From a coop, multiplayer, singleplayer, and overall experience halo reach is the best halo.

@gungrave45 said:

From a coop, multiplayer, singleplayer, and overall experience halo reach is the best halo.

Agreed

Reach is defo the best for multiplayer and coop, but single player is a little unclear.  Each game has its high points and low points in single player, but imo it'd be between CE and Reach.

If by "definitive" you mean "best", hell no.

No. ODST and Halo CE are the only Halo games that I truly enjoyed. Both had outstanding atmosphere, great pacing, and fun combat. Once ODST made the Brutes' shields stronger, it was much funner to fight them unlike Halo3. 
 
Halo CE, while having very redundant levels, had the best combat out of the whole franchise. It all went to shit once melee lunging was given to the kids. TIMING your melee attack was more satisfying, and it forced people to actually shoot in their FPS games.

@ajamafalous said:

No. The skill ceiling in Halo 2 is definitely higher.

I lawled. Halo 2 requires more skill than Reach? I think not. Reach, for me, is the best in the series for multiplayer. For a story though, I'd prefer ODST, Wars, or Combat Evolved.

For me it is the definitive Halo. I thought Combat Evolved was awesome when it came out and I despised Halo 2, 3, and ODST. I thought the story of those games were crap, the characters unlikeable, and the mulitplayer (this counts for Reach as well) is only fun when playing with friends.

If by "definitive" you mean "best", hell no.

It's a huge multiplayer game with bad maps, so far from it.

@CandiBunni said:

@ajamafalous said:

No. The skill ceiling in Halo 2 is definitely higher.

I lawled. Halo 2 requires more skill than Reach? I think not. Reach, for me, is the best in the series for multiplayer. For a story though, I'd prefer ODST, Wars, or Combat Evolved. The only things I don't like about Reach are melee lunging, two hit melee kills (I would prefer it to be three hits instead) and the aim assist (it's not bad or anything, I just wish there was very, VERY little, if any at all.)

Halo 2 was a difficult game because on average the players were better, it had BxR, and super jumps too, but Halo 3 had the largest skill gap of any Halo game, that is fact.

I love Halo: Reach but the skill gap in most cases is less apparent than the past two games. Mainly because of the abuse of certain power weapons, and the AA's. N00bs who are always jet packing or armour locking get old fast. Also the sniper rifle is really easy to use, it was pretty easy to use in Halo 2 as well though.

Bloom is a positive in my eyes and I'll never really understand some peoples hate for it. Most who hate it really do not understand it.

@DuhQbnSiLo:

I wouldn't go that far, many of the DLC maps are great and there are a few well balanced launch maps too. I wish Sword base and Power house were more well made though, also I really don't understand who did the weapon placement on Hemorrhage, it is awful, not enough anti vehicle weapons.

Halo Reach is great in every way a Halo game is expected to be great. I didn't much care for the abilities in multiplayer, but that's more of a personal taste thing.

@EpicSteve:

I would much agree with that.

How was being an intern by the way? I long for the day I can meet the crew and see the office hand in hand.

Halo 2 will always be my definitive multiplayer Halo. I don't care about single player.

Edited to prevent additional crying.

@weeman105: I care?

@big_jon: That's fine. My point was people spend the vast majority of their time on the multiplayer aspects so that tends to receive the brunt of the critique. I'll play through the campaign maybe two times before I never return to it again. A few dozen hours spent in campaign versus likely hundreds in multiplayer. That's where the longevity is most likely to be.

@ez123: Let's avoid an aneurysm here.

As someone who played a hell of a lot of Halo I can readily say that without the solid multiplayer portion of the game I absolutely wouldn't have felt full price would be justified. Obviously you have some strong feelings for campaign. Maybe you can lead me along your train of thought.

@CandiBunni: The sniper rifle in Halo 3 had little to no auto aim, was not hit scan, and it had a smaller redicle, so it was in fact a more difficult weapon to use.

Definitely the best campaign since the first game. I still think 2 had the best multiplayer and maps.
 
@greenygrey said:

@npeterson08 said:

It's definitely the best Halo game. However, I think the original Halo: Combat Evolved was extremely definitive, not only to the Halo franchise, but to the First Person Shooter genre in general.

It seems you've never played Half-Life before. :P

Nope, Halo 3 is much better.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Nope, Halo 3 is much better.

In your opinion.

@ProfessorEss said:

I couldn't call it "definitive" due to the lack lead man and franchise icon, Master Chief.

Master Chief is a faceless essentially silent protagonist, what is it about playing through his eyes that makes the other games better? Saying that about something like Uncharted with a charismatic lead I could see, but Master Chief?

@big_jon said:

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Nope, Halo 3 is much better.

In your opinion.

Yes, it is my opinion. What's your point?

Reach was a good game but for me never made the impact that Halo: CE made.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

@big_jon said:

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Nope, Halo 3 is much better.

In your opinion.

Yes, it is my opinion. What's your point?

I think my point was pretty clear.

@ProfessorEss said:

I couldn't call it "definitive" due to the lack lead man and franchise icon, Master Chief.

Master Chief is a faceless essentially silent protagonist, what is it about playing through his eyes that makes the other games better? Saying that about something like Uncharted with a charismatic lead I could see, but Master Chief?

All the halo games have been amazing but i would rank Reach as number 1.
1. Reach
2. halo 3
3. Halo CE
4. ODST
5. Halo 2

Halo 2 is the ultimate Halo multiplayer game. Singleplayer-wise I guess Halo 1 is the most Halo-y Halo there is.

Yes, I do. I'm not a fan of the franchise, especially after my time with Halo 2, but I had a lot more fun than I expected when playing Reach. The larger, more open levels help a lot.
 
Skipped Halo 3 and ODST, and was going to skip Reach, but MS sent me a free copy when I got in the recent dashboard beta. If that hadn't happened, I would probably have never played it or another Halo game. Now I'm at least curious what will happen to the franchise instead of completely apathetic.

While the campaign is clearly better than ODST(which was an absolute debacle), it didn't really have any memorable moments. Which could be due to the fact that I really don't care about the halo "expanded universe". I didn't really notice any improved AI either, only seems like the elites can take a lot more hits than before. Multiplayer did try to go new places, but without any really memorable maps and a simple class system, it didn't take long before I found my way back to CoD.  
 
So all in all I think it's a decent game, but not the ultimate version of Halo like it was hyped up to be. Halo just isn't Halo without Master Chief... Or halos, for that matter. 

@NeverDave said:

@ProfessorEss said:

I couldn't call it "definitive" due to the lack lead man and franchise icon, Master Chief.

Master Chief is a faceless essentially silent protagonist, what is it about playing through his eyes that makes the other games better? Saying that about something like Uncharted with a charismatic lead I could see, but Master Chief?

Don't get me wrong, I personally think Reach is the best in the series. I'm just saying that Master Chief (for better or for worse) is the main character/icon/avatar of the franchise and I find it tough to call a Halo game without him "definitive".