Halo, is it me you're looking for? - The Bear and Badger

GurtTractor

Speedhaak wrote:

Hunters can be tricky but there are certain weapon combos and tactics (as has always been the case) that nullifies them as a treat and makes them pretty easy. The bosses are all a little gimmicky with a few runs of each needed to identify the loops and openings, the only bosses I had major trouble with were Escharum and The Harbinger. Escharum's final phase was just irritating because of his ability to close ground so fast. I found it difficult to navigate his whereabouts aurally so relied heavily on the threat sensor for this one. In the end the tactic I used for the final phase was looping the arena using the grapple shot to gain significant distance and then again, using the grapple shot to pick up the heavy machine gun and plasma cannons - fire off some rounds and continue looping the arena. Had a few cheesy deaths but I reckon I got the final kill after maybe 15-20 attempts? The Harbinger was just a really uninspiring and boring fight in general, the only real hard part was clearing the mobs while being constantly tagged with shots -with her, I found the Hardlight weapons such as the Sentinel Beam and Heatwave the most efficient ways to deplete shields and kill. Final blow was struck with a nice thunder clap from a grapple shot though.

There was far too many bullet sponges added as a way to cheaply pump the difficulty. The bosses were either boring or just silly.

Speedhaak

Yeah absolutely, I never really understood why we deviated away from Combat Evolved's approach - is there really any need for 'Bosses' in Halo? The Warthog run on The Maw was perfectly suited to Halo.

stonechalice

This latest campaign is so cheesable, especially the outdoor areas. I was up for a legendary run, but after finishing it on heroic the desire has gone completely. I've played the campaign once since finishing it.

Speedhaak

I would go back to it but some of the unlockables are only attainable on a new run so I will wait until they make a mission select option for existing save files. Apart from Skulls and Cores I have everything else done.

Yossarian

You can get all the cores on your existing save, it’s just some of the skulls that will be unobtainable, including two of the three best skulls in the game: Bandana and Grunt Birthday Party (the other best skull is, of course, IWHBYD).

Speedhaak

As far as I know some of the skulls are locked within the first two missions which I can't access?

Edit** Never mind that's what you effectively said.

Unlikely

Ooh, there seems to be a new multiplayer mode. I'm going to give it a bash.

Unlikely

It is Cyber Showdown: Attrition and after one game it seems quite fun. Each team has limited respawns but you can revive dead players by wibbling their dead life essence for a few seconds.

Gremill

Unlikely wrote:

It is Cyber Showdown: Attrition and after one game it seems quite fun. Each team has limited respawns but you can revive dead players by wibbling their dead life essence for a few seconds.

I wondered what the revival achievement was all about.

Paul the sparky

Unlikely wrote:

It is Cyber Showdown: Attrition and after one game it seems quite fun. Each team has limited respawns but you can revive dead players by wibbling their dead life essence for a few seconds.

Sounds good

Speedhaak

It's okay, it's good when the game doesn't bend you over -- enjoy it more than Fiesta anyway.

regmcfly

Did a check of where I am in SP and am definitely at endgame and that feels a little overdue.

In the post mortem there needs to be a discussion about some of the worst bosses in modern triple A gaming.

Speedhaak

I dislike the general idea of bosses in games, they serve only to fuel my anxiety that said game is going to force a cheap, contrived skill-check against me that is in favor of the game.

The only games I ever enjoyed bosses in were souls like games where I knew what I was getting into.

The bosses in Infinite are largely rubbish and I would have preferred a Combat Evolved approach.

stonechalice

Yeah I thought they were all pretty bad. Some god awful.

hylian_elf

Last boss was a joke. I almost gave up. Looked up a cheap way of doing it.

Coopers Green

Bosses are usually where I quit in games and in this game they just didn't work. At all. The last two bosses in particular can go fuck themselves.

I fucking haaaaaaate bullet sponges or otherwise stupid difficulty spikes. I'd love a game where inventiveness and luck could go in your favour and you can kill a "boss" as easily as a regular enemy depending on circumstances. I suppose some RPGs could allow for that...

Tsushima had the duels as "bosses" and I thought they were phenomenal, but they worked in the context of the game. Plus they were cinematic as fuck.

Wasn't there a thread before about bossfights?

Gremill

Yeah, I dread the boss fights in what is an otherwise flawless combat experience of a game.

GurtTractor

The bosses in Halo 2/3 weren't too bad IIRC. Escharum in Infinite though was astonishingly awful, like I honestly have no idea how they thought that was ok. Might make more sense in 4 player co-op I guess, maybe that's what they set it up for but forgot to adjust the health scaling for solo.

Paul the sparky

Am I the only one who enjoyed the bosses? Good cat and mouse fun

Yossarian

GurtTractor wrote:

The bosses in Halo 2/3 weren't too bad IIRC.

Punching the Prophet of Truth to death was the stupidest thing added to any Halo ever. It just felt ridiculous.

hylian_elf

I don’t recall any proper proper bosses in Halo 2 or 3. There’s Tartarus (I think?) at the end of 2 but even then he was just a little stronger than the other Brutes and didn’t have multiple stages to the fight with a massive health bar.

I love boss fights. Done well, they can be the best bit of a game. I didn’t mind most of the Infinite fights. Just the last one felt cheap so I had to be cheap back.

Djornson

I found some of the bosses mildly frustrating but very satisfying when beat them. I neither hate nor love, they certainly weren't the best part of the game though.

I completed last night.

Spoiler:

I carried on playing for another 3 hours afterwards, just going around capturing FOBs. I love it. Getting a warthog, marines hopping in (i noticed the one with rockets doesn't take the turret which is a nice touch.) One of my rocket marines destroyed a phantom and a banshee what a legend. I grapple hook hijacked a banshee and was disappointed didnt get an achievement! The elite said something like 'this is impossible' - the marine and banished dialogue is excellent, humurous, makes the world seem much more alive.

I never really appreciated open world games but because the core combat is so fun in Halo it makes the open world freedom, go somewhere, have a fight, so much better.

GurtTractor

Yossarian wrote:

GurtTractor wrote:

The bosses in Halo 2/3 weren't too bad IIRC.

Punching the Prophet of Truth to death was the stupidest thing added to any Halo ever. It just felt ridiculous.

Yeah that was silly, but it wasn't difficult or especially tedious. If you're going to have bosses in a game that aren't eldritch abominations it's generally better if they don't take more than 2x/3x the time to kill a typical tough enemy in the game.

GurtTractor

hylian_elf wrote:

I don’t recall any proper proper bosses in Halo 2 or 3. There’s Tartarus (I think?) at the end of 2 but even then he was just a little stronger than the other Brutes and didn’t have multiple stages to the fight with a massive health bar.

Yeah they were more like minibosses really, I much prefer that approach. As soon as you give excessive amounts of health to what appears to be a fairly typical enemy that you've been fighting the whole game, but just has some brash leadership status and fancy armour or whatever, all sense of coherent immersive world credibility goes out the window and it becomes a farce.

Knight

This is a very good video review on the multiplayer. Never heard of him but he was one of the people the forerunner project.
https://youtu.be/cArnH0KSm9I

Yossarian

An hour and fifteen minutes? Oof.

RedDave2

Paul the sparky wrote:

Am I the only one who enjoyed the bosses? Good cat and mouse fun

I'm not finished yet but I really enjoyed the boss fights outdoors, the indoor ones a little less so. The one where you take on 2 of the Spartan killers was great fun. A full frontal attack yielded nothing but I took the arnie predator approach and laid a load of weapon spots and well-placed Warthogs for me to bounce off once I engaged them. Moments like that were where the sandbox really shown.

I would say this is one of the most fun games I've played where clearly it could have been much better as well. Its got lots of issues but that main gameplay is so much fun. I would like the grapple to just be a default thing though. I really havent used the other stuff. Cant imagine not having the grapple to move around now.

Yossarian

The other equipment is much more situational, but they all have their uses, although I’m generally popping them and then switching back to grapple.

Djornson

The equipment/abilities whatever they are called (grapple/thrusters/sensor/shield) are really really awesome, it feels like they finally nailed the idea that started in 3. Some of the stuff they result in (especially the grappleshot) are just so Halo. I love when you are on low health and in trouble and you perform a grapple (fully upgraded) stun everybody and win against the odds. You feel like you deserve the 'demon' moniker, like, how is he doing this?!

Yossarian

The grapple is the major reason that this has overtaken CE as my favourite Halo. It’s such a superb addition to the sandbox, endlessly useful, opening up all kinds of possibilities both in and out of combat, and just so much fun to use.

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