When I got Halo 3 from the bargain bin sometime in the fall of 2008, I somehow didn't take it seriously. I didn't really want to play it. I don't even know why. I ended up playing it on the easiest setting and not really enjoying it all that much. I always felt kinda guilty about that. So I finally took the time and put up the effort to do Halo 3 justice. I just finished up my Halo 3 Legendary playthrough. I had a blast, especially because the AI is very fun to fight against. The AI and Halo's mechanics harmonize perfectly together.
 
Some balancing and design issues stood out some more, because of the very unforgiving difficulty - but nothing too bad. I didn't like the fact, that Masterchief gets damaged, when he's in vehicles, whereas enemies don't. Different rules apply. My vehicle gets shot - I take damage. I shoot their vehicles, only their vehicles get damaged. This made vehicle sections somewhat frustrating and feel wrong. Also - some of the onehit kill weapons felt just a tad bit too powerful in the superaccurate marksman hands of the Legendary AI. While the vehicle controls are highly functional, it sucks not to be able to look in one direction and drive in another. In the hornet (the flying chopper thing), it's impossible to aim and change altitude, since changing altitide is linked with the crosshair. The only vehicle which has seperate camera and movement controls is the Scorpion tank, which is just a tad bit slow to make good use of it. But that's about it. Enough of the nitpicking.
 
The harder combat encounters felt almost like some kind of puzzle room. How to go about killing these dudes. In what order, with what weapon, where and when to restock and so forth. On a couple of them I was stuck for a couple of hours. Grinding away my imperfections. I guess everybody, who did a Legendary difficulty playthrough had such blocker encounters to deal with.
 
Mine was pretty early on. I was stuck almost a whole night in level 2 locked in a hallway with about 20 brutes. Tons of blue armor brutes with their Nail-Pistol thingys, a couple of brutes with alien carabine, a golden brute with a brute gun and a superbrute with a powerhammer. A very narrow and short 2 story hallway. There's some supplies on the 2nd story, but the only way up there are 3 'consumable' anti-grav fields scattered on the first floor. I had the scoped Assault Rifle and a shotgun and 2 frag and 2 sticky grenades to begin with. Oh boy - that was one hard fight and one long night. The second place goes to a corridor in second to last level. In the flood hive rescuing Cortana. Those wierd mutating 'dogs' with their 3 forms (static ranged, hulking slow melee and quick dog-like climbing on walls) are so tough and in one corridor they were all setup at far ranges and needling me from afar while tons of gun wielding flood ran at me. Hated that place. Might be because of that heartbeat ambient sound. But I ran past it with a cloaking device. So that doesn't count. Gotta be so incredibly patient in that level.
 
It was a very rewarding playthrough and most encounters are a 'by the flesh of my teeth' affair. Good fun! But some are just borderline crazy frustrating. Which was your hardest encounter?

I always hated that early encounter where you rescue the sarge when he's in holding... there's some kind of bridge or something you have to pass, and it's a pain in the ass, truly. Especially on legendary. IT's the end of the first level, if I remember correctly.  
 
No other encounter bothered me that much.  
 
Oh well there's the level that was all flood infected. That shit was awful, just because I could never figure out where to go. 

The hardest bit for me was the Cortana level. Stupid flood zerg- rush.

" I always hated that early encounter where you rescue the sarge when he's in holding... there's some kind of bridge or something you have to pass, and it's a pain in the ass, truly. Especially on legendary. IT's the end of the first level, if I remember correctly.   No other encounter bothered me that much.   Oh well there's the level that was all flood infected. That shit was awful, just because I could never figure out where to go.  "

" The hardest bit for me was the Cortana level. Stupid flood zerg- rush. "

I played it with 3 other people when a part was stuff had a spawn anchor cheap i know but it got the job done

When i played on legendary, 4 players, iron last levels the flood were horribly hard in areas.

" I played it with 3 other people when a part was stuff had a spawn anchor cheap i know but it got the job done "

Freeing Sarge.  Honestly the AI on Legendary in that section is just brutal.

I think the hardest bits, as has always been the case in the Halo games, are the parts where the environment forces you into into chokepoints and throws swarms of enemies at you. The Library, Halo 2's Arbiter and Jackal Sniper levels, and Halo 3's Cortana all continue to be the most agonizing stages in the Halo franchise.

I have to claim Call Of Duty (the original) on Veteran - in particular the storming of Stalingrad from the river - to be one of my hardest fps experiences. I ran up that hill many many times, each time I got killed in different section. I would never want to advance uphill under machine gun fire and stuka runs in real life. 
 
In saying that, Halo: CE was a vastly harder game on Legendary than any of its sequels.

I never played it on legendary.  God damn NAT settings fucked me over the night I was going to do it with three friends, and I have never really tried to do it after that.  I hear Cortana is a bitch though. 
 
Oh, and your Halo terminology makes me lol. 

Don't remember where but there was a part in a valley where you find a small marine camp and you get hit by waves of brutes and finally wraiths, that was the hardest part for me.  Halo wise I don't think I've played anything harder than Cairo Station on legendary.

" Don't remember where but there was a part in a valley where you find a small marine camp and you get hit by waves of brutes and finally wraiths, that was the hardest part for me.  Halo wise I don't think I've played anything harder than Cairo Station on legendary. "

" @dastly75 said:

" Don't remember where but there was a part in a valley where you find a small marine camp and you get hit by waves of brutes and finally wraiths, that was the hardest part for me.  Halo wise I don't think I've played anything harder than Cairo Station on legendary. "

That was my hardest part also I think, (Solo on Legendary) I can't remember the name offhand. "

My friend and I found the second level, Crow's Nest, to be unusually hard (both solo and co-op). Maybe it was because we weren't warmed up, but some of the Brute squads made us die much more than the brute squads in later levels.
 
Easiest level was probably Floodgate or whatever the flood level in the middle of the game was. We were pretty relaxed throughout that one.

"My friend and I found the second level, Crow's Nest, to be unusually hard (both solo and co-op). Maybe it was because we weren't warmed up, but some of the Brute squads made us die much more than the brute squads in later levels.  Easiest level was probably Floodgate or whatever the flood level in the middle of the game was. We were pretty relaxed throughout that one. "

" Don't remember where but there was a part in a valley where you find a small marine camp and you get hit by waves of brutes and finally wraiths, that was the hardest part for me.  Halo wise I don't think I've played anything harder than Cairo Station on legendary. "

I actually thought legendary in Halo 3 was much much easier than legendary in either of the other 2 Halo games.  I never actually finished Halo 2 on legendary, but I'm pretty sure I beat Halo 3 in 2 school days.

" I didn't like the fact, that Masterchief gets damaged, when he's in vehicles, whereas enemies don't. Different rules apply. My vehicle gets shot - I take damage. I shoot their vehicles, only their vehicles get damaged. This made vehicle sections somewhat frustrating and feel wrong. "

" @Seppli said:

" I didn't like the fact, that Masterchief gets damaged, when he's in vehicles, whereas enemies don't. Different rules apply. My vehicle gets shot - I take damage. I shoot their vehicles, only their vehicles get damaged. This made vehicle sections somewhat frustrating and feel wrong. "

Not true . A lot of the times Ive killed Brutes on Choppers , Ive shot the vehicle repeatedly with a BR and the driver kicked the bucket . "

The mission Cortana.......ugh.....