That sounds like a much more exciting intro to HaloвЂ™s grand finale than, вЂњI donвЂ™t know, you fall in the jungle and just fight some guys until youвЂ™re done.вЂќ And the first level would end with the sight of the Elites glassing Earth as the Chief goes through the portal to find Cortana, and a secret weapon. Our planet is on the brink of destruction, all hope is lost, and you have to fight your through a city of infected soldiers and civilians in the vain hope that Cortana is on the Flood ship. Imagine if Halo 3 began with вЂњFloodgateвЂќ - the level where youвЂ™re fighting through the city of Voi as waves of Flood come after you. Now that sounds like an epic cliffhanger that would have everyone begging for the third game. And when things seem their lowest, The Flood have invaded Earth. WeвЂ™ve failed our mission and the Covenant have the advantage, mysterious though it may be. The Covenant activated some mysterious device buried beneath the Earth for centuries, and it didвЂ¦ something. I mean, look at this mid-game cutscene from Halo 3вЂ™s mission вЂњThe StormвЂќ and imagine that this was how Halo 2 ended: We were meant to get our epic battle in a populated city of Earth, we were meant to see what the mysterious вЂњArkвЂќ was (though probably not what it did, exactly), and we were meant to have a proper cliffhanger to get us excited for the next game. ThatвЂ™s because those four missions were probably meant to be the final one or two missions (with some editing of course) for Halo 2. Four whole missions go by in the вЂњepic conclusionвЂќ of gamingвЂ™s premier shooter franchise, and the plot stalls. You see, not much happens in the beginning of Halo 3: Chief lands in the jungle and he fights off some Covenant then he arrives at a human base, and he fights off some Covenant then he heads towards The Ark, and he fights off some Covenant then he brings down some Covenant AA weapons, and he fights off some Covenant.

Instead, we were forced to play through the last third of Halo 2 in the first half of Halo 3, to the sequel's detriment.

ItвЂ™s clear from developer comments regarding the game, advertisements, and even concept art that Halo 2 was meant to finish with fending the Covenant off at Earth. Gamers were psyched to get into one massive battle to defend our home planet, like all of the pre-release videos and trailers had promised and instead we were confronted withвЂ¦ credits. 'But with something like Halo 2, everyone knew we'd cut missions at the end, that we'd lopped off our third act - we failed spectacularly in public as far as the story was concerned.'Д®veryone remembers Halo 2вЂ™s infamously disappointing cliffhanger, with Master Chief promising to вЂњFinish the FightвЂќ as he approaches Earth, stowed away aboard a Covenant ship. 'Before Halo 2, we could fail in silence and in misery but no-one really knew we were failing,' writer Joseph Staten added. And this is why Halo 3вЂ™s campaign felt wanting. In fact, in one of the Halo: CE Anniversary promotional documentaries by Bungie, writer Joseph Staten revealed that theyвЂ™d cut off multiple missions from the end of the game - practically the entire third act of the story. Exacerbating the situation was the very public (and permanent) release date for Halo 2 of November 9, 2004, as made famous by Peter Moore's infamous E3 tattoo reveal. In addition to a distinct lack of direction after the founders of Bungie, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones, left the team, the game was just too ambitious for an aging platform. Not as fancy as his GTA IV tattoo a few years later.Д«y now, itвЂ™s common knowledge that Halo 2 was rushed, and the end result was disappointing. After replaying the game again recently, IвЂ™ve decide that the reason I was let down by Halo 3 is due to one thing: Halo 2. While the gameplay was everything I hoped it would be, the campaign was missing that вЂњepic conclusionвЂќ feeling that I was hoping for. When I first finished finished playing Halo 3 shortly after release, I was left satisfied but also disappointed.

Halo 2 missions