I'm a Halo Heretic

[Dandark]

I put away my brand and present my fist for you to bump because agree with pretty much everything you said.

Halo 3 is my favourite game and throughout all of Halo onwards me and my friends would constantly moan about the BR being OP. People can go on all they want about how it too so much skill because you totally had to aim for the head and how it was "tactical options" and "strategic balance" and blah blah

The real reason it was so popular is because it was OP an better than every other weapon with the exception of some power weapons in some situations. It was effective in any situation and destroyed most non-power weapons, there was no reason to use an assault rifle or plasma rifle over it because it outdamaged them even in close range as long as you could hit with it which is far easier than most people want to believe.

I could keep ranting for ages but i'll just say I agree with everything the OP said, Halo 3 was my favourite and I am sad to see that the current developers can't seem to stop trying to copy Call of Duty.

 

[shrekfan246]

I'm curious, how many Halo threads have you seen in the past?

First of all, the dissenting opinion about Halo 2 is to actually enjoy its story (which I do).

Second, the dissenting opinion about the overall gameplay is to not care about the multiplayer at all (which I don't).

Thirdly, the dissenting opinion about which game is the best is to say one of either Reach, ODST, 4, or Wars (I think Reach is my favorite, but I haven't played Wars or ODST for more than an hour or two).

And, hell, on top of all of that the prevailing opinion around The Escapist in particular has always been that Halo is "massively overrated" and is everything wrong with console shooters because it introduced auto-aim and two-weapon limits and regenerating health and rabble rabble rabble.

 

[Scow2]

I like every part of Halo whenever the Flood weren't around. Halo 1 was awesome until the Flood was introduced. Halo 2 was awesome until the Flood crashed into High Charity.

Halo 3 was awesome after getting out of that one shitty base with all the flying bugs until the Flood crashed into the city... but fortunately, you ended up on the Ark, which was pretty awesome (And introduced the song "One Final Effort" at some point) as you blasted away across it in a Scorpion... and then the Flood showed up and ruined the experience again

Goddamn Flood.

 

[Dansen]

Pfft. You call yourself a heretic for just that?

Dude, I'm the guy who stands back and says, "You know that Halo 3? Worst fucking game of the series. It did so little right. But that Halo Reach...? The fucking best."

Ugh, so many halo nerds hate reach for reasons I just don't get, apparently. Unfortunately for them, it's still the best.

Geez, I like Halo 4 more then Halo 3, and Halo 4 is a disaster for the storyline, which is my primary point of playing Halo. (Single/Co-Op all day baby. Weekends maybe multi.)

YOU MONSTER! REACH NEVER HAPPENED!

That game burned me pretty hard. I was expecting the next big multiplayer shooter, but all I got was a resounding thud. Lack luster campaign and a bunch of weird stuff added to the formula always made the game feel off to me. Also lack of original maps made me mad, half the original roster were just remakes, too much fucking reliance on forge world. Its decent, but it definitely felt like Bungie didn't give a shit about it. It wasn't the swan song I was hoping for.

HALO 2/3 FOREVER BABY!

Also I think I enjoyed ODST's campaign the most overall. Too bad it wasn't a full fledged game, just a glorified expansion(thanks microsoft).

 

[BaronVH]

I just finished all four campaigns on the One, and I had played them all repeatedly over the years. I have always thought Halo 2 was the worst. At the time it came out, the ending was terrible. It just ended. It is not like a movie or a book where the cliffhanger can be resolved in two years (and we won't even mention George RR Martin here), you had to wait for a completely new console to resolve it. At the time the graphics were awful. I think the best story is CE. Simply because it has a beginning and an end with the flood twist in the middle. Halo 4 is the worst story, but I did find things enjoyable in it. What I would really love is a fully enclosed story with some actual new elements to it. Once you stopped fighting the Covenant in 4, those robotic things were way too easy and boring. Give us something new, but retaining the things that were fun. And it is called Halo. You should be on a Halo. Those things are so damn big, you would think there could be some variety in it. I do not see them as negative as many do. I enjoy all of them and want the series to continue. I will also say it: Halo 4, warts and all, is better than Destiny.

 

[silver wolf009]

Pfft. You call yourself a heretic for just that?

Dude, I'm the guy who stands back and says, "You know that Halo 3? Worst fucking game of the series. It did so little right. But that Halo Reach...? The fucking best."

Ugh, so many halo nerds hate reach for reasons I just don't get, apparently. Unfortunately for them, it's still the best.

Geez, I like Halo 4 more then Halo 3, and Halo 4 is a disaster for the storyline, which is my primary point of playing Halo. (Single/Co-Op all day baby. Weekends maybe multi.)

YOU MONSTER! REACH NEVER HAPPENED!

That game burned me pretty hard. I was expecting the next big multiplayer shooter, but all I got was a resounding thud. Lack luster campaign and a bunch of weird stuff added to the formula always made the game feel off to me. Also lack of original maps made me mad, half the original roster were just remakes, too much fucking reliance on forge world. Its decent, but it definitely felt like Bungie didn't give a shit about it. It wasn't the swan song I was hoping for.

HALO 2/3 FOREVER BABY!

Also I think I enjoyed ODST's campaign the most overall. Too bad it wasn't a full fledged game, just a glorified expansion(thanks microsoft).

ODST, now that's a game that if it'd just been worked out a bit more, could've been a killer app all on its own. No joke I think it's the best example I can think of for a first person sandbox game. Plus that sweet, mournful neo jazz soundtrack!


As for the rest of the series, I was really too young and too distanced from video games to enjoy them when they were hitting the shelves, so it wasn't until Halo 3 that I sunk any amount of hours into the series. With that said, I stay for the lore, because the Halo lore is freaking gud, and so much entertainment could be produced from it.

But no, 343 seems to desire to poo all over the lore. Stop pooing on the lore, 343.

 

[Evonisia]

But no, 343 seems to desire to poo all over the lore. Stop pooing on the lore, 343.

They can't, because they're fanboys who have been given access to literally write the Canon. That's why we got the unmitigated disaster that was Halo 4, and hey they're ruining the good Halo: CE and Halo 2 stories too, hurray!!!!!!1!!1!!

*scrolls scrolls*

Oh, how did I not expect the edgy "I can hate Halo more than you" posts?

 

[silver wolf009]

But no, 343 seems to desire to poo all over the lore. Stop pooing on the lore, 343.

They can't, because they're fanboys who have been given access to literally write the Canon. That's why we got the unmitigated disaster that was Halo 4.

*scrolls scrolls*

Oh, how did I not expect the edgy "I can hate Halo more than you" posts?

See, I felt like Halo 4 could've worked. After all, it would be kind of stupid if the Forerunner's hadn't tried something other than, you know, Omnicide. The Prometheans and their tech was cool, but I would've done without the whole "Genetic predetermination of both life and technological advancement."

Plus the ancient spacefaring humans are just... Stupid.

 

[Evonisia]

Snip.

343 should stick to writing characters, it's the only adequate thing they can do. I speak a lie, they write Cortana really well (mostly), and now we can't really use her all that much.

Everything else has just been shitting on what was already good. The Prometheans are just a shittier version of the Flood. The new Human/Forerunner/Prophet relationship is nonsensical if put charitable. WHAT THE HELL DID THEY DO THE HERETIC LEADER I WANT TO SKIN THE SOULS OF THE-... The story and gameplay shamelessly shit on the original games while relentlessly stealing from them.

If they had just went "fuck it" and went with their own story rather than trying to tack on a story to what was already good I wouldn't have minded at all. It would have sucked, but it wouldn't have tarnished something that was better.

 

[silver wolf009]

Snip.

The Prometheans are just a shittier version of the Flood..

Huh? I always got the vibe they were supposed to be reflections of the Spartans. You know, soldiers that have undergone permanent and in some cases horrific body modification, cybernetic augmentation, and sacrificed everything for the good of their country/people. A desperate, immoral measure borne out of desperation and necessity.

Especially in those terminal videos, when you see the flesh and blood Promethean say that they're willing to cyberdize themselves, knowing full well it'll basically blow their minds up and leave them stupid and bloodcrazy.

Maybe I'm looking into it more than they were though...

 

[Evonisia]

Snip.

I don't mean in terms of their creation, I mean in their relation to the plot. The Prometheans are completely extraneous when the role they filled, the former allies turned into twisted new creations of varying qualities, was satisfied by the Flood.

That's leaving aside other things like how the Dog-type-Prometheans are just the Halo 4 version of Halo 3's Flood Pure Forms with their multi-role threat (just without the Tank Pure Form bit).

2500th post, woo. First post shitting on Halo 4, 2500th shitting on Halo 4. I guess I did start how I meant to go on.

 

[Conner42]

Speaking as someone who doesn't really care about the Halo series but has managed to play all of the games(which makes me objective and whatever I have to say is going to be the right one[please pick up the sarcasm in that comment]), none of the Halo games really rise above being average.

Some people actually praise the games for the stories they have and I'm kind of wondering what they're getting out of these "stories". I mean, holy crap, how can you build 3 games around some sort of vague mythology about a weapon with some sort of vague power while fighting bad guys with some sort of vague motivation. Oh, and don't tell me it gets explained in the fucking books. I've had enough of that shit. The whole thing was popular because of the video games and the arching stories should be contained in it.

To be fair, Halo 2 does a good job of making the world feel more alive by actually giving us the Covenant's point of view. The Arbiter is actually an interesting character, I wish they would spend more time with that kind of story. It's not just that there's actually conflict, it's all coming from an interesting commentary on religion and how people can be lead into fighting in a war they don't really know a lot about.

Unfortunately, it all gets back to a lot of the boring characters we're supposed to like because they are the supposed good guys. All of the interesting stuff introduced in Halo 2 just went nowhere in the third game. It was just about "finishing the fight" and...yeah.

But all of the problems the first trilogy had, Halo 4 had these problems magnified. Holy shit! A part of the covenant comes back for...some reason, and then these bad guys want to be bad guys for...some reason, and the main bad guys is soooo inconsequential to the plot, it's not even funny. Have the writers of Star Trek: Into Darkness and The Amazing Spider Man 2 started seeping into video games?

So, yeah, I think Halo 2 is the only game that has sparks of being good. Everything else has decent gameplay and...that's about it. There's just not much to it.

(No mention of multiplayer because I don't really care about that aspect. That's just how it goes.)

 

[Lightspeaker]

Heresy? Lets go for some real heresy from someone with rose-tinted glasses very firmly in place.

As a warm up:

It's not like the agreement that CoD 4 or MW2 are the best CoD games no question,

That's a funny way to spell "CoD:UO" which had, by far, the best multiplayer of any CoD game to date. Best campaign was the original game.

Onto the OP...Halo CE had the best multiplayer by far, and making the vehicles destructible was a stupid stupid design decision which totally ruined half the fun. The pistol wasn't overpowered, it was just very strong. Slayer was indeed a terrible gamemode and the only way Halo should have ever been played in multiplayer by anyone is CTF. Danger Canyon in particular being a fantastic map.

And that's all I have to say about Halo. I miss my Halo CE days.

*drops mic and walks off*

 

[Evonisia]

It's not like the agreement that CoD 4 or MW2 are the best CoD games no question,

That's a funny way to spell "CoD:UO" which had, by far, the best multiplayer of any CoD game to date. Best campaign was the original game.

I don't find either of those games to be my favourite, but I guarantee that if you poll your typical CoD players CoD 4 or MW2 will be the highest two (or one of them will at least be number one).

I get the joke, but still.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Meh, join the club. I loved Halo:CE until the introduction of The Flood, when every level became a rehash of the first half of an excellent game. Halo 2 and 3 just reinforced this absolute nonsense, but then we got Reach - in my opinion the best Halo game to date. Gone was the cringe-worthy 'you are humanity's best hope, regardless of how much you were bullied at school' bullcrap, gone was the 'we promise to give you truly revolutionary enemy AI but will switch it off halfway through the game because we fancied an afternoon in the pub' approach and we were left with Spartans vs Covenant, the game that Halo:CE should always have been.

 

[Lightspeaker]

It's not like the agreement that CoD 4 or MW2 are the best CoD games no question,

That's a funny way to spell "CoD:UO" which had, by far, the best multiplayer of any CoD game to date. Best campaign was the original game.

I don't find either of those games to be my favourite, but I guarantee that if you poll your typical CoD players CoD 4 or MW2 will be the highest two (or one of them will at least be number one).

I get the joke, but still.

In fairness its largely because I flat out refuse to recognise CoD4 onwards as actual CoD games.

To me they're not. Call of Duty is a WW2 FPS series. It had an immensely strong opening game with a good expansion, a sequel that I personally felt was a bit of a step back but which many people love, and then a third game that was console-exclusive and just phoned in which killed off the franchise to a large extent. They tried to bring it back with WaW but it didn't really work, it was alright but not great.

All the Modern Warfare junk I've played and somewhat enjoyed in a mindless kind of way...but to me its just flat out not Call of Duty. Its an entirely separate series.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Judging by the comments here, I would say I'm a Halo Heretic myself, since I will admit to liking Halo 4.

Anyway, I agree there is a lot wrong with Halo 2, and yet I still really like it. The story is sorta everywhere, but the humanization of the Covenant was well done, and getting attached to the Arbiter by following his story is easy enough. The level design could have been better, both in visuals and overall flow of the gameplay. The Arbiter levels could have been better if your default enemies weren't the flood. Fighting the Heretics and the Brutes was interesting enough when you got the chance.

The reason Halo 2 has so many problems is simply due to the game being rushed. I bet if would have been amazing had Bungie been given the time to make their original vision a reality. I think the same could be said for most Halo games actually...

As for my favorite game, it would definitely be Halo 3. The campaign is short, but it felt the most fun to me. You never stayed in the same place for long. The enemies, albeit easy, were fun to fight. Bungie even did the impossible by making the Flood fun to fight! The story wrapped up nicely, the environments were well made and aesthetically pleasing, and I really liked the multiplayer with the limited time I spent on it. Reach was awesome too, it really gets me invested in the Halo universe, it's probably why I play it first when I replay the whole series.

 

[Ieyke]

Halo's super generic, bland sci-fi with equally bland, clunky/floaty gameplay.
It's not good sci-fi OR a good shooter, and the main character is Generic Protagonist #34948354 wearing sci-fi paintball gear.

I don't see the appeal, other than that I guess people needed SOMETHING to justify buying an Xbox...

 

[DocJ]

I don't know why, but I still love Halo 2 the most and nothing anyone says will make me think otherwise. Maybe because it's the one I played and got into the most, but I still love it. Also the hair trigger on the magnum is sweet.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

You know I've never really got the sense from the Halo fanbase as much as others that there's a really solid consensus on a lot of things (other than "Let's all pretend that Wars never happened" and "It's just not the same without Marty O'Donnell").

I personally, have always found 3 to be a bit lacklustre, and I've always felt in the minority on that one; and I've met nobody who agrees with me that ODST is the best outing in the franchise.

EDIT: I'm also gonna come out and say it... I liked Halo 4.

I didn't love it, and I will fully acknowledge that most of the faults outlined by people in this thread are correct (Seriously fuck Prometheans. I don't think I've ever encountered another enemy type in gaming made of such 100% cheese-move. Fuck their teleporting, hard-light shielding, about 4 different varieties of one-shot-killing arses all the way to hell!).

So yeah, there's that. Also the soundtrack just doesn't have the same soul (though it's by no means bad). Using more 'realistic' sound-effects shat all over some of the most iconic features of the previous games, like the high-pitched, yet smooth whine of the old warthog engine, or the razor-sharp crack of the sniper rifle. The campaign is disappointingly short even by modern FPS standards, and for all the effort gone into making Requiem 'look' big, the game is never truly as expansive as the original Halo or The Ark. Finally, I want to strangle whoever thought replacing Firefight with Spartan Ops was a good idea.

All these things, and more, are too-true criticisms of Halo 4 in my book. So why, all that said, would I still only call it middling in the series at worst?

Character. The game took a much-needed leaf out of the expanded universe and put to bed the notion that Master Chief is nothing more than a suit of armour to project onto, as has been misrepresented by too many edgier-than-thou types over the years, back before CoD surpassed Halo as the popular series that people love to hate (or perhaps more accurately: 'That people love to spend entirely too much effort telling fans on the internet just how much they couldn't care less about it honest'). What's more, I love that the games themselves are actually now questioning the ethics of the Spartan programme and the actions of the UNSC at large, now that they aren't the only things standing between humanity and extinction in the story. While I think this new direction could have gone even further in some cases, it's has laid the foundation for future games to go even deeper into those concepts.

For that, I am prepared to forgive Halo 4 a lot.