treat it like a resource.
Though i'd have to agree the infinite spawn areas are a bit unbalanced.
Love the video! Keeping me entertained during Australia's lockdown
I didn’t know the flashlight had battery, even though I was staring at the battery monitor a lot when playing
What is it?
2020, still?
Wait the light had a battery?
The fuel rod grunts are good for taking out his buddies or at least weakening them
? Okay I can confirm, COVID is still pretty alive, my entire family has it right now, and I’m from the US.
I'm probably in the minority here, but Keyes is my favourite mission in Halo CE and always has been, and I disagree with most of your gripes with this mission.
Seeing the Covenant fighting for their life to stop the Flood from taking over the ship and repairing it just shows how truly dangerous the Flood is. I love that parts of the ship are still under Covenant control and others are taken over by the Flood, with the stockpiling of bodies for biomass, and once you see the Spec Ops squads of Elites and Grunts, which we haven't seen before, it shows how damn serious the situation is. The level is messy, tight corridor fighting, and I love seeing the Covenant and Flood go at it all over the ship.
I really don't see the issue with the infinite waves of Flood. If you actually go on and clear them out, they will stop spawning in the majority of cases, otherwise clear what you have in front of you and keep moving. And again, isn't that the whole point of the Flood? A seemingly endless horde? It makes more sense here than in 343 or Library as they are actively fighting, killing and assimilating the Covenant, so it would be expected to have massive amounts of Flood around. And the darkness of coolant pool section is not a problem, you should be using your radar to anticipate the direction the Flood are coming. It actually makes using the flashlight worthwhile, unlike in most of the game. You definitely have the tools you need to successfully approach every encounter.
The amount of grenades going off can be an issue, admittedly, but if you're running straight into Carrier Forms, fuel rod Grunts and grenades, then what do you expect? The fuel rods take a good 2 or 3 seconds to explode, and are very easily noticeable that the Grunts have black armour and carry something large and green, not to mention when they die and let off the green gas. You should be beyond accustomed to Carrier forms and what they do by this point, so the only thing that should be killing you, ideally, are chaining explosions, which can feel a bit random sure, and that comes down to the player being perceptive enough and not committing the same mistake again and again. This level punishes you heavily if you just run into every fight, and I don't think that is bad or lazy game design. Knowing when to back off is something that is thrown at you the moment you encounter and fight the Flood and is their whole combat cornerstone through the franchise and is very present here.
The Library is a much more atrocious level in terms of combat and space, especially at higher difficulties.
I agree with you. Even the recycling level geometry doesn't feel bad since you go trought a different route, unlike Two Betrayals.
i like assault on the control room and the other one which reuses the map
Keyes and The Library were my two favorite missions.
Yeah, said something similar. I think allot of the complaints are entirely missing the point.
Great counter-assessment, I agree with basically everything you've put forth. No idea why this video is so negative on CE as a whole lol
There's something I find incredibly disturbing about Keyes contacting you in the level is how he attempts to turn you away, even outright ordering you to do so. Did the Flood "force" him to say that in a clumsy attempt to fool Cortana and the Chief into leaving it alone so it could finish assimilating the Captain? The fact that Keyes can scream in agony near the end heavily implies he was still aware on some level. Even if the Chief had arrived several minutes earlier while Keyes was still conscious, there was nothing to be done, even if part of Keyes consciousness remained his body was thoroughly infected by the Flood, and the Master Chief would have had to kill him anyway.
In the novelization it straight up says that he is essentially being interrogated by the flood and he is resisting.
"This level is unfair!" * passes by multiple shotguns in the level he complains about being close quarters *
Halo CE have the most fair legendary difficult. In Halo 2 you will die one shot if you find a combat form with a shotgun, and rocket flood are cancer to vehicles since they have homing against you.
@@naxxodrop Oh God! Please don't remind me!
Keyes is a bad level? This is the first I’ve heard of it.
It's one of my favorites lol
I really liked it too. I enjoyed exploring everything. You can also grenade jump to the hanger across the hole instead of jumping into the coolant
Yeah same, I really love this level
Maybe it's just me 😂
@@BenPlaysGames like I understand your complaints for sure I just really love seeing the flood and covenant go at it and seeing how messed up the ship is and how desperate the covenant are
I actually LOVE the little part of the hunters and the endless waves of infection and carrier forms, it shows that it doesn't matter how badass you are, the flood will eventually overwhelm you. Bungie did a fantastic work of showing just how much of an all consuming serious threat they are and it conveys a potent feeling of helplessnes to the player.
That's a good point. Bungie deliberately created a world in which those hunters can't possibly win, and illustrated why these things are called the Flood.
I agree it's not like you can just gun them all down and chill in an empty zone
Credit to Pete Stacker for portraying his fight against the Proto-Gravemind with so much authentic pain in his voice. Reading it in the Flood novel was traumatising enough but that terminal was on another level.
I thought you meant Sgt stacker till I realized both the character and stack have the same name.
Still don’t know how stacker survived reach, both installations, earth, the ark, and the shield world.
@@sebastiankrueger6209 that's my thoughts too every time I get a "Chips Dubbo" marine
Dude has been through hell lmao
It's a good video, but I disagree with it immensely. Keyes is one of the best levels in CE, in my opinion - not only because of its environmental storytelling, but I also think it is the only time fighting the flood by themselves is interesting. You fight Covenant a few times, to be sure, but always on a distinct backfoot from their end, and the small corridots that loop on each other still allow you to maneuver around the horde in interesting ways whilst making you consider how you deal with the different forms, with a distinct push and pull to fighting the masses of corpses that is as interesting as the Flood can get without the third party component to them.
Not that related, but I also do think the hate on the 'reverse' levels of CE is overdone. Keyes is a great remix of Truth and Reconciliation that I feel, at least compared to the *ship* parts of Truth and Reconciliation, far beats it in playability and fun factor - the Covenant are ironically really uninteresting to fight in corridors, comparatively, and the level features a lot of doubling down. Two Betrayals is eons better than Assault on Control Room, featuring the highlights of threeway (and even fourway, in a sense) fights, plenty of great vehicle sections with more varied approaches possible compared to Assault.
Nevertheless, decent video that shares your thoughts on the topic. I agree the level is more 'closed', but that isn't a bad thing necessarily, not with the Flood. My one huge disappointment with this level, personally, is that even if you manage the jump over the coolant hole using grenades, you'll be in a locked off, gated version of the hangar that you can't proceed from.
I agree, I next to never replay Assault on the Control Room but Two Betrayals? Bitch thats my favourite Halo Level.
@@Nephalem2002 Two Betrayals and The Covenant are the best missions in all of Halo imo
This. I argue that the remix and reusing of the levels is very intentional:
In the earlier missions Pillar of Autumn, Truth & Reconciliation (T&R) and Assault on the Control Room, you got used to the environments you were in, and fighting only Covenant.
Then the end of the game flips it up by throwing you Flood & Sentinels to give the player the feeling of what an absolute clusterfuck the whole Halo ring is becoming into.
This clusterfuck feeling wouldn't had worked if they used entirely new levels; simply because there wasn't any similar environments to benchmark and compare too. Whereas for example in this Keyes mission, you can compare to your experience with T&R, and witness what an absolute clusterfuck T&R has turned into. Which then gives the brilliant atmospheric feeling of a "before & after" comparison.
That was how I felt as a teen playing Halo 1 for the 1st time; seeing the same levels but now everything's getting extra fucked up everywhere, add to the sense of horror and also urgency in completing your mission.
In a way, if for example some foreign city gets damaged, would you had cared? But if it's a city that you visited a few times, and seeing it damaged, won't you feel a sense of dread? Because you're familiar with the latter rather than the former.
And that is precisely why I think Bungie chose to reuse these levels, to achieve this atmospheric effect in the later part of the game.
Hence in that regard, I never understood the criticism of Bungie reusing the levels; it was intentional to maximize a certain storytelling element of the campaign.
Your just being contrarian.
The hate on the "reverse" level certainly isn't "overdone", it was very real and makes total sense.
Backtracking was a thing of the 90s, done to pad game time and save the developers from having to make new levels.
It's litterally called Combat Evolved, so to have such a old game design in a game meant for the new millennium, was extremly insulting.
Especially as GTA 3 had released just a month prior, and showed what could be achieved with open worlds, ect.
As for Two Betrayels, it's only better, if your not playing on the harder difficulties.
Otherwise it's a total slog and a immensly frustrating level. (Flood with Bazooka's, and Banshee's attacking you on the bridge).
Assualt on the control room, don't have these kind of problems on Heroic or Legendary.
Levels being "closed" in a Halo game is infact a bad thing.
Halo was litterally marketing itself on the vastness of their levels.
@@Orcawhale1 I'd rather you didn't try to dismiss my opinions as contrarian when I've provided arguments for them.
The backtracking was yes, largely informed by their limitations - but I do think on occasion, the limitations can make a product better. While at the time there was a perception of backtracking as 'lazy', I'd argue Halo did what very few games back then managed to or even bothered - it changed enough about he levels and added story context that it rarely felt like you were just being put through the exact same rooms. They changed the order, the enemies, even the assets in the revisit to the ships (Covenant and Marine ship both)
There's definitely spots where it gets a bit old - specifically the infamous copypasted rooms of control room, even backwards and reduced in frequency with vehicles and other shortcuts, get a bit old - but the reason Two Betrayals is my favorite is that I consider it much better than the 'first' go at the level. More vehicle sections, a lot of factional infighting whcih is great, and varied environments for fights comparatively (by using some vehicle arenas as on foot sections and vice versa)
Yes, we used to be big on 'big levels are better!' back then, and some of Halo's best levels are absolutely the wide big ones. But I'd argue this isn't always the case, and this is specially true with the flood. The Flood are utterly uninteresting to fight in a big wide room, or god forbid, a huge open area. They're chargers who fire the occasional pot shot, and in that sense, they're much more interesting to fight in close quarters.
I didn't find the repeat levels significantly harder on Legendary outside of, obviously, RPG flood. I don't think anyone will say those were a good idea.
I think one of the design flaws of CE is how the flood is mechanically presented in their first two missions - in each encounter, you're locked into a scenario where you *have* to fight them, setting a precedent for player expectation in the remainder of the campaign. In Keyes, the steady stream of infinite flood of course seems antithetical to what the player's been taught up until this point, and trying to kill off every flood enemy they come across will lead to frustration - instead, I find that Keyes becomes a lot more fun to play with a "Fight OR Flight" mindset, where you have to actively decide what particular battles you want to engage with and which ones should be simply avoided.
I always liked the missions where multiple factions of enemy NPC are fighting and you can just chill out and let the enemy destroy each other and mop up whats left if you want to me thats one of the thing that I remember making Halo so interesting and different when it came out
This is true! I think for me though, Keyes is a bit too cramped and I much prefer the multifaction battles out on the snow in Two Betrayals where there's a bit more room to manoeuvre.
If this level feels hard, use the Shotgun. Trust me, it instantly changes the dificulty from Legendary to Heroic.
Repetition is not a problem in Halo's second half, it's an awesome way to re-explore the game now that The Flood have been unleashed and to see how they have affected the areas we've already been through.
Backtracking through the game was one of my favourite parts about Combat Evolved, it's super cool to see the game play out effectively twice, I've never understood why everyone hates on it.
The infinitely spawning carrier forms against the hunters aren't a problem either, because 1) they're there to show how much of a threat the Flood are and how insurmountable they are as a foe, and 2) they stop infinitely spawning as soon as you jump down and hit the land the hunters are on.
yeah, all you have to do is be aware and skilled, unlike in h2 where the difficulty is more artificial and thus irritating, the difficulty in halo ce is down to your own skill
@@tatotaytoman5934 I know where you're coming from but H2 isn't just mindless bullet sponge. If you play it poorly it is but the huge buffs enemies get make skillful and tactical play that much more important. The H2 legendary elite AI is incredible.
I've probably beat H2 legendary dozens of times. All I had to play as a kid. I enjoy the difficulty. It sucks the other games aren't as hard. Reach legendary was pretty good, H3 legendary felt like I was playing Heroic. Just walking up and punching brutes to death.
I mostly enjoy H1 on heroic as I enjoy using the assault rifle. Not really viable on Legendary
@@Theviewerdude Definitely down to personal preference, I personally play on Heroic in every game because it's the most fun - beat all the games on solo legendary once just to say I've done it but it's not fun at all in Halo 2 (to me). Agree mostly that Halo 3 is a bit easy and Halo Reach was quite difficult, but Reach was at least fun unlike Halo 2's cheap insta-death nightmare and I still lose sleep over Gravemind haha
Repetition and backtracking is a huge problem for Halo CE, because it's what truly dates the game, and makes it feel older than it is.
Backtracking is only done to save development time and pad game time, which is why it's so hated.
Combine that with the endless corridors which all look the same, and it's recipe for disaster, for anyone looking to revist the game.
What's more, you mention that the flood change the level, which they simply don't.
Keyes is the only level, wherin the level is actully changed in any meaningfull way.
Try and play the entire campaign again without the nostalgia glasses, and you quickly realize why it's so hated.
@@Orcawhale1 I play the entire game regularly, I can't count how many times I've done full playthroughs.
I can acknowledge the game's flaws but backtracking isn't one of them, especially when you consider that going through the levels literally backwards are completely different, with the exception of Two Betrayals.
It's not just retreading the campaign, they give you different routes to take, different enemies to fight, weapons to use and even mission lengths, to say nothing of my initial comment and give the player a look at how things change with the Flood on the field now.
They could have chosen to do 4 new levels instead, but then the player only sees levels like The Library where the only time we get to experience them is as Flood-Infested messes. What does the Library itself look like without the Flood being there, no one knows, so we have no context until mission 8+
Never thought about how the narrative similarities in T&R/Keyes (kind of) explain the reused level design. I still think Two Betrayals is my favorite mission in the second half of CE but my respect for the mission just went up after watching this video
I don't know why people dislike Two Betrayals. Sure the mission's layout is "Assault on the Control Room" going backwards, but the mission offers so many great enemy encounters and environmental storytelling.
I really like the flood/covenant encounters during that mission, super fun.
Keyes is one of the only missions that I think benefits from the remaster, the dark canyon areas are lit up by the glowing coolant, and there are even bits of flood fog leaking into the ship itself through the vents.
I also like the look of the proto gravemind and love the terminal in its room.
Proto Gravemind does look awesome to be fair, and the terminal is solid gold!
Yeah I think you need to look at this level again. It was by far one of the best story missions of CE. The delimma between getting Truth and Reconciliation back up and running and trying to eradicate the flood with the Covenant plot. Chief was only there to find Keyes and we see that even the strongest wills can be taken over by the flood. We also see how similar we are with the original humans and forerunners with this specific mission. The clips we see in future games show how quickly friends can be turned into enemies and enemies into friends because of the flood. This mission was amazing in getting us to realize that the flood are the endgame.
Keys is one of my favorite missions (2nd only to Two Betrayals in CE). I know the waves flood are annoying, but that in itself is story telling.
Covanant- the alliance that has humanity on the ropes- is trying in vain to retake the ship. Spec opps teams, valiant last stands... all for naught; they cannot stop the flood through conventional means.
This is what awaits the galaxy if you dont stop it now.
Like I said, I love this mission.
I thought this mission was so impossible when I was young, and replaying it recently I figured out that you're not meant to fight everyone. You simply have to take advantage of both sides fighting and to help one more than the others to have an easy passage. I think it's a smart level design element where you have to act differently since you're alone now against two armies at the same time. The enemy of my enemy they say...
It's nice to see some Halo CE analysis, especially using the real graphics. Definitely my favorite Halo game.
Although, I really enjoy Keyes, and Two Betrayals is my favorite Mission!
I love the second mission Halo. One of those levels I could live in forever and never get bored.
You know despite how disappointing 5 is, I would be curious to see you try to analyze one of its levels thou not sure how much in detail analysis you could do
I've actually thought about working on 4 and 5, but I find a lot of the levels quite bland and I don't want to force a video if I don't have enough to say. So, I've actually just recently started playing Halo 4 through with a view to doing one video for the entire campaign.
@@BenPlaysGames Would be very interested to see. The gameplay of 4 is so backwards compared to the other games I’d love to hear your thoughts on damage feedback/visual clarity, ammo capacity or weapon variety, just to name a few.
@@BenPlaysGames fair enough
@@BenPlaysGames Will you be doing every mission from the original trilogy or the entire franchise? Can't wait to see how you analyze Infinite's missions.
@@BenPlaysGames Can't wait for that video as 4's story does have some redeeming qualities to it, while the gameplay and sandbox feel lacking compared to what has come before it. Halo 5, while largely incoherent, I do remember enjoying some levels, especially the last snow level where the environment opens up for once instead of ramming players down a narrow corridor.
I actually think *it* is the worst mission because I think The Library is better. Not sure why, but I’ve always found this mission more tedious than The Library.
By the way, this mean you’re going to make videos on every level in CE just like you did with Titanfall 2 right?
Either way, thanks for another great video.
No worries at all dude - I'm not sure, but it may well end up happening! Need to finish Titanfall 2 first haha.
@@BenPlaysGames Haha, I thought you'd done it already. Anyway, I think you very well could do. You always manage to have an interesting angel on the leve, regardless of whether the level is good or bad. I sure hope the devs of future Halo's are watching your videos!
This level broke my last monitor.... bullshit carrier spawns
Carrier forms and tight corridors absolutely do not mix 😂
Your takes on missions are sus! The mission Keys was unbelievable in story telling. The fact that you go to save him and he’s already gone by the time you get to him and showing the first ever proto gravemind is the real only Point of this mission besides the neural implant
Halo spv3 take on this level was amazing in my opinion because they toss in the audio from the Halo CE terminal of him fighting the flood in his mind. You can hear him saying it over the course of the level as you get closer to him. Giving the sense of he's getting tormented as ya fight to get to him.
Completely disagree, flood and covenant, especially the special ops, packed into a tight space offers something completely different and I love the chaos of it.
Beaten the game a few times on legendary myself, IMO the problem with this level isn't that its unfair so to speak but it requires vastly different strategy than the rest of the game. Using the ample supply of grenades to pre-clear flood respawn points then rushing past with the shotgun made most of this level a joke. Plus the carrier forms actively help you if you can kill them while they're in a crowd.
I think most of your problems with the level, going by the footage, are that you are completely failing to adapt your tactics to counter the flood, and thus are having a lot of trouble fighting them.
Yeah using a pistol on the flood ain't very effective.
Full auto or shotgun. You gotta move as well.
@@thecoolnerdplaysvr5674 The pistol is highly effective. Assualt rifle is decent against infection forms though.
@@Sapoman2211 it about efficiency using a plasma rifle shot gun combo is how you take em out one good for both covenant and floor and one good at clearing hallways
Rocket Launcher Flood in CE are actually rather fair, once you know of them. There are virtually no randomly generated rocket launcher flood, and all are placed in generally wide open, decently lit areas (i think the tightest being a bridge on two betrayals). An experienced player can play their approaches to scenarios around them. This actually made them rather interesting threats to me. I don't think they can spawn randomly in halo 2 either, though they are much rarer, appearing only during vehicle bits, and that one in the super dark room in High Charity (the later of which i particularly hate). Halo 3 seems to have opted out of them entirely, which I'm kind of sad about, as it feels like an odd exclusion.
Yeah but in Halo 2 they spawn in vehicle sections and have the AI homing rockets, so you're literally fucked if you don't pre-empt them, it's a bit bull.
Think the tightest rocket spawn in CE is during Two Betrayals in the corridor, and in a sense you're warned about it most of the time by it absolutely wrecking the two elites in the doorway as you approach.
Despite the shit with Keyes, I loved the combat loop in the ship how it alternates between the flood and covenant, as annoying and ridiculous as it can be when you're trapped and overwhelemd by the food, the cycle of shooting your gun, Throwing your grenade and watching flood fly never gets old. Then encountering the damn special forces caught me as a kid (literally, I ended up shouting in surprise when i saw the grunts throw the grenades)
I have PTSD from the fuel rod cannons haha.
Gotta love you using the classic graphics. Not those trash remastered anniversary graphics.
I find it waaaaay harder to focus on things in the Anniversary edition, so much going on everywhere!
@@BenPlaysGames I agree as an og 343 ruined the art style and its damn near impossible to focus on literally anything
Honestly the remastered graphics don't bother me in any way, except for THE FUCKIN FACES. OH GOD FACES ARE ABOMINATIONS IN REMASTERED
Everything is too bright
@@Bojoschannel Agreed. It ruins the tone for a lot of levels like 343 gs or Keyes
I was surprised to see that the terminal animation for Keyes being assimilated is pretty much identical to a scene from the Halo: The Flood novel.
I spotted this straight away too, was very surprised the first time I came across the terminal.
I’m sorry but as amazingly in depth your analysis are I believe strongly that the outdoor environment should not be brighter. honestly It kind of shocks me that you think so after seeing your hot take on 343 Guilty spark. Just no.
It's the level that truly tests your flashlight discretion.
Dude your channel is super underrated. You’re definitely going to blow up in the future, every video you make is really high quality
The description for this level on the original Halo CE (Something like "Stage a 1 cyborg assault and bring back the captain") made me so happy when I first played it. The Flood are now a massive threat and we've not seen any other humans since they were unleashed, so hopefully at least the Captain will survive along with the Master Chief and Cortana once this is all over.
The sucker punch of the Captain being killed off really hit me.
Keyes was always one of my favorite missions. The dark and claustrophobic tunnels in both the canyon and ship help add to the frantic tension in trying to rescue the Captain. Up to this point, the Covenant were always seen as your hated enemy, one that's pushed humanity into a corner and on the verge of extinction but now they're desperately trying to fight off a more deadly threat and I kinda felt bad for them. So much in fact, I spent most of my time focusing on killing the Flood and only killing the Covenant troops only when necessary.
Is Keyes a perfect level? No, biggest complaint is how many times I've had to stop because, like you said, there are a lot of carrier forms that will explode. The carrier forms exploding also set off chain reactions from the littered grenades on the ground, grinding everything to a halt. I can't remember how many times I've camped in a hallway, fighting off Flood and Covenant only to die because I was waiting for the explosions to die. The constantly spawning Flood is a double-edged sword. It's very annoying but it also adds to the frantic situation that's occurred now that the Flood has been released. You're not meant to fight them all off and it's a motivator to keep moving, but like you said, the design flaw of having too many carrier forms setting off chain reactions works against what you're supposed to do.
The best part of the terminal cutscene is the entire thing is almost line for line pulled from the The Flood novel, it's just a shame the other side characters and stories in the novelization didn't get the same treatment as the Keyes scene.
I felt like every terminal in Anniversary should've revolved around the side stories from The Flood. I didn't get much from the Guilty Spark terminal except for the Didact foreshadowing in the last one and the secret Threshold terminal. Other than that, the Keys terminal was the only one I would actively search for in subsequent replays of Anniversary.
Personally I find Keyes to be a very good mission. I believe they were going more for atmosphere which they did very well. All through out the game the survivors of the pillar of autumn never fully went toe to toe with the covenant, they resorted to small raids and hit and run tactics because a pitched battle would have lead to a decisive defeat. So this being in mind seeing the covenant using all of their effort to push back the flood and failing makes the mission seem apocalyptic. The darkness of the level adds a fear of was that a shadow or a combat form. I don't mind the endless flood either it just shows that no matter how many you kill they will never stop coming they are infinite and you are hopeless. I feel though they should have had the library go easy on the flood since it was still in its earlier outbreak stage maybe fighting a mixture of flood and covenant survivors then on Keys just full sending it.
the unlimited flood for me was really nice at the hunter part, because alot of this mission gives you the option to sit it out and wat ch them kill eachother and save ammo, or get involved makes every encounter feel like 2 options are present
also shot gun and grenades for the difficulty you can one shot all flood
I think Keys is one of CE's best levels in terms of set design, and the contrast between seeing TnR operational vs seeing it utterly wrecked by the flood. Unlike the library, this level is fantastic for really selling how relentless and overwhelming the flood are by showing what is happening aboard the ship. It's chaotic, the covenant are noticeably cornered and panicked, and it really feels like ship and the Covenant are falling apart and flood filling in the cracks.
I just wish the gameplay and encounter design were as good as the environment design.
I always loved this mission. The flood taking over the ship, with covenant survivors desperately fighting them off, was fun
When me and my older brother and me play this mission, he always says why didn’t chief just break into the bridge area
Exactly! Just punch/shoot through the metal grate...
You mentioned not liking Two Betrayals that much since it's just a backwards trek through Assault On The Control Room, and it is absolutely that, but I've always actually enjoyed that level. It gave me a real sense of "everything's changed now". Before, it was me, the lone super soldier saving humanity from evil aliens and feeling badass while doing so. But after the Flood's introduction the whole universe of Halo grew. Suddenly everything's changed and now it's just a desperate scramble for survival and Two Betrayals does a great job of conveying that.
In AotCR the environment is bright and visible with triumphant action-packed music to get you pumping throughout it. In Two Betrayals however, it's dark and snowy and the music is far more melancholic. It gave me a sense of longing for when things were easy like they were in AotCR, but now I have to try and survive against endless alien zombies while trying to achieve my goal of blowing up one of the most significant findings in human history (up to that point of course).
And I dun' care what anybody says, despite how great future Halo games might have been, none of them could match my two favourite moments in gaming (ODST as Rookie piecing together the story and Jorge's big bang in Reach came kinda close). Reunion Tour (2nd level, Halo) and Final Run (on Two Betrayals). The music in Reunion Tour gave me the most amazing sense of adventure while driving up that hill in the warthog, and Final Run's great piece of musical timing was simply awe-inspiring for me. Made me appreciate the epic journey I had been on and steeled me for the final push to the last objective before we could deal with Halo itself.
Of course, the level IS still a stupid, long, grueling ordeal and fighting through both a flood army AND a covenant army just to get to the last banshees was an utter dick move. And don't get me STARTED on those damn bridges. But despite that, I still think of the level fondly!
I actually agree with you on this mate, while I think the actual level design featured in Two Betrayals is uninspired to say the least, I love the battles out on the snow between Chief, the Flood and the Covenant. Blew me 13 year old me away back in 2001!
Dude this game play takes away from his commentary, like he's trying to make a good intelligent point, but in the background he sees like 3 infection forms and just unloads a whole AR mag into the floor around them and even then barely gets them😭😭😭😭😭
Nah dude, that's strategic play. Trying to scare them off.
I'll have to disagree, for me the level could have been 1/4 shorter, but combat as is rocks specifically on legendary difficulty.
You're a braver man that me Israel, I'm good for ever playing that mission on legendary again 😂
In the hangar section if you don't attack the covenant forces they will start to fight eachother for space on the incoming transport. This level gives you a few different opportunities to use the covenant and flood as a temporary ally to fight the others.
I can confirm that at the part where you have to jump down into the coolant, the waves of flood that spawn to encourage you to jump are not infinite and it is possible to kill all of them however it is not really worth it unless you are going for 100% kills or going for par score achievements.
I'd rather eat my own foot than try killing all of them 😂
Halo CE's First half is amazing, and the Second half is.........
Yeah, its there.
if halo ce had a few more years to be made, we wouldn’t have had all of these copy and paste missions
Definitely dude, you can see from the repetition in the second half of the campaign that Bungie was working to a budget/deadline and so concessions had to be made. The first half of Combat Evolved in particular is ridiculously good.
I really enjoy the mission for the fact that Covenant is clearly in the midst of fighting a war with Flood.
I usually try avoid fighting the Covenant too much in the mission and more or less use them as means to control the hordes of Flood and keep the mission from getting out of hand.
So I've watched a few of your videos, and dude, I think you just don't like the flood.
Ha I like the flood in the right situation, but they're a tricky proposition as they're often paired with very repetitive environments which isn't where they shine. A lot of people really dislike Two Betrayals in CE, but I actually really like it, as I think the flood work best in open areas with other factions in the mix.
Personally my favorite way to play Keyes is on heroic difficulty with the bandana skull on. I've found that infinite ammunition, and by extension infinite grenades, balances out the endless Flood areas of the level to where they're a lot more enjoyable. They're still a little jank especially with how many carrier forms there are, but it does quite a bit to make it more fun. Also, playing Keyes with the boom skull on is an extremely chaotic and funny experience. It's ridiculous and impractical, but there's something very comedic about it too. And it's also very satisfying when you manage to deliberately set off a grenade chain reaction without getting killed yourself, and watch Covenant and Flood alike get thrown flying through the air in all directions.
20 years and hundreds of play throughs, never saw keyes in the beginning
Easy enough to miss, to be fair!
...endless flood...yes i do believe its in the name. they are called the flood not the trickle
Kinda like 'the trickle', pretty cute name!
Finished CE for the first time today and I didn't have too big of an issue with this mission. Yeah the endless respawns were annoying at first, but after a minute or two, I figured you just had to plow right through the area and going through Flood with a shotgun in hand is always fun. And unlike everyone else, I didn't have an issue with the darkness of the canyon and I was playing on classic graphics. Also one of my personal favorite parts of this level is that after discovering Keyes, if you immediately head to the exit door, the Covenant will emerge at the same time as the Flood in the adjacent door and they'll take each other out for you, pretty relaxing to watch if I might add lol
Ben, I love both your thoughts and your commentary, but I couldn't disagree more with you on this one. Keyes is one of my favorite missions in the game. I do agree that the outdoor section could have been done better, the lack of proper lighting is frustrating at times and some of the "pool of ship coolant where infinite carrier forms spawn" is not terribly fun to play through. I know most people aren't big fans of the anniversary graphical overhaul but I actually think the outdoor section of Keyes is an area where it shines. The improved lighting and additional detail breathes much needed life into the environment, not only making it easier to see but also evoking a stronger sensation of being in a canyon underneath a heavily damaged starship. And also the coolant looks more like coolant and less like mint flavored mouthwash. For the interior sections, the original graphics hold up much better. I really loved that you mentioned the moment when Cortana points out that the Flood are gathering bodies in one of the hangar bays. It's one of the most unsettling moments in the entire game in my opinion, and the added detail of the blood streaks dragged across the floor felt sincerely disturbing to me. It really gave me the sensation of being trapped, inside this gigantic machine, with all these mazes of hallways and corridors, with everything that's dead. The ceiling gaps that spawn endless carrier forms in a couple sections are...less than satisfactory, I will concede that. But the entire sequence from moment Chief steps into the giant three floored hangar bay to the end of the level is fantastic. There's so fucking many Covenant and Flood, and they fight one another in many points. Going into the second floor hallway on the far end of the hangar begins and encounter with grunts running from combat forms. The spirit dropship that drops off the spec ops grunts and elites on the ground floor when you get to the third floor is super cool. And I find it genuinely humorous to cause massive chain reaction explosions by killing fuel rod wielding grunts only for their weapon to detonate and in turn blow up piles of grenades on the floor. There's something hysterically funny about it to me for some reason.
Love the content keep it up!
Cheers Highground, will do mate!
if only bungie released a reimagining of the original halo.....it'd be a weird one but damn i'd love to see atleast some developers view on that and what they would do...
10:38
Why in the BLIND hell did you stand there?
Stupidity 😂
One thing most don't notice about the Proto Gravemind, is in Vanilla Halo CE (maybe anniversary too I'm not sure) you can still hear the voices and screams of the Marines inside the Proto Gravemind, it's hard to hear and they're far and few between but if you clear out the flood and covenant in the area after the cutscene you can wait and listen as you can still hear the screams of the Marines inside.
Oh wow, that's super cool - I had no idea that was included at all, thanks for pointing it out.
Noticed the protogravemind the first time and thought "meh, probably nothing"...
I ran past like an unobservant wally 😂
You understand the shotgun makes this a breeze right? This level is nowhere near as bad as you make it sound
Fun fact there is NOT A SINGLE ONE INFINITE WAVE IN KEYES
Feels endless though 😂
@@BenPlaysGames well mmmmmm yeah…
most of the gameplay problem you found are due to the fact that you dont use the shotgun. really
Man I just did this mission for the first time last night.... I am glad I am not the only one that thought the second half was BS!
It's a bit of a slog to say the least!
With content like this, you are destined to blow up 👍🏻👊🏻
That's super kind Aiden, thanks mate!
How did you not notice keyes in the first part of the mission. Haha when i was a kid i remember noticimg it and being fustrated cortana couldnt overide one of the doors
No idea mate, it's pretty obvious too - gotta keep my eyes peeled more!
This is my favorite level in CE LASO since flood bump exists. Easiest mission by far.
Had no idea what the Flood bump was until I just watched a video on it. Cool trick.
“Let’s go alreadayyyyyyyyyyyy!”
I’d be so happy if someone got this meme in a meme
I think that CE Aniversary did few things better but for sure the Keyes terminal added so much to that mission. The raw emotions that it adds supplement the mission making it that so much better.
Really appreciate you always using classic graphics, keeping that original artistic interpretation
Always, Anniversary graphics are too much for me haha.
Here here. Does my eyes and heart good to see those beautiful OG CE graphics. They're simple but elegant.
While I do like keys and consider it a favorite, much of your criticism/observations are spot on.
Thanks William!
Actually I never jump when the flood starts comin in the beginning and I always manage to kill them all.....then jump
I'd argue it's the second worst mission in CE... Make that third. AotCR, and Two Betrayals are 1 and 2, imo.
Interesting, not a fan of the level backwards or forwards! I must admit I have a real soft spot for Assault on the Control Room due to the large scale battles outside, but boy are the indoor areas uninspiring...
The outdoor areas aren't *_too_* bad, generally speaking. (Except some of the bridge fights.) That said, my biggest grip with AotCR is it's length. It drags on and on, esp. if you die quite a bit, which tends to happen to me.
what are those 2d animated scenes like the one at the very beginning showing the captains memories
That's from the terminal you can find directly underneath where Keyes in located in the mission. In the anniversary edition only, there's one hidden in each level and they all have cool little 2D scenes like that one.
Would be cool if he was a boss fight
If level reusing is a problem to you i get it but if it isn't then two betrayals is amazing. It shows the scale of the factions at war and it's fun to watch the ai, same with keyes. Plus ce had a fucking insane developement and very limited time. Tho constant respawning flood is bad but i personally give is a bit of a pass because they can be taken out fast
I hate the repetitive level design of Two Betrayals, but I have a massive soft spot for the flood vs covenant battles out of the snow. So good.
@@BenPlaysGames yeah i see the point. Again to be fair the developers had a load of troubled production supposedly.
Attempt 1 at asking for a review on Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. Only game I love more that Titanfall 2
Never played it before Zane - I'll add it to my ever growing list mate! Heard it's really good.
@@BenPlaysGames If you do, just thought I should point out that there are optional environmental story telling prompts (Hold x to speak with your soldiers) like the cinematics in Halo. I'll post this again on your next vid in case you don't see this reply.
It would have been interesting if the Covenant AI had been able to see you as a potential ally depending on your actions. If you aided them in shooting Flood they could support you and move alongside you as a unit (maybe even have some dialogue noting how this is only temporary). Before completion of the level, or once all Flood in an area are cleared, they finally turn on you. It might've been tricky to implement, and could have probably been exploited to make the level too easy, but would have really shaken up the dynamic towards the end of the game.
This my favorite mission in ce
So I'm not sure if you take suggestions for videos but something I've always wanted to see as a concise video is what Halo 2/3/ODST/Reach/4/5 never explored again from CE.
Example 1. The Silent Cartographer and Halo the missions open ended nature of pick a path and then backtrack to go to another area. But sometimes when backtracking the area will actually change.
Example 2. The "big battles" like the fight below the double bridges before reentering the hallways on Attack on the control room.Or the final banshee grab on Two Betrayals if you don't immediately grab a banshee.Or entering the silent cartographer building if you go to the security room first.
Example 3. Enemy exclusive weapons and vehicles IE Energy Sword, Fuel Rod, gun and the Wraith
Example 4.Boomer shooter esq Power ups in campaign
This level does suffer from a design issue, especially with how close quarters everything feels, but as a narrative it really works. Hearing Cortana scream at Chief to hurry and try to save Keyes is so damn chilling. Love how desperate the situation got, also the build up to getting to the control room is very underrated, the title “The Captain” is kept quiet, the only sounds are the ambiance and the players own thoughts. Really good direction.
If Carrier forms couldn't chain react grenades, this level and the Library and Maw would be much more fair.
i dont think ive ever activated that terminal before. pretty sad.
Probably my favourite terminal in the entire series! As you say, it's really sad and adds a whole lot to Keyes as a character.
@@BenPlaysGames ill play the level and check it out. add more achevements to the list.
The way spv3 did it was perfect, just hearing him call out in pain was extremely disturbing to me.
Starting a playthrough of SPV3 soon, expect a video around the time of the anniversary of a certain game next month 😉
The repetitive nature of the flood quickly disappears when you play on something other than normal difficulty...
Also, you seemingly forget that Bungie had to make due with what they had anno 2001. That's where the reversed maps come in and especially the infinitely spawning flood.
The original xbox doesn't have the hardware to spawn in large quantities of flood at once. So the alternative is endless spawning to make it seem like there are many.
Fun fact: that terminal wasn't written by 343i. It was taken directly out of the novel Halo: The Flood.
Saying "im not going to spoil things" only to say "it ends badly" makes it obvious what happens especially after just saying in the level you're comparing it to you successfully rescue the captain then say the next level has an unhappy ending is obviously telling us "he obviously doesnt make it"
I think you are missing part of the point, they did plenty to tell the story with the environment the claustrophobic crash side washed in endless flood, the desperate fight to rescue the captain below and onboard the ship is meant to feel like you yourself are being drowned in the flood.
The endless flood also push you to keep moving through the fights around you, disorientated and only just able to keep yourself alive. The point is not to get you stuck locked in these battles, but to further enforce the powerlessness, in the part of a game you should have mastered pretty well at this point.
You just barely make it, you were just a moment too late and you were almost swallowed in the process. Linger and your fate will be the same, linger and the flood will take over the ring. Humans, Covenant, Whatever, this is the way it all ends.
The slugging to a crawl is the point.
We can agree that carrier forms triggering grenades is a bit crap though. Any surprise you died and it wasn't your fault, has no place.
This level traumatized the fuck out of me. I’ll never forgive Bungie for this.
I think a big problem is the carrier forms and when they’re flying through the air they’re practically invincible, then they have to go through the whole landing and explode animation. Results in a lot of cheap RNG deaths.
I played all of the halo games on legendary with my nephew(so fun, I sucked majorly but my nephew guided me since I've never had an Xbox and haven't touched halo for almost 10yrs) when we played this one mission, I was shocked man. He showed me the clip(terminal I think?) and I was like, "bruh u always skip these" and this one mission affected my soul man💀 it pained me watching and listening then just seeing him dead like that, it was a lot. I h8 the flood, they're so gross lmaoo. I both love and h8 this Mission
I just binge watched a bunch of your Halo videos lmao. Dude, I’d love to get you involved in this project I’m working on. I followed you on Twitter but you don’t seem to be active. Do you have something I could contact you on?
Awesome, thanks for checking them out dude! Best place is the email in my about section, I check that semi regularly.
5:08 "bungie's level design is brilliant" *looks back at copy paste rooms* I don't think so