Heroic

-Description from Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2.

-Description from Halo 3.

Summary
Heroic is the second-hardest difficulty in Halo campaign mode. It's one step down from Legendary.

Heroic pits you against the Covenant, who now are slightly smarter, and their weapons inflict more damage per hit. Otherwise considered Hard in other games. Among the features the player enjoys in Heroic mode are...


 * Health meter is weaker. Hits do more damage.
 * Shields are only 75% their "Normal" capacity.
 * Increased Shields and health for enemies.
 * Many Minor Elites are replaced by Major Elites. Major Grunts are more frequent as well.
 * Enemies are smarter in tactical actions, thus harder to kill.
 * Marines have reduced effectiveness and are weaker.
 * Ultra Elites and Ultra Grunts appear ever so often and for the Elites, they normally dual wield.

All of these wrap up into a nice gameplay option for more experienced players, who find Normal boring, and Legendary too hard. This difficultly may be deemed the most realistic by some players, however this is not to be stated as a fact, as each player has their own comfort zone regarding difficulty.

In Halo 3, Heroic is being made for those who have played the prior games, and multiplayer, resulting in an increased skill amount. This increase will probably mean that those who found normal comfortably in Halo, will find Heroic just right for Halo 3, according to Frankie.

Trivia

 * Every difficulty shield icon has the Marathon symbol on it.
 * Heroic difficulty is considered the 'True Halo Universe' by most of the Bungie employees and creators. Seeing that it mirrors reality of the Halo world in many ways.

Related Links

 * Easy
 * Normal
 * Legendary