I mean, the gameplay is still fun but that doesn't change the fact that the level design itself is incredibly repetitive and generally bland.
Surely you can look beyond the gameplay and see that. It's literally the same set of fairly sparse corridors repeated multiple times.
Sort of.
I can't deny that there's a ton of modular re-use, that's objective fact.
Repetition in terms of
level design is a somewhat more complicated matter, since level design goes beyond the geometry building blocks. I'd argue that each floor of the Library has a distinct rhythm and flavor, and there are many different sort of encounter designs. But, even with respect to encounter design, I'd agree that there are many encounters that are very similar to many other encounters.
Whether it's
bland is entirely subjective. I agree that many people think it's bland, and it doesn't surprise me that this is the case. But I disagree, and I'm not saying "I like the level despite its flaws", but that for me, the repetition in the Library (and in some other areas of the game) is not a flaw.
There are a couple facets to this.
Firstly, even full repetition isn't necessarily a bad thing. Consider racing games as an example: repeatedly doing the same course on the same vehicle can be loads of fun. This is partly because of how repetition allows you to hone and re-test your technique, and partly because the rhythm and feel of something can sometimes be just plain intrinsically enjoyable in repetition. First-person shooters are no different.
Secondly, geometric module repetition has a neat consequence to level design: movement and shooting tech that's universal to a wide variety of encounters can be quickly learned. The actual room structures and enemy spawns on the interiors of Assault on the Control Room are mostly wildly different from one other, but once you have the feel for crouch-jumping to the catwalks or hopping through a window while melee'ing the pane, that applies all over the place. So it only takes a little experience for vast sprawls of the level design to feel really fluid.
As to my impression that a lot of the "repetitive" encounters are quite different from each other, there might also be some complexity to this. When I first played CE in 2003, I
did think that the interiors were fairly repetitive, while I enjoyed the outdoor sections a lot. I think replays are what changed my mind: familiarity emphasizes contrast. What first seemed soupy gained structure once I knew what I was looking at. I still like the outdoor sections, but my impression of them hasn't changed, while the interiors rapidly grew on me. I think I enjoy them more than the exteriors nowadays.
The matter of familiarity emphasizing contrast is also maybe why I
like the level re-use in the game's final three levels. The huge differences in encounter design, the changes to lighting in some areas, and the different sound design prevent them from being redundant with the levels they're based on. And because they're in places we've been through before, the
change that the release of the Flood has brought on is felt.
I find The Library mesmerizing. The somber soft yellow-on-blue tones, the dancing... I don't feel like replaying it often, but it scratches an itch that nothing else does.
Halo 3 having Floodgate and Cortana negates that.
They're problematic, although I direct most of my beef at the Flood enemy designs.
I really
want to like Cortana. There's so much potential in the concept, and even a lot of things that were executed well, but so much went wrong. Partly in the gunplay, but also partly in the aesthetic design. As above, familiarity emphasizes contrast: I know that the level takes place in the ruins of High Charity, but it doesn't evoke the High Charity of Halo 2 very well, it doesn't
feel like High Charity, so a lot of emotional effect is lost.
(By contrast, The Ark very strongly evokes The Silent Cartographer despite taking place in a totally different location.)
