I'm the opposite Jeku, I much preferred to open nature of Halo1, I mean you might end up wandering around lost now and then, but the big expansive levels with vehicles are so much fun in Halo, they seem to be missing from the sequel.
Like last weekend we decided to play some Halo on the 360, played Halo2 on XBL for a few rounds, but it just made us want to play co-op Halo - the thing that sold me an XBox in the first place - hell I went out and bought a controller before an XBox, so when visiting friends I'd always get to play
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Halo2 for me fell a bit short, they tightened up the levels and improved a lot of aspects, but IMO they didn't really need to stray that far - they actually compromised the gameplay by doing away with the somewhat repetitive level layouts. Like those long bridges that you have to cross in Halo1, what was that replaced with in Halo2? - freaking horizontal elevators! - you spend a lot of Halo2 standing around on the elevators hoping for some ammo to drop out of the sky. Then to cap that, they messed with the weapons.
IMO there is no need or benefit in changing the weapons at all for Halo2 or indeed Halo3. I mean you have the best balanced weapons of practically any game in Halo, at least for co-op and single player, the pistol was excellent, the machine gun was excellent, the shotgun was excellent - every weapon has it's benefits and downsides in Halo and mastering which weapon is good for which situation is all part of the fun. It kinda added a little strategy into the mix - do you save your plasma nades for Hunters, do you switch to the shotgun for closeups or opt for the sniper... I'm one of those people who would buy a regurgitated Halo, but all I'm seeing from Halo3 is erm, the original wishlist for Halo2.
One thing I love about Halo2 over Halo is the physics engine, and looking forward to seeing the new engine in Halo3 - Halo2 has amazing physics, to the point of working hinges and reactive stuff, like melee an object and it reacts the way it should - IMO the best thing about the physics in Halo2 is the fact that they weren't pimped just to sell copies, they barely even show them off. Like the old trailer, ''WOW!, you can melee the hub-caps off the Warthog!'' - I was much more impressed that they roll off like actual hubcaps, you can interact with so much of Halo2's object and it's so smooth and flawless too - compared to the likes of BF2's physics it's a whole other kettle of fish (ohh no, a barrel got knocked over, better make that machine rattle sound constantly and jam itself under a tank).
