History YMMV / Halo

** Following the announcement of the ''Master Chief Collection'' for UsefulNotes/XboxOne (which is a compilation of ''Halo 1'', ''2'', ''3'' and ''4'') some gaming outlets have described it as "All of the ''Halo'' games in one box!" Cue snarky fans going "All of the Halos! Except for ''Wars'', ''ODST'' and ''Reach''!" Also HilariousInHindsight, since two of the three later were added to the collection.

** And then, there's the ''Master Chief Collection'', a CompilationRerelease of Halos 1-4 for UsefulNotes/XboxOne, which shipped with horrifically broken matchmaking code that could search for hours on end and still not find a suitable game. Cue a flurry of patches from 343 trying to fix the problem.

* PolishedPort: As noted under PortingDisaster and AuthorsSavingThrow, the ''Master Chief Collection'' was had a disastrous launch with broken matchmaking code and downgraded customization options, much to the intense chagrin of players. Around 2019, however, a series of patches were made to resolve the technical issues surrounding the game in preparation for ''Halo Infinite'', alongside porting the games to PC and adding ''Halo Reach'' to the collection alongside the full version of ''Halo 3: ODST''. By late 2020, not only was most of the customization content restored alongside a slew of original content, but several games had additional features added to make the collection finally push into this territory.

** The PC version of ''CE'' has some very strange frame rate behavior. Basically your hand moves at a smoother frame rate than the world around it, which is constrained (likely due to the scripted nature of the game). This is surprisingly disorienting. It also has issues with texture detail, due to the heavy use of bumpmapping that, for whatever reason, is only actually visible in this version of the game when the flashlight is shone directly on it. This crosses over to the classic graphics in ''Combat Evolved Anniversary'', as well, as it was built off of the PC port.

* FranchiseZombie: It was going to end with the second game, but Microsoft made them stretch it out.

** With ''Halo'', shooters ditched {{Hyperspace Arsenal}}s and took up regenerating health, among other things.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Upon its original release, ''Halo'''s combat was praised for its incorporation of three elements in particular: a two-weapon limit, rechargeable shields, and dedicated buttons for instantly-accessible grenade throws and melee attacks. Individually, all these features had been seen before ''Halo'', but they were far from predominant, especially when combined together in a single game like that. Now, they are pretty standard genre conventions among both console and PC [[FirstPersonShooter FPSs]], so these days it's common to hear the ''Halo'' series criticized for being "generic" rather than praised for these contributions.

* CompleteMonster: [[IronicNickname The Prophet of Truth]], born [[TheChessmaster Ord Casto]], is one of the {{Big Bad}}s of the original trilogy and instigator of the attempted genocide of two species. After finding out that humans are the descendants of Forerunners, thus violating [[Characters/HaloTheCovenant Covenant]] doctrine, Truth, along with his cohorts Mercy and Regret, declares war on all humanity, with the aim of completely destroying them, intending to preserve the strength of their species. Believing the Jiralhane--Brutes--to be more vicious and mindlessly devoted pawns than the Sangheili--Elites--Truth secretly orders the [[FinalSolution genocide of the Sangheili race]] after ensuring the Jiralhane will supplant them, triggering the Covenant CivilWar. Cold-blooded and ruthless, Truth feels no loyalty or affection for his fellow Prophets, prevents Covenant forces from saving Regret in order to use his death for political gain, and allows Mercy to be killed by the Flood in order to seize absolute power over the Covenant. [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Concerned about personal power rather than Covenant religion]], and even after confronted with evidence that the Halo Rings were not a means of achieving godhood but instead weapons of mass destruction, [[OmnicidalManiac Truth still decides to activate them all]], [[GodhoodSeeker dedicated to the idea of becoming a god]] through the Great Journey, not taking care of killing every living thing in the universe while he ascends to godhood.

* CompleteMonster: The [[IronicNickname Prophet of Truth]], [[OmnicidalManiac Ord Casto]], is one of the {{Big Bad}}s of the original trilogy and instigator of the attempted genocide of two species. After finding out that humans are the descendants of Forerunners, thus violating [[Characters/HaloTheCovenant Covenant]] doctrine, Truth, along with his cohorts Mercy and Regret, decide to wipe out humanity rather than risk their species losing power. While originally more concerned with personal power instead of the Covenant religion, as time goes on Truth becomes more and more devoted to the idea of procuring [[GodhoodSeeker godhood for himself]] through [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence the Great Journey]], and takes more drastic steps to make it a reality. Believing the Jiralhanae (Brutes) to be more vicious and mindlessly devoted pawns than the Sangheili (Elites), Truth secretly orders the [[FinalSolution genocide of the Sangheili race]] after ensuring the Jiralhanae will supplant them. This triggers the Covenant Civil War. Cold-blooded and ruthless, Truth feels no loyalty or affection for his fellow Prophets. Truth prevents Covenant forces from saving Regret in order to use Regret's death for political gain, and allows Mercy to be killed by the Flood in order to seize absolute power over the Covenant. Even when having evidence that the Halo Rings were not devices to procure godhood but are instead weapons of mass destruction, Truth decides to activate all of them anyway, willing to risk the death of all life in the galaxy just to have the chance to become a god.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: In the original trilogy, the BigBadEnsemble, the Prophet of Truth and the Gravemind, are both monstrous characters who commit many atrocities, but are beloved (in a LoveToHate manner) for being charismatic, intelligent, and terrifying. The same cannot be said for 343 Guilty Spark; despite being a WellIntentionedExtremist with a rather sympathetic backstory, he is far more despised for his InsufferableGenius attitude, [[TruthTwister manipulative and duplicitous tendencies]], and [[spoiler:killing [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite]] Sgt. Johnson]].

** It would be hard to find someone who likes 343 Guilty Spark for putting everyone through ''[[ThatOneLevel The Library]]'' and repeatedly backstabbing the player. You can't tell us you all didn't enjoy [[spoiler:finally getting to shut him up at the end of ''Halo 3''.]] With ''Primordium'', ''Silentium'' and ''Anniversary'' out, [[spoiler:he [[TheWoobie just might get some sympathy]], considering his backstory. ''Renegades'' is his RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap moment for some, as his ChronicBackstabbingSyndrome is finally confronted, ending with him ultimately overcoming it.]]

** [[spoiler: 343 Guilty Spark]] turning out to be NotQuiteDead has remained a contentious topic; a lot of fans feel that it's cheap and ruins the ending of ''Halo 3'', while another sizable group think his redemption arc in ''Renegades'' was more than captivating enough to justify his revival and look forward to seeing where his character will go in the future.

* CompleteMonster: The [[IronicNickname Prophet of Truth]], [[OmnicidalManiac Ord Casto]], is one of the {{Big Bad}}s of the original trilogy and instigator of the attempted genocide of two species. After finding out that humans are the descendants of Forerunners, thus violating [[Characters/HaloTheCovenant Covenant]] doctrine, Truth, along with his cohorts Mercy and Regret, decide to wipe out humanity rather than risk their species losing power. While originally more concerned with personal power instead of the Covenant religion, as time goes on Truth becomes more and more devoted to the idea of procuring [[GodhoodSeeker godhood for himself]] through [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence the Great Journey]], and takes more drastic steps to make it a reality. Believing the Jiralhanae (Brutes) to be more vicious and mindlessly devoted pawns than the Sangheili (Elites), Truth secretly orders the [[FinalSolution genocide of the Sangheili race]] after ensuring the Jiralhanae will supplant them. This triggers the Covenant Civil War. Cold-blooded and ruthless, Truth feels no loyalty or affection for his fellow Prophets. Truth prevents Covenant forces from saving Regret in order to use Regret's death for political gain, and allows Mercy to be killed by the Flood in order to seize absolute power over the Covenant. Even when having evidence that the Halo Rings were not devices to procure godhood but are instead weapons of mass destruction, Truth decides to activate all of them anyway, willing to risk the death of all life in the galaxy just to have the chance to [[GodhoodSeeker become a god]].

** Flood Stalker and Ranged forms. The former aren't to dangerous, but are skittishly fast and can be difficult to put down (melee works surprisingly well however) as they reposition, while the Ranged forms can be difficult to kill in larger numbers due to their distance and having to worry about being pelted by their needles.

** Any kind of sniping enemy or flying enemy bar the Watchers, which are more GoddamnedBats.

** Flood Combat Forms in ''2'' and ''3'' on Legendary, maybe Heroic. As usual, they overwhelm you by swarming from above, but with fewer places to hide, and now they can melee while wielding a weapon; a direct melee hit from them is instantly fatal on these difficulties. ** ** Flood Infection forms in these games can [[MookMaker resurrect ungibbed corpses]], [[TransformationTrauma grotesquely transform]] live victims in real-time in part 3, and are instant death if they ''touch'' you with your shields down (unlike the first game where you had a chance to shake them off). And God help you if you randomly run into a Combat Form with a Sniper Rifle in ''2'', who ''will'' be just as accurate as a Jackal and ''will'' hide in the darkest spot of the room. They get a little better in 3, since they're more easily killed, but the Pure Forms more than make up for this.

** ''Halo 2''[='=]s original PC release fared even worse, in that even though its graphics were hopelessly outdated when it finally came out on the PC (the much-better-looking ''Halo 3'' was just four months away from release by that time), it was [[WhatAnIdiot released as a Windows Vista exclusive to convince people of the technological wonder of DirectX 10]]. To add even more insult to injury, the game ''doesn't even actually use [=DirectX=] 10''; it just runs a check as to whether you have it or not (unsurprising given that it was made for the first-gen Xbox, which used the equivalent of [=DirectX=] 8.1). A simple hacker-made patch allows it to run normally in Windows XP.

** Arguably, Sarah Palmer. She is disliked by many fans because of her lack of respect toward the Master Chief and generally abrasive attitude, as well as her pointless shooting of Dr Halsey despite being ordered not to. Later materials have somewhat improved her reputation, as she acts more fitting for her position and her disliked traits and moments are called out within the series.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The ''Master Chief Collection'' was pretty disastrous at launch with the multiplayer, as it would take forever to find a match, if you found a match at all. The menus also were a bit hard to navigate for which game you want to play and which aspect; Campaign or multiplayer. Even some updates and the release of the ''ODST'' campaign didn't really help matters much. 343 have spent the last few years developing solutions to the problems, which involved getting beta testers to help them optimize the collection, as well as constructive criticism from said testers to change or add things to make it better to navigate, which include revamped menus that separate the campaigns and multiplayer menus and add in an option to choose which parts of each games you want downloaded to your console if you don't want everything at once to save on hard drive space. The collection's also going to be added to the Game Pass, so people who haven't gotten the game can play it for free through that subscription. This patch also adds in upgrades to 4K and has HDR for the Xbox One X to make things look better. 343 Industries didn't stop there, as they added the much demanded ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' to the collection alongside eventually bringing the entire series to PC.
** ''Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary'' remaster was often criticized for drastic stylistic changes in the environment, as well as cutscenes that, while overhauled, still looked somewhat awkward on a modernized engine. ''Halo 2: Anniversary'' improved in both aspects, sticking much closer to original game in its visual style and reworking the cutscenes through beautifully done CGI cinematics.
** ''Halo 5'' also got an upgrade patch, which really brings out the graphical fidelity within the game that wasn't initially there, since they had to be downgraded for the base Xbox One at launch.

* GenreTurningPoint: With ''Halo'', shooters ditched {{Hyperspace Arsenal}}s and took up regenerating health, among other things.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The series is made by Bungie, who also created the ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' games. ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' references this now and again.
** To elaborate, the original Halo CE could just as well have been called "Marathon 4", due to the abundance of elements (technology, terminology, texture and weapon design, etc) lifted wholesale from the Marathon games and the game itself fitting neatly into the segment titled "This century intentionally left blank" in the official timeline of the Marathon setting. Subsequent installments reduced the connection between the two, the most important change being the clear delineation that the Forerunners are not related to the Jjarro in any way due to conflicting timelines.
** There are also several multiplayer ones. For example, Guardian is a spiritual successor to the Halo 2-era Lockout, Sword Base is a spiritual successor to both Prisoner and Boarding Action, etc.

** [[Machinima/ArbyNTheChief I Suck at Halo 3]]

** RecurringBoss The Warden Eternal from ''Halo 5: Guardians''. He's pretty much a Hunter taken UpToEleven, with a wide array of powerful attacks, and on higher difficulties is a full-on DamageSpongeBoss. And while the ability for teammates to revive each other is usually a minor blessing, on other occasions it's worse than useless since when you get killed by his sword (which has the same unavoidable bullcrap hitbox as Zealots in ''Halo: CE''), any attempts by your teammates to revive you will just get them picked off one-by-one. [[spoiler:Later, Fireteam Osiris fight two at once, and though that battle allows you to avoid having to fight both of them at the same time, there's no such luck when Blue Team fight ''three''.]] On top of that, he always has a small horde of Promethean enemies backing him up, including Focus Turrets in the final encounter.