I was playing through Halo 3's single player campaign again recently (I feel like I should say why, though it isn't that interesting), and that got me thinking about Halo's Legendary difficulty setting. Something about Legendary mode never sat right with me, but I never took the time to suss it out.

I think what bothers me is that the label "Legendary" doesn't jive with the feelings I experience. When I think of the term "legendary" I imagine a state of total domination through strength and skill. And while surviving the Legendary campaign definitely requires skill, it doesn't make one feel strong. This is because to make the game more difficult, the designers (basically) increased the damage enemies can withstand, and decreased the damage the player can withstand. This is an obvious path for increasing difficulty, but it seriously weakens the persona of the Master Chief, and therefore the player. When charging into battle with NPC allies (normal human soldiers) one must routinely take cover to recharge his shields while the other humans, sans-powered-armor with energy shielding, press forward. I don't know about other players, but it makes me feel puny and ineffective.

I would much prefer a situation where the game was harder because the enemies were smarter, maybe faster, and there were a lot more of them. Clawing my way through hordes of opponents would make me feel more "Legendary" than picking them off one-by-one in between healing time-outs in which I cower behind crates. I want to be able to tell my friends about the crazy moves and shots I pulled out to punch through the enemy lines, not about how I hid behind things for 2 hours.

At least, make sure that if I am playing a soldier who is supposed to be superior in strength and abilities to my NPC comrades, I never feel like they are built tougher than I am.

Jason

 

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