Not only do you have to survive the crappy firefight map on the landing pad, but then you have to fight your way through a warehouse of like ten or twelve Elites with an engineer that I can't find and no DMR or Sniper Rifle. Worst. Level. Ever. I also totally get Jeff's pacing concerns now. So what about you? How did you do on that awful last level? Any tips for Legendary?

Wow, I too went through that same last part without any good guns, I had like a plasma pistol and 2 shots in a plasma launcher and that was it, was so fustrating. I thought that the gun part directly after that was worse, you pretty much had to memorize exactly where the ships and banshees would come from and take them down in order or else you would die to the banshees because of the damn cooldown on the gun

" @c0l0nelp0c0rn1: You're playing a game on the hardest difficulty, and complaining that the game is too hard.  Really? "

" @plop1920: There's more crappy hard parts? Man, this level is worse than Cortana from Halo 3, MUCH worse. "

I spent about an hour on the part immediately after the landing pad, as you work your way to the MAC gun. It's short, involving one room with about 4 elites. One hour.
 
Your weapon selection is limited, and the elites have swords, fuel rods, and double plasma rifles. Totally frustrated me for a while, but I'm confident that I'd be able to do it on my first or second try now that I've figured it out. Make sure you've got a hologram armor ability, it'll save your life. Utilize health packs, too. I found two of them. Ultimately, when I finally beat that tiny section, I beat it with full health and without breaking a sweat. In that way, Bungie has a knack for making me feel really satisfied with my abilities.

there are loads of weapon crates hidden about, if your using all the good guns getting rid of the grunts then i can see you haviong a problem there, also dont you feel like 10 or 12 is exaggerating a little bit, i think there are about 5

  @c0l0nelp0c0rn1:

I completely see why this section should've been terrible, but I didn't find anything particularly hard about it. I think I just went into end-of-game rage mode and slaughtered everything with a plasma pistol, grenades and my fists.
 
Seriously though, against the tougher elites indoors I think you'll have better luck staying in melee range where you can dodge, rather than trying to outshoot such overwhelming firepower.

I found this part surprisingly easy on Legendary. I still died several times... but having gone through it on Heroic already the change wasn't so drastic. There are several checkpoint areas in that part with the elites (the rooms with the health kits) and rushing them one by one was effective. Sometimes they will do a taunt after you damage them, letting you walk around them and assasinate them. As for the MAC part, the dropships that hover under you can be ignored for a little bit because they don't start shooting until they get higher up in the air. So focus on the higher dropships or the banshees. You can also just straight up exit the cannon and hide in cover until you can fire at the red circle, this worked for me on Heroic at least.

Isn't the whole idea of Legendary to be frustratingly difficult and unforgiving? 

I just used a plasma pistol and a Marksman Riffle... Take their shield out with the pistol and then headshot them. Not that hard to do.

They're jerks for making a game challenging. Let's go to their places of residence and scold them in their front yard!

There's a dmr laying in the doorway when you walk into that room...

Its not that hard, the plasma pistol is FUCKING amazing against elites on legendary. There is guns around, look on www.achievementhunter.com look at halo reach. I think there is a easter egg for those who need the help. =]

Pro tip: Pick up the plasma launcher and/or fuel rod some of the mobs before the engineer part drop.
Nuke the engi, nuke the elites and voila.
 
 But yeah, it's supposed to be like this, don't complain too much!

I beat it, it was fun, and I found a DMR that wasn't in the secret cache. I'm not so much complaining about the difficulty, I'm really complaining about the Firefight sequence right before 5 or 6 elites being protected by an engineer. Especially, when the story is telling you to haul, but since there are all these dudes in the way, too bad.

" @c0l0nelp0c0rn1: You're playing a game on the hardest difficulty, and complaining that the game is too hard.  Really? "

I thought the firefight section at the landing pad was kinda easy since it was just brutes and the warehouse for me mainly involved shooting the engineer with the sniper going back out and in so it checkpoints and then I actually assassinated two of the elites and threw grenades at the one with the heavy weapon.

I know Bungie, making the hardest difficulty actually hard, what were you thinking.

Yeah, this topic can be locked up now. I'm quite sorry I made it because, in hindsight, it wasn't the game I was angry at. However, I will stick to my guns about the last few minutes of that game, you'd think Cap'n Keyes woulda brought something good to fight off all them Elites. Commas, which are forms of punctuation, have been used in every sentence in this paragraph.

Yeah, fuck those Bungie guys for putting all that time and effort into a video game for everybody to enjoy. Seriously though, while the gripe with the pacing is a legitimate criticism of the game your main issue seems to just be that you found the game too hard. I found the end a little tricky too but it's supposed to be difficult, it's the end of the game.

" @zombie2011 said:

" @c0l0nelp0c0rn1: You're playing a game on the hardest difficulty, and complaining that the game is too hard.  Really? "

"

" @c0l0nelp0c0rn1 said:

" @plop1920: There's more crappy hard parts? Man, this level is worse than Cortana from Halo 3, MUCH worse. "

Nothing is worse than Cortana. Anyway just look around and find some decent guns before you go in the warehouse, I definitely had a fuel rod from one of the grunts and I used it to pretty much clear out the warehouse with ease, don't remember it being much of a problem. "

" @plop1920: There's more crappy hard parts? Man, this level is worse than Cortana from Halo 3, MUCH worse. "

Just pick em off one at a time, and look for where the health packs are stored. I used the hologram dummy and didn't seem to have any major issues. Was only playing normal though.

" Not only do you have to survive the crappy firefight map on the landing pad, but then you have to fight your way through a warehouse of like ten or twelve Elites with an engineer that I can't find and no DMR or Sniper Rifle. Worst. Level. Ever. I also totally get Jeff's pacing concerns now. So what about you? How did you do on that awful last level? Any tips for Legendary? "

I liked it. It reminded me of the classics. The last level of a game should be incredibly difficult, otherwise you don't feel like you accomplished something by doing it.

I thought it was frustrating on Heroic... But I did manage to take down the Covenant ship with relative ease after three times: just get in to cover and wait for Keyes to shout that's it's almost too late, then get to the gun and finish the game with one shot.

this is how i did it on my legendary playthrough - IIRC you can kill the grunts at distance (after keyes takes off) using a magnum.  if you stay to the side of the door where the elites are hiding, you can pick off the engineer using a magnum.  a dmr is laying next to a dead marine just inside the door to the left (by the entrance to the small enclosed room) along with some grenades.   at that point you can pick up one of the grunts' PP and pick off the elites one by one.   
 
btw, i found a nice hiding area when you are trying to clear the platforms.  on the lowest level there is an elevator in the middle of the platform that is only open on one side.  if you hide in here and spawn holograms, the enemies will run behind the hologram allowing you to either assassinate them or shoot them in the back.  rarely did the enemies find me in there - if you move all the way to the rear of the enclosure, you are not visible until an enemy is right in front of you allowing you to quickly down them with the shotgun.  

Hmmm...I had no issues with that level what-so-ever on Legendary.  There are plenty of weapons available (and good ones too) if you just search the areas around all the enemies you kill. 

The part that is actually hard is the fucking turret moment right at the end. You will quickly learn what to shoot and where to point the turret and when to start firing. As soon as you start losing health, get out and go back down and hopefully you didn't use the healthpack mounted on the wall. Heal yourself if you have to, then rush up get in the turret and the person on the radio should tell you "Take out the main engine now!" or some bs like that. Instead of trying to shoot the five ships floating in front of you, just shoot the red ring of death on the bottom of the main ship and you win.

Ahh nostalgia.  Remember when games were so easy and we didn't have to die alot.  Oh...  Wait...
 
 
 
THEY NEVER WERE

" The part that is actually hard is the fucking turret moment right at the end. You will quickly learn what to shoot and where to point the turret and when to start firing. As soon as you start losing health, get out and go back down and hopefully you didn't use the healthpack mounted on the wall. Heal yourself if you have to, then rush up get in the turret and the person on the radio should tell you "Take out the main engine now!" or some bs like that. Instead of trying to shoot the five ships floating in front of you, just shoot the red ring of death on the bottom of the main ship and you win. "

I got caught at this part as well.  felt like I was running in to a wall for an hour.  tried again the next day, didn't die once.  just one of those parts you might need to take a break, and go at it later with a fresh mindset.