Halo - WTF?

[Cobra Kai]

Halo's biggest problem is that it's quite possibly the most repetitive FPS ever created. There are just too many levels that are exactly the same structurally. How many times did you go to an entirely different place, only to enter a building that was exactly the same in design on the inside, as the last place you were at?

[Albert]

Halo's biggest problem is that it's quite possibly the most repetitive FPS ever created. There are just too many levels that are exactly the same structurally. How many times did you go to an entirely different place, only to enter a building that was exactly the same in design on the inside, as the last place you were at?

Yes, absolutely agreed. This is especially true during "The Flood", dear lord was that monotonous...

 

..Al

[Shawn]

Nobody knows where the switch is to extend the bridge in Halo 1?

 

 

Ya it's on the front of your xbox. Some folks call it the "power" switch.

[Reaperman]

you're not alone about 'not getting' certain FPS titles. I'm no fps fan (I find myself lost, bored and confused) but there have been numerous titles I have gotten into over the years. Halo isn't one of them.

 

I'll confess I've only played halo 3 in split screen multiplayer, and it was just more of the same. There was kind of a neat 'build a multiplayer map' thing but otherwise, I still had the damn maps memorized. That's bad form. As for halo 1&2, I played them mostly single player and found the plot was uninteresting and linear, scenery was simplistic and boring--actually I just failed to see why people like the series so much. Now the games I'm comparing it to had RPG elements (primarily the Deus EX games, which I *REALLY* got into).

 

Halo's just a shooter. it's for people who like shooting at their friends online, and generic enemies offline. At this, it does as well as other shooters, but not really better. The big thing it's going for it is that *EVERYBODY* plays it. So if you do like shooting people online, there are a lot of folks to choose from, and if you have buddies over for drinks, they already know how to play.

 

my list of wants for a shooter:

multi-directional plot

livible looking spaces (cups, beds, people, stuff to look at and explore)

not having to shoot everything (stealth, bribery, negotiation)

gripping story with characters I can actually care about

 

what halo seems to care about:

pickups

action

vehicles

 

Halo keeps it simple and pure, and that seems a pretty fair appraisal of the series, I think. I still don't like it.

[Red 5]

I bought the Xbox at launch and put in Halo.

 

At that time, it was quite simply the greatest thing I have ever seen video game wise.

Now it looks dated and old, but when I first saw the game it was simply amazing.

 

The fact that you could see every blade of grass and the bark on trees was never done before.

Neither was the sun shining through the trees.

Maybe on a computer, but never on a console. It was new, groundbreaking and simply stunning.

 

Whenever people would come over, I would show them the game and the response was the same.

When you got to the ring world for the first time it was mouth open, drooling, amazing.

 

And back then, the Warthog was not 'wonky' but an amazing feature. The fact that you could get into a car and drive it, or sit shotgun, or

man the guns was a groundbreaking achievement.

 

There was a thread a while back asking why Adventure was so cool.

Well, Adventure may be a tough sell all these years later. When we played it for the first time, it was ground breaking and amazing.

Today it is a block carrying an arrow that doesn't change directions.

[Artlover]

Halo's biggest problem is that it's quite possibly the most repetitive FPS ever created. There are just too many levels that are exactly the same structurally. How many times did you go to an entirely different place, only to enter a building that was exactly the same in design on the inside, as the last place you were at?

I don't think this is a fair assement at all.

 

What do you expect the inside of Halo to be? Every room being completely 100% different from the last? There is no "different place" in that aspect, as it's all the same place.

 

Ever been on a cruise ship, or a train. In the warehouse district of your city, or a typical apartment complex. Repetitiveness is not without real world precedent.

 

I think it's perfectly in line and acceptable for where and what they are portraying.

[PressureCooker2600]

One game I bought cause all my friends had it and said it was the best game ever was Gears of War.

 

That game was great in the graphics department.............but story-wise, gameplay-wise, everything else-wise.....it was boring and not fun to me.

[Shannon]

Gears of war never hit with me for some reason. It's an ok game, but other than that.

 

FPS's that really hit with me..

 

Doom (of course)

Golden Eye (fantastically addictive wish I didn't wait so long before getting it)

Perfect Dark (more so for the challenges than the story mode but I hate that damn lens flare/glare)

Oblivion (more RPG than FPS, just including it for comparison)

Half Life 1 (if you skip the latter half), and 2.

Halo 1,2. 3 didn't do much for me but I can see the appeal.

Bioshock.

Rainbow 6 Las Vegas.

 

I'm probably a rare exception that likes Halo and Half Life, but both for different reasons.

 

Driving vehicles in Halo is alot of fun. Just remember to always "point" in the direction you want to go, even when you are in reverse.

[rxd]

Well as I've played it some more I can see that there's a lot of good things to this game. I just am not thrilled with the control of the warthog and more importantly I don't like the color scheme / environmental illumination of the game. I find it very bland and it's also difficult for me to see things that I need to see. Then again I am getting old and my eyesight is not what it used to be...

[moycon]

Man, driving the Warthog in Team Slayer while you buddy mans the gattling gun in the rear is AWESOME!!

I dunno why, because you're right the controls are a bit strange, but I don't have much problem driving the vehicles.

Practice I guess.

[Cobra Kai]

Halo's biggest problem is that it's quite possibly the most repetitive FPS ever created. There are just too many levels that are exactly the same structurally. How many times did you go to an entirely different place, only to enter a building that was exactly the same in design on the inside, as the last place you were at?

I don't think this is a fair assement at all.

 

What do you expect the inside of Halo to be? Every room being completely 100% different from the last? There is no "different place" in that aspect, as it's all the same place.

 

Ever been on a cruise ship, or a train. In the warehouse district of your city, or a typical apartment complex. Repetitiveness is not without real world precedent.

 

I think it's perfectly in line and acceptable for where and what they are portraying.

What's not fair? You are agreeing that the level design is repetitive, the only difference is that you find it acceptable and I find it bland, boring and dull.

[moycon]

What's not fair? You are agreeing that the level design is repetitive, the only difference is that you find it acceptable and I find it bland, boring and dull.

 

One game where the level design didn't seem repetitive to me was Condemed : Criminal Origin. Granted it was a fairly short game, but one of my favorites of all time. Check it out if you haven't already.

[Artlover]

What's not fair? You are agreeing that the level design is repetitive, the only difference is that you find it acceptable and I find it bland, boring and dull.

And you didn't answer my question. What do you expect the inside of Halo to be?

 

It's completely realistic with regards to what one would expect something like that would be like. It's just a big singular ship/weapon. Personaly, I'd be wondering what kind of drugs the designers were doing if it WASN'T repetitive given that fact.

[Reaperman]

The thing about it is that Halo isn't just a popular game. It's the best selling game series of all time. And reviews of it haven't just been 'good' they've been orgasmic.

 

That's a lot of hype to live up to, and for that I expect more than a solid little shooter with a lot of folks to blast online.

For 'perfect' I expect a the details, character interaction and plot the depth of game like Deus Ex, combined with the art direction of Advent Rising. I'd also expect a soundtrack that was at least *THERE* and memorable combined with a character with a proper name and some personality that I can attach myself to. Sorry, halo's a good game for some people, but it's not really in the same universe with 'perfect games'.

 

and can anybody really think that the 'perfect' game could be described with phrases like "vehicle movement isn't that hard"?

Halo's good, but it rides in on a tidal wave of hype that leaves so many people just a little disappointed in the ultimate game.

Edited September 20, 2008 by Reaperman

[moycon]

"well vehicle movement isn't that hard"?

 

Who said that?

Vehicle movement is a piece of cake to me. The controls are different, but far from hard.

Don't make stuff up to try and support your opinion.

 

Ever notice that outstanding campaign games (BioShock, Condemned, Half Life 2) Don't feature online play ot feature lame online?

Ever notice kick ass online games have lame campaigns (Unreal Tournament, Shadowrun)

Halo does a great job of combining the two. It makes up for it's short campaign with 4 player co-op.

It's VS and team games are second to none.

You can play that game over and over and have a blast.

You can play it for a year straight and it's always different!!

The same cant be said for those kick ass single player FPS's.

Unfortunately after the first playthrough, you know exactly what to expect.

[rxd]

OK, now I get why the warthog controls like it does. It's so that later on in the game when you get to the ghosts and the tank all the vehicles control the same way. Actually I'm really starting to like this game now that I'm on Halo and driving around a tank and blowing things up. Way better than the stumbling around the original ship and that cave totally lost was, at least to me. I can how advanced this was as an original xbox release game....

[Hyper_Eye]

I was able to grasp the vehicle controls right off the bat due to a previous game I had played with the exact same controls... QuakeRally. Man... best mod ever. When this mod came out I really spent more hours then could be considered reasonable playing it.

[Artlover]

Ever notice that outstanding campaign games (BioShock, Condemned, Half Life 2) Don't feature online play ot feature lame online?

Ever notice kick ass online games have lame campaigns (Unreal Tournament, Shadowrun)

Halo does a great job of combining the two. It makes up for it's short campaign with 4 player co-op.

It's VS and team games are second to none.

?? You're kinda contradicting yourself there. If Halo did such a great job combining the two, then it wouldn't need to be making up for it's short campaign mode.

 

Besides, this still ignores (and I know a lot of people just like to refuse to accept this fact) that a lot of people "don't care about on-line". So things like 4 player co-op, vs and team games do nothing to "make up" any weaknesses to these people.

[moycon]

So things like 4 player co-op, vs and team games do nothing to "make up" any weaknesses to these people.

 

Let me ask you somthing Artlover. Has there ever in the history of this world been a product released that satisfied every single person on the face of the planet? LOL Halo sells a lot of games because a lot of gamers like Halo. The fact a handful have issues with it doesn't change anything. Gamers know. It's a decent game and like any product ever released, it could be improved on.

 

I can't speak for Halo and Halo2 but I think Halo 3's campaign is great myself. I honesly got bored in parts of Half Life 2 and Far Cry. (Both very good, very long campaigns) I just wanted the games to be over. I got other thing to do and other games to play. I'd take a campaign that I could play over the course of a few days and can be played mutilple times and have it be different and played with different people coming up with new co-op strategies over a straight forward FPS any day.

 

When I said they "make up"...I ment they make up to the whiners who complain the story was too short. If those people (the whiners) don't like playing online with people and don't benefit from online play.... Meh, guy....you can't please everyone I guess hu? Those people bitching about that didn't do their research because Halo's always been about online play more than anything else. My advice to them. Quit bitching and simply don't buy another Halo game. After 3 releases, a person should "get it" by now. The franchise, it's 8 years old. You got no excuse at this point.

Edited September 21, 2008 by moycon

[JamesD]

I finished Halo 3 and it's not a bad game but I thought Half Life and Half Life 2 were better.

[aikainnet]

Okay, I am going to throw my 2 cents in, even though they usually aren't worth it.

 

First of all, I really didn't like the series to begin with... I am not a FPS person, not on consoles at least. IMO they have clunky controls due to the imperfect aiming systems because of control sticks instead of the preciseness of a mouse, but even with that, the Halo series is a great series to get into if you need a game to play with mass amounts of people and I will choose it over many of the other co-op/online games that I currently own.

 

This game may not have the elements that I like in a game, but it satisfies me when I want to kill out of the ordinary aliens with a group of friends. Sometimes it is just better to go on a mauling spree against them instead of working together, it really depends on your mood that day. Being able to choose between the normal deathmatch, going co-op, team deathmatch, and CTF, is what makes the game in my own opinion, something somewhat well made.

 

(Sorry if this post gets confusing around the end... my mind started wandering and I lost my point in there haha.)

[Cobra Kai]

What's not fair? You are agreeing that the level design is repetitive, the only difference is that you find it acceptable and I find it bland, boring and dull.

And you didn't answer my question. What do you expect the inside of Halo to be?

 

It's completely realistic with regards to what one would expect something like that would be like. It's just a big singular ship/weapon. Personaly, I'd be wondering what kind of drugs the designers were doing if it WASN'T repetitive given that fact.

It doesn't matter if the design of the Halo 'makes sense'. It can make perfect sense, but it still leaves the game horribly repetitive to a fault. DOOM didn't have the repetition in level design that Halo has, that's how bad it is. Thankfully, Halo makes sense though.

[Video]

Halo was at the time (remember, it came out in 01) an over all outstanding game that outdid most things befor it, as I said, for it's time. Now you can get better sure.

 

As for Half Life...eh, at least with HALO there's no loading.

 

Oh, and the bridge controlls are on the right when you get into the big room, go to the wall, there's a bunch of those big square things and a ramp up the wall with some Elites in it, (depending on difficluty setting) Just follow the path to the end, there's a panel there that you push to extend the light bridge.

[Artlover]

It doesn't matter if the design of the Halo 'makes sense'. It can make perfect sense, but it still leaves the game horribly repetitive to a fault. DOOM didn't have the repetition in level design that Halo has, that's how bad it is. Thankfully, Halo makes sense though.

Guess it all depends on what you want in a game. FPS's to me are different then other games as I don't want to feel like I'm playing a game when playing one. I want to feel like I'm actually there, doing it. To that end, I'll take realism above all else. Repetitive, suits me. Because it accomplishes for me what I want an FPS to accomplish for me. Doom was ok, but it hardly sucked me in to believe anything. To me the best thing about Doom was Super Turbo Turkey Puncher 3.

[The MilkMan]

I finally found the stupid passage to the switch. Why do games makers think it's fun to make everything so dark that it's virtually impossible to find something unless you happen to stumble across it while looking in the perfect direction? This has happened to me so many times in various games. Does anyone actually enjoy doing this?

 

Well onward now truing to save humanity....

Dont forget about your light. In dark areas switch on your light. Well, maybe in Halo1 you dont have one, but I used it in Halo2. (I think it's the Left shoulder button)