Thank you so much for covering my mod

"brute shotgun" why does no one remember the mauler?

I'm happy you decided to cover Ruby's mod. However you may feel about his decisions regarding the overall weapon sandbox, you can't deny the fact that the guy is putting out some real quality work born out of passion for the Halo franchise. I can't wait to see what he decides to cook up with Halo 3!

The music glitch at 6:50 was not intentional :/ I went back and checked my video in the editor and the track is still there... it just decides to stop playing at that point No idea why.. oh well

thought i was the only one who had the reach evolved soft lock

Maybe you could make a video on Halo HUDs on how they changed overtime benefiting the player but having some kind of con that makes each Halo HUD different. Or you could do a video talking about the evolution of Halo Warthog since it’s a key item for Halo sandbox’s and vehicle play.

When it comes to weapons I just want a fair balance of role and lethality, halo 3's plasma rifle was good a shredding shields, but piss poor at damage, I understand plasma weapons have there niche of bounce shield damage, but what good is that when the base damage takes forever to kill someone with half the health of their shield, that's why I've come to love halo ce's plasma rifle, you still need to lead shots but not to a redickulus amount and the damage is balanced well due to health and shields being the same value in CE, a weapons role or benefit shouldn't make it useless out of its element.

Halo 2 was a weird game. It had the best atmosphere, music, story, and dialogue of any Halo with some super iconic moments... But I agree that the combat with the enemies in Halo 2 wasn't nearly as rhythmic as CE. Especially since Halo 2 had waaaaay dumber enemies....and levels got a bit too linear and cramped. A mixture of CE's combat loop and cool ass levels and AI and Halo 2's pretty much everything else would really be the perfect Halo game That reminds me in an abstract way DOOM Eternal gives me a lot of the Halo CE Covenant dance, but on super speed steroids lmao. Eternal should give 343i a message that a game can be fast and fluid and rhythmic without sprinting.

Ah.. since I'm alone I'll gladly say it, always appreciate your uploads and I'm even learning things by your presentation style. You're one of my inspiration as of now.

It would be a dream to have these mods officially added to mcc in the form of a skull called Rebalnce, or Ruby so players can get new achievements playing the campaigns in a new way, it would also be a great way to get xbox players involved with the modding scene and essentially free content to add in the later seasons.

I just want someone to recreate the Halo 2 E3 demo already. Yes, all these years later, I STILL wanna play that mission.

4:13 All my years in Reach and I never knew you could backstab Hunters...

Personally i love ruby's H2 balanced, because im not always holding the BR, i enjoy being able to use whatever i need at the time. I love the fact that the NPC's can keep themselves alive long enough to feel like allies who can help me if i am skilled enough to keep them alive.

Anyone else feel turning the DMR into a battle rifle is a form of Heresy?

Thanks for giving Ruby's mod publicity! For me it's the most fun I've had in the H2 campaign (+CE for the CE version) & it's where I'd like to see the weapon balance go if they're keeping dual-wielding in Infinite.

I like where Ruby's mod is going. I really never understood why some weapons have such a short range and why battles aren't initiated much sooner.

I think the key thing it comes down to when it comes to the sandbox is that you do need a utility weapon, but you need to make sure it doesn't dominate over all the other weapons to the point the other weapons aren't really useable. This is the problem with Halo 2 and Reach, because the BR and DMR respectively, especially in multiplayer, drown out most other weapons or weapon combos. One of the things that was great about CE was the magnum was usable in most scenarios, but it was entirely possible to take other weapons or weapon combos like the AR and Plasma Pistol and do just fine with them. I think, however, the magnum in CE was an accidental utility weapon and so when they were balancing the weapons in Halo 2 they ended up going too far the other direction and made the Battle Rifle (or Carbine in the Campaign at least) too good, which is why the sandbox in that game is a bit messy. Halo 3 fixed this as the BR in that game isn't overpowering, but still an effective weapon just as much as all the other weapons and good for being an all round killing gun. I think the main thing that screwed Reach up was Title Update 2 and how it screwed with weapon bloom leading to the ease of use of the DMR as it's a one shot weapon rather than the BR's three round burst where you have to lead your shots. I really hope Infinite's developer have learned from Bungie's mistakes in this area and doesn't try to make the utility weapon in the game too good.

I like the idea of every weapon being useable. The smg in Halo 2 always felt so bad to use that I often avoided it. It didn’t help me at close range it was only ever redundant as my talent in combat is close rage melee strats. So I really appreciate no “utility weapon” which to me always felt like the best weapon in almost any situation. The one exception is when fighting the Flood, which is why I never had any complaints about them other than wanting more of the weapons that shine against them sometimes. The Reach Evolved mod is meh in my opinion as I appreciate different factions having different things to fill each role the only thing is you have to make them feel distinct. So a Brute Spiker taking the “close to mid range” role that the AR plays is fine the trick is to make it more close quarters and make it deal extra melee damage, no range buff or anything, just that it needs to deal less damage than an AR for a follow up melee to be lethal. That makes it feel very Brute.

I love to often have late night gamings videos play in the background ground while I play Minecraft and Halo there just such good videos and also tend to be calming

You make possibly the best Halo content on this platform. I get so excited to see your videos in my feed!

I personally played those 2 mods, and I LOVE that both of them speak confidently and explain in details the changes they do. They really make Reach and Halo 2 much more enjoyable, and I personally can't wait more for Halo 3!

I love how effective your allies are on all of rubys mods

4:12 I must admit, that Hunter assassination made me feel things I haven’t felt since puberty

yay another video you always make me happy with your vids, especially in these times thank for continuing to upload

This channel is so unbelievably underrated

Great video. You are one of my favorites! Keep on doing what you do

"Covenant Dance" "Choreograph(ite)" I see what you did there

6:17 In the context of Halo 2 I find it hard to disagree with him. Largely because the battle rifle just cannot be tuned to work as a utility weapon in the vein of the CE Magnum.

No mention of how Ruby added human enemies to Sacred Icon & Quarantine Zone? The encounters play out way different, should have said something. They're the only levels he fundamentally changed

dude, odst being extremely competent is what makes them odst, you can really feel the diference between marines and elite soldiers

Late Night, i'd love it if you reviewed ruby's re-balanced reach

5:09 is amusing. Sprint removed and the game is faster paced lol.

Fascinating stuff! Playing wolfenstein had given me some new perspective on weapon sandbox

Ruby's beefing up of the AI was intentional. ODSTs are pretty much the best units next to spartans, they should be kicking some ass.

I'm currently playing through Ruby's mod, and I'm on the Arbiter. I have to say, Ruby does a very decent job with what he's able to tweak. Halo's "Covenant Dance" was perfect in CE for a multitude of small, but significant reasons, and no Halo game after really managed to capture Halo CE's brilliance. Halo 2 as opposed to CE has a much more "decisive" encounter and sandbox design. In CE, an encounter with an enemy is *relatively* unforgiving, as badly playing either outright kills the player or takes off health, which makes the game harder. However, death isn't instant, and the player has ample time to react and act dynamically with respect to the situation. Vanilla H2 was very different. Player death was instant, but enemies were also much easier to kill due to sandbox balancing. The noob combo (also the weaker close quarters AI and less pursuing AI) made elites far less tough than in CE, Brutes could be killed by spamming carbine headshots which made them really easy to deal with (also they got stuck REALLY easily), combat forms were pretty annoying unless you used the sword and made a complete joke out of them. It was a much faster paced style, where both you and the enemy dropped lightning fast. RRH2 isn't a return to the slower paced, more "forgiving" style of CE. It refines and amplifies vanilla H2's style. Enemies are still hyper-lethal, and the player still gets melted if he/she doesn't act extremely quickly and precisely. The sandbox available and viable to the player is much higher, but there's no "cheap" weapons that will make killing enemies extremely fast, like the plasma pistol or dual needlers. While the mod is leagues better than vanilla H2, I still think that it falls short compared to CE. The good things about the mod are that the cheap feeling of killing enemies using exploits/comically OP weapons is gone, legendary difficulty actually demands very high accuracy and good positioning on the player's part, the raised difficulty makes the weird pacing of H2 far better, and that the tweaks to the sandbox actually enable players to creatively break through encounters. The pitfalls of the mod (most of them are faults of H2 itself rather than Ruby) are certain ludicrous enemy encounters that have huge difficulty spikes due to high enemy ranks and huge enemy counts (second hangar bay on Cairo Station), claustrophobic sections with waayyy too little room for the player to take advantage of the nerfed AI leading and accuracy (a fault of vanilla H2), and certain vehicle sections being even faster paced than infantry combat sections due to the revamped vehicle mechanics. Overall, a very good mod. If CE was a 9/10 and H2 was a 6.5/10, then RRH2 is a 7.9/10.

It was nice to hear about the Covenant Dance gameplay of Halo and I think you should make a video about it since there's a lot of videos about the new art design and how can it improve but not a lot about the combat of gameplay of Halo

Not gonna lie i prefer utility weapons over lethality. I just find it more interesting instead of just gun kill good

Great video!

Thanks for your video!

I personally prefer Ruby's rebalances for Reach CE and 2 just because they all finally give Marines an fighting chance in combat instead of dropping dead within the first five minutes of a mission. Especially on Reach and CE, missions like Tip of the Spear were a shit ton of fun because of the sheer amount of NPCs he chucked into that mission and his Truth and Reconciliation was the first and only time I remember getting more than one of my starting Marine squad all the way through to the detention area. While yeah, his stuff isn't exactly the most balanced out there, I just love it because it's such a different fun way to play Halo for someone like me who spends waaaay too much time trying to keep my Marine buddies alive.

Hell yeah, even more love for Reach Evolved. Love to see it.

Climbing on the back of the hunter was fucking amazing

You should’ve mentioned the Zealot Champion in Reach evolved. Such a cool enemy, hope it happens in infinite!

There was a cut hunter assassination? That looks so badass wtf

I love how flexible Halo is. It can be more slow and tactical, or more fast paced run and gun. I feel like Halo is a rare game where what the gameplay is is what you make of it, because halo ce was so in between

They need to add new content or mod support to the xbox version of the game, it seems they've forgotten about us

I also don't agree with Ruby of Blue's mod, but I think the problems that it is trying to address are worth pursuing. Want to make the SMG better? Have it stun lock a non-shielded opponent under sustained fire. It's that simple. No need for any damage boost. It worked for CE, despite doing less damage. It doesn't need to be a sniper to be competitive. In fact, this should probably be done for all non-headshot weapons. As far as I'm concerned, using a non-headshot weapon on Halo 2 Legendary puts you at such an absurd disadvantage because there are no benefits to using them. You'll basically always lose if they decide to shoot you. Stun lock scales better for higher difficulties because it provides the opportunity to safely close the distance, and pick off single targets at a closer, more aggressive distance. It works for Campaign because it's literally designed to even the odds against a stronger opponent. I think automatic weapons should be the "safe" option, while headshot weapons and the plasma pistol charge don't have a stun lock or homing. Also the Sniper should not stun lock; something Ruby of Blue's mod got right. Also, I really think you ought to be able to melee while duel-wielding, and keep your combo in your pocket to save for close range. These two changes would be far more effective at embracing Halo 2's sandbox, keep the game difficult, encourage different levels of aggression, and would not make any weapon lose its role. It just gives useless weapons a role to begin with.

I really need to fix my pc so i can play these mods.

I believe that Halo needs a Utility weapon that is incredible useful and all other guns are built around it. Ruby's rebalanced mod is also another way I think Halo games could be formulated. Either one or the other, unlike Halo 5 in which EVERY gun can easily kill an enemy.

Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of Reach Evolved. I feel like the missions and maps in Reach are fundamentally designed with armor abilities in mind, and I find I missed using them for certain strategies when they were gone. I did however, REALLY enjoy Ruby's Reach Rebalanced, which I feel like tightened up the sandbox (except for the now OP Assault Rifle) and made encounters feel a lot more interesting. You should definitely check it out.

Rejected Shotgun, the man behind UltimateForge and stuff like flyable frigates, corvettes, carriers and stuff. From drivable Scarabs in Halo Reach to drivable Seraphs in Halo 2.

that "covenant dance" thing you are talking about ive done with normal reach with a heavily customized firefight game mode to base off of and creating a sort of custom challenge with each map from that base mode to fit the theme and create something interesting. mind you it is less like a halo game at such a point but its still very thought out

I've played Rubys mods, while on paper they seem interesting they end up constantly teetering between way way too easy and unfairly difficult. For example his Reach rebalanced mod gave enemies much greater engagement distances. Seems good right? Until you realize enemies with needlers can shoot you accross the map and those pink heat seeking missiles track you so hard you cannot dodge them. I distinctly remember in the 1st level I kept dying but couldn't figure out who or why until I noticed jackals on the other side of the map were performing long range assaults on me with needlers and needle rifles. But on the other hand he wanted to make friendly AI seem more useful. Cool in concept but whenever you have spartans and 10 marines they end up absolutely shredding the covenant. While it contextually makes more sense, it isnt great from a gameplay perspective and you can see why Bungie didnt do it.

I’m kinda sick of keystone weapons. Yes, it makes other weapons less unique, in this halo 2 mod and halo 5, but now you can actually use them effectively. Not everyone gets off to using the battle rifle every single time.

KZfaq removed you from my subscriptions... not cool Susan.

Just the statement that Ruby doesn't believe in a utility weapons sold me on their mod. I am 100% of that belief as well.

I love Ruby's Rebalanced Halo 2, it's very cool

The main problem with reach was that legendary would turn into a snooze fest where you would just sit 50m and dmr enemies while they stared at you and took it. It wasnt difficult it was just a grind. With ruby giving longer engages and buffing close-quarter weapons, getting close to the enemy is now a viable strategy and much more fun imo. The decreased projectile tracking also encourages strafing and quick movement leading to fast paced gameplay

Dude, I get why you'd be a bit disappointed by H2's increased NPC effectiveness cutting you out of the action a bit, but in the context of what ODSTs could actually do in-universe...well, I'm a lore nerd first and foremost, so I'm a bit biased in this area. I'd look at it more like the Helljumpers are racing you to the finish (since ODSTs and SPARTANs were constant rivals throughout the war) and you gotta be at the top of your game to keep up. Honestly, I think that just gives the game a more authentic experience, but to each their own. Games are meant to be played, after all, but it's cool little touches like a squad of Helljumpers clearing out an LZ before you even get there that gives me fanboy giggles. Because I know they can and frequently do do that in the Haloverse.

5:25 you cant get soft-locked in that area. In fact that area has no locking at all, you can just walk into the dried river--its often used for speedruns, that entire area you can literally just walk past lol and there is nothing to restrict the player into staying in that zone.

I never thought that the Halo 2 BR was exceptionally useful in Halo 2's campaign due to how weirdly rare it was. Human weapons on the whole felt like they appeared once in a blue moon, with Covenant weapons being significantly more common.

6:11 That Jackal got YEETED.

Good video 👍

Rubys's Rebalanced mods are the shit in my opinion, even the Halo CE one where Magnum is nerfed to not instakill Hunters.

I like about half of what Ruby does with his mods, and then the other half of the changes in any given mod are really frustrating and feel a little short-sighted. I should probably elaborate, but I guess I'll get around to that another time if anyone is interested in the opinions of an average-skill layman player.

Another great vid man, just wondering how you adjusted the halo 2 view models? Cheers!

Such a great guy. Doesnt agree with all of the mods aspects but respects the opinion and the way it is expressed

0:00 I was expecting a BABABOEY

Now i need to know about that samus/metroid image i saw in this video

Honestly I think the hyper-lethality and extreme ranges onn automatics would be my main problem with Rudy's mod. It sounds fun and he defenitely put a lot of effort into it, but it screams of a one of the major issues I had with halo 5's sandbox, which put more emphasis on lethality and powerful automatics having tto much range. An SMG should never be able to snipe jackals and I shouldn't be favoring the use of a plasma rifle to hit opponents across a map over a carbine. The carbine, I personally feel was already good where it was in the sandbox but lessened ability of enemies to track the player was an excellent idea.

I'm getting my new PC parts soon extremely soon, I'll be damn happy to play these mods!

Hey LNG when are you planning to do evolution of plasma pistol. That one would be great!

I know it's way to late for this idea, it would've been great to have even before halo 5s release. I got the idea from one of of your old videos. But imagine a world where the UNSC developed two different Spartan armors. With the success of the [Gen1] Mjolnir Mark 4 and 5 with some inspiration from the MkBLACK/6 and Mk7 they could develop a one man army-close combat Mjolnir armor. The close combat armors would be slower paced, heavily armored (aka old halo gameplay and pacing). And whole new system for the completely overhauled Generation Mjolnir 2[Gen2] Thesw would have large scale battle-teamwork and speed in mind made for war with large groups of enemies and big open areas where fast movement on foot is important. These battle armors could come with some- maybe even all abilities (spartan charge, thrust, sprint, slide, ADS(for lore that could work since MOST close combat scopes are mostly within the visor anyways), infamous ground pound and even more). Within the halo 5 campaign and story blue team, would carry the [gen1] as they would use old tactics and similar scenarios as older games, veterans like John himself and the veteran players would be familiar with, adding some nostalgia. And the fireteam Osiris would carry the new [gen2] as they fight warzones and traverse more complicated environments sacrificing some of their bulk, strength and shield energy for mobility and technical advancement like ads and thrust. This would all coincide with the possibly even more important multi-player feel and gameplay. On smaller maps aka 4v4 and similar gamemodes with maps developed with [gen1] in mind. While BTB and Halo:5 sized maps would have the [gen2] mjolnir armors, adding gamemodes such as Gen2 CTF and more. I feel personally that this would keep the lore of the the universe and spartans in tact. Letting 343 experiment with the concept and stay "modern" without disrupting the -now holy- core halo "feel". I get that this would've been alot of work for the kind of new 343 team, the development time would increase and they would probably need to split the team to develop this as it would kind of have to be a game-within-a-game thing. Although they've managed to do that with the MCC now. Anyways, this is my idea and it sounds like the amazing experience to me, I miss the old halo experience but have grown used to the new mechanics somewhat and probably would miss it somewhat if they disappeared forever. I think that myself and alot of players would enjoy both game styles way more if we knew that none of the experiences would take away from the halo games we grew to love. P.S. The story could be a kind of getting used to the gameplay, more so than today's campaign with the different mechanics and gameplay of the [Gen1] and [Gen2] suits. Would really like to hear your opinion on this. What do you think of a split halo gameplay and experience like this? If you think it's an interesting idea it would be so cool if you wanted to talk about this topic in a future video So sorry for such a long text, love your late night halo vids and always have. Take care❣️

Man can't wait till they fix R:Evolved so I can play it

I'm not kidding they are bringing back the original pelican

Great video. Thanks for bringing more attention to Halo's mods. If you're going to do more of these, may I please recommend Tbiesty's Halo 2 Rebalanced Mod? I prefer it over Ruby's since it doesn't change as many things. It still feels like Bungie's Halo 2 but not as rage-inducing while still being a challenge.

Boy oh Boy I sure do wish I knew how to install mods!

Ruby’s Halo 2 rebalanced is very hard but fair on the heroic difficulty. I’m almost finished with it. If you aren’t in the flow and using the right weapons, the game can and will kick your ass, conversely if your timing is on point and you’ve mastered the weapon sandbox you start to feel like you’re ascending to being a true Spartan, or “Master chief from the books.”

It's so difficult being the only person who prefers the DMR to the battle rifle. Every time it becomes a burst weapon I get a little upset.

I really like the burst storm rifle. That's a really good idea in my opinion, it adds a medium range covenant weapon while still leaving some space for the plasma rifle.

"You can't deny that when the ODST are using SMGs and snipe Jackals out of their position.." is a phrase I never expected to hear and honestly it make me rolling on the floor for quite sometime.

The bubble shield is your best friend on Legendary. Infinite health packs.

I really want to see your opinion on halo reach: eternal because that mod is a trip

I'd never have a problem with the Marines or allies Covenant being a lot more capable in battle, mostly because it makes them a valuable asset that you *WANT* to protect even more beyond "Pea-shooting meat shield" because they're your party members, they're your buddies and they look up to the SPARTANs and the Arbiter to be spearheading their missions. Hell, Ruby himself said "you feel more inclined to jump in and start firing with them" and I agree wholeheartedly! Even if it does get you killed on Legendary a couple times because you big-derped into a sticky.

Ruby’s also done a rebalanced mod for halo 3. Done quite well in my opinion.

Too easy? Skulls. Just another reason I love halo.

I'm playing through Ruby's Rebalanced Halo 2 right now, and I do think that on balance it's an undeniable improvement in the gameplay experience on Legendary. Regarding your criticism that the Rebalanced sandbox is too hyper-lethal, which sounds a lot like common criticism of the Halo 5 sandbox (a game I have admittedly never played), I would argue that of the Halo games I have played it is 2 that needs this improvement the most. On Legendary the notorious difficulty meant the sandbox was actually painfully restrictive and that using many of the weapons (looking at you, SMG) often put you at a serious disadvantage, leaving shield stripping + headshotting as the main viable tactic. Rebalanced definitely opens up the sandbox in a positive way by making most weapons at least viable in many more circumstances. I do understand it can be argued to go too far - Rebalanced legendary seriously feels easier than vanilla heroic Halo 2 and legendary CE does, and that's often a combination of being able to win firefights with most weapons available & your allies being equipped with said weapons. The whole trick of rebalancing the sandbox, after all, is finding that sweet spot where weapons feel useful in different situations without either a few dominating or them all becoming interchangeable. For mods I think SPV3 does this decently well with their SMG > AR > BR > DMR > SR progression, with the headshot-capable weapons (especially the SPV3 BR) still taking on a more primary utility role while the SMG & AR still fall off in usability at higher difficulties. Halo CE's simpler sandbox is often rightly praised as the standard for this balance, though still not flawlessly either in my opinion. Reach does not do so well in this regard, with the utility DMR/Needle Rifle clearly taking the lead over the rest of the sandbox. I'm looking forward to trying Reach Evolved and Ruby's Reach Rebalanced once I have the time, to further refine my opinion on the matter!

So I may have figured out what might've caused the soft lock, This happened to me on Oni Sword Base where I went through so fast that the game locked up, I went looking around and found a single grunt hiding in a corner with some marines, he wasn't shooting anyone nor was anyone shooting him, not even George. My assumption is if I killed him, it would unlock the game. Though this was untested cause I couldn't bring myself to kill him.

I never like Arbiter and Oracle missions as a kid and even now dreaded them still. But now I've got a reason to try a mod for MCC.

Ah yes, sprinting, a personal special super power

Ok but the being able to mount a hunter and kill it should have been a thing years ago😭😭

Would you say that you generally prefer these mods over the base games? I know you’re not a big fan of Halo 2 or Reach from a gameplay standpoint, but do you think anything was lost in these reimaginings? Great video, by the way, keep up the good work

nice vid

Me: Sees Noble 6 assassinate a hunter *Wait a minute...*

2:26 I Strongly disagree I think Halo Reach Elites and Covenant in general are the easies to identifiy and the best depiction we've had of them in the whole saga. Rest of the video is pretty spot on, loved it!.

I need help checking something for halo 2... Ive been experimenting with halo 2's covenant weapons and have managed to increase the rate of fire on the needler and the plasma rifle by rapidly feathering the shots. IE standard mag dump on a needler by holding it down was roughly 5.5 seconds compared to 4.5 seconds and a much faster super combine rate. The needles basically traveled together, making them more effective against brutes on gravemind. If anyone can help test this it would be appreciated.

I loved reach evolved a ton. That being said after beating it im gonna try ruby's reach now. Halo 2 is sacred ground to me so I don't think I'm gonna try the rebalance. I'm sure my opinion on that is rare. Same goes to CE, unless it's SPV3

I dont mind the UNCS ballance I tink its great.

When Noble Six jumped over that Hunter's back, it reminded me how Batman could use a Titan to fight another one or knock smaller enemies in A. S. , that would've been very cool!