Heroic
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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 have found that Normal is too easy.