Discuss what you like and dislike about each game here. Which one is your favorite?

I haven't played Halo 3 yet, but I definitely like Halo a lot more than Halo 2. The weapons and maps were all perfectly balanced. The maps in Halo 2, and Halo 3 as well from what I've heard, are mostly asymmetrical and unbalanced. I really liked the symmetrical maps in the first game, plus the smaller maps like Chill Out and Prisoner.

The pistol was the perfect weapon. It was extremely powerful, yet it still required tons of skill to be able to pull off a three-shot kill. Plus it was accurate at mid-long range with the scope. People say it was too overpowered, but it's not like it made the other weapons useless. The shotgun was great in close range, and the assault rifle and plasma rifle were very effective at close-mid range. And then obviously there's the rocket launcher and sniper rifle.

In Halo 2 the weapons were completely unbalanced. The power weapons were too powerful and easy to use. The SMG, magnum, and plasma rifle were all worthless on their own. Dual-wielding was only good at close range and took zero skill to use. The battle rifle was the only decent weapon.

Then there's some smaller stuff about Halo 2 that I didn't like...

- they made the camo easier to see
- auto-aim
- power weapons not respawning
- no fall damage
- lunging melee

Well I'll discuss Halo 1 first.

Halo 1 was a fantastic game I agree with echoes in that. The pistol echoes was incredibly overpowered. Really good players could kill people who had the shotgun. The sniper was the only other weapon I usually picked up since 3 shots in the head meant death. The maps were good in Halo 1 they were simple but you can't tell me that prisoner was balanced. Stay on the top and you win. Simple as that.

The maps in Halo 1 were not really that symmetrical...in fact most were assymetrical.

Halo 2

Halo 2 with the incorporation of Xbox live really made the multiplayer of the take off. I think the introduction of the BR was a fantastic weapon. I think in general it was easier to control the weapons and some maps that were assymetrical one side would be the preferred control point.

Echoes almost all my complaints are the same as yours heres my list.

• Autoaim was beefed up a lot. It didnt help me I was already great at aiming at the head but it really made lesser players competitive with better players.
• The Sword - overpowered the lunge was ridiculously long and it never ran out of energy.
• The noob combo was annoying (BR/Plasma pistol) but I never felt that it couldnt be beat. It was just a bit overpowered.
• Sniper autoaim was ridiculous
• Spawning with an SMG - You can't do much with that weapon
• Cloak you can spot from a mile away
• Shotgun was terrible on live virtually useless if you didnt have host.

Here is what I thought Halo 2 improved upon or brought to the table

• Symmetrical maps, Sanctuary, Warlock, Elongation, Foundation, The new Derilect (cant remember its name), Beaver Creek (notabley many were remakes)
• The BR - A great weapon
• Dynamic MP - It was very engaging as much even if it was frustrating at times
• Teamwork that you couldnt get in Halo 1
• Lunging melees, this was something that made the melee more useful IMO
• No Health packs faster shield recharge

Halo 3, Well echoes it's ironic Halo 3 eliminated almost all the complaints on your list about Halo 2

Although Halo 3 did not change the core gameplay they did improve A LOT of aspect of the game. Eliminating the most irritating things about Halo 2.

• Less auto-aim, A lot of people have complained about it, especially the ones with 6 or 7 sensitivity. I personally have my sensitivity to 2 and I can compete with the best. This seperates better players you can tell who is good and who is not. I usually end up on top in the BR fights since my aim was very good in all 3 games.
• Sword = Fixed. The lunge is shorter and it can actually miss! If the opposing player jumps up when being lunged at the guy will whiff.
• Melee small lunge, its not really that much of a lunge but its a bit shorter than Halo 2 but father than Halo 1. IMO its perfect.
• You can't see camo at all. Usually by the time you figure it out you are dead
• The Shotgun is back
• The Pistol got a nice beef I believe 5 shots in the head and the enemy is dead
• Power weapons keep respawning (there can be 4 or five even 6 snipers on maps multiple rockets etc)
• Your starting weapon is very capable the AR.
• Equipment is pretty useful and didnt damage the gameplay

Here are my complaints although Halo 3 fixed A LOT of things there are still some minor problems. Not as obvious as Halo 2 though.

• Spawn points. Teams spawn on certain sides of the maps, I can't tell you how many times I spawned into a firefight. Not to mention teams spawn together so if you are by a "team spawnpoint" odds are the guy you just killed will respawn not too far from you and kill you. The enemy also spawns behind you too frequently
• Maulers - Shoot someone with a mauler and melee them they are dead. They fixed this in matchmaking buy removing maulers in many maps, making their less maulers on some maps and decreasing the respawn time of the mauler.
• Map- too many assymetrical maps but that is just more of a personal complaint.
• The sniper many theorize is glitchy. Sometimes shots do not register. Yes it is harder to use, yes there is less auto-aim, but when you shoot a guy in the head 3 times and see the blood splatter and they take no damage. People have recorded it in films bungie denies their being a glitch but it is there.
• The melee system is odd. THe person with the most shield will win if both players melee at the same time. But the problem is the player with more shields has a longer window to melee. He can hit the melee button probably a second afterwards and still win and not take any damage. I explained the problem in another thread...
• Too many weapons that kill people in one hit IMO...
• Brute shot is the most inconsistent weapon. Sometimes it takes a full clip to kill someone, somtimes 2 shots its ridiculously irritating.

Those are all my complains I do find it irritating that there is more **** to hide behind so enemies you are killing will take cover before you can nail the final blow, but I expected it to be like that...

I think that's about it at the moment.

Not many people are good enough to pull off three shot kills consistently. Compare that to Halo 2's battle rifle, where everyone could get four shot kills. The pistol will never take down a shotgun at close range since it was a one shot kill weapon most of the time.

The plasma rifle was a deadly weapon at close-mid range because of its freeze effect, which unfortunately they removed for Halo 2. It was a great secondary weapon to go along with the pistol.
The top was definitely the more advantageous position on Prisoner, but there was still incentive to drop down to the bottom for camo and rockets. Every map has dominant positions, but that doesn't mean they're unbalanced. Plus, with a weapon like the pistol, players can gain the advantage in a hurry. There are so many places on the Halo 2 maps where if you're holding power weapons it's game over for the other team. There's just no way to turn things around with SMGs and plasma rifles against snipers and swords.

Longest, Battle Creek, Sidewinder, Blood Gulch, Boarding Action, Wizard, and Derelict were all for the most part symmetrical.
I agree. That was always my biggest complaint about matchmaking and the main reason I stopped playing the game.

Actually most of those maps made it into halo 2.

Elongation - Remake of Longest
Beaver Creek - Remake of Battle Creek
Coagulation - Blood Gulch
Warlock - Wizard
Containment - Sidewinder
Desolation - Derelict

Plus

Sanctuary, Foundation, Midship, Backwash.

I probably forgot one though.

With the exception of maybe Beaver/Battle Creek, every single one of those maps got worse in Halo 2. You left out Hang Em High, which was maybe my favorite map. They totally ruined that.

One of the things I forgot to mention is how I dislike all the air lifts and gravity lifts. What was wrong with the ladders? They didn't make retarded noises when you climbed them.

Hang'em High was terrible in Halo 2, however it has mostly to do with the weapon arrangement. I was just putting forth that were more symmetrical maps.

IMO Coagulation was terrible as was Elongation (along with Tombstone).

But I think the rest they improved upon. Warlock was a fantastic map and greatly improved upon wizard with less power and bigger platforms.

Desolation I thought was pretty good too (but I wasnt a fan of Derilect).

I like the lifts as oppose to ladders. I always died going up ladders and usually would avoid them if at all possible.

It's really a matter of opinion. You could argue each one got worse but also their were completely new weapon sets that changed the dynamics of the map. E.G. Tombstone played terribly with the Halo 2 weapons but Hang em High was brilliant. Almost the exact same layout though.

I've only played the first 2 along with CE. I was very impressed with the level design for the additional levels in CE. It's by far my favorite of the ones that I've played.

I hate how the levels became huge in Halo 2. I hear Halo 3 has huge levels as well and that really doesn't do much for me. If I want huge levels I'll just play Battlefield 2142. That game is awesome.

I liked Halo for the smaller levels. Maybe I didn't give the bigger levels a fair chance.

The bigger levels were crap in H2 and probably H3 as well because there are very few good long range weapons (pretty much only the sniper rifle). No other weapon has the range and versatility that the H:CE pistol had. So even on the big maps everything becomes a close-quarters battle, and you usually have to walk a while to find someone. Either that or you get picked off by a sniper since there's no other good long range weapon to use to fight back at them. That's the main reason why Hang Em High was so awesome, but the remake in Halo 2 was terrible. The pistol was capable of shooting across the map, while the battle rifle couldn't.

Actually the bigger maps work pretty well in Halo 3. The maps are bigger in scale but with the amount of corners to round and things to hide behind most combat is fast and in closed quarters. They arent large open maps like sidewinder coagulation headlong etc.

I dont know how else to explain it you just need to play it.

I gotta agree with Swift. The "big" levels in H3 are great and can sometimes be overwhelming. You really just gotta play H3 to see what we mean. There’s also the Beam Rifle which is a long range weapon but is a poor excuse for a Sniper Rifle.