Fun fact: The band Breaking Benjamin were huge fans of the halo series back in the Bungie days. So when they were brought on to write a song for halo 2, they let Bungie have the rights to their single 'blow me away' for completely free, as they were just happy to have it in the game.
I miss the Halo 2 brutes, I remember I was playing splitscreen co-op with my buddy and a brute was in berserk mode but was glitched so he wasn't moving then my buddy got closer and the brute went back to beserking and I'll never forget the scream that came out of my buddies mouth, priceless lmao. I just wish they would bring back the berserk mode, definitely made them unique.
I feel like their more monkey aesthetic as well suited them more. Making them more imposing. They just kinda look goofy in every iteration since. The H2A brutes look particularly good
Well remember chief is basically a cataclysmic force of nature. Chief has killed untold numbers of covies so being a low ranking foot soldier in front of chief who knows they have no chance youd run too
Others may disagree but for me at least, Gravemind is brutally difficult and definitely the mission I struggled with most. I was 16 odd when Halo 2 came out, with poor anger management skills, and so was so close to smashing my controller to pieces haha.
As difficult and long as the mission is it's definitely a favorite for me The fact that we kill a Prophet during Regret and are then told during the following missions as the Arbiter that the Brutes are taking over as a result of Regret's death then we switch back to Chief directly in the Covenant capital DURING A CIVIL WAR THAT WE CAUSED is just amazing and really makes it feel like our actions have impact. We aren't just reacting to events we are causing major events to unfold and without the Schism the rest of the war would've played out a lot differently
I think "stealth" in halo has always been rather poor. Understandably, it's not a particularly important aspect of the entire Halo series, but it's frustrating that missions like Truth and Reconciliation and Gravemind seem to offer you a "stealthy approach" only to whisk it away no matter how you play it. I would have preferred they never give you the illusion of a quiet approach to be honest.
I think a good solution would be a system where as long as enemies don’t fire their weapons you’ll stay undetected so if you can kill enemies extremely quickly and one at a time you’ll stay I detected
It always seems like the grunts wake up no matter what you do, and as soon as that happens it's guns out. Even on Truth and Reconciliation you can take out maybe a few enemies with the sniper, but they'll always figure out where you are eventually.
I forgot to mention, but I kind of feel we missed a great opportunity to see what happened with the UNSC ship. Yeah, it gets controlled by the flood, but I think seeing what went down or at least a part of the takeover as the Arbiter in the race to the icon would’ve been great
I always felt that was a massive failing in Halo 2's story telling, even if only due to time constraints. The explanation pretty much gets chalked up to "eh, it happened off screen somehow, don't worry about it"
Being on In Amber Clad as everything happened would have been awesome, that's a great idea. Would have been a pretty original scenario for a Flood mission too, which is highly valuable as the Flood are repetitive and, I think, live or die on the quality of the environment, story etc built around them rather than on entertaining combat a lot of the time.
@@BenPlaysGames A viable way I think it could work is if the marines do capture the icon first and escape to the ship, causing the Arbiter to give chase with the flood in tow. The mission could be a very cool remix of the missions in Halo CE of the missions The Pillar of Autumn and Keys. Where the positions are switched as now your the one invading a UNSC ship, slaughtering marines. And for good measure, as the ship is taking of, an infected pelican crashes into the ship, giving you cover to capture the icon. And we can have the final confrontation with the Arbiter, Maranda and Johnson fighting each other to escape the ship. With pretty much everything else that happens with betrayal staying here. Arbiter gets pushed off the phantom as it departs and crashes into the sea. Thoughts?
@@ryanelliott71698 An interesting idea, but as said many times, it would present issues in terms of gameplay. Bungie purposefully never pitted you against marines in Halo because they use hitscan weapons, meaning you cannot dodge their projectiles. Marines, unlike the flood, are trigger happy and accurate. Fighting them would be equal to fighting squads of sniper jackals: if you're in easy or normal difficulty, you just bum rush everything. If you're fighting in heroic or legendary, then you get killed as soon as you get a line of sight. This creates a boring combat experience where dancing around enemies and picking off targets in sequential orders doesn't matter anymore.
@@ryanelliott71698 would have LOVED that idea. You win my seal of approval. Imagine a level where we walk through In Amber Clad as it's eaten alive by the Flood. It could have been an epic horror themed level. Although as Specoups mentioned, it would have suffered from balance, hard core. Marines shoot their weapons far more than flood, and they are hit scan. It's why in Halo I always found flood with human weapons to be far more difficult than Flood with Covenant weapons
Great critique as always! But there is one thing regarding the Breaking Benjamin part of the level. I remember watching @The Act Man's Halo 2 review, and how he stated that the song was actually put into the game for free so the band could get publicity Pretty cool of them, if you ask me
I got to meet them after a Halloween event and they came off as really humble and level headed guys. They were more than willing to stand around and shoot the shit with us, but if I had known they were into games maybe I could have had something to talk about other than bland fanboy stuff.
@@sicKlown86 yeah I know Ben certainly is (there's a real old video of him playing Oblivion and Ghost Recon), think the video I mentioned was them trashing on Battlefront 2015 when EA asked them to promote the game and say it was great so instead they made that video.. cool guys I'm jealous you met them
@@sicKlown86 So humble that, despite from Pennsylvania (i believe), St. Louis, MO will always be their home. Every time they come here, they tell the story of their first tour. It was going utterly horrible, and no one was interested. But, as soon as they come to St. Louis, the line for the amphitheater was backed up for blocks, and they made their biggest break here. Fucking awesome, i tell ya
Thanks Russman! And that's super cool - few people have mentioned it in the comments and I honestly had no idea. Used to be bang into them back in the day especially, late 90s/early 00s rock and metal was awesome. As it happens, I actually saw Jimmy Eat World in Brixton the other day.
Halo 2 brutes were by far the best iteration. Them being shieldless bullet-sponges with the ability to beat a spartan to death made them so interesting and so different from the Elites. H3 just made them into slightly different Elites and I’d say that’s less interesting
Not only that but I thought it was weird how their shields / armor completely disappeared when depleted in Halo 3. They, like you said, were just slightly different (slightly disappointing IMO) elites. Like, where'd all of their ridiculous strength and endurance go?
Plus halo 3 has at least 20 encounters that are just a 'bunch of brutes' with the only variation being that one group is invisible and another group has the option of killing the chieftain before you have to fight them all anyways
nah they were way too overpowered. it made the civil war unrealistic. if they were actually that powerful all the leotes would be dead. halo reach did brutes the best. they didnt feel like knock off Chewbaccas with halo guns but instead an actual alien threat.
Great video but I need to complain quickly: the "arena" at the end is the mausoleum where the Arbiter was sentenced to his "death" in the opening. It is an extremely important area for the elites which is why that super high ranking council elite shows up with the spec ops (that you only fight on legendary in this level). It is very symbolic to be fighting on "sacred grounds". Just a minor nit pick though!
its funny because the councilor elite being there was a coding mistake, it was supposed to be a zealot (golden elite). instead it can be an honour guard councilor or an honour guard ultra which ends up being so much cooler
The comments you made around 13:00 are spot on. To me, what made the Bungie games special was not Master Chief, but the world around him. It's the carefully woven conflict between the three (later even four) factions, the impending future of the known world and the atmosphere it creates, and the constant back and forth between hope and doom. Unfortunately, 343 seemingly care more about the marketing opportunities of throwing Master Chief's face on everything and have turned Halo from a story-driven epic into a "will-they, won't-they" afternoon TV soap opera. The Halo 3: Believe trailer has been doing the rounds recently because of the Fall Guys thing (ua-cam.com/video/a3ZGGIdpfEM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Bungie - for anyone wondering) and for good reason. I think it's the epitome of Bungie's perfect understanding and approach.
That trailer is awesome (I've actually used it in videos before too), as were many of those released around Halo 3. Starry Night was always the one that got me going most, such an amazing trailer: ua-cam.com/video/GKDkKKt9Y7I/v-deo.html
Love this mission! I wouldn't want that first room removed, but definitely reworked. And in general I don't mind the repetition of Gravemind. I didn't like The Library's repetition because even a lot of the encounters feel the same, but with Gravemind there's so much variety in encounters that I wouldn't even mind a longer level tbh
There’s also story progression throughout the background audio on Gravemind. Whereas Library is just “wait here til I perform protocols to open this door” for 25 minutes. Gravemind also has some of the best music tracks in Halo 2. And that’s saying something since the whole soundtrack was much better than any video game has a right to have🔥
@@fluffytoaster427 yeah for sure the story progression was amazing on Gravemind! and the music too, such a beautiful soundtrack The Library was impressive in other ways tho. Like I loved how ancient and massive the place felt. It felt truly alien and creepy like a tomb, while also being really tame with visuals. Super memorable in its own way you know, it has Forerunner vibe without any gimmick!
It's definitely better than The Library for sure. At one point, this was going to have the title of 'Is Gravemind Halo's worst mission' to fit in with some of the others I've done, but I decided not to as having played it through three times for the video alone, I'm very confident it's not. High Charity is worse for starters.
@@BenPlaysGames Yeah I loved Gravemind! only comparison it has to Library is some repetition, but Gravemind is soo much better! It feels a little gross to even compare the two xD
You know, I always loved the repetition of the Library as a kid. It really made it feel like a long ordeal, which I know people say derogatorily, but I enjoyed that personally. It was immersive for me, I guess.
Personally, I think the Elitification of the Brutes was a good call overall, losing the Elites in Halo 3's combat would have been kind of a hit to the moment to moment gameplay. And for me, the Gravity Hammer Chieftains kept the ferocity that I liked about brutes in Halo 2. Also since the Chieftains were rare and clearly powerful enemies, it didn't feel as annoying to get pummeled by it compared to the basic brutes in Halo 2 ramming into you.
I'm not a huge fan of the mission “Gravemind", it's a bit too long and the gunfights in the consecutive corridors starts to overstay their welcome. As you fight your way through the level, the environment opens up and you eventually get to see High Charity in its full scope. This moment, the magnitude of the place should grasp the player. But it never truly does. As you enter an European gothic church, the sense of humility hits you as you get overwhelmed by the huge space and the enormous high ceiling. I believe they tried to awaken a similar feeling in the player as soon as you get to see High Charity in the background. The problem is that the background is too disjoined from the gameplay area itself. While you are fighting your way through High Charity, you never get to immerse yourself with the rest of the capital. The rooms and the corridors you’re traversing through are not truly that distinguished from other Covenant spaceships. (Aside from a couple of unique rooms/areas.) Justifiable or ironically (depending on your view.). High Charity is technically a spaceship off course, but you never get the feeling that you’re fighting your way through a capital city filled with the lives of billions of Covenant aliens nor the feeling of fighting through the command center, the heart of the Covenant. If you would remove the intro cut-scene and the High Charity background, you wouldn't know whether you are fighting in the interior of a regular Covenant spaceship or actually making your way through the place of power of the Covenant. I sadly find its twin level 'High Charity' even worse, which has one saving grace. My favorite song in Halo 2. Pretty much right at the beginning of this mission or at least early on, the song "Pursuit of Truth" (Renamed and remixed to "Charity's Irony" in the Anniversary edition.) starts to play and that's when 'High Charity' is at its apex. And as I ironically mentioned, this happens early in the mission. So the apex is short-lived. The level loses its charm once the song ends and you're back to fighting through enclosed areas and corridors but this time filled with the flood. A memorable part of the mission is when Truth starts his monologue. He delivers his speech so well! Read the following sentence while you have the song ‘Pursuit of Truth’ playing in the background. *_"Shall we let the Flood consume our holy city? Turn High Charity into another of their wretched hives? No enemy has ever withstood our might. The Flood too shall fail."_* Did you read that with Truth’s voice in your head? Cause I do, every single time! It’s one of those moments you will never forget.
Thanks for the detailed comment Erinch! As you say, Gravemind to High Charity is a pretty brutal pair of mission to play through. Gravemind at least has some spectacle and amazing story beats, but High Charity, for me, is a real slog in particular to get though. And yes mate, when I read that sentence I absolutely hear it in Truth's voice 😂
I agree w everything you said but imo i think cortana in halo 3 is almost as bad as gravemind imo. Sucks that its the only mission in halo 3 that actually sucks
@@hiro_cuhh5672 Cortana is a stinker as well for sure. I actually did a video on that mission too, although you'll have to excuse the quality as was still learning: ua-cam.com/video/Qx2X4Wd1HOU/v-deo.html
Gravemind is in my top 5 favorite Halo missions ever, maybe even top 2. I loved grinding it to get as few deaths as possible. The length, the difficulty, the thematic nature of the level, it’s just a great mission. Nice video, God bless bro.✝️❤️
Tbh, gravemind is my favorite level of any video game I’ve ever played. The atmosphere of high charity and the great schism was so magical to me when I first played it
YES! Nothing was crazier than walking in on battles between Elites and brutes! 343 needs to find a decent secondary antagonist so we can get set pieces like that again.
7:32 I’d argue they don’t replace elites in gameplay terms. Since Brutes also act as “amorphous infantry” in way the elites never really did. Elites stayed predominantly an officer class, especially in later parts of H2, Brutes did not do this.
Tartarus, _Tartarus_, Chieftain of a group of alien Gorilla-Rhinos called _Brutes,_ was trying to give mercy to who was ostentibly an Old Man being attacked and strangled to death. That was always a scene that stayed with me, and in the anniversary cutscenes you can just tell by the look on his face that he thought about disobeying and saving Mercy anyway. Damn. What a great character.
I've always liked Halo 2's brutes, while they often are a bit TOO bullet spongey, I always liked how beefy they were. They were a tougher target that you needed more fire power to take down. In games like halo 3 and reach, the brutes are often squishy to the point of being a joke in most encounters. I also love halo 2 brute's berserking, it is the one and only time in the whole series where a berserk brute was an honest threat. As soon as you saw that brute hunch over, you knew he was now your top priority on the battlefield, you killed him or he killed you, and it make a lot of brute encounters more tense, in subsequent games the berserk brutes move much slower, attack less often, and have much slower and more telegraphed attacks, taking the berserking brute from the biggest threat in a fight to the weakest and most insignificant threat in a fight.
I'm of the same view. They can be a bit of a pain in the arse in narrower areas, but they definitely felt like something different, but equally threatening, compared to the elites they replaced.
The song breaking Benjamin put in to the game was completely free they were fans of halo and they wanted to have a song in Halo2 and bungie and Marty with Donald Michael Salvatore agreed
I love how the names of the 3 prophets also go in tandem with their deaths. Regret knew too late he made a mistake, regretting his actions. Mercy expecting Truth to help him, did not. He received no mercy. Truth died believing in his twisted version of truth to the very end that the firing of the rings would make him a God.
Honestly I prefer having repeated rooms with different encounters over having different rooms with the same sort of encounters. Like you use the rooms differently in different encounters and knowing the space around you gives you more planning options
First time I played Halo 2, I got my ass kicked HARD in that damn first room. Cleared the first Brute, then he started beserking and I freaked. The needler became a stand-in rocket launcher, and I tried to shave health down from the brutes evenly in every encounter so no Brute would beserk me with full health. First time I played Halo 3 and met the Brutes and saw them "beserk" I remember going, "that's it?" The enemy that freaked me out to fight as much as the Flood...that was what they were reduced to? Halo Reach, the Elites were kicking my ass in every level. Then I came upon New Alexandria, I was nervous in the dark with Covenant everywhere and suicide bombers. I had to remind myself that I was a Spartan and feared nothing. Then I saw my enemy and I literally shouted, "oh thank goodness, it's just Brutes!" The fact that they reused the Elite AI in Reach, which caused them to just be fat gorillas was such a let down. Halo Wars 2, seemed 343 was giving the Brutes some love. And then Halo bloody Infinite. Congrats 343, a Brute beserking officially freaks me out again, well bloody done!
No arguments here, I used to listen to a ton of Breaking Benjamin back in the day! My point was more that it felt a little cheesy within the context of the game and perhaps does sound a little out of place. Love the song itself.
One of my favorite missions in all of halo along with delta halo and New Alexandria, I just love the environment while outside, seeing high charity in all its glory, the story moments as you watch the Great Schism unfold around, its just absolutely perfect for me.
Story beat during the mission are fantastic, you're right there. As it happens, I also have videos on both of the other missions you mentioned if you're looking for stuff on those too mate.
I can’t tell you how many times I got turned around on gravemind. Also another thing is sometimes you can get in a death loop on the first room when the mission starts with that brute needled combo
I played Halo for the first time last year because of the MCC (PC gamer 4lyfe), and this mission kicked my ass. When I got to the bridge with the hunters, I had used up every powerful weapon I had come across, and only had a plasma pistol and a single half-empty charge for a carbine. I simply did not have the resources to beat the final encounters. I had to start the entire mission over from scratch. The second time through, I gave beam rifles to all of the rescued marines, and had a _much_ easier time.
When I'm playing on harder difficulties, kitting up the marine is always a very useful strategy as the can do some real damage with the right weapon in their hands. One of my favourite things in Infinite was to do similar and then drive around in a Razorback melting everything.
Very thorough and laid out. Again! Never a big fan of H2. I had love and fear for Elites. Brutes never really filled the void left when Elites became allies.
They honestly could have fixed the Halo 2 Brutes without really changing their overall design or behavior at all if they had just changed 3 simple things when dealing with them: 1) Don't have them move their head down and off to the side when they go Berserk. This alone made them stupidly frustrating to fight because it massively hampers the player's ability to naturally and instinctively aim for their heads, because their head isn't where it's supposed to be anymore (and is now also constantly moving every so slightly as they endlessly shoulder-charge toward you, making it even hard to hit). 2) Make their helmets NOT able to block (at the very least) a Sniper shot. A Carbine round is one thing (still kinda stupid, but fine), but Sniper and Beam Rifle rounds to the head should kill them, even with their little helmets. Elites wear helmets, too, but we don't have any problem headshotting them once their shields are down (or even through their shields with sniper rounds). 3) Giving us access to a Battle Rifle to fight them with. Granted this isn't a change to the Brute at all, but a Battle Rifle would have made fighting the Brutes a lot more manageable all by itself because the 3-round burst would have made it possible to get rid of the helmet and score the headshot with a single trigger pull, rather than being forced to use the relatively inaccurate Carbine and hit their head twice (or begin spamming it and praying once they start berserk-charging you).
I love and hate this mission, it has such great bones to it and the story aspect is great. I just despise the beginning and leaving the prison. Gravemind is a fantastic villain too, though I really don't like his design in the updated cutscene. As for the brutes, Ben I could not agree more. Honestly, while not perfect they were a great enemy and I really hate what happened to them going forward. I like the chieftains, the jump pack brutes and spec ops brutes...but all the standard one's are boring and just remind me of how much I miss the elites. I think that is why I don't get as much enjoyment out of Halo 3 and ODST, the brutes are bland and make me miss fighting elites and the more brutal, eh, brutes. Though I love both games anyway, but is it part of why Halo 2 is king for me!
Agree with all of the above. I'll be honest, I expected to hate it more than I did, having not played it much in the last year or two! It's way too long and very grindy, but man oh lord are the story beats good.
The true problem with halo 2's brutes is the lack of feedback... They aren't stunned, they don't react to getting shot except a tiny flinch... They should've given them some sort of visible hit animation and something showing their remaining health, a bit like the elite's shields do
Yep, even elites get staggered when taking health damage shocks. That's actually what I hate about playing many shooters like Destiny, enemies dont really react to being hit until they die and go instant floppy ragdoll
The part where Blow Me Away plays I don't think Bungie shoehorned in just to get use out of what they paid. To my knowledge most of the band songs in Halo 2 were made specifically for Halo 2 and were made without request from Bungie. Bungie didn't have to pay a penny for most of these songs, and I also know Blow Me Away was officially made for Halo 2.
One thing I did not notice until I played Halo 2/2A: The cutscene where Miranda retrieves the Index, the said cutscene makes the area look isolated and a small room with not much space. Yet, prior to the cutscene, playing as the Arbiter, the room is actually has lots of space.
Bit of a tangent, but I love how Tartarus goes to help the Prophet attacked by Flood without any hesitation, and looks really torn when told to leave him. He's a massive dick, but I like this moment of clear loyalty to the Prophets, makes him and the Brutes as a whole more interesting than just big apes, they're just as in deep for the Great Journey as any other Covenant race.
Hey! Love all this (and other videos). I won't lie, I never thought about the mission's length and which rooms should be removed. Beyond hallways, throughout the mission you visit all the places of the Arbiter's origin prior to playing as him. The High Council Chamber, the branding spot, the prison he was kept in, and then you march off to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter. Do you believe that's some narrative tool for the mission or more fun Easter eggs?
Hey Philip, appreciate the lovely feedback mate, thank you! I'll be completely honest with you, I never noticed that at all and now you mention it, I wonder if there is a reason. I like to think it's more a narrative decision, but equally it may have just been a way for Bungie to get maximum value from assets/environments by using them both in the Arbiter's cutscene and Master Chief's gameplay. Although, I hope that's not the reason as it's not as interesting 😂
@@BenPlaysGames Hahaha I agree. I'd love the idea of the narrative reason. Of course if it is money based, I guess who can blame them 😂 Regardless, love the content and always looking forward to your next videos!
@@BenPlaysGames I’ll be honest, sometimes i painfully trek through that mission solely for that song. Since we’re on about bands being included, do you have a similar opinion of _Incubus’_ “Follow” being included in the Arbiter?
16:05 is the most underrated cutscene. It shows how deceptive Truth really is. He claims that the reason the elites are being replaced is because they failed to protect a prophet, yet the brutes fail to protect one here as well and he lets him die. Clearly, he wanted both prophets to die to gain total control, and saw the brutes as more blindly faithful than the elites.
To be fair, the Brutes acting more like Elites in halo 3 compared to halo 2 could litterally be a storytelling element. In halo 2 you are looking at their inception as squad leaders. They have been in a leading position for mere days, at best. You are probably their first ever hostile encounter since rising up to their new rank. Halo 3 however, is set some time later, so you would expect Brutes to slowly adapt to their new role and start behaving like actual leaders and less like dollar store Hunters
As far as I know, Bungie actually didn't pay anything on Blow Me Away. Breaking Benjamin genuinely just loved Halo, and made music for them, which honestly I think makes that end room where it plays better!
I have a love and hate for this level. Pro: Elite vs brutes The gravemind himself Blow me away part. Con: Too long Berserker mode How easy you can die Can't skip section in the level. Long story short, I wish I can skip to blow me away on mcc
It took me a solid 10 minutes before I realized they must have put a remastered/anniversary edition out. I was like, I really don't remember the shit looking this good on the Xbox
The cutscenes are the anniversary edition and the gameplay is the original but with a few modern upgrades such as much higher res and framerates. 4K/120fps is such a great experience if you've got a monitor with a high refresh rate. Definitely recommend it.
Jackal snipers aside, I've never thought Halo 2 Legendary to be that difficult. My geek circle growing up raced to beat legendary solo overnight. One of my friends was so obsessed with hitting level 50 he was actually smoking crack just to stay awake while sticking a butter knife into his XBOX so he could force matchmaking to only choose the 'Multipler pack' maps when the first batch came out. Shit was wild back then.
Halo 2 was always special to me because I only owned a PS2 back then and so the only time I got to play the game was at my uncle's house who lived out of state which was once every summer. The Halo 2 Brutes I think are still the best version of them just because you gotta change your combat style due how differently they play vs the elites. And I always found it amusing when the space gorillas began charging at you and were boxing champions along with having funny voices. As a kid just having Order 66 vibes with this mission and I remember feeling bad when you still gotta kill elites in this level
Beat all the halo LASO’s on my “Teraplexxus” account. Gravemind definitely lived up to it notoriety. I died at least 400 times on that one mission alone. Most of those deaths were just to get some shields in the first bridge area so I could tank a nearly guaranteed hit from 3 brutes. The other LASOs weren’t nearly as hard as H2. If anybody sees this and wants to do laso, i recommend starting with reach or odst, Both have mechanics that are necessary to learn before the others.
Please do uprising, I don’t believe you have done an over view of the mission and it’s actually one of my favourites, anyway love all your halo vids👍👍👍
Pretty much sums up my thoughts Ryan - the gameplay isn't bad per se, but for me there's just too much of it when a pacier mission I think would have fit the tone of the mission a little better. I'd like it to feel more like you're constantly dodging and diving around to escape the chaos with no room for breath, which I think could have been done by cutting out a section here and there (and maybe one of the goodness knows how many vertical or horizontal grav lifts haha).
Video a 0/10 At 0:09 a perfect opportunity to include a “phrasing” reference from Archer. Tut! Tut! Improve on your video editing. Ps. Good vid by the way.
Nice one Reece! Don't hate me, but I haven't watched Archer since season three or so. Still has one of my favourite exchanges in any animated show in it: *Archer:* I have to go. But if I find one single dog hair when I get back, I'll rub...sand...in your dead little eyes. *Woodhouse:* Very good, sir. *Archer [pause]:* I also need you to buy sand. *Woodhouse:* Yes, sir. *Archer:* I don't know if they grade it, but... coarse.
Gravemind=Best Level. Calling the opening room the most frustrating is fair even if I disagree, but I don't see how you can simultaneously call it boring. Ha. Funny how in like 15 years, I never made the conscious realization that this is the last mission in the original trilogy you fight Elites. Like I guess I knew it, but just sounds profound saying it.
For me, that room is a dodgy one for different reasons depending on the difficulty. On lower one, it gets rather boring waiting for the enemies to show up, while on higher ones, you get melted so stupidly quickly that it feels really, really unfair. Hopefully that explanation makes a little more sense!
I hope I speak for all of us when I say don't you ever call that part of the game cheesy again o.o that was the BEST part of the entire game and it put Breaking Benjamin on the map
I love that part to death, but I maintain that it was a little cheesy. Ain't nothing wrong with that either, I'm just finishing a retrospective of the original Resident Evil which is supremely cheesy - and it definitely makes it more entertaining!
Depends on the level. When they're on form, they're absolutely brilliant, but equally there are some that clearly suffered from rapidly approaching deadlines or similar that really aren't too great.
I reckon 3 is definitely due a new version, would absolutely over the moon if it ever happened. Funnily enough, been playing 4 through the last few days and been super impressed with how good it still looks. Granted, I'm playing at 4K/120fps, so that definitely helps, but it's quite impressive.
He does! I actually thought about including it in the video but I couldn't verify it myself so decided not to. I actually have a degree in English, and studied poetry as part of that fairly extensively, but always struggle hugely trying to count syllables.
I completely agree regarding the brutes and their "elitification" post-halo 2. One of the things I think Infinite did very well was bridging the gap between 2 and 3's brutes with the ones that have the armour that can be individually shot off, although I do still wish that they berserked instead of leaving the berserking state to an individual brute type.
You're right, Infinite was much better and I probably should have mentioned that in the video honestly! Like you say, would have been nice to have had the possibility of any brute going berserk rather than using a specific type, although maybe they would do it a little less frequently than 2's.
Fun Fact: Breaking Benjamin recorded “Blow Me Away” specifically for Halo 2 and they did it FREE OF CHARGE Seriously, one of my favorite bands for many reasons
Very much enjoyed the cut of your jib on this one, Ben! Completely agree that the Brutes have never really seemed brutish after Halo 2; they're a very distinct enemy in this game which I like. I also love the sections of this mission seeing the Covenant civil war - I like how you can dive straight into the fight or hold back and watch them kill each other. I remember hearing somewhere that it was Marty O'Donnell's idea to have the song by Breaking Benjamin play in the final room, and that most of the staff weren't convinced. But like you said, it does make a smashing tune to that fight. Keep up the great videos!
Cheers Baron! Not overly surprised to hear Bungie devs were against adding Breaking Benjamin to the final room - as I say in the video, I would have been vehemently against it. That being said, it actually works and I wouldn't have it any other way haha.
Unpopular opinion, Halo 2 is my favorite for cutscenes story and characters. Oh and I cant forget the soundtracks. One would argue that reach had better characters but I like my boi Johnson and Artex or the ship master
@@BenPlaysGames Btw I enjoyed the video. The part talking about repeating rooms was so true. I've played the game so many time it personally doesnt affect me but I do see the repetitiveness.
Cheers for always checking them out Andrew! That's actually not a bad idea and I've been looking at maybe setting up a Twitch recently - watch this space.
No Halo title has ever made me take extended breaks on Legendary except for Halo 2 (multiple times) and Halo 4 on the MCC, tho that last one isn't just cause it's hard but also because it bugged out and wouldn't load half of that Mammoth mission
I was really hoping for open world Flood in Infinite as I think they'd be at their best in that kind of setting. Have them take over certain areas of the map unless you fight them back, stuff like that. Based on the introduction of another new enemy in that game, not sure we'll be seeing them for a while yet.
Gravemind is my favorite level in Halo 2. The opening cutscene is amazing and High Charity is a really cool setting to explore. It's a really difficult level, especially on legendary, but the way the covenant civil war breaks out as you progress is amazing. It mixes up the combat in an interesting way while being story significant. It's also the only mission where you fight every type of covenant enemy.
I feel exactly the same way about the brutes’ being turned into elites that look like brutes. The halo 2 elites look the coolest too. They look meaner and more savage in gameplay and cutscenes in halo 2
✅ Subscribe: ua-cam.com/users/BenPlaysGames
🖱 Support the channel: www.patreon.com/ben_plays_games
Long... and hard.
you know what else is long and hard?
MY MOM!
I was going to ask, but do you have a discord server? Do you plan to make one?. Good vid
Just a note to say I think someone impersonating you is trying to run a scam around a PC prize in this comments section. 🤔
Ayo
Fun fact: The band Breaking Benjamin were huge fans of the halo series back in the Bungie days. So when they were brought on to write a song for halo 2, they let Bungie have the rights to their single 'blow me away' for completely free, as they were just happy to have it in the game.
Thanks for filling me in, did not know that - pretty awesome honestly, I'd lose my shit if I had a song in a Halo game.
@@BenPlaysGames yeah it would definitely be an exiting moment. Great video by the way, love how detailed your analysis of levels are.
And also incubus and Steve Vai
Such an iconic song. Fits perfectly.
What a "fun" fact.
I miss the Halo 2 brutes, I remember I was playing splitscreen co-op with my buddy and a brute was in berserk mode but was glitched so he wasn't moving then my buddy got closer and the brute went back to beserking and I'll never forget the scream that came out of my buddies mouth, priceless lmao. I just wish they would bring back the berserk mode, definitely made them unique.
Halo 2 brutes are actually the knights from halo 4.
I feel like their more monkey aesthetic as well suited them more. Making them more imposing. They just kinda look goofy in every iteration since. The H2A brutes look particularly good
Didn’t they bring it back in infinite?
@@tylerasweet sure did, they're terrifying.
They were so unpredictable. Halo 2 on heroic/legendary was just brutal
i always find chief saying "boo" to the grunt still makes me laugh even now
One of my favourite moments in the game and same for me - always makes me chuckle.
Like he remembered how easy they are to scare! And to be fair, in Chief's boots, we'd all do the same, don't lie, you know you would!
they are quite easy to scare
just a simple "boo" and they run away with tears
LOL!
Well remember chief is basically a cataclysmic force of nature. Chief has killed untold numbers of covies so being a low ranking foot soldier in front of chief who knows they have no chance youd run too
Considering how insane the difficulty is in 2 saying one level is hardest is really saying something
Others may disagree but for me at least, Gravemind is brutally difficult and definitely the mission I struggled with most. I was 16 odd when Halo 2 came out, with poor anger management skills, and so was so close to smashing my controller to pieces haha.
@@BenPlaysGames true plus the rng moments of luck on legendary
No other level in 2 will kill you in the first second…over and over and over.
@@jesterjay420 iron is more hell here than anywhere els
Amen
My jaw dropped when you said that grave mind is the last level you fight elites in the whole trilogy. I never realized that.
Me too 😂 I had to do a quick mental check
That's false. You fight them in Reach...
@@satazs6195 "trilogy"
@@satazs6195 Reading Comprehension is lacking
As difficult and long as the mission is it's definitely a favorite for me
The fact that we kill a Prophet during Regret and are then told during the following missions as the Arbiter that the Brutes are taking over as a result of Regret's death then we switch back to Chief directly in the Covenant capital DURING A CIVIL WAR THAT WE CAUSED is just amazing and really makes it feel like our actions have impact. We aren't just reacting to events we are causing major events to unfold and without the Schism the rest of the war would've played out a lot differently
I think "stealth" in halo has always been rather poor. Understandably, it's not a particularly important aspect of the entire Halo series, but it's frustrating that missions like Truth and Reconciliation and Gravemind seem to offer you a "stealthy approach" only to whisk it away no matter how you play it. I would have preferred they never give you the illusion of a quiet approach to be honest.
i would have preferred if they did the way that was in the other one
What do you mean. I can get past quite a lot as the arbiter with the cloak ability
I think a good solution would be a system where as long as enemies don’t fire their weapons you’ll stay undetected so if you can kill enemies extremely quickly and one at a time you’ll stay I detected
The prison in Gravemind I can kill one, maybe two enemies before everyone goes guns out. Gimme a chance to be sneaky is all I'm asking!
It always seems like the grunts wake up no matter what you do, and as soon as that happens it's guns out. Even on Truth and Reconciliation you can take out maybe a few enemies with the sniper, but they'll always figure out where you are eventually.
Funny thing: the gravemind was originally going to have skulls for teeth, but it was decided it was too much.
The jagged bone plates arguably work better.
I forgot to mention, but I kind of feel we missed a great opportunity to see what happened with the UNSC ship. Yeah, it gets controlled by the flood, but I think seeing what went down or at least a part of the takeover as the Arbiter in the race to the icon would’ve been great
I always felt that was a massive failing in Halo 2's story telling, even if only due to time constraints. The explanation pretty much gets chalked up to "eh, it happened off screen somehow, don't worry about it"
Being on In Amber Clad as everything happened would have been awesome, that's a great idea. Would have been a pretty original scenario for a Flood mission too, which is highly valuable as the Flood are repetitive and, I think, live or die on the quality of the environment, story etc built around them rather than on entertaining combat a lot of the time.
@@BenPlaysGames A viable way I think it could work is if the marines do capture the icon first and escape to the ship, causing the Arbiter to give chase with the flood in tow. The mission could be a very cool remix of the missions in Halo CE of the missions The Pillar of Autumn and Keys. Where the positions are switched as now your the one invading a UNSC ship, slaughtering marines. And for good measure, as the ship is taking of, an infected pelican crashes into the ship, giving you cover to capture the icon. And we can have the final confrontation with the Arbiter, Maranda and Johnson fighting each other to escape the ship. With pretty much everything else that happens with betrayal staying here. Arbiter gets pushed off the phantom as it departs and crashes into the sea.
Thoughts?
@@ryanelliott71698 An interesting idea, but as said many times, it would present issues in terms of gameplay. Bungie purposefully never pitted you against marines in Halo because they use hitscan weapons, meaning you cannot dodge their projectiles. Marines, unlike the flood, are trigger happy and accurate.
Fighting them would be equal to fighting squads of sniper jackals: if you're in easy or normal difficulty, you just bum rush everything. If you're fighting in heroic or legendary, then you get killed as soon as you get a line of sight. This creates a boring combat experience where dancing around enemies and picking off targets in sequential orders doesn't matter anymore.
@@ryanelliott71698 would have LOVED that idea. You win my seal of approval. Imagine a level where we walk through In Amber Clad as it's eaten alive by the Flood. It could have been an epic horror themed level. Although as Specoups mentioned, it would have suffered from balance, hard core. Marines shoot their weapons far more than flood, and they are hit scan. It's why in Halo I always found flood with human weapons to be far more difficult than Flood with Covenant weapons
Great critique as always!
But there is one thing regarding the Breaking Benjamin part of the level. I remember watching @The Act Man's Halo 2 review, and how he stated that the song was actually put into the game for free so the band could get publicity
Pretty cool of them, if you ask me
I'm pretty sure I remember seeing an interview with the band in 2015 about how much they hate Halo 5 too which is kind of hilarious
I got to meet them after a Halloween event and they came off as really humble and level headed guys. They were more than willing to stand around and shoot the shit with us, but if I had known they were into games maybe I could have had something to talk about other than bland fanboy stuff.
@@sicKlown86 yeah I know Ben certainly is (there's a real old video of him playing Oblivion and Ghost Recon), think the video I mentioned was them trashing on Battlefront 2015 when EA asked them to promote the game and say it was great so instead they made that video.. cool guys I'm jealous you met them
@@sicKlown86
So humble that, despite from Pennsylvania (i believe), St. Louis, MO will always be their home. Every time they come here, they tell the story of their first tour. It was going utterly horrible, and no one was interested. But, as soon as they come to St. Louis, the line for the amphitheater was backed up for blocks, and they made their biggest break here. Fucking awesome, i tell ya
Thanks Russman! And that's super cool - few people have mentioned it in the comments and I honestly had no idea. Used to be bang into them back in the day especially, late 90s/early 00s rock and metal was awesome. As it happens, I actually saw Jimmy Eat World in Brixton the other day.
Halo 2 brutes were by far the best iteration. Them being shieldless bullet-sponges with the ability to beat a spartan to death made them so interesting and so different from the Elites. H3 just made them into slightly different Elites and I’d say that’s less interesting
Not only that but I thought it was weird how their shields / armor completely disappeared when depleted in Halo 3. They, like you said, were just slightly different (slightly disappointing IMO) elites. Like, where'd all of their ridiculous strength and endurance go?
Honestly Halo 2 Brutes are extremely weak to headshots. They only take 3 headshots. Also of course Needlers too.
Halo 3 was a downgrade in terms of difficult and lore.
Plus halo 3 has at least 20 encounters that are just a 'bunch of brutes' with the only variation being that one group is invisible and another group has the option of killing the chieftain before you have to fight them all anyways
nah they were way too overpowered. it made the civil war unrealistic. if they were actually that powerful all the leotes would be dead. halo reach did brutes the best. they didnt feel like knock off Chewbaccas with halo guns but instead an actual alien threat.
11:10 on harder difficulties, specifically legendary, this is where you forget about combat and sprint to the end
I played it on heroic and just ran. I can only imagine the pain legendary players face
Great video but I need to complain quickly: the "arena" at the end is the mausoleum where the Arbiter was sentenced to his "death" in the opening.
It is an extremely important area for the elites which is why that super high ranking council elite shows up with the spec ops (that you only fight on legendary in this level). It is very symbolic to be fighting on "sacred grounds".
Just a minor nit pick though!
Nice spot, f - that adds extra narrative weight to the whole encounter for sure.
Where he *became the Arbiter.
The first room is the one where he was sentenced to death.
@@trillionbones89 The title of Arbiter is usually a death sentence
its funny because the councilor elite being there was a coding mistake, it was supposed to be a zealot (golden elite). instead it can be an honour guard councilor or an honour guard ultra which ends up being so much cooler
The comments you made around 13:00 are spot on. To me, what made the Bungie games special was not Master Chief, but the world around him. It's the carefully woven conflict between the three (later even four) factions, the impending future of the known world and the atmosphere it creates, and the constant back and forth between hope and doom. Unfortunately, 343 seemingly care more about the marketing opportunities of throwing Master Chief's face on everything and have turned Halo from a story-driven epic into a "will-they, won't-they" afternoon TV soap opera.
The Halo 3: Believe trailer has been doing the rounds recently because of the Fall Guys thing (ua-cam.com/video/a3ZGGIdpfEM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Bungie - for anyone wondering) and for good reason. I think it's the epitome of Bungie's perfect understanding and approach.
That trailer is awesome (I've actually used it in videos before too), as were many of those released around Halo 3. Starry Night was always the one that got me going most, such an amazing trailer: ua-cam.com/video/GKDkKKt9Y7I/v-deo.html
Love this mission! I wouldn't want that first room removed, but definitely reworked. And in general I don't mind the repetition of Gravemind. I didn't like The Library's repetition because even a lot of the encounters feel the same, but with Gravemind there's so much variety in encounters that I wouldn't even mind a longer level tbh
There’s also story progression throughout the background audio on Gravemind. Whereas Library is just “wait here til I perform protocols to open this door” for 25 minutes.
Gravemind also has some of the best music tracks in Halo 2. And that’s saying something since the whole soundtrack was much better than any video game has a right to have🔥
@@fluffytoaster427 yeah for sure the story progression was amazing on Gravemind! and the music too, such a beautiful soundtrack
The Library was impressive in other ways tho. Like I loved how ancient and massive the place felt. It felt truly alien and creepy like a tomb, while also being really tame with visuals. Super memorable in its own way you know, it has Forerunner vibe without any gimmick!
It's definitely better than The Library for sure. At one point, this was going to have the title of 'Is Gravemind Halo's worst mission' to fit in with some of the others I've done, but I decided not to as having played it through three times for the video alone, I'm very confident it's not. High Charity is worse for starters.
@@BenPlaysGames Yeah I loved Gravemind! only comparison it has to Library is some repetition, but Gravemind is soo much better! It feels a little gross to even compare the two xD
You know, I always loved the repetition of the Library as a kid. It really made it feel like a long ordeal, which I know people say derogatorily, but I enjoyed that personally. It was immersive for me, I guess.
Personally, I think the Elitification of the Brutes was a good call overall, losing the Elites in Halo 3's combat would have been kind of a hit to the moment to moment gameplay. And for me, the Gravity Hammer Chieftains kept the ferocity that I liked about brutes in Halo 2. Also since the Chieftains were rare and clearly powerful enemies, it didn't feel as annoying to get pummeled by it compared to the basic brutes in Halo 2 ramming into you.
I'm not a huge fan of the mission “Gravemind", it's a bit too long and the gunfights in the consecutive corridors starts to overstay their welcome.
As you fight your way through the level, the environment opens up and you eventually get to see High Charity in its full scope. This moment, the magnitude of the place should grasp the player. But it never truly does.
As you enter an European gothic church, the sense of humility hits you as you get overwhelmed by the huge space and the enormous high ceiling. I believe they tried to awaken a similar feeling in the player as soon as you get to see High Charity in the background.
The problem is that the background is too disjoined from the gameplay area itself.
While you are fighting your way through High Charity, you never get to immerse yourself with the rest of the capital. The rooms and the corridors you’re traversing through are not truly that distinguished from other Covenant spaceships. (Aside from a couple of unique rooms/areas.)
Justifiable or ironically (depending on your view.). High Charity is technically a spaceship off course, but you never get the feeling that you’re fighting your way through a capital city filled with the lives of billions of Covenant aliens nor the feeling of fighting through the command center, the heart of the Covenant. If you would remove the intro cut-scene and the High Charity background, you wouldn't know whether you are fighting in the interior of a regular Covenant spaceship or actually making your way through the place of power of the Covenant.
I sadly find its twin level 'High Charity' even worse, which has one saving grace. My favorite song in Halo 2.
Pretty much right at the beginning of this mission or at least early on, the song "Pursuit of Truth" (Renamed and remixed to "Charity's Irony" in the Anniversary edition.) starts to play and that's when 'High Charity' is at its apex. And as I ironically mentioned, this happens early in the mission. So the apex is short-lived. The level loses its charm once the song ends and you're back to fighting through enclosed areas and corridors but this time filled with the flood.
A memorable part of the mission is when Truth starts his monologue. He delivers his speech so well!
Read the following sentence while you have the song ‘Pursuit of Truth’ playing in the background.
*_"Shall we let the Flood consume our holy city? Turn High Charity into another of their wretched hives? No enemy has ever withstood our might. The Flood too shall fail."_*
Did you read that with Truth’s voice in your head? Cause I do, every single time! It’s one of those moments you will never forget.
Thanks for the detailed comment Erinch!
As you say, Gravemind to High Charity is a pretty brutal pair of mission to play through. Gravemind at least has some spectacle and amazing story beats, but High Charity, for me, is a real slog in particular to get though. And yes mate, when I read that sentence I absolutely hear it in Truth's voice 😂
I agree w everything you said but imo i think cortana in halo 3 is almost as bad as gravemind imo. Sucks that its the only mission in halo 3 that actually sucks
@@hiro_cuhh5672 Cortana is a stinker as well for sure. I actually did a video on that mission too, although you'll have to excuse the quality as was still learning: ua-cam.com/video/Qx2X4Wd1HOU/v-deo.html
Gravemind is in my top 5 favorite Halo missions ever, maybe even top 2. I loved grinding it to get as few deaths as possible. The length, the difficulty, the thematic nature of the level, it’s just a great mission. Nice video, God bless bro.✝️❤️
Tbh, gravemind is my favorite level of any video game I’ve ever played. The atmosphere of high charity and the great schism was so magical to me when I first played it
YES! Nothing was crazier than walking in on battles between Elites and brutes! 343 needs to find a decent secondary antagonist so we can get set pieces like that again.
7:32 I’d argue they don’t replace elites in gameplay terms. Since Brutes also act as “amorphous infantry” in way the elites never really did. Elites stayed predominantly an officer class, especially in later parts of H2, Brutes did not do this.
Tartarus, _Tartarus_, Chieftain of a group of alien Gorilla-Rhinos called _Brutes,_ was trying to give mercy to who was ostentibly an Old Man being attacked and strangled to death. That was always a scene that stayed with me, and in the anniversary cutscenes you can just tell by the look on his face that he thought about disobeying and saving Mercy anyway. Damn. What a great character.
My favorite mission from the cutscene to the story and the atmosphere of the level.
I could watch that opening cutscene over and over again, and never get bored. It's so bloody good.
I've always liked Halo 2's brutes, while they often are a bit TOO bullet spongey, I always liked how beefy they were. They were a tougher target that you needed more fire power to take down. In games like halo 3 and reach, the brutes are often squishy to the point of being a joke in most encounters. I also love halo 2 brute's berserking, it is the one and only time in the whole series where a berserk brute was an honest threat. As soon as you saw that brute hunch over, you knew he was now your top priority on the battlefield, you killed him or he killed you, and it make a lot of brute encounters more tense, in subsequent games the berserk brutes move much slower, attack less often, and have much slower and more telegraphed attacks, taking the berserking brute from the biggest threat in a fight to the weakest and most insignificant threat in a fight.
I'm of the same view. They can be a bit of a pain in the arse in narrower areas, but they definitely felt like something different, but equally threatening, compared to the elites they replaced.
I figured out, Brutes in Halo 2 take massively increased damage from explosions, so the Needler is an ideal weapon for taking them out.
My preferred brute takedown weapons:
1) Dual wielded needles
2) Covenant carbine (headshots!)
3) Lucky plasma nade
4) Beam rifle or fuel rod cannon
The first thing this mission does is give you a Needler and pit you against two Brutes. Clever
Everytime I think I've weakened a brute enough for melee, he gives me a good 1'2'3.
Happens to me every single time I play Halo 2, never learn 🙈
The song breaking Benjamin put in to the game was completely free they were fans of halo and they wanted to have a song in Halo2 and bungie and Marty with Donald Michael Salvatore agreed
This mission was such a beautiful level. the difficulty is almost worth it because each area was either epic or beautiful.
15:03 that 'circular arena' is actually the mausoleum of the arbiter, from a few levels prior
I love how the names of the 3 prophets also go in tandem with their deaths. Regret knew too late he made a mistake, regretting his actions. Mercy expecting Truth to help him, did not. He received no mercy. Truth died believing in his twisted version of truth to the very end that the firing of the rings would make him a God.
‘Long and hard’ immediately into the video, jesud
Go long and hard or go home.
Honestly I prefer having repeated rooms with different encounters over having different rooms with the same sort of encounters. Like you use the rooms differently in different encounters and knowing the space around you gives you more planning options
Some like their halo missions long and some like their missions LONG AND HARD....🤣🤣🤣
Deviants, all of them!
First time I played Halo 2, I got my ass kicked HARD in that damn first room. Cleared the first Brute, then he started beserking and I freaked. The needler became a stand-in rocket launcher, and I tried to shave health down from the brutes evenly in every encounter so no Brute would beserk me with full health.
First time I played Halo 3 and met the Brutes and saw them "beserk" I remember going, "that's it?" The enemy that freaked me out to fight as much as the Flood...that was what they were reduced to?
Halo Reach, the Elites were kicking my ass in every level. Then I came upon New Alexandria, I was nervous in the dark with Covenant everywhere and suicide bombers. I had to remind myself that I was a Spartan and feared nothing. Then I saw my enemy and I literally shouted, "oh thank goodness, it's just Brutes!" The fact that they reused the Elite AI in Reach, which caused them to just be fat gorillas was such a let down.
Halo Wars 2, seemed 343 was giving the Brutes some love. And then Halo bloody Infinite. Congrats 343, a Brute beserking officially freaks me out again, well bloody done!
Are you kidding me? Blow Me Away is amazing! The best music in the franchise not made by Marty.
No arguments here, I used to listen to a ton of Breaking Benjamin back in the day! My point was more that it felt a little cheesy within the context of the game and perhaps does sound a little out of place. Love the song itself.
@@BenPlaysGames True. What are your thoughts on the songs that incubus made for Halo 2?
I love how often I found myself nodding in agreement watching this. Especially the Brute analysis.
Nodding is good! Better than shaking your head in indignant rage for sure 😂
One of my favorite missions in all of halo along with delta halo and New Alexandria, I just love the environment while outside, seeing high charity in all its glory, the story moments as you watch the Great Schism unfold around, its just absolutely perfect for me.
Story beat during the mission are fantastic, you're right there. As it happens, I also have videos on both of the other missions you mentioned if you're looking for stuff on those too mate.
I can’t tell you how many times I got turned around on gravemind. Also another thing is sometimes you can get in a death loop on the first room when the mission starts with that brute needled combo
People who click fast instead of hold the needler are true legendaries.
I played Halo for the first time last year because of the MCC (PC gamer 4lyfe), and this mission kicked my ass. When I got to the bridge with the hunters, I had used up every powerful weapon I had come across, and only had a plasma pistol and a single half-empty charge for a carbine. I simply did not have the resources to beat the final encounters. I had to start the entire mission over from scratch.
The second time through, I gave beam rifles to all of the rescued marines, and had a _much_ easier time.
When I'm playing on harder difficulties, kitting up the marine is always a very useful strategy as the can do some real damage with the right weapon in their hands. One of my favourite things in Infinite was to do similar and then drive around in a Razorback melting everything.
Very thorough and laid out. Again!
Never a big fan of H2. I had love and fear for Elites. Brutes never really filled the void left when Elites became allies.
Nice one William! And yeh, the elites were always my fave too, missed fighting them in 3, even if the brutes did share some of their attributes.
They honestly could have fixed the Halo 2 Brutes without really changing their overall design or behavior at all if they had just changed 3 simple things when dealing with them:
1) Don't have them move their head down and off to the side when they go Berserk. This alone made them stupidly frustrating to fight because it massively hampers the player's ability to naturally and instinctively aim for their heads, because their head isn't where it's supposed to be anymore (and is now also constantly moving every so slightly as they endlessly shoulder-charge toward you, making it even hard to hit).
2) Make their helmets NOT able to block (at the very least) a Sniper shot. A Carbine round is one thing (still kinda stupid, but fine), but Sniper and Beam Rifle rounds to the head should kill them, even with their little helmets. Elites wear helmets, too, but we don't have any problem headshotting them once their shields are down (or even through their shields with sniper rounds).
3) Giving us access to a Battle Rifle to fight them with. Granted this isn't a change to the Brute at all, but a Battle Rifle would have made fighting the Brutes a lot more manageable all by itself because the 3-round burst would have made it possible to get rid of the helmet and score the headshot with a single trigger pull, rather than being forced to use the relatively inaccurate Carbine and hit their head twice (or begin spamming it and praying once they start berserk-charging you).
I love and hate this mission, it has such great bones to it and the story aspect is great. I just despise the beginning and leaving the prison.
Gravemind is a fantastic villain too, though I really don't like his design in the updated cutscene.
As for the brutes, Ben I could not agree more. Honestly, while not perfect they were a great enemy and I really hate what happened to them going forward. I like the chieftains, the jump pack brutes and spec ops brutes...but all the standard one's are boring and just remind me of how much I miss the elites.
I think that is why I don't get as much enjoyment out of Halo 3 and ODST, the brutes are bland and make me miss fighting elites and the more brutal, eh, brutes. Though I love both games anyway, but is it part of why Halo 2 is king for me!
Agree with all of the above. I'll be honest, I expected to hate it more than I did, having not played it much in the last year or two! It's way too long and very grindy, but man oh lord are the story beats good.
@@BenPlaysGames :)
The true problem with halo 2's brutes is the lack of feedback...
They aren't stunned, they don't react to getting shot except a tiny flinch... They should've given them some sort of visible hit animation and something showing their remaining health, a bit like the elite's shields do
Yep, even elites get staggered when taking health damage shocks. That's actually what I hate about playing many shooters like Destiny, enemies dont really react to being hit until they die and go instant floppy ragdoll
That intro proves you know what the ladies like.
The part where Blow Me Away plays I don't think Bungie shoehorned in just to get use out of what they paid. To my knowledge most of the band songs in Halo 2 were made specifically for Halo 2 and were made without request from Bungie. Bungie didn't have to pay a penny for most of these songs, and I also know Blow Me Away was officially made for Halo 2.
One thing I did not notice until I played Halo 2/2A: The cutscene where Miranda retrieves the Index, the said cutscene makes the area look isolated and a small room with not much space. Yet, prior to the cutscene, playing as the Arbiter, the room is actually has lots of space.
NOTHING will ever be worse then Halo 3s Cortana mission!!!!!! FUCK THE FLOOD, FUCK ROCKET FLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!
Bit of a tangent, but I love how Tartarus goes to help the Prophet attacked by Flood without any hesitation, and looks really torn when told to leave him. He's a massive dick, but I like this moment of clear loyalty to the Prophets, makes him and the Brutes as a whole more interesting than just big apes, they're just as in deep for the Great Journey as any other Covenant race.
Hey! Love all this (and other videos).
I won't lie, I never thought about the mission's length and which rooms should be removed. Beyond hallways, throughout the mission you visit all the places of the Arbiter's origin prior to playing as him. The High Council Chamber, the branding spot, the prison he was kept in, and then you march off to the Mausoleum of the Arbiter.
Do you believe that's some narrative tool for the mission or more fun Easter eggs?
Hey Philip, appreciate the lovely feedback mate, thank you! I'll be completely honest with you, I never noticed that at all and now you mention it, I wonder if there is a reason. I like to think it's more a narrative decision, but equally it may have just been a way for Bungie to get maximum value from assets/environments by using them both in the Arbiter's cutscene and Master Chief's gameplay. Although, I hope that's not the reason as it's not as interesting 😂
@@BenPlaysGames Hahaha I agree. I'd love the idea of the narrative reason. Of course if it is money based, I guess who can blame them 😂
Regardless, love the content and always looking forward to your next videos!
The level Gravemind should have been called High Charity and vice versa
100% agree with this! While Gravemind is revealed at the start of the mission, he's a far more consistent presence during High Charity.
And some people like their missions featuring _Breaking Benjamin._ Easily the best part of this mission
It's cheesy as nobodies business but in the best way possible. Lovely way to cap off the mission.
@@BenPlaysGames
I’ll be honest, sometimes i painfully trek through that mission solely for that song.
Since we’re on about bands being included, do you have a similar opinion of _Incubus’_ “Follow” being included in the Arbiter?
16:05 is the most underrated cutscene. It shows how deceptive Truth really is. He claims that the reason the elites are being replaced is because they failed to protect a prophet, yet the brutes fail to protect one here as well and he lets him die. Clearly, he wanted both prophets to die to gain total control, and saw the brutes as more blindly faithful than the elites.
I always save all 5 marines in this level it breaks all the quietness of playing it on your own also it gives me something else to do
Fun fact, Breaking Benjamin gave the permission to use Blow me away for free, they did it for publicity, and it worked like magic
To be fair, the Brutes acting more like Elites in halo 3 compared to halo 2 could litterally be a storytelling element. In halo 2 you are looking at their inception as squad leaders. They have been in a leading position for mere days, at best. You are probably their first ever hostile encounter since rising up to their new rank. Halo 3 however, is set some time later, so you would expect Brutes to slowly adapt to their new role and start behaving like actual leaders and less like dollar store Hunters
As far as I know, Bungie actually didn't pay anything on Blow Me Away. Breaking Benjamin genuinely just loved Halo, and made music for them, which honestly I think makes that end room where it plays better!
Bungee didn’t pay anything for Blow me Away if i remember correctly. BB just used it as advertisement
Actually, bungie paid nothing for blow me away, breaking benjamin did it for popularity in halo 2
I have a love and hate for this level.
Pro: Elite vs brutes
The gravemind himself
Blow me away part.
Con: Too long
Berserker mode
How easy you can die
Can't skip section in the level.
Long story short, I wish I can skip to blow me away on mcc
This is a pretty fair list I reckon!
Oh man, I remember arming all the marines with needlers. Absolutely wrecked shop in close quarters.
It took me a solid 10 minutes before I realized they must have put a remastered/anniversary edition out. I was like, I really don't remember the shit looking this good on the Xbox
The cutscenes are the anniversary edition and the gameplay is the original but with a few modern upgrades such as much higher res and framerates. 4K/120fps is such a great experience if you've got a monitor with a high refresh rate. Definitely recommend it.
Jackal snipers aside, I've never thought Halo 2 Legendary to be that difficult. My geek circle growing up raced to beat legendary solo overnight. One of my friends was so obsessed with hitting level 50 he was actually smoking crack just to stay awake while sticking a butter knife into his XBOX so he could force matchmaking to only choose the 'Multipler pack' maps when the first batch came out. Shit was wild back then.
Crack smoking butter knife man is definitely one of the wilder stories shared on this channel haha.
Halo 2 was always special to me because I only owned a PS2 back then and so the only time I got to play the game was at my uncle's house who lived out of state which was once every summer. The Halo 2 Brutes I think are still the best version of them just because you gotta change your combat style due how differently they play vs the elites. And I always found it amusing when the space gorillas began charging at you and were boxing champions along with having funny voices. As a kid just having Order 66 vibes with this mission and I remember feeling bad when you still gotta kill elites in this level
Beat all the halo LASO’s on my “Teraplexxus” account.
Gravemind definitely lived up to it notoriety. I died at least 400 times on that one mission alone. Most of those deaths were just to get some shields in the first bridge area so I could tank a nearly guaranteed hit from 3 brutes.
The other LASOs weren’t nearly as hard as H2.
If anybody sees this and wants to do laso, i recommend starting with reach or odst,
Both have mechanics that are necessary to learn before the others.
You've got bigger balls than I'll ever have dude, legendary alone is enough for me. Almost too much!
Please do uprising, I don’t believe you have done an over view of the mission and it’s actually one of my favourites, anyway love all your halo vids👍👍👍
Cheers Muscoudio! And don't worry, it's coming some point soon for sure.
Watching this video just after i finished gravemind legendary, it took me like 6+ hours and i wanted something to forget the pain
I just did the whole campaign on Legendary on stream the other week, level's a pain in the backside!
Story concept, great.
Gameplay, repetitive to no end
That’s great because the gameplay is awesome
Pretty much sums up my thoughts Ryan - the gameplay isn't bad per se, but for me there's just too much of it when a pacier mission I think would have fit the tone of the mission a little better. I'd like it to feel more like you're constantly dodging and diving around to escape the chaos with no room for breath, which I think could have been done by cutting out a section here and there (and maybe one of the goodness knows how many vertical or horizontal grav lifts haha).
Video a 0/10
At 0:09 a perfect opportunity to include a “phrasing” reference from Archer. Tut! Tut! Improve on your video editing.
Ps. Good vid by the way.
Nice one Reece! Don't hate me, but I haven't watched Archer since season three or so. Still has one of my favourite exchanges in any animated show in it:
*Archer:* I have to go. But if I find one single dog hair when I get back, I'll rub...sand...in your dead little eyes.
*Woodhouse:* Very good, sir.
*Archer [pause]:* I also need you to buy sand.
*Woodhouse:* Yes, sir.
*Archer:* I don't know if they grade it, but... coarse.
Blow me away is the best halo ost wdym
Gravemind=Best Level. Calling the opening room the most frustrating is fair even if I disagree, but I don't see how you can simultaneously call it boring. Ha. Funny how in like 15 years, I never made the conscious realization that this is the last mission in the original trilogy you fight Elites. Like I guess I knew it, but just sounds profound saying it.
For me, that room is a dodgy one for different reasons depending on the difficulty. On lower one, it gets rather boring waiting for the enemies to show up, while on higher ones, you get melted so stupidly quickly that it feels really, really unfair. Hopefully that explanation makes a little more sense!
@@BenPlaysGames That makes sense. It's a great video (like the others of yours that I've seen). Keep it up!
Why DOESN’T the Brute plasma rifle reappear in any other Halo games?
Despite, being a red painted version of the original.
Excluding, ODST and Halo 5.
You forgot to mention one of the most unique part of Gravemind: the special elite
Is it just me or is it more fun to fight elites rather than brutes? Maybe that’s why I’ve never enjoyed Halo 3 campaign all that much
Elites > brutes for me, although it's not that I really dislike the brutes or anything. Would have loved to have fought elites using equipment in 3.
When Ben uploads a video it’s a good day indeed. Keep up the great work my friend!
That's kind of you to say jack mate - and will do, plenty more in the pipeline!
I hope I speak for all of us when I say don't you ever call that part of the game cheesy again o.o that was the BEST part of the entire game and it put Breaking Benjamin on the map
I love that part to death, but I maintain that it was a little cheesy. Ain't nothing wrong with that either, I'm just finishing a retrospective of the original Resident Evil which is supremely cheesy - and it definitely makes it more entertaining!
I think Bungie is actually fairly mediocre at level design. Too many of the levels in the five Halo games they worked on feel like slogs.
Depends on the level. When they're on form, they're absolutely brilliant, but equally there are some that clearly suffered from rapidly approaching deadlines or similar that really aren't too great.
As a complete, total shitter, I loved fighting brutes with an expended energy sword on Easy. Very fun just to punch each other for a couple of seconds
A man after my own heart haha, I'm definitely guilty of similar!
Your script is very well-written and you are well-spoken as well dude! Ur gonna blow up soon enough for sure
Cheers Colton mate!
Boy I'd love to have Anniversary editions of the newer Halo games and maybe a remaster to Halo 4 to fix the blurry mess some of the textures are
I reckon 3 is definitely due a new version, would absolutely over the moon if it ever happened. Funnily enough, been playing 4 through the last few days and been super impressed with how good it still looks. Granted, I'm playing at 4K/120fps, so that definitely helps, but it's quite impressive.
Fun fact the Gravemind actually speaks in Iambic Heptameter which is why he sounds odd when he speaks and hence why he rhymes
He does! I actually thought about including it in the video but I couldn't verify it myself so decided not to. I actually have a degree in English, and studied poetry as part of that fairly extensively, but always struggle hugely trying to count syllables.
I completely agree regarding the brutes and their "elitification" post-halo 2. One of the things I think Infinite did very well was bridging the gap between 2 and 3's brutes with the ones that have the armour that can be individually shot off, although I do still wish that they berserked instead of leaving the berserking state to an individual brute type.
You're right, Infinite was much better and I probably should have mentioned that in the video honestly! Like you say, would have been nice to have had the possibility of any brute going berserk rather than using a specific type, although maybe they would do it a little less frequently than 2's.
15:19 you fool!! Breaking Benjamin did this for free
Great video as always but you repeated yourself over and over when talking about brutes becoming Elitified
If there's one thing I never do, it's repeat myself. Not once, not ever have I repeated myself. It's the one thing I never do.
Fun Fact: Breaking Benjamin recorded “Blow Me Away” specifically for Halo 2 and they did it FREE OF CHARGE
Seriously, one of my favorite bands for many reasons
Tried Laso.Got smacked by the flood at the end 8 hours to get there and was like na never again 3 and 1 are good for me.
I finished 2 on vanilla legendary on stream recently and that was enough for me. LASO would make me put my controller through a wall, I'm sure.
The brutes have insane health in this game. I watched one on normal difficulty melee 5 flood to death.
It's okay (ish) when they're normal but when frenzied it's too much and they really should have been toned down a little.
…. There’s no way he said LONG AND HARD like that and kept it moving like nothing
What? It's a perfectly innocent sentence sort of!
The Brutes in Infinite are a great return to the Halo 2 Brutes by making them fight in a vastly different style to the Banished Elites.
Agreed John - should have mentioned Infinite's brutes in the video really!
Very much enjoyed the cut of your jib on this one, Ben! Completely agree that the Brutes have never really seemed brutish after Halo 2; they're a very distinct enemy in this game which I like. I also love the sections of this mission seeing the Covenant civil war - I like how you can dive straight into the fight or hold back and watch them kill each other. I remember hearing somewhere that it was Marty O'Donnell's idea to have the song by Breaking Benjamin play in the final room, and that most of the staff weren't convinced. But like you said, it does make a smashing tune to that fight. Keep up the great videos!
Cheers Baron! Not overly surprised to hear Bungie devs were against adding Breaking Benjamin to the final room - as I say in the video, I would have been vehemently against it. That being said, it actually works and I wouldn't have it any other way haha.
Unpopular opinion, Halo 2 is my favorite for cutscenes story and characters. Oh and I cant forget the soundtracks. One would argue that reach had better characters but I like my boi Johnson and Artex or the ship master
Oh I completely agree mate 2 is by far my favourite in terms of story.
@@BenPlaysGames Btw I enjoyed the video. The part talking about repeating rooms was so true. I've played the game so many time it personally doesnt affect me but I do see the repetitiveness.
This is a really good level
If you aren’t on legendary
I think that's a pretty fair summation!
@@BenPlaysGames yeah it’s a shame honestly, if bungie wasn’t rushed halo 2 would’ve been even better than the masterpiece it already is
Another day…another banger video from Ben! Keep it up! You should do a halo night with subscribers!
Cheers for always checking them out Andrew! That's actually not a bad idea and I've been looking at maybe setting up a Twitch recently - watch this space.
@@BenPlaysGames definitely set up a twitch! Keep up the good work. Peace and love from across the pond.
here goes one for the algorithm, hope it helps
Nice one as always edux mate!
No Halo title has ever made me take extended breaks on Legendary except for Halo 2 (multiple times) and Halo 4 on the MCC, tho that last one isn't just cause it's hard but also because it bugged out and wouldn't load half of that Mammoth mission
Im still not convinced we seen the last of The Flood and Gravemind after what went down in Halo 3
I was really hoping for open world Flood in Infinite as I think they'd be at their best in that kind of setting. Have them take over certain areas of the map unless you fight them back, stuff like that. Based on the introduction of another new enemy in that game, not sure we'll be seeing them for a while yet.
Gravemind is my favorite level in Halo 2. The opening cutscene is amazing and High Charity is a really cool setting to explore. It's a really difficult level, especially on legendary, but the way the covenant civil war breaks out as you progress is amazing. It mixes up the combat in an interesting way while being story significant. It's also the only mission where you fight every type of covenant enemy.
that first room on legendary is one of the hardest things I've experienced in halo lmao
I feel exactly the same way about the brutes’ being turned into elites that look like brutes. The halo 2 elites look the coolest too. They look meaner and more savage in gameplay and cutscenes in halo 2
Lol I downloaded mcc and played halo two just so I could watch this video
Yeeeees. Halo 4 video coming in approx 48 hours. Plenty of time to pay through that as well 😉