Is Halo franchise overrated, underrated, or just right?

I pick overrated because I never understood FPS.

Just right. If you are looking for overrated there is a RPG I can point you to. Halo, used to be overrated but that ship has sailed. It sequels brought gamers back to reality. LOL

I enjoy them for the campaigns (not ODST and Guardians), but I feel the franchise is overrated. Fanboys hold Halo in too high a regard.

Halo was great, halo 1-3 were the best console FPS at the time, Halo 2 and 3 especially for its multiplayer. That era made MP FPS on console good. For a long time Halo was the only console mp fps that could even hold a light to what was on PC.

You had custom games, forge, the matchmaking just worked, So i say just right. Never cared for the SP in Halo. Halo1-halo3 had an OK SP. But the SP was not what made halo great the MP was (well halo 1 sp was pretty great for og xbox so ill walk that back some).

Halo 2 and 3 still had more features and better matchmaking than alot of modern day FPS games we have today. So i say its just right.

@BassMan: That’s what makes them fanboys.

I’d say that it‘s probably a little underrated myself. I find the games to be excellent and even really enjoyed 4 and 5 as well.

When it came out I really enjoyed Halo, one of the few games I replay on occasion. Reach is really good too, 2 and 3 are fine. I like the gameplay in 4 and 5 and enemy/weapon design are much better that what Bungee did in the series, but whatever, can't even remember what happens in those two games.

As for the online, I think in total I have maybe 10 minutes overall.

I think the "rating" surrounding Halo throughout the years has been consistent with the quality of the games, or lack thereof.

Still among my favorite shooters to play in co-op with friends with difficulty cranked up. Not into the competitive online but Guardians Warzone Firefight co-op keeps me coming back.

I liked ODST and Reach, appreciated 4 more when I played the MCC, and as for Guardians, game was great but the one thing that killed it for me was planning the story around a plot that was designed to be filled in with supplemental media they wanted to monetize. I think MS learned their lesson since, after all Quantum Break's failure stems from same problem. As for Halo, the gameplay design is still solid, so I still like it and have hope for series. As for future, I might not like where it goes next, but we don't know what that is yet. I suspect they might try doing some Destiny like game with next installment. Guess we'll see how that works out.

From Halo 1 to Halo 3 it was just right. Great games that got the hype they deserved (especially halo 1). Now, its a franchise that is not even worth talking about. Infinite may change that, but the last few Halo games were a joke.

Fanboys overrated it, then the pushback became so severe that the series is underrated. Now, the law of average has Halo rated about right.

Yup, that.

The games were very good, well deserving of praise. And as far as consoles go, it was the fps series to beat, offline and especially online. But the hyperbole was off the charts.

Things have definitely settled now, which is cool. No more stupid ass knocks like "Gaylo", no more seeing any Sony fps being hyped as the Halo killer.

Haze 😂

Halo 1-2 Underrated

Halo 3-Reach just right

Halo 4-5 overrated

INFINITE will prolly be overrated again 343 can't make a good halo

I don't really like it but it revolutionized FPS in the early 2000's so you gotta give it to em

I always thought the series was overrated. I enjoyed playing multiplayer with friends, but I wasn’t into it as much as they were. I couldn’t care less about the sequels and I remember them talking about the sequels nonstop. FPSs aren’t my favourite genre to begin with.

How are they overrated? Everyone still calls them shit or has some major issues with it.

Halo 1,2,3/ODST/Reach was at its peak and greatness when Bungie was still in charge of Halo has proven to be the better developer then 343 Industry is now. Halo as of now is "Just Right" because there are fans who still love the series even though 343 made missteps on Halo 4 & 5.

I have been with Halo when Combat Evolve arrives along with Xbox and from there, I'm still a fan of the series and it was overrated until 343 came along.

Was heavily overrated then has slowly came back down to Earth over time. Just about right now.

Overrated.

It has one of the best stories in a shooter franchise ever.

But the gameplay is pretty average imo. Was playing Reach (courtesy of the MCC on Game Pass) and it was hard to not fall asleep. I'm still looking forward to the later installments, but between Halo 1, Halo 2, and Reach it's just meh.

I've just finished replaying Halo CE (Bungies original, not 343s Anniversary Edition). It's still one of the best games I've ever played. No FPS before or since has combat as satisfying as Halo CE, not even FEAR.

Halo 1 - 3 easily sit alongside games such as Metal Gear and Half Life as games that transcend the medium imo.

Hmm... if this question was asked 10+ years ago, I would have said overrated.

But now, Halo is like a silent fart blown away by a gentle breeze.

I didn’t choose anything on the poll.

I'm curious to know what games you consider exciting if you found Reach boring, because Reach is pretty relentless once s--- hits the fan.

The action is non-stop, yes, but it feels so light and meaningless.

• The guns just kind of go "pew pew pew" and they don't feel like they have any weight.
• The voice-acting is so bad it actually makes me want my comrades to die.
• The enemies are pretty basic, to the point they simply pulled the "hey let's not make a new bad guy, let's just paint him a different color and give him more armor".
• AI is terrible
• Guns run out of ammo way too fast, you have to constantly swap them out with whatever you can find.

And you know if this game was 20 years old, I might be able to say "Hey, this game was good when it came out, it just hasn't aged well" but Halo: Reach is only ten years old or so (iirc) but it plays like a game that is much much older.

I would honestly rather play one of the Devolver "budget" shooters (Serious Sam, Shadow Warrior, etc.) than Halo Reach.

Games like Halo: Reach are why I find AAA game development to be such a waste of resources, and so disappointing.

I know I am going to catch a lot of flack for what I've said, but I don't care: Halo is an intriguing franchise who's gameplay is disappointing. Hopefully when Halo 3, 4, and 5 come out for PC they can change my mind, but as of right now Halo 1, 2, and Reach don't inspire much confidence.

Hahaha this, so much this.

Hooboy. Yeah... I don't think Halo is for you dude

@pinkribbonscars: We will see. You might be right, but maybe not; I have an open mind about the rest of the series and haven't really come to any conclusions outside of those I made about 1, 2 and Reach.

I am actually pretty excited for Infinite, and I am looking forward to Halo 4 and 5 when they come out on PC.

People talk a lot of shit about 343 but I recall people eating it up when the games were released, and critics seemed to rate them high.

Overrated but not as much as witcher 3, MGS5, bioshock or wolfenstein.

I think Halo 4 is underrated, but Halo 1-3 are deservedly praised the right amount I think.

Halo 5 was overrated imo. The campaign was so mediocre.

I only care about CE multiplayer. Nothing else matters

Halo 1-Reach are just right pretty much all delivered great experiences with ODST maybe being not quite so good but still a damn solid shooter.

Halo 4, honestly not a good game imo that may have changed after updates but for me of all the Halo titles it had the shortest legs by a long way.

Halo 5, terrible campaign, at launch MP was questionable, after much iteration and many updates the multiplayer is much improved, if anything I think this is underrated based on an admittedly sub-standard single player and MP not being what people expected at launch.

Never played a Halo but might have to move to Infinite if Sony dont do MP on PS5. Though im actually more interested in CrossfireX. Single player in an FPS dont really care much about...

Halo 1 was good, not amazing, and certainly not revolutionary (LOL). Then the series have been worse to slightly worse ever since.

My hype for Infinite is very low.

So yeah. Overrated, definitely.

@Litchie: Halo 1 at the time was amazing. There was nothing like it on consoles, and we still use the twin stick layout on fps games today. It introduced us to co-op sp gameplay, and at a time when PC dominated fps games with powerhouses like Unreal tournament and CS, it balanced mp and sp better than any game previously and arguably since. The enemy AI was better than on any game on any format, and vehicle and "the holy trinity" gameplay blew rival games away.

Moreover, the only other game that had the same level of storytelling and lore was HL2 which had a great sp campaign, but fell short with mp gameplay.

Halo 1 was 7/10 game.

started as good but then got worst chapter in FPS history that is library. completely ruined the game.

Yeah, that level always felt like a filler level. Like they thought the game was a bit short and hastily added a long copy/paste level with only one type of enemy. Was pretty fun playing it the first time with friends in coop, but replaying the game was soured thanks to it.

Yeah, all of Halo 1 was good. But I still don't consider it amazing. Not when you have better games in the same era to compare it to.

Ignoring all the great FPSs on PC, I personally found Metroid Prime 1&2 and TimeSplitters 2 better console FPSs than Halo. Just my preference..

Underrated to the max. :P

Metroid prime is terrible FPS.

@Litchie: Obviously those games you mentioned were good games, but my point was that Halo came first. It showed people that fps games were playable on a console and that there was a stick configuration that was to become more or less standard.

I can name better games, but they all followed Halo.

@ghosts4ever: You can't say library was the worst fps sp chapter EVER on a console, because there hadn't been any previously.

You get to thank Halo that Doom is on console.....

You haven't played it.

well thats not a good thing but atleast PC version with KB/M is different experience.

@ghosts4ever: Good mindless fun, and I'll get it...but it wont be anything we haven't seen before. Halo was.

At least one person here gets it.

Check the gospel according to ST metacritic the scores on their will tell you. HAH

As a gaming recognition franchise it’s huge but lost its way imo

But just like gears 5,halo infinite will put the game back on the map

In the grander history of the genre? Probably overrated, but no more so than a shit load of games that just get more credit than they deserve/earned. On its own it's a genuinely good game with tight design. While it lacks the sheer depth n skill ceiling of an arena FPS, it is still using those principles, and it translates into a solid design of micro decisions between gun, melee, grenades, and the way the maps geometry plays into battles. It's certainly a more satisfying competitive title than CoD or even the legitimately fun sandbox of Battlefield offers.

BR/Pistol battles are genuinely fun, and in the case of 5 the new movement additions add a lot to how you get around the map and how you behave in those battles. The aim assist is certainly absurd, and the speed of the game for a mouse is going to be nothing special (if anything slow), but when the Halo multiplayer package is sound, it's a genuinely good game, but not as great as the genre's bests: Quake 3, Tribes, Unreal, etc.

And while cups of the world would prefer a FPS that is 10 times more monotonous or a colossal bore that needs to spend the opening 15-30 of a mission tutorializing the player into a coma, I prefer things like depth and the game to actually play well. It just so happens to be FPS multiplayer is the best thing about this genre.

................now

As a single player title Halo is one of the harbingers of death, and a lot of it is because they never knew how to address some of Halo's short comings since 1. The bad level design in Halo 1 has been a franchise staple, it basically just always has some truly mind numbing borefests for missions. But the other big one is, in Halo 1 you can reliably dodge every projectile in the game, because the enemies use projectile based weapons, that are quick enough to be a threat, but not so fast that you just have to eat damage. It also made the health system great with the regen shield, but actual health packs so you had to account for long term consequences, but were given the tool for short term aggression.

This is made worse from halo 2 forward (ironically the best Halo game no less), where the projectiles became super fast, so regen health had to be the way to go. Hitscan weapons and super fast projectiles certainly have their place in a FPS, but the trade off there is now the player will take damage, because that's how the design is. And to do that you need to make their health regenerate, because otherwise the punishment is too harsh, and enters cheap territory.

THe other big problem for Halo is the enemies, or lack there of. Halo 1's roster was fine, for a launch title, but that enemy roster runs out of tricks by the 4th or so mission, and Halo isn't exactly about clever level exploration like the Doom clones of the 90s, so enemy placement isn't really that interesting in this series. There really should have been more meaningful additions to this roster. Technically 343 added those with the Prometheans, but a lot of them are just a more annoying version of a Covenant enemy.

I said overrated, but that is mostly because the last game is absolute trash... they need to get back to their roots.

I would say "Just Right" (the Bungie developed games). I did love Halo CE growing up (even with its terrible level design). Plus I did enjoy Reach's multiplayer at the time.

Halo its just right for me i love the series i cant wait for halo infinite ❤😍

I guess "Just Right", judging how reviews are nowadays. Halo is still a solid title, but long past its heyday.

I could see 1 and 2 getting all the praise back in the day. I think around the time 3 came out and definitely by Reach there were more enjoyable singleplayer FPS.

The multiplayer options and such were more fleshed out then most if not all of its competition (atleast on console) so they deserve credit there. Always thought weapon balancing in multiplayer was shit.

Don't feel strongly about 4. And never played 5.

Loved the OG. After that, meh.