I thought it was funny, and a little lame, that there was an achievement for beating Reach by yourself on the hardest difficulty. I've always had to beat Halo games on the hardest difficulty alone because everyone else was smart enough to stay away or play on Normal or Heroic where it's actually fun. Actually getting rewarded for it is a little more "Congratulations! Moron." than "How Awesome are you?" considering how many times I died. I wanted to put my thoughts down in a blog because Legendary gives you a lot of time to think between deaths.
 
How It Works
Not as bad as you might think. It's not the hardest Legendary Halo game I've played, but far from the easiest. The only weapons you really need is the DMR (or the awesome Needler Rifle) and the Plasma Pistol. Distance is your one and only friend in this difficulty. Forget everything else. Headshots from far away is the only method for wading through the truckloads of Elites and Brutes they dump on you throughout the game. The Plasma Pistol is a great way to deal with white armored Elites and their bullshit Concussion Rifles. Overload their shields, then fire a bullet between their eyes. Or any Elite really. Fuck all those guys. 
 
One of the most frustrating parts of this mode is anytime the game forces you to start with an Assault Rifle. I feel like it's giving you a toothpick and saying "NOBLE SIX! TAKE DOWN THAT WRAITH!" The Assault Rifle of the Halo series is one of the most useless guns I've ever seen in any game really. Even when you're using it on Grunts, the lowest form of enemy in the game, it takes WAY too long. If you try to shoot serious enemies, you can watch as it does absolutely no damage to their shields and they kill you instantly with plasma fire. You know what weapon you start the last level in the game with? The Assault Rifle. F' that S'. 
 
Even the Checkpoints are Out to Get You
Considering the high chances of death on Legendary mode, the problems of this game's checkpoint system come in loud and clear. Sometimes there are hot zones where you can get the game to checkpoint over and over again. Little pockets under stairways or in corners. I found a few on New Alexandria in the hospital that came in handy. But most of the time the game is terribly uneven. Sometimes I can kill three Elites, six Grunts, a Hunter and a Jackal only to die by some plasma grenade and have to fight through the same group over again. Sometimes I can shoot one Grunt and trigger a checkpoint in the most random places. I found myself running around areas without enemies desperately trying to trigger a checkpoint zone. The worst area had to be the last level with the first group of Covenant around the bridge in the very beginning. Fighting through these guys over and over again because the game wouldn't checkpoint my progress (even in a safe zone) was washing the nice feelings I had for this game down the gutter.
 
Halo: Reach, The Comedy
Legendary turns the somewhat serious drama of an entire planet getting wiped out into a comedy. When the game starts out, your new boss, Carter is all like "No Lone Wolf stuff, we're a team." But you're the only one that gets anything done. You as Noble Six take down parades of Elites while your team flounders about uselessly. Hey Emile, how long did it take to kill that Elite? Five minutes? But he uses the shotgun all the time! Jun, is even worse. He has a Sniper Rifle. The best tool to headshot aliens in the game. It takes him dozens of magazines to kill a grunt. Are these guys doing this on purpose? Is that why Emile drives five miles per hour through a field of Scarabs? Noble Six seems WAY overqualified for this team.
 
Also, a laugh track should kick in every time you pick up an Assault Rifle. Or actually, every time an assault rifle is on screen. You know why Kat died? The team was using Assault Rifles. Coincidence? I don't think so.
 
Fun?
Well, the hardest difficulty on any game really isn't about fun. A rare few games can mash fun and challenge together. Reach is too busy being extremely cruel, but there are a few exceptions. The best levels were "Long Night of Solace" for that sweet space combat section (that wasn't really hard even on Legendary), and "New Alexandria" because you get to feel like a badass by flying around a fucking fantastic gunship and dumping on alien fools stupid enough to mess with you. You're practically a killstreak. Guys call you in and you wreck shit. It's awesome. Not even Legendary difficulty could screw that up. I wish the whole level was just you flying around destroying things.
 
The Worst
Anytime an Elite appears with a Concussion Rifle. There's also a Brute with a Fuel Rod Cannon in the last mission that will haunt my dreams forever and ever. This asshole specializes in dropping in Batman style and killing me with explosive green snot globs. He's never in the same place twice when I respawn. Trying to track him down only means that he finds and kills me sooner. He's unofficially the last boss of the game as far as I'm concerned. I had problems with him on Heroic, and on Legendary he was a god damn Nemesis. The Anti-Noble Six. I only killed him because I got lucky with a Gravity Hammer and pounded him into oblivion. Why they felt it was necessary to give him shields I'll never figure out.
 
Your Thoughts
If you've read this far down, I'd love to hear your take on the Legendary Campaign, or any funny things that happen. It seems unlikely I'll ever play Legendary co-op considering how random Matchmaking is (pulling a campaign level at random? Huh?), but if you've had other people along for the ride. I'd love to hear that too.

I thought it was funny, and a little lame, that there was an achievement for beating Reach by yourself on the hardest difficulty. I've always had to beat Halo games on the hardest difficulty alone because everyone else was smart enough to stay away or play on Normal or Heroic where it's actually fun. Actually getting rewarded for it is a little more "Congratulations! Moron." than "How Awesome are you?" considering how many times I died. I wanted to put my thoughts down in a blog because Legendary gives you a lot of time to think between deaths.
 
How It Works
Not as bad as you might think. It's not the hardest Legendary Halo game I've played, but far from the easiest. The only weapons you really need is the DMR (or the awesome Needler Rifle) and the Plasma Pistol. Distance is your one and only friend in this difficulty. Forget everything else. Headshots from far away is the only method for wading through the truckloads of Elites and Brutes they dump on you throughout the game. The Plasma Pistol is a great way to deal with white armored Elites and their bullshit Concussion Rifles. Overload their shields, then fire a bullet between their eyes. Or any Elite really. Fuck all those guys. 
 
One of the most frustrating parts of this mode is anytime the game forces you to start with an Assault Rifle. I feel like it's giving you a toothpick and saying "NOBLE SIX! TAKE DOWN THAT WRAITH!" The Assault Rifle of the Halo series is one of the most useless guns I've ever seen in any game really. Even when you're using it on Grunts, the lowest form of enemy in the game, it takes WAY too long. If you try to shoot serious enemies, you can watch as it does absolutely no damage to their shields and they kill you instantly with plasma fire. You know what weapon you start the last level in the game with? The Assault Rifle. F' that S'. 
 
Even the Checkpoints are Out to Get You
Considering the high chances of death on Legendary mode, the problems of this game's checkpoint system come in loud and clear. Sometimes there are hot zones where you can get the game to checkpoint over and over again. Little pockets under stairways or in corners. I found a few on New Alexandria in the hospital that came in handy. But most of the time the game is terribly uneven. Sometimes I can kill three Elites, six Grunts, a Hunter and a Jackal only to die by some plasma grenade and have to fight through the same group over again. Sometimes I can shoot one Grunt and trigger a checkpoint in the most random places. I found myself running around areas without enemies desperately trying to trigger a checkpoint zone. The worst area had to be the last level with the first group of Covenant around the bridge in the very beginning. Fighting through these guys over and over again because the game wouldn't checkpoint my progress (even in a safe zone) was washing the nice feelings I had for this game down the gutter.
 
Halo: Reach, The Comedy
Legendary turns the somewhat serious drama of an entire planet getting wiped out into a comedy. When the game starts out, your new boss, Carter is all like "No Lone Wolf stuff, we're a team." But you're the only one that gets anything done. You as Noble Six take down parades of Elites while your team flounders about uselessly. Hey Emile, how long did it take to kill that Elite? Five minutes? But he uses the shotgun all the time! Jun, is even worse. He has a Sniper Rifle. The best tool to headshot aliens in the game. It takes him dozens of magazines to kill a grunt. Are these guys doing this on purpose? Is that why Emile drives five miles per hour through a field of Scarabs? Noble Six seems WAY overqualified for this team.
 
Also, a laugh track should kick in every time you pick up an Assault Rifle. Or actually, every time an assault rifle is on screen. You know why Kat died? The team was using Assault Rifles. Coincidence? I don't think so.
 
Fun?
Well, the hardest difficulty on any game really isn't about fun. A rare few games can mash fun and challenge together. Reach is too busy being extremely cruel, but there are a few exceptions. The best levels were "Long Night of Solace" for that sweet space combat section (that wasn't really hard even on Legendary), and "New Alexandria" because you get to feel like a badass by flying around a fucking fantastic gunship and dumping on alien fools stupid enough to mess with you. You're practically a killstreak. Guys call you in and you wreck shit. It's awesome. Not even Legendary difficulty could screw that up. I wish the whole level was just you flying around destroying things.
 
The Worst
Anytime an Elite appears with a Concussion Rifle. There's also a Brute with a Fuel Rod Cannon in the last mission that will haunt my dreams forever and ever. This asshole specializes in dropping in Batman style and killing me with explosive green snot globs. He's never in the same place twice when I respawn. Trying to track him down only means that he finds and kills me sooner. He's unofficially the last boss of the game as far as I'm concerned. I had problems with him on Heroic, and on Legendary he was a god damn Nemesis. The Anti-Noble Six. I only killed him because I got lucky with a Gravity Hammer and pounded him into oblivion. Why they felt it was necessary to give him shields I'll never figure out.
 
Your Thoughts
If you've read this far down, I'd love to hear your take on the Legendary Campaign, or any funny things that happen. It seems unlikely I'll ever play Legendary co-op considering how random Matchmaking is (pulling a campaign level at random? Huh?), but if you've had other people along for the ride. I'd love to hear that too.

Good work! I haven't even played Reach at all, but Halo 3 on Heroic was pretty tough, so I can't imagine Halo on Legendary. 

I enjoyed it, it was a challenge and hard but never that frustrating if you know what I mean it felt like you had to think about almost every encounter. Distance is key as the AI, as in most games tends to break down at distance and stand still letting you just shoot them from afar. Saying that though I think that legendary really makes the AI a serious challenge and a real threat when you get into them. Hardest part for me was the last part of Exodus where you have to take on two brute chiefs that never leave that little room and where you friendly AI will always break and just stand around. Wouldn't say anything funny happened but I totally fooled and assassinated the elites at the last encounter before you get on the mac gun with a hologram and made it super easy to finish.
 
Also did you really finish Halo 2 on legendary solo?

There were a few tough spots for sure,but what do you expect when you pick the hardest setting in thegame and it's named Legendary. I actually was suprised how well it went for me, but the fact that i finished it with heroic first game me the edge needed to beat it. I think that heroic is by far the most balanced difficulty level and makes the campaing feel amazing.

Even though Legendary wasn't as hard as i had feared, it still isn't any fun for me and on my subsequent playthroughs i have always picked Heroic. There's just enough challenge that it doesn't feel like the game plays itself,but isn't that hard that i cannot fool around with different weapons and play styles.
Even when playing with a friend that is a capable player i find Heroic to be more entertaining.

I'm proud of you

This was the first Halo game that I played on Legendary--did the rest on heroic--let alone Legendary by myself. Previous to it, I had beaten all of the Call of Duty games on Veteran, so I had a good idea what I was going up against. Surprisingly, I did not find it too bad. I agree whole heatedly with you sentiments on the assault rifle, I never even fired a shot with it in the campaign. The pistol is also great, especially in instances when my DMR ran out ammo. The pistol and the plasma pistol work perfectly. The hardest part of the campaign for me was New Alexandria, where I had to take down the three turrets to allow the ships to escape. The final turret had two ghosts, and around twenty brutes with Fuel Rod Cannons and plasma grenades. After almost two hours of pain, I finally beat that portion. The final segment of the game where you man the cannon to take out the ships was the worst as well. It took me half and hour to get the rhythm and timing down for all the ships, only to mess up intermittently. It didn't help that I just wanted to see the the achievement pop up and get the masochistic experience over with. Overall, it wasn't too bad expect for those and a couple other spots. It wasn't nearly as bad as Call of Duty 4's campaign on Veteran.

I often hear about the relative difficulty of Halo Legendary campaigns.  I would love for someone who knows best to chip in on the order of difficulty from top to bottom of Halo Legendary campaigns.  This would make me happy.

Welcome to the club! As I've mentioned before, I actually found Legendary a breeze after playing through on Heroic, presumably because nothing was a surprise and I'd really got my eye in by the time I was going for that second playthrough.

Halo has become like Guitar Hero for me. After playing it for so long, only the highest difficulty is fun to play. I get killed from something unexpected, now it's expected and I can continue the level.

i started to do the same then i got to the part in the game where your in the spaceship and died right were a checkpoint saved so it would reload and then my spaceship would explode, i was so mad i didn't bother finishing that play through

thats hardcore.  I beat it on normal with my friend on his xbox (we took turns not co op), i wouldnt call it a cakewalk but it only took us like 2.5 sittings to play, and thats only because we were too tired and played more the next morning. 
 
i think i might buy my other friend's xbox sooner or later and then i'll definitely attempt to play through on hardcore, at least with friends.  sounds challenging.

I got through the campaign on legendary with relative ease, right up until that final group of elites guarding the cannon. Took me 2 hours to beat those sons of bitches.

Wow, nice job. If I had the free time that I used to have before I started college, I would actually consider doing this.

When it comes to halo, Legendary is the only way to play it as far as I am concerned. Normal is incredibly boring, Hard just isn't hard enough. Legendary is just too much fun.

@Resident4t:

i beat reach on legendary as afirst time playthrough so i had no idea what was coming.... like a million deaths later it doesnt even give me the achievement. 
im not an achievement whore or anything i just think its hilarious how they didnt give it to me 
 
i had more trouble with the reach campaign on legendary than any of the other halo campaigns on legendary