Let’s Rank The Halo Games, Best to Worst

Kotaku - Let's say you're new to a series. Or are in a position where you're recommending a series to a friend who's never played it. Or just feel like debating the finer points of a franchise with a friend, and deciding which of a big gaming franchise is the best.

[Droid Control]

1. Halo - the only decent Halo game to date.

[crxss]

oh man i am going to get a handful of disagrees for saying this...

Halo 4, Reach, 2, 1, 3.

4 and reach both have a solid package SP + MP. 2's MP was amazing and is nostalgic. 1 was great, and 3 is good but forgettable.

just my opinion though!

[Gazondaily]

You what? Only Halo 1? Sorry but you're clearly trolling if you mean Halo CE is the only decent Halo game.

Yeah because Halo 2 didn't show the whole WORLD that competitive online multiplayer FPS can work on consoles yeah?

Halo 3 didn't take that a step further with amazing community support and things like Forge, Theatre Mode, 4 player online campaign co-op etc.

Now Halo 4 has upped the ante and really set the standard when it comes to being an amazing all round package- excellent visuals, excellent story, a brilliant and deep MP mode that will last gamers years, Spartan Ops- allowing the continuation of the narrative via online co-op along with all the community support that makes Halo a near untouchable game as far as console exclusive FPS' are concerned.

On-topic, this list is HORRIBLE:

1. Halo Reach- "Easily the pinnacle of the series" Excuse me? How? "Halo: Reach is the tightest Halo game to date, in terms of both its story and its pacing." Absolute nonsense in my opinion.

And Halo ODST above Halo 2, the latter game which really defined console FPS MP? ODST was terrible in my opinion- granted it was more of an expansion pack but Bungie really missed an opportunity to depict ODST's in a meaningful way. Firefight was a good addition mind you but still- this was, by far, the weakest entry in the series.

This is how I would rate it:

1. Halo CE
2. Halo 4
3. Halo 2
4. Halo 3 (Although 2 and 3 are close- Halo 2 had an excellent MP portion whilst 3 went some way to sort out the story problems in Halo 2).

[Muffins1223]

halo 4,halo 3,halo 1, halo 2, halo reach

[byeGollum]

I agree that reach is the best

[majiebeast]

I wanted to give Halo a try see what all the fuzz was about so i bought reach and it turned me off the franchise for good. The multiplayer was pretty good but the singleplayer campaign was a trainwreck probably 1 of the worst i have ever played it was boring and repetitive on par with the trainwreck resistance 2.

@fishy

Yeah now i just need to say that Metroid prime 2 was crap j/k, and i have the trifecta of fanboy hate. Im already at 1 bubble so dont really care.

Resistance 3 on the other hand had a really good single player campaign.

[Fishy Fingers]

Ha, probably won't make us popular, but Resistance 2... *shudders*

[grailly]

c'mon the coop was good :D
...
...
then they decided to drop it from the series...

[slimpickens]

Reach was the wrong introduction into the Halo franchise for you. 1 and 2 are the games that really pull you into the universe and oh yeah the commercials and books. In my opinion Reach was had potential but going up againt Red Dead it was clear to me that Halo had lost its soul. Haven't tried 4 yet but if its anything like Reach I'm not going to like it.

[LX-General-Kaos]

1. Halo 4
2. Halo 3
3. Halo 1
4. Halo 2
5. Halo Wars
6. Halo Reach
7. Halo ODST

[Intentions]

Really? Reach? Reach was bad.

[Fishy Fingers]

For me;
Combat evolved, in its day an absolute standout game and one that set the standard for console FPS
Halo 2, again pretty much set the standard for online console FPS
Halo 4, early days but already prefer it over 3 or Reach.

[green]

I have not yet played Halo 4 but this is how the order goes for me. Now I am a campaign guy so don't play much multiplayer so I will judge them from how much I enjoyed the campaign

Halo: CE
Halo 3
Halo ODST
Halo 2
Halo Reach

[TheRealHeisenberg]

I've had Halo 4 since Tuesday and I haven't pulled it out of the package yet; no time to play yet. As for the others, I never played much multiplayer either so I will base my rankings off the campaigns as well. Heck, my order of ranking is the same as yours.

On a side note, a lot of people crushed ODST but I enjoyed it big time.

[green]

Absolutely agree. ODST had a seriously enjoyable campaign. The soundtrack and atmosphere are amazing and helped make you for once feel vulnerable in a Halo game.

[emartini]

Most wont agree. 1) Halo 4. By far the only current generation halo game that looks as if it was made for this generation. Fact is after Halo 2 you can tell Bungie stopped caring. Halo 2, Odst and Reach look last generation. Dont know why Halo 4 is getting so critisized. My 2nd favorite Halo is a 3 way tie between Halo 1 Halo 2 and 3. My least favorite is Halo Reach. A complete let down.

[The Meerkat]

Halo Reach should have stayed true to the book and it would have been amazing.

Halo 4 MP is great but the SP felt like a grind.
The Knights were boring to fight, they had no personality and the Didact is nowhere near as evil a Gravemind.

Halo 1 was best. 2&3 should have been rolled together as 1 game. I liked OSDT.

[palaeomerus]

The Didact is awesome. Stylistically he's is basically a giant contemptuous space-vampire.

I didn't mind the knights so much. I just wish the weapons had a little more ammo for them lying around so you could use them longer. I felt like I was almost constantly switching weapons through the first half of the game.

[RedSoakedSponge]

halo 2 is 5th?!

i personally loved it back in the day.

many hours spent playing that online. i still prefer the skill ranking system over all the others.

i wanna see my skill rank!

[bigfish]

I think they're all a bit rubbish tbh, no offence.

[Psychonaughty]

Wow I couldn't disagree with his opinion more really except that I agree that Halo 2 sucked (unlike what most think).

It seems Kotaku was rating them on SP more than MP and as I have always much preferred SP I will do the same.

1 Halo CE (excellent everything)
2 Halo 4 (excellent everything)
3 Halo ODST (excellent campaign)
4 Halo 3 (average)
5 Halo 2 (mp saved terrible campaign)
6 Halo Reach (was bored soooo quickly)

The top three may change over time though as Halo 4 is excellent and might possibly take the top spot. ODST also deserves a special mention as it's constantly derided but yet it had an excellent campaign.

[Old McGroin]

Shouldn't this article be titled "Let's stoke the Halo fanboy fires and take advantage of the recent controversy for hits"?

[Lvl_up_gamer]

This list is close to my personal list.

Halo 4
Halo: CE
Halo 3
Halo Reach
Halo Wars
Halo ODST
Halo 2

That's my personal list and yes Halo Wars is a Halo game so I am unsure why Kotaku is ignoring it in their list. Also just because I have Halo 2 at the bottom doesn't mean it wasn't an awesome game. It just means on a list of awesome games it's at the bottom of the list of awesome games.

[bozebo]

1, 2, 4, ODST, 3, reach.

2 there because of being the first with XBL and some of the maps were just great (I loved Headlong), I just remember it the most fondly because I havn't had the time to play the newer ones as much. I don't know why people hate on 2's campaign, it's not as good as CE because very few shooters' campaigns are, but I feel it was better than 3's.

[CynicalKelly]

This list is impossible! I can't make one.
I enjoyed all Halo games, even Reach and Wars. Every time I get close to deciding what game would be last in my list, I think of something I loved about it and it shoots up to tie first place with the rest of them.

It's the only series that I have played, start to current instalment without being disappointed.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Guess I'd rate the series in this order ..

Halo 4
Halo 2
Halo 3
Halo Reach
Halo CE
Halo ODST

[fossilfern]

Halo 1
Halo 4
Halo Reach
Halo ODST
Halo 3
Halo 2

Only going by the campaigns but I'm sorry Halo 2s single player was terrible

[ginsunuva]

Wrong everybody. Your opinions are wrong and mine is the correct one:

Halo CE
Halo 2
Halo 4
Halo Reach
Halo 3
Odst (if it even counts)

[mananimal]

Id rank Halo 4 last place based on Length of its Single Player, 6hours??, what a freakin joke, REMEMBER !! Halo 1 was released w/o multiplayer, so its Original popularity is based on its story driven gameplay, so to release a Halo game w/only 6hrs of SP gameplay , is a slap in the face to CORE Gamers who cld care less for competitive gaming & love Halo for its story driven content.

So with that said:

1. Halo 2
2. Halo 1
3. Halo : Reach
4. Halo: ODST
5. Halo 3
6. Halo 4