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This level has two distinct personalities, depending on how many times the player has gone through it. The old axiom that those who refuse to learn from their history are doomed to repeat it comes to mind.
For those new to the level, it is a die fest (personality 1), mainly because you have gotten used to being able to plow through enemies that mainly come at you from in front of you. This is one of the gleefully mean parts of the game design. Bungie gets you used to only having to worry about what is in front of you. They gave the enemy weapons and made them very identifiable threats allowing you to prioritize what to take out first. The numbers of enemies were also limited to manageable levels, even on Legendary. There was always sufficient cover to duck back to and the enemy rarely came after you beyond a certain point. You could be very aggressive and not pay a serious price for it most of the time.
For the old haggard warrior pros the level is a test of patience, planning and skill (personality 2). Hopefully, having realized that you are now faced with alot more enemies that can kill you with or without a weapon, can come at you from all sides AND FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU GO, you now work your art of doling out death very differently. You begin to realize that more is not always better (i almost never use the rocket launcher in this level, but always have either pistol), that slower is better than faster (allowing you to manage the high numbers of enemies by backpedaling and killing), and that as bada** as you think you are as the MC your tin butt can be had by less than a dozen infection forms.
For all of the negative press on this level, I think it is one of the crucial ones. Beyond being just a blast (look at all of the enemies you get to kill!!!) it challenges you strategically because you are rarely given situations where you can take much time to think about how to approach it. Fighting against the covies, the tougher situations are usually those that you have the luxury of looking over, ducking back into cover and figuring out how you want to handle it. The AI keeps the covies in much more predictable patterns and areas. 10 minutes after you see something, duck away, have a beer and a brat and come back, the situation is pretty much the same (with a few exceptions like the natural bridge in AotCR if the banshees lift off) With the flood, once they are unleashed (usually right on top of you in serious numbers) you have to react quickly, and correctly, or it's lights out. Granted the AI is very predictable, once unleashed they kill you or you kill them, there is no unringing the bell once the fight starts. Against the covies, you can engage them, back off and out of sight for 45 seconds and they act like you were never there. With the flood, yeah right, not gonna happen. All in all, the flood are a much more formidable enemy.
So for those of you who continue to bash the Library, please think about what it added to the game, the strategy and the sheer violence level of the game!