My brothers are big fans of the series so I've ended up playing pretty much every installment in the series sans Wars because that lacked co-op and the series is, like pretty much every shooter bar the Battlefront series, at best, meh for me. Considering my dislike for playing online, it's probably not too hard to figure out why I'm not Halo's biggest fan but I'll give a quick rundown of my thoughts on each game in the series because I'm bored.
I actually really liked Combat Evolved when I first played it, the campaign was great (still can build up the motivation to go through it again on the Anniversary edition) and another plus was the demos including on the disc (I recall some Oddworld game & some Frenzy game that was essentially a collection of mini-games [like ones in the style of Mario Party]). Halo 2 had a lot of flaws but it's my favorite of the series entirely because my brothers are big fans and that's the version we played the most since my second brother (who isn't technically my brother) left to college around Halo 3's release (Unless I'm completely messing up dates and there was some other reason we didn't continue). But yeah, we played local multiplayer, came up with our own stories & characters, introduced a ton of world-building and it was just a lot of fun. Oh, and it's also the only games campaign that I didn't beat on Legendary, I typically hate playing on any difficulty lower than the that but I made an exception for that one. Halo 3 was awful. Again, I mostly played these for the campaigns and this series campaign was ungodly boring until like the last three levels were it finally got fun. However because of how monotonous and lifeless the first however many levels were, it took me over a year to actually get around to beating it. Hate that game.
ODST I still haven't finished its campaign. Honestly, it might be the best from what I've played. It plays within a more unique narrative structure and seems to put more emphasis on character than the other ones did, which means it should be my favorite of the series but I just couldn't get into it. And my brother doesn't seem to high on it either so he never pestered me to finish it like he did with Halo 3. What salvages this game is Firefight mode, which was by far the funnest mode in any Halo game in my opinion and it's removal in 4 is my biggest gripe about that game. Reach's campaign was pretty good in my opinion. The emphasis on character here didn't exactly succeed, like if I cared about any of their deaths I sure don't remember it. Can only recall like two members on the team but you know what, I do recall appreciating the effort. I thought the space battle portion of the campaign was awful but you know, I also appreciate the fact that they were actually willing to step outside the comfort zones. They didn't manage to make that fun but at least they threw some variety in there. Reach is probably my third favorite game in the series as it still had firefight. Finally Halo 4's campaign is one of my favorites of the series. Everything else about the game pisses me off but I liked the main story mode well enough.
So yeah, overall it's okay. I can have fun with the series but ultimately it just doesn't appeal to me that much. I get bored quickly with them and while Halo 2 holds a special place in my heart, I couldn't care less about the rest of the series, even though I enjoyed a few others fine. That stated, Red Vs. Blue is tangibly related so I just shout out that that series was awesome for awhile (season 6-10 particularly with a couple misses within those [I think seven sucked], haven't watched it after the first couple in 11).
