I haven’t finished a playthrough enough to give a full review, but I just beat The Library and the mod so far is fantastic.

It makes a number of both subtle and obvious tweaks. It adds numerous new lore friendly enemy types, which is especially welcome with the flood as it makes them less of a boring slog to fight. It adds ODSTs alongside the normal marines. I really like the ODST visual which is at home with CE.

It adds new weapons to the CE campaign like a flame thrower (although to be honest I rarely use it due to how fast it goes through ammo) and sentinel energy beam guns that can be used. It even brings the covenant energy sword to CE.

The library didn’t feel nearly as bad as vanilla, with a lot of tweaks given to it.

There are invisible changes too like the assault rifle’s initial spread being way reduced, making it actually usable at midrange with short bursts. Hunters have been tweaked so that one pistol shot to their orange bit doesn’t kill them. Warhog handling is better, with it accelerating much faster, and marines will now even drive unoccupied warthogs to follow you.

Big recommend of this mod for a replay of CE, it’s available on the Steam Workshop page.

  • Nelots@piefed.zipEnglish
    11·
    5 days ago

    The same person is currently working on rebalancing Halo 2 as well. I don’t follow it closely enough to have any clue when it’ll be done, but I’m excited to try it when it finally is. H2 had loads of problems when being developed, and I’d love to see the game properly balanced and with extra content.

    • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
      3·
      5 days ago

      I’ve been watching Ruby’s last few livestreams, it’s amazing what he’s doing. The changes are much more in depth than what he did with CE : jackal shields, fighting marines when playing as the arbiter, revamped fight against the prophet of regret… he was working on the quarantine zone recently, which makes him over two thirds of the way through.

      • BakerBagel@midwest.socialEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        Is he doing anything about the swarms of Jackal snipers in Halo 2?i loved Halo 2, but you can tell Bungie got lazy in the campaign by just putting a bunch of snipers on god mode.

        • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          4 days ago

          Yes, I can confirm he mentions his adjustments to jackal snipers in “overhauling the covenant”

        • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
          2·
          4 days ago

          I’m pretty sure he did, but not sure where he talks about it. You should try watching his older livestreams on the early levels, or his recent “overhauling the covenant” video.

        • SSTF@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          4 days ago

          In videos he has mentioned both reducing the damage from the sniper rifles so they aren’t one-hit kills, and allowing jackels to use carbines which will replace some sniper jackels.

  • Vik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    5 days ago

    ruby’s rebalanced is the only way I can play CE today via MCC.

    I don’t have high hopes for 343 but I gather their CE remaster may expand upon what was available back in 2001 and reintroduce cut content.

      • Vik@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        5 days ago

        I don’t count CEA as a remaster so much as a piss take but apparently, yeah.

        This is reported to be a pseudo UE5 port (think Oblivion Remastered (💀)) and will be available on PlayStation. The core of the game will apparently be derived from Halo Reach’s iteration of Blam engine. The “technical details” are all just rumours and you’ve every right to disregard, though the entry coming to PS5 is more or less acknowledged.

        I don’t believe a multiplayer component is planned.

    • SSTF@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      101·
      5 days ago

      Yes, it was in the CE PC multiplayer. And, to refer back to the post:

      It adds new weapons to the CE campaign

  • SteakSneak@retrolemmy.comEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    As in ruby of blue? I love that guys sonic adventure videos. I’ve fallen asleep to them so many times (I mean this as a very big compliment 😆). Would love to see him do a video on the dream sonic adventure 2 remake with all his artwork!