Why the hell would they buff Knights? Those teleporting tanky bastards are MORE than powerful enough in H4. Do they at least leave more plasma pistols around so you aren't constantly unloading entire clips of scarce DMR rounds into them just to bring down their shields?

Doesn't work that way in H5:G. You'll find out when you play it. They are now absolute monsters that carry an Incineration Cannon (usually) which is significantly dialed back in terms of lethality – but the Knights themselves more than make up for it. And that's before we get to the Armigers that keep zipping around the battlefield and annoying you.

Basically the Knights in H5:G are augmented with much heavier armour. You cannot wear them down the way you could in H4. You can take that armour out by shooting them under their "armpits". Each time you shoot through the glowing yellow circles under their arms, they'll turn and roar at you for about two seconds – that's when their skulls glow yellow and you can melt them down with a headshot. If you don't do this after taking out the second armour set, they'll continue to be a damned nuisance for a good long time.

But – they now release Watchers which regenerate their armour. And while dead Knights don't respawn anymore – not that I can remember, anyway – the very last level of H5:G involves a massive free-for-all with multiple Knights and Armigers (the new Promethean constructs that zip around and teleport everywhere around the battlefield) and the Knights just get REALLY irritating when they're all blasting you with Incineration Cannons and Scattershots.

The Incineration Cannon now "charges" in H5:G. Uncharged, it fires a two-burst volley. Charged, it fires a full-power shot that melts anything it hits – but there are no secondary explosions to exploit like you could in H4 to kill a swarm of Grunts and Elites.

The other major difference between H4 and H5:G in terms of Knights is that the diversity of the Knight classes is gone. You no longer have Lancer, Battlewagon, and Commander classes. It's all basically one hulking horrible stupid

H5:G is a long and miserable experience in terms of gameplay too. As lynch pointed out, the squad AI is basically useless and in the boss battles against that STUPID Warden Eternal they turn into something of a liability.

I'm pretty down on H5:G overall. I gave it a review back in 2015 that made a lot of these gripes and complaints clear, but still give it a very generous rating of 94%. I never should have done that. It's an 80% game on a REALLY good day – the kind where all the lights were green in both directions, your wife made you a perfect steak for dinner, and then had fantastic sex with you. On any other day, it's probably a 60% game.

Graphics are great, but I really miss both the O'Donnell/Salvatori and Davidge approaches to HALO soundtracks. Kazuma's style just doesn't work with HALO.

But if I play with others, I won't get my Lone Wolf achievement! 🙂

Why the hell would they buff Knights? Those teleporting tanky bastards are MORE than powerful enough in H4. Do they at least leave more plasma pistols around so you aren't constantly unloading entire clips of scarce DMR rounds into them just to bring down their shields?

I have only successfully gotten the banshee in once, and it's great. The other couple times I tried, I'd have someone in the banshee and another player would enter the chamber and post-cutscene, no banshee 🙁

@ MrUNIVAC, I largely agree with Didact on H5. The multiplayer is amazing, and the campaign's visuals are good, but the plot is crap. They seriously buffed the Promethean Knights and added these stupid soldiers who *teleport* around. Annoying in Heroic, 10x annoying in Legendary.

I would strongly suggest trying H5 co-op with other humans (online, no split screen 🙁 ) as your AI teammates are largely worthless, best used as distractions.

At least on the second to last level (IIRC) where you have to fight 3 Warden Eternals (why make a better boss when you can just make more..) you can climb up the center structure of the level and jump over the wardens, avoiding the annoying antics.

You have to rip at least one of the wings off and feather it juuuust right through Sarge's hole. After you waste the Brutes in the next room and fly down the hallway, it'll be on the ground back there after the cutscene finishes.

This guide was super helpful and is where I got the Banshee idea from. It's meant for Legendary but the tips are just as good on Heroic. There's also one on that site for H1.
halo.bungie.org/gameplay/halo2_leg_walk/
halo.bungie.org/tipsntricks/legwalk/

Things do get WAY easier after Gravemind

That's one of the most annoying levels in the entire game. It's a series of exercises in self-flagellation strung together with amazing visuals.

It's also super fun (and cathartic!) to get a Banshee into Tartarus's arena and bomb him and his buddies from the other side of the map, after the hell it took to get there. I totally did that last night.

I didn't even know you could do that. And I've been playing HALO for 10 years… That's badass, though.

I know 5 sucks, but at this point I'm interested in seeing just how bad of a trainwreck it turned out to be.

It's bad. Really bad. Going through H2, which I used to consider the worst game in the series, on the MCC on PC, has forced me to revise my already relatively low opinion of H5:G significantly downward.

I wanted to like H5:G. I really did. It had so much potential to be an AMAZEBALLS game. They had the lead designer from STAR WARS: Republic Commando to help them design the squad AI – but it turned out to be next to useless. The gameplay feels almost nothing like H3 or H4. The Prometheans are stupidly overpowered, while the Covenant are largely just cannon fodder now, even the Elites – the only really dangerous unit among them are the Hunters.

And that's before we get to the Warden Eternal. He's a COLOSSAL pain in the ass, and he's a very repetitive enemy to fight.

I'll give you a hint for fighting him: just shoot him in the face, constantly, and stay in cover whenever he sends those giant black balls of… whatever that is, at you.

H5:G has gender politics stamped all over it, too. The ONLY good thing about Fireteam Osiris, is Eddie Buck. Nathan Fillion still does a great job with the voice acting for that character.

Yup, I'm with you. This vid pretty much says it all: youtu.be/qKX-aI1TQXM.

Things do get WAY easier after Gravemind, even on Legendary. The first room in that level is the high point for difficulty not just for Halo 2, but maybe the entire franchise (well, if you fight it like you're supposed to and don't cheese it like I did). It's also super fun (and cathartic!) to get a Banshee into Tartarus's arena and bomb him and his buddies from the other side of the map, after the hell it took to get there. I totally did that last night.

On to the last three chapters of Spartan Ops (which I never finished back in the day since they're clearly not designed for solo players) and then either Reach or 5 after that. I know 5 sucks, but at this point I'm interested in seeing just how bad of a trainwreck it turned out to be.

Yeah man. Master Chief can be killed by a six-year-old kid with a freakin' WATER BALLOON in H2 on Legendary. The guys at Bungie went way overboard on the difficulty settings with that game.

Let's not forget the Jackal snipers and the drones with plasma pistols and the berserking Brutes and…

The list of stupid shit in HALO 2 on Heroic, never mind Legendary, is just ridiculous. Even in HALO: Reach, Legendary mode was one long exercise in severe masochism.

Heroic, on the other hand, especially in H3 and H4, is challenging yet exhilirating.