Is Halo 2's Legendary Difficulty Broken?

I've taken a few passing shots at Halo 2's Legendary difficulty in my past videos, but it had actually been a really long time since I played through the whole game on Legendary. So, I did a full game playthrough and I'm here to report on it. I'll be looking at all parts of Halo 2's campaign, what I like and dislike, and give my answer as to whether or not Halo 2's Legendary is broken/unfair/too hard.
I tried a lot of new things in this video, so if you're a returning viewer, be sure to tell me what you think!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:30 Cairo Station
2:58 Outskirts
4:45 Metropolis
6:31 The Arbiter
8:06 The Oracle
10:14 Delta Halo
11:28 Regret
14:03 Sacred Icon
15:18 Quarantine Zone
17:17 Gravemind
19:59 Uprising
21:27 High Charity
23:06 The Great Journey + Final Numbers
26:08 Outro

[@frogarchist]

I just uploaded a new Halo 2 Legendary video that's a lot better than this one. Check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6atk2Ocf7KHhZY

[@plaguenotprophet7840]

"In the battlefield you have to get creative... Surprise your enemy... You want a secret? Turn the music on, but keep the game sounds on... Clear your mind, think of nothing else but your next move. Play like this until it becomes instinct. Remember son, we've always been faster!"

[@plaguenotprophet7840]

And Cairo is fully possible without one as I've done it solo with iron, no plasma pistol

[@plaguenotprophet7840]

Mind you I've beaten outskirts without dying legendary, and yes it was outskirts and yes it was by level skipping on the Pelican and yes I brought a ghost and snipers to cheese the scarab part and then charged with a sniper rifle, even pushed a marine onto the scarab by making him roll. Like I said, creative. And if you can't do that, find cover and dart between it, camp every door if you must

[@darabyrne2515]

yea but its not as long

[@atch4764]

8:05 "When i was a kid my Halo 2 playthroughs would always end here because i was absolutely terrified of the Flood" i feel that

[@atch4764]

@AshTheFlash100 the flood is unbelievably creepy dude, they nailed it. and yeah the flood music also adds to the experience

[@atch4764]

@G the second i got to 343 guilty spark as a kid i would just quit and be done

[@some_shitposting_idiot3023]

Imagine being scared by what essentially looks like popcorn

[@atch4764]

@@some_shitposting_idiot3023 imagine not

[@KopperNeoman]

@ashtheflash1005 Feels like you're staring the Devil down as he rebukes Arbiter for his false religion.

[@tsunderemerc2963]

A big factor I always contributed to Legendary's difficulty isn't just the jackal snipers themselves, but the aggressiveness of enemy firing patterns paired with their extra damage. A lot of times it feels like if you get caught out, you just die (also because i'm not a gaming god). It's what makes dual wielding Elites such monsters that may as well be flying jackal snipers. That, and the higher tick rate of MCC makes enemies even more aggressive, which is actually a big factor in why Jervalin chose the OG xbox version of Halo 2 for his LASO deathless run (it also makes some tricks easier like sword flying). On the bright side, it gave me a chance to hear a lot of dialogue from the heretic leader you don't usually hear because you kill him so fast and it adds a little extra to the story.

[@blackagent4754]

Well, of course you're not going to be a "god" since you're just human like everyone else, and no human can become one. Besides that, I've been modding Halo 2 recently and I've found out what makes the legendary so hard. It's the aggressive accuracy stats the AI have in their AI properties, combined with the fact that the player actually has very weak health and shields. Chief has only 30 health points and 70 shield points. This is why you get melted so fast on high difficulties.

[@wastelandlegocheem]

Thanks actman

[@Plaster610]

what does "higher tick rate" mean? I don't know how to translate it in my language

[@eldafi]

@@Plaster610 in basic terms, in means since the game is running both faster and has a higher fps count, every action the game takes is faster than it was intended for the 30 fps of the OG xbox, meaning enemies attack even faster than before in MCC

[@Plaster610]

@@eldafi Thank you! That's really interesting

[@crypticcomms]

Halo 2 was my introduction to the series and that first mission almost defined the series for me. Chief's armor, the covenant drop pods latching to the ship kicking off the alien invasion of earth, and of course the halo jump to the planet. Such an incredible introduction. Great vid btw

[@frogarchist]

Thanks brother

[@TruePacifist201]

It was the same for me. My only experince with Halo before playing Halo 2 was a very brief dalliance with Combat Evolved multiplayer (I never did find out who put CE on the computers at my school), so I went into Halo 2's campaign with no real knowledge of the lore. It was quite the experience for my seventeen-year-old self.

[@dnegel9546]

@@TruePacifist201 😩 halo 1 is the goat.

[@Hottactioncop]

It was even better back in the day, nothing was as smooth and crisp as halo. That and the 1st game ending with you floating through space and the 2nd starting with you getting awards for what you did in the 1st game and then the fleet admiral giving you permission to go chew ass and kick bubblegum when the ceremony got interrupted was so cool for 11 year old me

[@yewtewbstew547]

I started with CE in 2001, but even to me that opening sequence of Cairo Station > Outskirts > Metropolis is peak Halo.

[@Chris-dy1cb]

genuinely felt like i was on the wrong difficulty when i was going through h3 because of how difficult h2 was during my legendary run after MCC dropped.

[@pogodanderfluff9390]

That's the weird thing about Halo 2 for me. I've spent decades (not really but almost) at this point, playing it with glitches and skips that I don't think I could play it normally if I tried.

[@frogarchist]

it's like opening pandora's box, you can't go back

[@pogodanderfluff9390]

@@frogarchist Great video

[@zalabit927]

I can't play Outskirts without skipping the first area🗿

[@pogodanderfluff9390]

@Zalabit Yeah, I'd almost forgotten what that first area looked like because as soon as the level starts I jump up where the skull is and skip. 🗿

[@Ostr0]

​​@@zalabit927 the second part of the first area 💀

[@vaniellys]

Great video ! Halo 2's campaign is also my favorite. I think that people remember Jackal Snipers more because it always felt unfair, that they didn't because of their own fault. But Elites dual wielding Plasma Rifles are as much dangerous.

[@zalabit927]

Yeah, their fire rate is BS. Even grunts seem to shoot the plasma pistol like a SMG lol

[@zalabit927]

​@@perrytran9504 I remember carefuly shooting each one of them, and hell i was like "how many are there?!" I counted about 8-9 bodies maybe, it was hilarious i couldn't figure how many since they all merged on the same place.

[@andrefloresca1324]

The never ending jackal snipers on the new mombasa level was insane. No matter how many were killed

[@generose9083]

Cairo Station is actually one of the hardest levels on Legendary. Definitely was for me and I’ve seen many say the same thing. Your weapons are limited compared to other levels. I don’t know how you found it so easy. It was brutal for me.

[@analt2379]

On first play through Cairo station was indeed very difficult but on my second one it was incredibly easy only 4 deaths for me if I did it again I would have no doubt in my mind that I could do it without dying I think that when you understand the layout well enough it becomes a cakewalk

[@facepandaparty]

It has a BR and a plasma pistol that’s all you need Lmao

[@analt2379]

@@facepandaparty that's true plasma pistol and br make elites a joke

[@Swattii]

Cairo station is NOT hard. The hardest level by far is the one where Chief spawns and scares the grunt only to get spawnkilled by brutes.

[@malscyllis]

Sorry that’s gravemind for me. The fact you can get spawn killed in the beginning and later in the lift to the prison.

[@SavingSoulsMinistries]

I spent over an hour in the first room on grave mind . Talk about controller throwing… I dang near punched a hole through my tv . I was stuck in one of those doors on the side on the last wave of enemies with only a plasma pistol and 30 shots in my needler and 3 plasmas It was maddening . And I couldn’t make it to the carbine in time to get back in the door so I was in a bad spot .. The second you walked out that door you’d be melted in less than a second on most occasions. I finally passed it because of two Hail Mary plasma tosses onto the brute / chieftan and unloading the needler into the rest of the grunts and just prayed they all landed haha ! I still love halo 2 for its overall ruthlessness tho

[@junfour]

But then you realize that you can climb up to the auditorium.

[@walczak9862]

I cant believe he used the same song for every death montage 💀💀💀💀 i felt like i was going crazy

[@Ginkami]

*booting up regret on heroic or legendary* "it just keeps repeating, regret, regret, regret"

[@dorito6633]

I agree with you about the high charity levels. Its so interesting to be on the main ship of the covenant, and the way these levels are made just boost this feeling. Having their capital filled with the flood is something else man. During that second level you can feel the emptiness and wrong state inside of high charity, hearing those noises coming from the lower level, seeing those flood tentacles all around the place, its incredible. My favorite levels in the series

[@FGC292]

I think what really annoyed the hell out of people (at least me) with H2's legendary is how the Chief's health pool is basically nothing and gets melted by just about anything... Meanwhile the lightly armored marines around you can tank multiple shots from a sniper jackal and be perfectly fine.

[@Banshee523]

That's definitely what I hate most about it, personally. It stops pretending at all that Chief is anything special, in fact he's just a weakling p*ssy and the Marines are all superior to him. At least the other games have the Marines die quicker too on Legendary. The way Halo 2 works just ruins any immersion.

[@Hokiebird428]

My argument about the difficulty being utterly broken stems from how quickly you will go from being in total control of the encounter, full shields, full health, to being dead. Also, ask pretty much any former Bungie dev that worked on Halo 2, and they will facetiously apologize to you for Legendary being so hard. Watch the GDC talk by Jaime and you’ll learn that the careful tuning and calibration that every other game recieved for their respective difficulty settings simply didn’t happen for Halo 2. You’ll also learn about critical pieces of cover that got removed entirely due to the limitations of the Original Xbox. In that sense, the settings that affect the difficulty of Legendary in Halo 2 are broken.

[@Cooperal]

I feel often with this games legendary difficulty that the only way to first-try something is to already know what is coming. With some spawn triggers you are dead meat if you aren't already backing up when the enemies are coming into view. Drones were probably the worst offenders but it happened with classic covenant waves too. Their are too many sly enemy placements for any player to naturally catch every last one of them. That to me feels unfair. It can feel cheap because often your first warning of a threat IS unexpectedly dying to it, and dying in this game equates to a light slap on the wrist which makes it easy to brush off that cheapness mentally. Anyone that can pass everything with iron skull will have already gone through rehearsal in some form, whether through painful trial and error or fast tracking with information found online.

[@Drawliphant]

This video is criminally underviewed. The editing, the pacing, the script all great. Now I want to boot up another legendary run and also really don't want to fly a banshee. Hopefully ill never listen to that montage song again though...

[@DJAdams125]

I’ve beaten every bungie game on legendary except Halo 2 and now ima do it! Great video

[@JW-qd3ol]

Do it!!! It took me 17 years to finally do it, just like the guy at 0:14, but it's worth it to be like "Yeah of course I beat them all on Legendary!" and then people are like "Ooooh, even Halo 2?" and that's when you get REALLY smug ;)

[@DJAdams125]

@@JW-qd3ol currently on mission 9 “Regret” and it’s definitely the hardest one so far but I’m slowly working through them

[@DJAdams125]

@@Delimon007 even with learning those spawn points with snipers I still had a lot of trouble with the boss fight and gondola sections

[@afflictionu8311]

The only anomaly I'd say is the 0 deaths on Cairo Station. You did well to not die there, but most players die several times on that mission. This is a comprehensive and well done video that really captures the difficulty of Halo 2 Legendary in about the most objective way possible. I kept laughing wondering if the montage music would get to "even Rocky had a montage!" part lol. Subscribed!

[@dostwood5103]

The Montage song is from Team America World Police

[@davidrossington9756]

It was actually in South Park first

[@executable3]

I managed to beat Legendary once back at release and it was a nightmare. Jackal snipers and those freaking bosses were painful. I absolutely hated Tartarus! Honestly I wouldn't be able to do that today, I no longer have the patience. I think the difficulty and some of the more boring sections would have been fixed with more play testing because as we all know MS forced the game out when it was still literally unfinished. I'll never get over how we never saw the game end as it was meant to.

[@timebomb42]

It's a shame you don't have more subs, because holy crap is this amazing content. Everything from your voice, to the editing, to the gameplay, you make it all really high quality. 👍

[@frogarchist]

Thanks a ton! I've only been going a little over a month, so in terms of viewers, it's actually exceeded my expectations so far

[@timebomb42]

@@frogarchist keep making content like this and you'll be over 10K with a year. Dangnam it..... Now I'm going to be singing that montage song for the rest of the afternoon 🤣

[@elensie6897]

Crazy to finish Cairo deathless in 20 minutes. I think Cairo is in the top 3 hardest missions in this game!

[@jlouis91]

My buddy and I were playing co-op on legendary without the noob combo and it took us 3 hours. Up until then we thought we were pretty decent players.

[@Ostr0]

@John Louis Nah you're worse than me at that time I could Solo Legendary at 60fps.

[@cuyospartan02]

The drone lift section took me at least 15 minutes

[@izoganovix3739]

? It’s not that hard to do it under 9 lol

[@jessh4016]

@@izoganovix3739 Go away

[@theseabear3008]

So interesting concept here, as a 9 year old, (im 25 now) i naturally liked exploring. Wasnt trying to speedrun or anything, just tried finding fun ways across. Never found any glitches, but i always took the rooftops in outskirts cuz the skull is up there and therefore its a semi intended pathway. In quarantine zone theres a lot of little parts of geometry in the map that i used to get around some battlefields. One last thing, i noticed you die a lot against close up elites, i just melee stunlock them to death. If they arent mid melee swing or an ultra, they literally cant stop you. Great video though, i loved watching!

[@DezzarTac]

5:28 almost domed yourself w/ that sniper richochet! that wld've been a sight!

[@zalabit927]

The fact that me and a friend had to get out of the map to progress after a thousand deaths should say enough.

[@Clarkstonie]

I held the legendary world record speed run on Metropolis for nearly a decade ( 4 min 30 sec-ish ). It took about 6 hours of practice. I can attest the jackals throughout the level are the most infuriating part... followed by the wraiths ramming you. Nice video!

[@TheJohnmurphy516]

Enemy plasma rifles are way too deadly. Like half of your deaths were 1-2 second deaths from plasma rifles

[@michaelletwin9996]

Would be interesting to do similar tallies for Legendary runs on other Halo games. Hard to draw relevant conclusions because the campaigns and gameplay are so different. But I think it would be a good reality check on what campaign feels the hardest vs. which one actually stonewalled you the most.

[@SkimoFiend]

Just going through you library of videos these past few weeks and only just realizing your under 10k subs, holy hell, keep doing what your doing man, your a youtuber just waiting to pop ! Cant wait to be apart of it!

[@KeybladeWielderXV]

Absolutely agree with you that Regret is the toughest level in Halo 2 on Legendary. The Jackal Snipers are ridiculous on this level and whenever you’re not fighting them, you’re dealing with high ranked Elite enemies. Regrets boss room itself had me dying over and over again. (Mainly due to a bad checkpoint) but the sheer amount of Elites storming in killed me a lot. I was actually shocked how much easier Gravemind was in contrast. Sure the opening is bullshit and so is the prison section, but after that, it’s pretty much smooth sailing. Regret never lets up on the pressure. I both loved the challenge of taking down a Prophet, especially when you’re constantly peering around every corner for something trying to kill you, but the level was the longest and most brutal for me on Legendary.

[@r3al_b00gieboi]

For the heretic boss, you can jump on the seraph to see into all the vents where he can spawn from and see which one he’s in. Camp under the vent and once his dialogue stops, pop camo. He will always be the first to exit the vent making him an easy hit each time. Repeat till the fight ends

[@cliche3521]

This channel is my midnight comfort food

[@sandman8920]

Regret was the hardest level for me. What a feeling when I did it. I’ll never forget!😊

[@porquee]

On heroic the beginning of gravemind was hardest for me

[@alanh.5458]

That boss fight was such bullshit

[@ES031]

It took me a long ass time to realize that you had to get on his throne lol

[@user-kp5wd2tk5x]

Same I had a bad spawn on the second gondola and I was stuck there forever. I even best regret faster than that stupid second gondola 😂

[@butteredjohn]

No deaths on legendary on any halo 2 level is impressive

[@dnegel9546]

Halo 2 legendary is the only halo game i was not able to beat on legendary. In fact i could not get past the first level. 😢

[@sandman8920]

I’m going to do my own research here when I get time but I played halo 2 on mcc then started halo 2 on original hardware and noticed straight away how the elites behaved more cunning and brutal. Makes me wonder what else is different.

[@ninjashoe2158]

That's because on MCC, the fps is 60, when on original hardware, the game is running on 30. The game, and intern the enemies, are thinking twice as fast.

[@sandman8920]

@@ninjashoe2158 I mean they are more brutal in the original version

[@DeafeningCha]

How exactly are they more brutal on OG? Their behavior seems exactly the same to me, but now on MCC they fire twice as fast, which to me is more brutal

[@ajgumpper]

I just did that shit at 300 fps on my pc last night LOL but having done it already, my second halo 2 Legendary experience wasn't that bad.

[@andynonya1490]

The Great Journey's remastered cutscene is so much better looking and really does the reveal justice. When the Arbiter reveals the real purpose of Halo you can see in Tartarus's eyes that he believed the Arbiter but after years of being considered lower class citizens in the covenant, he decided to obey orders for the sake of his people.

[@ezulon97]

Loved this video. Halo 2 was my first ever game I consciously remember playing.

[@watchncarry9593]

Yeah, the Jackal Snipers force you to check all your corners and clear them in degrees, but the worst part about Legendary is how much of a bullet sponge the elites are. I even tried it with the infinite ammo skull, and it just blew my mind how many rounds they took with just the battle rifle. So yeah, a combo alien weapon (to bring down shields) and human rifle (to finish them off) is definitely the way to gom

[@praeamble]

I have beaten Halo 2 on legendary twice, once on OG Xbox so I could be disappointed by the lack of a legendary ending, and again on MCC so I could get a meaningless achievement. I have no intention of ever playing it again.

[@jakedowney6743]

Glad I found your channel, good stuff

[@BearB34R]

Great video :) That training montage song is stuck in my head and you WILL pay for it. But aside from that, great stuff bud.

[@lordcydonia4924]

Getting that first door open on Gravemind took me a long, long time. I remember the elation of doing it and I think actually shouted out in celebration.

[@misteranonimous7137]

Actually, it's kind of funny that you've died so many times during scarab section in Great Journey level. The thing is that during that WHOLE section you can just hide inside a scarab, skipping all the fights. And developers actually predicted, that player can do it, so at the very end, all enemy banshees start flying back and forth toward scarab laser gun like some stupid insects. And all you need to do is just to highjack one of these banshees and fly ahead.

[@ohno5507]

For me the unfair balancing is mitigated by how exploitable the game is. Not only do you always have access to a precision/plasma weapon, but the AI is very easy to manipulate as well. Also, I am a fellow enjoyer of the Covenant ship aesthetic. Truth and Reconciliation is my all time favorite Halo level, and Gravemind is so much more fun than people give it credit for. Masterpiece levels that showcase great level design, art direction, and how good the sandbox is.

[@SirEchoGaming]

I did a co-op legendary MCC run with my friend a while back and we got absolutely destroyed by the jackel snipers. There were parts of halo 2 where the Jackels knew you were there before you were and would preemptively shoot and kill you. It was ridiculous.

[@danielsmith3313]

Love the video and how it was narrated, got tired of the montage music by grave mind tho

[@BeeDaWorker]

Something I learnt from my legendary playthrough **don't jump.** Almost all the times I jumped to quickly do some damage and hide back again just resulted in a death

[@lyras.9161]

Ill never get over Regret ending with Chief jumping on an old man's mobility scooter and punching him to death, I laughed so much I cried.

[@user-jm3pt7kq6o]

19:09 The elusive halo CE headshot death animation. NICE

[@hoppeanhelicoptertours]

I feel like I just watched your magnum opus, well done sir.

[@arsalansyed123]

Finished Halo Reach and 1 for the first time now I'm starting Halo 2. So excited to play it. :)

[@sandman8920]

Truth and reconciliation is my favourite ce level too.

[@eskimofr3nzy]

Loving the video! I kind of liked the montage song used each time, but understand why you shouldn't

[@CT-9904-Crosshair]

Lol loved the teabag at 10:12! Such a classic! I personally continue the tradition and hope you all continue the tradition as well.

[@abelramirez7320]

I only got around to beating it on legendary solo a few years ago. Even back in the day, getting through it on split screen coop was more frustration than a child should ever endure.

[@sandman8920]

Fantastic idea for a video btw really cool

[@coldfeet1337]

Great video. Only thing is the music during the montages is extremely annoying and unnecessary. Is there a copyright issue with just leaving the halo audio as is?

[@gagnersimple269]

Such an underrated channel

[@captaincharisama94]

I love your content my dude, my favourite Halo,. I am currently doing all Halo campaigns on normal and then all on legandary, I'm leaving halo 2 for last as it's my fave and the toughest campaign is

[@mollywantshugs5944]

13:03 the self snipe is tragic but also hilarious

[@stonytrees8573]

The death montage is refreshing instead of seeing you always winning great video

[@prrrromotiongiven1075]

Being able to play on m+kb is definitely a big help for the MCC version. Playing on an xbox controller made this game even more ridiculously hard since things like consistent headshots (necessary for taking down most covenant enemies) and accurate sticky throws become much more difficult.

[@dannydinosaur]

Great video, my dude!!!!

[@crm1225]

Playing this co-op was a true test of friendship (any death resets to the last checkpoint)

[@timbaleno9269]

Watching this and going "yep, I know that death" "lol I die there a lot" "oof, I remember that". Great work!

[@bottlecapbrony366]

When I did H2 legendary, I was stuck on the room in Cairo Station with the multiple waves of covenant boarding the hangar, and I was stuck on it for 2 whole weeks. I probably died at least 100 times on that one room alone.

[@hyper_lightning]

Great video! Definitely agree that most of it is not unfair, only a couple specific sections. However, I would say that we have to take note that you are a better halo player than most other halo vets and definitely much more knowledgable about little details of the gameplay. Ive got thousands of hours in halo, and 2 on legendary kills me many times more than any of the others. So while not broken, I would say that its very significantly harder than any of the other games

[@ManChickin]

getting domed on the ghost by the snipers is just so chad... so many frustrating memories

[@Alpha1200]

11:50 - Maybe it comes down to the fact that I basically have the jackal sniper spots memorized on this level but they never bother me and I barely if ever die to them. So I never found "Regret" particularly hard. "Cairo Station" on the other hand always kicks my ass and I don't know if I've ever gotten through it deathless on legendary. So, idk, it's interesting how people can have such a different perspective on difficulty.

[@asder2036]

I will always remember my first time on Halo 2: ''I'm pretty good at Halo CE legendary, so I think I will keep that difficulty on my first H2 run as well''.. That lasted 20 minutes and I was in the second room of Cairo Station with 20+ deaths already, so I decided to tone it down a notch.

[@juke37024]

12:57 The underlying rage in your voice when you said "back at ME." Bruh, major F for respect.

[@15chagO]

Dude that montage song fits so well with montages.

[@gabenplznerf1093]

That bronze namecard in MCC is one of my most proud achievements.

[@Spar10Leonidas]

The Flood were the reason I was quite insistent on playing these games co-op the first time I played them. I didn't have the courage to face them alone.

[@BrockvsTV]

This was a wonderful video, thank you

[@openclose8915]

Funny seeing this video as I just replayed Halo 2 on Legendary only a few days ago. I wasn't keeping count, but personally the level I found the most frustrating was probably either The Great Journey or Quarantine Zone. In particular, in Quarantine Zone, the parts where you have to disembark from your vehicle to get through a building, then find another vehicle once you get out. Close quarters with the flood and I had little ammo and no good guns. Ended up trying to sneak by them as much as possible, which involved very precise timing with the active camo.

[@SpringtimeOfNations]

I like how the death montage gimmick is basically "watch me eat shit 12 times" btw, the red flashing thing means take cover!

[@frogarchist]

Huge if true

[@juanarredondo9763]

when the sniper jackal ptsd is so strong you end up killing your self with the beam rife

[@timelyraccoon8878]

Great quality video 😃

[@illWillienumber31]

The snipers suck but the most unfair thing is how weak you are in vehicles and that weapons have a faster rate of fire and way more range when enemies are using them.

[@ReinBelmont]

Frog: "Halo 2's legendary dificulty is in one word..." Me: "Legendary?" Frog: "infamous" Me: 💀

[@drosbourn4925]

This is a good video. Keep it up :D

[@TheGoldNinja101]

8:07 When I was a kid, I didn't mind the flood, It just looks so cartoony and funny then.

[@ltsMark]

Beating this game on legendary as a kid will always be the peak of my gaming career

[@Eno_4815]

Respect for playing through on OG graphics. I love Anniversary, and I usually play on it, but the nostalgia of the classic look and feel is hard to beat.

[@riffbw]

My stepbrother and I played this game over and over. We got pretty good at the game and we tag-teamed it well. I'm not as accurate so I would grab full auto weapons and spray while he did precision kills. Worked nicely on Cairo Station. Legendary co-op was a huge shock. Those sniper jackals came out and we quickly realized when one guy dies, we revert to a checkpoint. If you think keeping them from insta-sniping one of you is bad, trying worrying about two of you. After that, it was a rough run, but overall we got through it okay. I also think there's a massive upgrade in difficulty in MCC compared to console. Aiming feels off and the speed/timing of everything just feels different. I'm definitely not as good on MCC as I was on Xbox.

[@GamingAnimator1]

I think Halo 2 on heroic is the perfect difficulty balance. It's hard, but you don't have to rely on one single play style (plasma pistol battle rifle) to win and can still experiment with the rest of the weapons. I can still run and gun with double SMGs against multiple elites and take them all out without dying. That's not really the case on Legendary, you can't really run and gun and feel like a badass like you could on the other difficulties, hell like you could on CE and 3 on Legendary even. Unless you're playing a specific way, you're not beating Halo 2 on Legendary, and it's just not fun to play at all imo. That may also be just because I've never really liked using the plasma pistol lol.

[@darkjackl999]

Got curious about what the ratio would be Tally of deaths on levels without Jackal snipers 43 185-43 142:37 So about 1 in 4 deaths was to jackal snipers (counting only levels with jackal snipers)

[@GeneralVanceStubbsCousin]

Halo 2 legendary busted my ass so many times I went back a month later trying to finish it…. Damn Jackal snipers.

[@redge-ty4cs]

You did pretty good! I just beat the game on legendary for the first time. I probably died on Cairo Station 30 times before I figured out the noob combo, and 50 times on the Regret boss fight. As difficult as Halo 2 was, it gave the player much more checkpoints than Halo 1. So I could throw myself at the enemy without repercussion. Great video 👍

[@ZarkFuckerberg69420]

the team america montage song is hands down the best touch to this vid. Their soundtrack goes so hard

[@stylesrj]

Isn't that the montage song from the skiing South Park episode? They even say "Sports Training Montage!" The Team America one is different since it's not on the slopes of Aspen.

[@Totally_Baked]

I played it and didn't find it terribly bad. I actually enjoy it and have played it for entertainment, not for getting achievements. Like it's hard, but not kills my enjoyment hard. I realize you can instantly die in Gravemind but I also find that level fun on legendary.

[@zachg427]

Makes me remember when I was little in a poor family and halo 2 was the only game I had and I played it over and over and could run through any difficulty

[@Speculate_Me]

I think back when MCC first released, the campaigns worked just fine so I spent some time trying to beat H2 on legendary at the time, and I died on Gravemind like ~82 times, and it took me a little over an hour and 40 minutes to complete it. Still haven't gone back to try and improve that time

[@sirgabriel367]

Great vid. Do you have an estimate on how long it took to edit this?

[@frogarchist]

At least 25 hours

[@JW-qd3ol]

@@frogarchist Is there maybe some industry adage or known correlation between an hour of editing for every heavily-edited minute of video?

[@frogarchist]

@user-yj3wm9zb9o I think it just depends on what type of video you're doing. If I were editing a vlog, it would be a lot faster. But an hour is probably on the higher end of what's usual.

[@TyDie1]

Me and my friend are trying beat all the Halos on legendary before we push on to LASO and we spent a good hour and half on gravemind last night and had to stop because the lag was too bad. Then this morning we got through 80% of the level and just got to the part with the sniper jackals outside and his power cut off. That run was like 1 hour 25 minutes. I’m done with grave mind for the day. Next time we attempt I’ll have to make sure I’m mentally prepared to suffer. Halo 2 is by far the hardest so far. It’s absolutely brutal. I’m genuinely scared to try it on LASO. Pray for me.

[@Phickic]

8:03 bro same. I can distinctly remember getting through the first room then opening the door to the elevator and promptly quitting.

[@Rizzler_Guzzler]

Pretty impressive you didn't die in the first level. I always get instantaneously spawn killed in that section with the elevator and the drones flying at you.

[@randomguy5339]

It would've been funny if you just added a 4th category halfway through the video where it counts everytime a rocket flood killed you.

[@VetriVade]

As a kid I used to play this game on legendary but only after I beat it a bunch of times. You have to know every spawn and every area to have any chance. You're truly a masochist if you attempt a legendary run of this game