SavingPrincess said:
Halo: Combat... Evolved?
To the newcomer and non-PC gamer crowd however, Halo was a revolution. There seems to be a "rule" (in the scientific sense) of sorts when it comes to Halo; it goes like this:
If you've never played a First-Person Shooter before,
If you did not own a current-generation game-worthy PC,
If the original Microsoft Xbox was your first gaming console,
Then you absolutely loved Halo.
Of course, this rule doesn't exclude anyone who can appreciate a good game, whether they are a PC gamer or not, thank you very much. Going on to imply that if you havn't PC gamed then you're inferior just smacks of elitism - and that coming from a PC gamer. Not really giving the impression of being an impartial, critical reviewer here :/
SavingPrincess said:
You're on the mark with the jumping mechanic - I'm not really sure what they were going with there, to be honest. I also agree in principle with the movement speed - in the fiction, Spartans are meant to be insanely fast, flitting invisibly through the shadows before furiously launching their attack. In the games, however, you're much more a straight forward bullet-soaking assault type, lumbering into combat. That's the style of game they went with, and it works with the enemies predominantly having slow projectile weapons.
If MC ran around like some suspended camera in Quake or UT then a certain level of immersion would be lost, and the game would feel MUCH more arcady. Perhaps that was one of the things that helped it stand out from the crowd.
SavingPrincess said:
So, you really loved the pistol? Wow. The pistol was good, but you make it sound like you never tried the other weapons. You ideas on weapon progression sucked - I hate games like Quake where by the end of it I have 1 through 0 of weapons accumulated through the game, but I only use a couple - the biggest and the shotgun.
Progressive, cumulative weapon collection is boring. You hardly get to use the fun guns because the ammo is restricted, so you spend the entirety of the game using the same couple, with over half your collection redundant. Halo's system was new, and rather than 'simplifying' the game, it added a TON of depth. For instance, do you hang onto the rocket launcher and hope your assault rifle ammo holds out, or maybe give it to a marine? Take the sniper rifle, or try running and gunning?
Having only two weapons also meant that you were encouraged to switch around more often than in old-style, carry-the-armoury-with-you games. You always know the basic weapons would be commonly available, so you could afford to drop one for a limited ammo rare weapon. I sometimes could rip through a succession of dropped plasma rifles, overheating them the grabbing a fresh one from the floor to deal out stupid pain. Good times!
SavingPrincess said:
All opinionated. 8 weapons isn't significantly less than the standard 10 of most PC shooters of the time, and when you throw in the vehicles you should start to notice Halo's arsenal isn't that bad for the time. Plus, of course, grenades are seamlessly integrated, not extra weapons as in Half Life.
As to your whines about the Covenant weaponry, the manual makes the point that the humans havn't worked out how to recharge them yet, but there's nothing to indicate that elites can't recharge in the field. What do you think all those pink boxes they scatter around could be used for? Not really relevant to the 'review', more a pathetic nitpick on your behalf.
SavingPrincess said:
I have to agree here about the lack of effort put into some of the levels, and the habit of re-using levels later, but in reverse was a bit of a cop-out. Worse than Goldeneye though? No. The good parts of Halo are VASTLY better than the best of Goldeneye, and the worst of Halo still less confusing and better lain out than the worst of Goldeneye.
Generally your points (any your summary) are largely opinion, coupled with rose-tinted views od past games and a dislike of some of the fundamental design ideas that Halo introduced to mainstream gaming. They are
differences, not
worse aspects. If Halo had been a carbon copy of Goldeneye/Half Life mechanics with a different story it would probably be largely forgotten. But it wasn't, and so wasn't.
Also, awesome vehicle sections.
