: The main thing I have to say is that for long-term replaying, by far the most
: valuable thing would be the facility to tackle any level with any desired
: weapon combo, or more generally, weapon set. I play a lot of H1 campaign
: (on Xbox), and although each level offers plenty of weapon types, I'm
: nevertheless limited. Just to give a few examples, I'll never have the
: pleasure of tackling level 1 with a shotgun, level 2 with a rocket
: launcher, level 3 with a pistol, or level 4 with a sniper rifle. Of
: course, with H1 they wanted to introduce weapons gradually, and maybe
: there were storyline issues to take account of too. You didn't get a
: rocket launcher until level 4, and a shotgun until level 6. That rational
: makes sense enough for your first few plays, but long-term it's a
: frustrating limitation. I wish I had complete freedom in H1, so I could
: enjoy using whatever weapon set I fancied. Think of all the extra fun you
: could have!

In a way, you do get the ability to play through some of these levels with things such as shotgun and rockets later in the game, which is part of what helps levels get a different spin once the flood arrive, but I do know what you mean.

: But how might such a thing be arranged in a shooter game? One idea that comes
: to mind is some sort of 'replay mode', which could perhaps be an
: unlockable. In that mode the player would be able to express an interest
: in a particular weapon set - perhaps a maximum of three favoured weapons
: say - and then the level would try to accommodate that with appropriate
: weapon/ammo availability throughout. This idea strikes me as probably
: being better than simply adding loads of weapons and ammo to a level,
: because in that case things could get too cluttered.

We actually have something like this through loadouts for T&R, TSC, and AOTCR. Halo doesn't get them because soon as you exit the lifepod you find weapons everywhere anyway and the player can configure what they want themselves.

: Now a few other things.

: That's a bit generous I think. In order to be properly meaningful, let's say
: we're talking about killing most or all enemies (rather than simply
: bypassing them) and doing most of it with that weapon, and the rest with
: grenades and/or melee. In that case you'd have a seriously hard time
: tackling AOTCR using an AR, with its severely underpowered nature and
: horrendous scatter-shot bullet distribution. It's possible, and ok it does
: fall under your "with skill and patience" proviso, but we're
: really getting to extremes here, of a type which I suspect a lot of
: players wouldn't be willing to contemplate. The play would have a
: distinctly abnormal feel and you could expect to need a lot of boring
: backtracking for ammo. The needler would be even tougher, and is limited
: by being no good against vehicles.

Yeah you are right, but I'd say AOTCR is one of the more rare exceptions. It is nice in H1 you can take vehicles out with regular weapon fire though, it's always annoyed me how in later games you absolutely need an explosive to take out a vehicle. Although Reach let you do it with things such as the DMR and Sniper

: H1.

: H1 by a mile, especially in regard to "the most satisfying combat".

: In regard to the other Halo games, one thing I often found annoying was a
: difficulty in using my favoured weapon throughout a level, due to low ammo
: availability. In H2 I loved the battle rifle but it was forever running
: out of ammo. In H3 I loved the Brute shot but that had the same problem;
: and when you're constantly concerned about running low, it kind of
: detracts from the fun (plus, in some situations your idiot Marines will
: advance into battle and get themselves killed while you're still busy
: looking for supplies). I seem to remember ODST as a particular offender
: for low ammo, although I didn't play that extensively so there may've been
: some ammo sources I never found. In Reach I often wanted more DMR ammo.
: Actually I didn't play that campaign extensively either, but I played
: Winter Contingency a lot and found DMR supplies scarce. In my limited time
: with H4 I likewise found DMR ammo annoyingly scarce. And thus…

: No. It's annoying. Well, it can make for an interesting and challenging
: time of course, but generally I'm more interested in being able to keep
: using a favoured weapon.

: By the way, talking of differences, I noticed that in H3 there didn't seem to
: be any ammo packs - unlike in H1. I forget how things went in the other
: sequels.

Yeah,I imagine in H3 the reason for that is that they instead provide you the weapon crates with plenty of AR and BR ammo for the 4 player co-op so no one has to worry about when to get their main weapons again. Although I think there are some rocket ammo packs on the Ark and sniper on Tsavo.