How amazing was the cutscene tie in at the end? When Keyes asks Cortana if they had lost them. Which is, for those who don't know is the very starting scene of Halo: Combat Evolved. And the then, the last objective pops up SURVIVE, with no ammo hud shown you have no Idea how much ammo you have. You VISR cracks with more damage you take and then your damn death scene getting rushed by all the elites, very well done. Best Ending to any Halo game in my opinion.

I kept wanting the scene from Combat Evolved to keep going...somewhat bummed that nothing was said after "I think we both know the answer to that.", but still a fucking awesome thing to do. Still wish they at least had more VO going on during the credits.

The Post-Credits ending was also pretty great.

Sucks that everyone in Noble got fucked over though. Except for...Jun? I wonder what happened to him. He wasn't with Halsey since she was alone when the SPARTAN Red Team on Reach found her (at ONI CASTLE Base, according to First Strike), which was well after the Autumn had left...maybe he died transporting Halsey there? Hmm.

That ending was very well done. I salute Bungie for it. They actually made it very emotional and I was.......unsure. I kept thinking, "He can't die. He is going to survive. Watch he'll live.........Damn that is a lot of elite......OMG THAT ONE TACKLED HIM!! HE CAN MAKE! YEA KICK HIM OFF!.....OMG....they are pounding on him.....3....4....5...6 ELITES! They are on top of him! Is he gonna..... Stab......he is dead..." 
 
That's what I thought when watching it.

I thought it was a brilliant ending, post-credits I mean.   
 
During the credits I kept thinking about how I got cheated out of seeing Reach get glassed. I figured they'd do that, at least, but the post-credits caught me by surprise. I don't know about you guys, but I was ghosting that business trying to scavenge ammo and take them all down. Sadly, it was not meant to be. Not the best ending ever, but definitely the best Halo ending by leaps and bounds.

Pft, after the credits started rolling instead of doing the last stand on six (which was a great touch) it should have just zoomed in on master chief getting out of the cryo and SURPRISE! Bungie added the entire original Halo campaign with updated graphics.
 
HAH! 
 
...
 
I wish.

Thinking about it, didn't the ending here create a rather large time discrepancy with the book? In the book, the SPARTAN IIs were transported to the Pillar of Autumn while it was in orbit, a small amount of time before the Covenant Fleet appeared, while the game shows it leaving after the complete invasion began. Infact, the Autumn was about to leave the system on the Top Secret mission to capture a Prophet when the UNSC got word of the Covenant Fleet moving through Slipspace, and had to stop and defend Reach. Which then ended up having all but like, 10 or so Spartans dying, with John the only one to escape the Covenant Fleet (and Linda, but she was pretty much dead until Halsey was rescued).

...sorry for the mini-ramble, it kinda bugged me a little. Still a great ending.

I enjoyed it after having read the halo reach book i knew what was going to happen and obviously from the 1st game. incredible much better than halo 2's not that hard to do. finishing this fight. 
bungie made a almost perfect halo game in my opinion

The MAC sequence was fucking awesome as well.

For fitting it into the fiction: 
 
The S3s were fitted with SPI for covert ops only, such as Pegasi. The ones on Reach have modified  MJOLNIR on, which is less powered due to their younger ages (most Spartan-III program kids were still in their teens when they hit active duty, whereas Spartan-I and II entered duty as adults). It does get mentioned in Ghosts of Onyx that S3s have 2 armours. 
  
The Autumn is in refit at the end of Reach, going into full slipspace launch after following Cole Protocol. The defending of Reach probably depleted a lot of necessary supplies, which due to the escalation of battle they have to leave behind - but not before Halsey hands over Cortana. 
 
So, for me, the whole thing can be rationalised into what I've read so far.

" @Capum15: Huh. I haven't read anything beyond First Strike. They sent the SPARTAN-II's to Onyx as well? That seems like a misallocation of resources to me (not arguing with you, but with the fiction). Wouldn't they want a few on Earth, like, just in case? Since that's the prized jewel of the human race?   Is it ever clear how many S-III's are alive after the destruction of Reach? They seem like they can really hold their own in a fight. Which is kind of a tangential point--the Spartans in the game seem damned-near invincible where the Spartans in the books are kind of frail. A weird disconnect.  Again, that's a part of the fiction I haven't really explored very deeply. I might pick up the post-First Strike books and see how it all ties together. "

It made me sad because now I want to play through Halo 1 in this engine.  The Pillar of Autumn was so awesome looking...  Didn't even get to see Master Chief (which I really thought you would, with the way people were talking about it).
 
I was surprised with the campaign in that there was really only one 'bad' level (Exodus is the name, I believe).  Exodus was so boring and looked ugly.  But the end picked it back up and was great...

Mannnnn I just want them to make the books into games, much better story :( 
 
 
Game was still amazing tho.

Really wanted to see Master Chief in is old armor, looking all awesome with the updated visuals.

Im not that into Halo fiction at all, but it would have been cool ( to me, atleast) that one of the reasons Masterchief is so awesome in combat is because Cortana observed how Noble 6. 
handled himself /herself in combat, and then transferred that data to Chief . So in a way, the reason Chief's so kick-ass in the first place, is because of players action  in Reach, in a obsucre way... 
 
Cortana: "Before you wake him up commander, take a look at this data i collected, maybe it can be put to a good use.."
 
I know that's not the case in any way, i know John is in fact just really well trained soldier etc.
 
 
 
Must...sleep.

Isn't that the end of Cris Core?

I loved the re done scene for the beginning of Combat Evolved. Seeing the Pillar was great. I was really hoping they would keep going with that scene and get a glimpse of Master Chief in his old armor with the new graphics but I guess not. Great ending though.

Halo is my favorite gaming franchise. Halo 1 was the reason I bought an Xbox back in the day, insane amount of time staying up late having LAN parties with friends. I loved the campaign so much that I bought the books to help with the agonizing wait for Halo 2. Really got attached to the fiction and Halo universe by then and while the sequels never had that "special" feeling I still played them to death too. I LOVED Halo Reach it had a lot of great fan service and the ending was indeed amazing but I agree with previous posters they could have done a better job of fleshing out Noble Team. Only deaths I felt something was Jorge and Kat's.

I was hoping for something extra in the Legendary ending..

" Something to keep in mind is that they're rewriting parts of Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike, that will likely include references to the events of Reach and create better unity between all of the stories (games and books). "

Just read through Halsey's journal (the book that comes with the limited edition) and wanted to let those who haven't read it know that it patches up a number of the continuity problems between the books and the game. 
 
In short: 
 

Am I the only one here that thinks that this isn't the "successor" to Halo 3? A lot of small things make this not the greatest campaign experience Bungie has produced. For one, there are the technical issues. I can't say that I ever had any problems in game, but like everyone else has said, the frame rate is straight up bad during cut scenes. Another problem I have is the length. During my first play through on Normal, I completed the game in 5 hours 45 minutes. Halo 3's campaign was at least an hour longer than that, if not more. 
 
Then there's the story itself. Personally, I didn't find it as compelling. Yeah, there were some bad ass moments. But, for example, when Kat got shot I was just like "Kay, that just happened." I didn't really care. Give me another game with the Master Chief in it though? I'm gonna eat that shit up. And there's the fact that they retconned everything, but that's just more personal issues...  

Considering the game is supposed to be played on Heroic as standard, I imagine that's the time they're gunning for, but no I don't recall it taking that long. Didn't count though. Of course the flip side is that the campaign is designed well enough for multiple run-throughs, which is more than can be said for other games, even those specifically designed for SP only!

" I kept wanting the scene from Combat Evolved to keep going...somewhat bummed that nothing was said after "I think we both know the answer to that.", but still a fucking awesome thing to do. Still wish they at least had more VO going on during the credits.The Post-Credits ending was also pretty great.Sucks that everyone in Noble got fucked over though. Except for...Jun? I wonder what happened to him. He wasn't with Halsey since she was alone when the SPARTAN Red Team on Reach found her (at ONI CASTLE Base, according to First Strike), which was well after the Autumn had left...maybe he died transporting Halsey there? Hmm. "

Whole campaign was fucking incredible and I don't say that lightly

" And there's the fact that they retconned everything, but that's just more personal issues...   "

I really couldn't do the MAC gun part. I thought I had to take out the carrier rather than taking out all the phantoms and banshee's but, after getting my ass handed to me decided to [hide] wait behind the gun and fire at the last moment. Once I did that it unceremoniously popped me into the cutscene. I was so pissed off, having fought for 30 minutes I ended up clubbing things with the spartan laser in the last part. did not like.  

What happened to Jun? I never saw him die...

I adored the ending and it lead to me spending sooo much time reading through halopedia  

 I didn't realise that:

• Cortana and Masterchief knew each other before the Fall of Reach and had fought together many times
• Masterchief was part of the Fall of Reach
• Miranda Keyes was Halsey's daughter

someone needs to go through and put together the complete sequence of events between Halo: Reach and Fall of Reach because I smell some serious retconning going on. There's things that just don't add up. The introduction of Cortana and her delivery to the PoA didn't go down that way at all. Plus the time frame of Halsey's actions and why the PoA was landed on Reach. A lot doesn't match with the book. I havent read FoR in a real long time and even I don't remembering it going down this way.

did Dr. Halsey survive the events of Halo3?

" I really couldn't do the MAC gun part. I thought I had to take out the carrier rather than taking out all the phantoms and banshee's but, after getting my ass handed to me decided to [hide] wait behind the gun and fire at the last moment. Once I did that it unceremoniously popped me into the cutscene. I was so pissed off, having fought for 30 minutes I ended up clubbing things with the spartan laser in the last part. did not like.   "