Site Poll 75: Who are you favourite enemies to fight?

[Ranger Intel]

 

 

Hi everyone, Spartan here with site poll #75.

 

 

Last week we discussed the return of the Flood, more specifically how they'd return. Had a few great answers, though a method for their return was inconclusive. One idea with most thought was them escaping on a ship, how that would work out is something I'd like to see. Ultimately, it's safe to say that the majority of Halo players would want to see the Flood return. Click here to view the last poll, #74.

 

 

 

 

Who are you favourite enemies to fight?

 

 

Reading the responses to last week's poll gave me the idea of asking you all which enemy you enjoy fighting most. The main 3 options are Prometheans, Covenant species, and Flood. Of course there are also sentinels, the Gúta, and other minorities, but they won't be considered (that includes the Moa, despite how fun they were to kill).

 

 

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

Spartan out.   

 

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

1. Halo 3 Scarabs. I'm not gonna explain.

 

2. Gravity Hammer Brute Chieftans, Halo 3/ODST style. They work because they have a personal, imposing presence like what you'd get from dinos in Jurassic Park. They don't give af what you're carrying, they will seek and destroy you wherever you're trying to hide, and will prolly end you in a single, destructive swing. Nothing of this caliber has been in Halo since 3/ODST.

 

3. The Flood. The Covenant are uninspired and done to death, and the Prometheans are the same, but also exhausting in a bad way: despite only appearing in 2 mainline Halo games. Halo's take on zombies is unique, and fresh enough for me not to keep the fatigue I've gotten from the overdone zombie genre as of now.

[Mothy]

Hmmm.... Well, since my last two site poll posts were about the Flood, and my favorite enemy to actually fight are the Flood, I better pick something different so it doesnt seem like the only thing I care about in the series is you-know-what. My second choice would have to probably be..... Drones. And yes, they are probably one of the more annoying enemies to fight in the series, but they're just so unique. They're giant flying evil bugs that can shoot weapons AND (In the case of Reach) explode into a shower of goo and chitin when headshotted. Always found them pretty exotic & cool

[RedStarRocket91]

I'm probably in the minority in that I actually quite enjoy fighting the Flood. I know that a lot of players find them repetitive and stressful, and while I do agree with that insofar as I wouldn't want an entire game focused on them, I think they make for a fantastic change of pace when used as a second enemy faction, and so help keep the game as a whole a bit more fresh.

But for me, the best enemies are the Covenant, and particularly the Covenant from Reach. Having a diverse roster of enemies is really important to keeping combat fresh and engaging as it prevents players from getting bogged down in exactly the same playstyle for too long, and the Covenant's roster here is just fantastically diverse. Let's list all the different kinds of enemies, shall we?

• Grunts with light weapons
• Grunts with heavy weapons
• Jackals with shields
• Jackals with precision weapons
• Skirmishers
• Drones
• Engineers
• Brutes with rifles
• Brutes with hammers
• Elites with rifles
• Elites with jetpacks
• Elites with stealth
• Elites with swords
• Elites with heavy weapons
• Hunters

That's FIFTEEN completely separate types of enemy! And that's not even splitting them according to exact loadout (I've grouped Needler and Plasma Pistol Grunts, for example), nor including their vehicles, which add Ghosts, Wraiths, and Banshees to the mix, and you could make a decent argument that the Ghosts can be split into two types depending on whether a Grunt or Elite is driving them, since the former is much more easily stolen while the latter usually has to be destroyed. Also, an honourable mention to the Revenant, which I'm leaving out of the main list since I can't remember actually fighting the thing outside of one specific mission, and don't think it appears in Firefight at all.

 

I love fighting the Covenant because you need to treat every enemy a little differently. Fighting Jackals is very, very different from fighting Grunts; fighting Brutes is different from fighting Elites; heck, even Elites are different from Elites, depending on their loadout, since active camouflage requires very different counter-tactics to jetpacks or Fuel Rod Guns. And then of course, there's all the fun of how they're combined: a handful of Grunts and an Elite is going to play very differently to Jackals and a Brute. What if they're backed up by Jackals with Needle Rifles? What if There's an Engineer above them? Who do you shoot first? Decisions like that, where you have to really think about what you're doing rather than just popping out of cover and shooting whatever catches your eye first, make the game infinitely more fun than just having a handful of really similar enemies differentiated only by their weapons, as with most of the Prometheans, and that's why I'd say the Covenant from Reach are easily the best enemies in the Halo series.

[Melody]

I've always liked to fight brutes and elites. :3

[Maestro]

I enjoyed Halo 3's Covenant a lot. While they weren't as diverse as Halo 2 or Reach, Bungie designed them very well and the three most common species have a nice synergy.

The Brutes were fleshed out to fill a variety of roles, and they were no longer damage sponges that could kill you in one hit (except Hammer Chieftains). They were dangerous and relentless, but they were slower and had weaker armour than Elites. They could give orders to their underlings, showing off their radically different style of leadership. These orders tested how well you can react to your enemies and how well you know your surroundings. If you were hiding behind cover, enemies could come investigate or throw grenades at where they last saw you. Brutes also have hilarious lines, and their gruff snarling voices make those lines even funnier. Basically, they posed a challenge, but it wasn't an insurmountable challenge. You have a variety of options when fighting them on Legendary, unlike Halo 2 where you needed certain weapons at all times or dumb luck to proceed. Obviously some weapons are much better for the job than others, but none were totally useless like using a Plasma Pistol against a Halo 2 Brute. You can use automatic weapons, precision weapons, power weapons, or punch their lights out if you know how to kite them.

Grunts didn't really change much from previous games. They have no headgear and their heads stand out, but now they have a chance of going kamikaze when their leaders die. They also throw grenades on command, which makes them very dangerous in numbers. They're still cannon fodder, but they have a little more firepower when their leaders are alive.

Jackals retained their role as scouts and marksmen, but they're not nearly as infamous as their Halo 2 counterparts. They got headgear which tells you when they're watching you and where to shoot to take them down. Legendary snipers still kill in one hit, but are not nearly as numerous, don't spawn halfway through a fight, and take longer to aim and shoot. They're much more agile otherwise, as they will dodge explosives with ease.

 

Halo 3's Covenant didn't rely on gimmicks or cheap tricks like one-hit kills to challenge the player. They tested your ability to think and react. You had to think about which enemy to take out first, how to take them out, and from where, all while adapting to changes in enemy tactics, their movements, and your surroundings.