TheHalofranchise has long been praised for its story, characters, gameplay, multiplayer, and overall world design that helped make it Xbox’s flagship property.
These elements are bolstered byHalo’s intuitive and enthralling on-foot and vehicular mission design that makes Master Chief’s journey of saving humanity from the genocidal alien Covenant all the more engaging.
However, over the course ofHalo’s near 25-year-long history, not every level in theHaloseries has been absolute bangers, with many being downright boring or frustrating at times, no matter if they’re played on Normal or Legendary difficulty.
SomeHalogames’ worst levels aren’t too bad, but when the title is of debatably less quality than others in the series, the levels within the game can be excruciatingly boring or frustrating to playthrough.
This list does not include missions that are only cutscenes or the dialogue-focused non-combat missions found inHalo 5: Guardians.
Quarantine Zone
DespiteHalo 2’s tumultuous development,Halo 2is often regarded within the fan base as one of, if not, the bestHalogames, due largely in part to its narrative and gameplay improvements fromHalo: Combat Evolved.
However,Halo 2is not a perfect masterpiece, in my opinion, and this can be seen partially through the Arbiter’s fourth level Quarantine Zone.
After hearing Rtas ‘Vadum’s admittedly epic and inspiring speech, the Arbiter goes forth, attacking the Flood and making his way to Delta Halo’s Library to retrieve the Sacred Icon or Activation Index.
The plot of Quarantine Zone is epic, but its gameplay can be rather frustrating with the Flood using vehicles, Enforcer Sentinels lifting and crushing vehicles, and the level culminating in a restrictive, anti-climatic shooting gallery on a slow-moving gondola.
12Halo 3: ODST
Tayari Plaza
Halo 3 ODST
Halo 3: ODSTis arguably one of the bestHalogames ever made despite not featuring powerful Spartans or Elites as protagonists, instead being replaced by normal human Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.
The gameplay ofODST, though, didn’t reflect this change much, as anyODST member of Alpha-Ninecan easily cut through waves of Covenant just as easily as Master Chief or Arbiter could.
In some ways, this lack of unity with the characters and gameplay hurtODST’s first true mission with Tayari Plaza and Buck.
The level is meant to showcase the threat the Covenant impose on the city of New Mombasa and normal human troops, but I always fly through the level without issue as Buck is basically just a Spartan. There are no unique gameplay scenarios, and most enemies can be skipped or easily dispatched.
11Halo: Reach
Winter Contingency
Halo Reach
Halo: Reach’s first level, Winter Contingency, is held back primarily due to its narrative and gameplay constraints.
Winter Contingency is meant to be the tutorial level for new players but also the first confirmed contact of the Covenant’s presence on Reach, forcing the level to slowly build to the Covenant’s reveal but not showcase anything overly shocking or difficult to defeat.
On a first playthrough, this narrative direction makes sense, and it is fun to see how the locals are reacting to the Covenant’s presence but on repeated playthroughs, Winter Contingency can feel fairly boring and slow.
Whenever I replay through Winter Contingency, I usually just spring through it as fast as I can just to get to its climax, which itself is nothing too special, justJorge and Noble Sixtaking out a few squads of Grunts, Jackals, and a couple of Elite Zealots.
10Halo: Fireteam Raven
Play Mechanix
Release Date
August 23, 2025
For a short, cooperative arcade shooting game,Halo: Fireteam Ravenis a fairly fun new perspective onHalo: Combat Evolved’s events, though its arcade nature does hinder its first level Escape a bit.
Escape isRaven’s tutorial level, which, admittingly, is action-packed, withRavenbeing tasked todefend thePillar of Autumnfrom Covenant boarding partiesand Covenant spacecraft by using M910 Rampart point-defense guns, all before boarding drop pods and crashing on Alpha Halo.
However, compared toRaven’s later levels, Escape is fairly bare bones in gameplay and somewhat tedious to get through in arcades just to get toRaven’s more dynamic battles.
I always playRaven’s arcade cabinet whenever I see one in the wild, but Escape loses its engaging factor on repeat on-rails playthroughs when my friends and I just want to fight Flood, Drones, and Hunters and drive Warthogs as soon as possible.
In my opinion,Halo 4is a pretty underrated entry in theHalofranchise, but I have to admit one level is always a pain to get through.
Midway through the campaign, players will have to play through Reclaimer, which centers onMaster Chief and Spartan-IVsattempting to free the UNSCInfinityfrom the Shield World Requiem’s gravity well by using a Mammoth weapon platform.
This one vehicle is the source of Reclaimer’s major issues, as it’s incredibly slow and halts player momentum, plus the game harms players for attempting to travel with other vehicles, as nearby rivers will instantly destroy vehicles if driven through.
While the Mammoth is only around for the first half of the level, Reclaimer also has narrative issues as it features a rather infamous info dump from the Librarian which helps explain some of the Didact’s intentions but still makes some things confusing for those who haven’t read Greg Bear’s Forerunner Trilogy ofHalonovels.
8Halo: Combat Evolved
The Library
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo’s first and arguably most famously frustrating level isHalo: Combat Evolved’smidpoint, The Library.
The first level dedicated to the Flood entirely, The Library is a labyrinth centered on Master Chief fighting endless waves of overwhelmingly Flood forms all while being taunted by the somewhat comical musings of 343 Guilty Spark.
The Library is the least fun level inHalo: CEto playthrough for me due to how it often stalls Chief from progressing until Spark can open doors, lack of health packs, and, of course, the incredibly infuriating and sniper-like rocket launcher wielding Flood combat forms.
While I have earned theSpeed Reader achievement onHalo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, beating the level in under 30 minutes, I’d be happy to never step foot in the Library ever again.
Halo: CEhad The Library but Bungie seemed to desire to see how much they could annoy players with Flood-centric levels withHalo 3’s Cortana.
In the penultimate level ofHalo 3, Cortana follows Master Chief and Arbiter as they fight through the Flood-infested ruins of the Covenant holy city of High Charity to rescue Cortana after she was left in the city at the end ofHalo 2.
Halo 3introduced many new Flood formsand weapons which made fighting through High Charity incredibly frustrating, especially due to the Flood ranged forms, which often spawned in large numbers and endlessly barraged players with deadly calcified shards and the flamethrower which always ended up killing me faster than my targets.
On top of these annoying mechanics, Cortana and the Gravemind will often “speak” to the players and slow them down, making the level longer than it needs to be and sometimes causing players to die from nearby Flood.
6Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite
Halo: InfinitewasHalo’s first true open-world game and, as such, wasn’t designed with traditional missions or levels in mind but had them retroactively divided up into the campaign to make replayability easier.
However, this cutting ofHalo Infinite’s campaign resulted in some levels being smaller and less balanced than others, such as the “fourth” campaign mission Recovery.
The only things to do on this “mission” are reclaiming the UNSC Forward Operating Base Golf and rescuing a few Marines before heading off towards The Tower to start the next “mission.”
Recovery isn’t bad per se; it’s just the least eventful campaign level in mainlineHalogames and I believe the level should have just been combined with The Tower to lessen Recovery’s awkward place in the game andHalooverall.
5Halo Wars 2
One Three Zero
Halo Wars 2
Halo’s spinoff titles into other gaming genres tended to result in some of the most dull or frustrating levels found in the entire franchise, in my experience, such asHalo Wars 2’s One Three Zero.
Named after Spartan Alice-130, the mission follows Alice as she must recuse some Spirit of Fire prisoners from the Banished and hold off enemy forces until Pelicans can safely extract them.
For anRTS likeHalo Wars 2, this mission may seem like an interesting way to utilize the game’s resource and unit management systems at first, but it can quickly turn into a stressful nightmare, even on easier difficulties, since no new units can be deployed.
Only a handful of Hellbringers, Cyclopses, Warthogs, and turrets are available to use, which is especially stressful since there’s only a limited amount of resources to use for Leader Powers and the mission has mostly anti-infantry units going up against Marauders and Wraiths; it’s the level I tend to struggle with the most inHalo Wars 2, especially on Legendary.
4Halo: Spartan Strike
Halo: Spartan Strike
Halo: Spartan Strikewas the sequel toHalo’s first mobile game,Halo: Spartan Assault, and it improves uponSpartan Assault’s gameplay in nearly every way while falling back a bit in terms of its overall narrative.
However, due to the constraints of being a mobile game originally intended for Windows Phones, there are a few levels that are fairly dull by lacking gameplay variety and being too short.
This is best exemplified by the mission Conduit, which has UNSC personnel recover a Forerunner artifact known as the Conduit from invading Covenant forces in New Mombasa.
The issue with this level is that the only thing players do is steal the Conduit from an Elite and then escort the Conduit in anElephant from a Warthogin a straight, slow, on-rails sequence; it’s one of the most boringHalolevels I’ve ever played.
