I've played the first Halo on PC. Stumbled upon it in my friends game collection (where I come from, Halo wasn't a big hit, nor was it advertised) I have already played Oni and loved it, so I thought- Well that might be a good game.
I will NEVER forget the experience. The game was realistic within it's own limitations (two weapons, meeleing etc.) had incredible story and had this cinematic feel to it. As If You were playing a role in a epic movie.
Then came Halo 2 and... I couldn't play it:( I couldn't afford Xbox, nor a PC that would run Halo 2 Vista. So I never got to playing Halo 2 on live.
A year ago my girlfriend decided to buy me X360 for my 20th birthday, just so I could play Halo 3. Since I've waited so long to play it, I thought, as if the game was perfect. As if every moment of it was a little sparkly gem in the mud of nowadays games. Then came Reach, finished this one in a day as well but... It completely lacked the magic. It felt more like a Call of Duty in space than Halo. ODST was a better game than Reach. At least it had great music.
Why am I writing all of this? Yesterday/today I've finished Halo 2 on PC. I sat down at 19:00 took the pad in my hand and fueled by cornflakes and mountain dew finished the whole game in 10 hours. And once again I felt like I have felt when I played Halo CE. I am glad that I've played Halo 2 after playing Halo 3, ODST and Reach, because otherwise those games would be A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT to me. Halo 2 was the most ambitious of them all, introducing two-perspective story, dual wielding, even more interesting level design (Arbiter's quest for sacred Icon, Delta Halo), -blam!-load of new weapons and characters. Now think of what Reach has introduced to the world of Halo. Armor abilities. The end. The rest is just recycling of older stuff. I'm not counting in the forge world because it has no effect on the feel of the campaign. The depth of the characters is laughable, the story is just an excuse for the Spartans to have their competition of "Who dies the most noble way", and there are NO epic moments. Scarab fights- none. Fights on a falling mining facility- none. Epic escapes of a flood overrun city-planets- none.
So yeah, I wish Reach was more like Halo 2