Even the best Halo games have some missions in their campaigns that players dread to experience, no matter how many playthroughs they do for the iconic sci-fi series. Whether it’s overwhelming difficulty through a ridiculous number of poorly placed enemies or simply tedious level design, some parts of Halo‘s story are better skipped. With the inclusion of one infamous level in Halo‘s history, there are a few stand-out missions that are particularly bad to return to no matter how nostalgic you are.
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Plenty of new or reworked missions are coming to Halo: Campaign Evolved, the remake of Combat Evolved coming soon. Three new prequel missions in the remake are set to introduce content never seen before in the series, but it remains to be seen whether players enjoy these levels compared to the classic ones re-invented from Combat Evolved. At the same time, there are several missions from Combat Evolved that players have long considered to be subpar compared to the rest of the series, so it’s possible that those levels will get much better in the remake.
5. Quarantine Zone (Halo 2)
“Quarantine Zone” is the eleventh mission of Halo 2, and one of the missions where players get to control The Arbiter instead of The Master Chief. Despite how cool it is to play as The Arbiter in this game, this level is a bit of a slog, even with plenty of vehicle combat that usually marks a great power fantasy in any Halo game. This mission is simply repetitive, with constant battles against infected Flood forces, including many who are driving powerful vehicles of their own.
Like many Flood levels on this List, the frustration with Quarantine Zone comes with the tedious battles against that faction, who come after you in relentless waves. Having to constantly fight waves of Flood who drive vehicles is incredibly draining, taking away the novelty of vehicle battles that are mostly exciting within a Halo campaign. Unsurprisingly, Flood enemies never drive vehicles in the same numbers again for the remainder of the franchise, as they are much more interesting to face in grounded situations.
However, Quarantine Zone manages to make even standard gunfights against The Flood tedious, particularly on the gondola rides toward the end of the mission. This stretched out segment overstays its welcome multiple times, and features you and several other Elite forces fending off against sporadic Flood waves that feel quite random. The constant attacks from Flood forces are in a confined space too, which will be a common trend for other bad Halo levels.
4. Shutdown (Halo 4)
There are many bad levels in the newer Halo titles, but “Shutdown” is easily the worst mission in Halo 4, the first game developed by 343 Industries. Although there are many interesting concepts in Halo 4, such as the innovative Mammoth mobile battle station for the Reclaimer mission, Shutdown doesn’t deliver on its initial promise. You begin this mission by stealing one of Halo‘s most well-known vehicles, a Pelican. From there, you are flying through the skies on a mysterious world with plenty of dangers to encounter.
You would think that this mission would be similar to Long Night of Solace in Halo: Reach, where aerial battles in space gave players a fresh take on the Halo formula. However, Shutdown ends up being highly repetitive, with the Pelican only a means to travel to various towers throughout the level. These towers are all extremely similar to one another, acting as environments crawling with Covenant or Promethian forces to defeat, only to activate a device, fight your way out, and repeat the process all over again in another tower.
3. The Breaking (Halo 5)
Many Halo fans would consider all of Halo 5: Guardians to be the worst content of the series, making every level the poorest ones. Yet, “The Breaking” is a special kind of bad in a game that already transforms Halo into something unfamiliar, showcasing everything players criticized about the game and taking everything a step further. There is very little creativity in this level beyond throwing faceless waves of enemies at your team, with the systems in Halo 5 only making situations worse from how easily targets can take you out.
In Halo 5, the squad feature allows you to be revived by your teammates when you go down, but this results in whichever character you control having far less health. Once your shields go down, it is really easy to be in a vulnerable state. Failure to be revived means you have to wait forever to respawn, making levels extraordinarily frustrating regardless of what mission you’re playing. One of the reasons why Halo 5 is considered the worst Halo game ever is that playing solo with these features can be a nightmare due to unreliable teammate AI.
The Breaking is easily the hardest mission in Halo 5, making the flaws of its combat system more apparent than ever. The Promethian Soldiers you battle are relentless, easily destroying the flimsy ally AI on any difficulty above Normal. Oftentimes, you’ll be left on your own to take on the monumental challenge in this space, including fights against multiple bosses. The already tough Warden Eternal boss makes an appearance here not once, not twice, but three separate times, creating an aggravating situation that will take you forever to beat.
2. Cortana (Halo 3)
“Cortana” is infamously the worst mission in Halo 3 by a wide margin, in a game that also features some of the best levels in the series too. Cortana takes place on the now Flood infected Covenant mega-city/space station of High Charity, where Master Chief and The Arbiter attempt to rescue Cortana from deep within the place. On paper, this mission starts off incredibly atmospheric, with players having to navigate claustrophobic areas of rotted, fungal decay among high tech Covenant architecture, creating a fascinating contrast between the Covenant holy city and the Flood’s rot.
That being said, playing through Cortana is a test of patience. The momentum of this level stops whenever you enter a new area, resulting in horrifically overwhelming fights against innumerable Flood foes. Alternate forms of large Flood enemies are everywhere, forcing you to stop and deal with them one at a time before you can move forward. From annoying Ranged Flood forms with spine projectiles to the impossibly high health Tank Flood, each enemy can transform into whatever form suits a scenario best. As a result, they take forever to kill, but they are tied completely to the level’s progress.
Constant interruptions from the Gravemind or Cortana herself speaking to you also drags this mission onward. If you’re playing on a higher difficulty, the flaws of this level are even more pronounced, with more Flood enemies with higher health making one section of the mission feel like an entire level within itself. The sheer amount of Flood around every corner never gives you a break, making you breathe a sigh of relief when this mission is finally over.
1. The Library (Halo: Combat Evolved)
One of the biggest promises Halo: Campaign Evolved is making is to make classic levels from Combat Evolved feel fresh and better than ever. At the same time, there is hope the remake can revise “The Library,” the most infamous level in the series from the first game. The Library is legendary in its poor design, where Master Chief must follow 343 Guilty Spark through a number of rooms in a Forerunner facility while fighting waves of Flood. This level is a testament to how bad Halo can be when it gets too repetitive, with every room looking the exact same as you progress.
The confusing hallways all look the same in The Library, often leading players astray. In the original Combat Evolved, Flood would spawn based on certain area triggers, so players backtracking would have to face Flood waves all over again if they got lost. These Flood are much tougher in Combat Evolved than in later games, capable of getting up again after being defeated if a single Flood spore got into a body. Tons of Flood wielding a variety of Covenant and human weapons made each one a threat, especially due to the limited arsenal you had in Combat Evolved.
The worst parts of The Library came when players had to wait until Guilty Spark opened a door, pitting them against many Flood enemies in an enclosed space. The aggressive nature of The Flood, their overwhelming numbers, and the poor design of level structure here is nauseatingly boring, to the point where skipping the level wouldn’t be surprising. With lackluster events taking place in the level too, The Library is easily still the worst mission in Halo history, and hopefully one Campaign Evolved doesn’t repeat.
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