Poll: Is Halo a generic shooter?

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I think it's sort of hard to call it that, when so many shooters were generic because they copied the formula (ie. regenerating life/shields, only two weapons etc.), but for my money, it stands as a beacon of hope in this dark world of gritty brown war shooters.

 

[Kair]

Halo is what made every other shooter that copied it generic.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

Someone please tell me what unique means then? (I know what unique means I'm just trying to make a point).

Because every single game will have elements of another, Mass Effect can be seen as a generic shooter but does that stop the game being unique in how it portrays it? Fallout 3, kinda generic RPG and generic shooter, but the way it portrays it is what makes it unique.

Gameplay will never be completely unique because once someone does it another person will copy, then everyone is doing it and it stops being unique, just as no story can be completely unique as it will ultimately be riddled with cliches.

 

[Shining_Pyrelight]

I recently started playing Halo 1 on my old XBOX and I can honestly understand all the praise it gets, it's actually really good.

Halo 2, 3, and ODST on the other hand...

 

[General Vagueness]

firstly I'm pleasantly surprised this hasn't turned into the usual (stupid) Halo-bashing with a scant few people (somewhat screechingly) defending it
It's kind of an involved question. Asking if "Halo" is generic implies the entire series and the games are pretty different from each other. The story has enough twists and turns that whether it's generic is in the eye of the beholder. As noted, the gameplay's... stableness has meant that what was new has become old, and been copied, and a lot of people don't like that, whether it's because they didn't like how it was done in the first place or because they want change for some other reason.

 

[Arashiofordo3]

I am not a fan boy of the halo series in any way. I like the games but have a tendency to look at them from a different perspective then most. While many look at the Master chiefs green frizog and thing 'oh look another bland space shooter involving SPACE MARINES' I have a tendency to remember FPS's before Halo. And I remember a lot of World War shooters

The only reason Halo could be considered 'generic' is that it became the what could be considered 'the defining measurement' People judged other shooters that came after based on the standards of Halo. It was used as the measuring stick so often that people forget that it was hugely innovative. And thusly gets mislabeled as generic.

The fan base didn't help things ether.

 

[Canid117]

It is somewhat generic but thats because it has become the model for the formula in the last ten years.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

To say Halo is generic would be so quaint that it would make an emo laugh.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

It might be a bit more generic now, that more franchises have come out, but it's not generic.

Yep ninja'd once again, Halo basicly defined the fps genre at one point in time. So allot of devlopers followed suit. Though it's far from being a dingy grey clone of other games.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I'm pretty sure Halo didn't invent vehicle sections.

Of course it didn't. Halo didn't really invent anything. It took many concepts which were introduced in many different games and put them together as a cohesive whole which worked very well.

As far as I know, Halo was the first game to incorporate entering and exiting vehicles dynamically into a campaign mode. This isn't what you'd call an invention, but it is an innovation.

Regardless, I wasn't talking only about the vehicles. I was also referring to the wide-open exterior portions. Previously terrains like this were limited multiplayer settings as in Battlefield or Tribes, Halo implemented them in a campaign.

 

[team star pug]

I think it's peerfect in the use of vechiles, with good camera and controls, but reaches campaign didn't utilise this aspect to its's full potential. as an fps series, it differs from all of the surge of recent war operas, but as a series you can pick any of them up and there preety similiar. fresh, but interchangable.

the orginality I suppose comes from the other modes. "shock" as the online multiplyer actually differs from Medal of duty, bad company ops. maps designed with less camping in mind and characters that are bright and interesting to look at.

"Gasp" at good community support, with a map creator with near limitless possibilties, bugs that are fixed and cheaters that are banned. Bungie listens to players, and rewards thoose that go the little bit futher to make the game more enjoyable for others.

"horror" as the commenter agrees with the critisisms of the series campaign. It's a bit short, doesn't take full use of all the toys it's taken to use, and the characters aren't the best. ok.

just one last point on trolls. after scouting the internet, I'm probably sure troll rage is in ratio for praise at about 2 to 1. yet most rages begin or end with " it doesn't deserve the praise it gets.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I know I'm probably restating an answer that has been said many times, but oh well.

Halo, when it was released, was a pretty exceptional game. While it wasn't revolutionary by any means, it was the best implementation of a console FPS to date (now usurped by Modern Warfare), and it altered the FPS formula in a few interesting ways that deviated from what we had grown to expect.

The problem is that for everything that Halo does to innovate, it keeps two other things stagnant. Halo: Reach is honestly not all that far removed from Halo 1, and that's not a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that Bungie has taken their formula and refined it as much as they have, but the problem is that Halo hasn't changed (though I do thank them for getting rid of the horrendous Flood levels).

One of my biggest problems with Halo has always been its level design. Bungie has created a few gems, but there are some levels that are so badly designed that it's downright shocking (The Library, anyone?). The level design in all of the games has made me think of Halo as generic, even with the vehicles (which are endlessly entertaining, I'll grant you).

I tried playing Halo 1 again recently, and I couldn't even make it halfway through; everything in it was so dated that I honestly found it unplayable. Conversely, I played Half-Life the week after, and I was actually blown away. While the gameplay and art design in Halo was substantially better, the level design in Half-Life, a game from three years prior, blew Halo out of the water. When you have an older game like that completely destroy what has become the industry standard...you know you've got a problem.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love Halo; always have, always will. The art design and the music are phenomenal and the gameplay, while dated, has been polished to a mirror shine. Despite that, I have no qualms about saying that it is a generic shooter, and one that has been surpassed by titles that came before and after. But that does not make it a bad game.

 

[Netrigan]

It's only generic because every FPS has tried to copy it since Halo: CE.

Apart from the vehicles and the control scheme (the melee, grenade additions), it's well within the FPS norm for games before it. The game it most reminds me of is Unreal, focusing on fairly lush outdoor environments and the AI of the tougher foes. It also does the same old space marine thing which everyone has been ripping off from ALIENS since Doom. Even got its own Facehugger ripoff: little creatures that infect humans (main character excluded) turning them into baddies.

Only the vehicle sections make it stand out from what came before. But, it like just about every other significant FPS of its generation (Half-Life series included) is building on what came before, adding a few tweaks to keep it from just being just another generic shooter. Once you get past a handful of early titles, the FPS genre haven't been known for its game play innovations.

As far as true innovations... I'm not sure Halo actually lays claim to anything (I've sat through a few of these threads and just about any innovation Halo fans come up with, someone can find an earlier FPS game that used it), but they assembled a lot of lesser-used elements and created something a bit different from other titles at the time. So as much as I dislike the series, I don't think the original has anything to be ashamed about on this front. They were ahead of the curve on a number of things and have popularized a fair number of good additions.

 

[Netrigan]

One of my biggest problems with Halo has always been its level design. Bungie has created a few gems, but there are some levels that are so badly designed that it's downright shocking (The Library, anyone?). The level design in all of the games has made me think of Halo as generic, even with the vehicles (which are endlessly entertaining, I'll grant you).

This is pretty much my problem with the first game. I was kind of enjoying it, but the level design was just so meh and at times awful.

 

[team star pug]

It's only generic because every FPS has tried to copy it since Halo: CE.

Apart from the vehicles and the control scheme (the melee, grenade additions), it's well within the FPS norm for games before it. The game it most reminds me of is Unreal, focusing on fairly lush outdoor environments and the AI of the tougher foes. It also does the same old space marine thing which everyone has been ripping off from ALIENS since Doom. Even got its own Facehugger ripoff: little creatures that infect humans (main character excluded) turning them into baddies.

Only the vehicle sections make it stand out from what came before. But, it like just about every other significant FPS of its generation (Half-Life series included) is building on what came before, adding a few tweaks to keep it from just being just another generic shooter. Once you get past a handful of early titles, the FPS genre haven't been known for its game play innovations.

As far as true innovations... I'm not sure Halo actually lays claim to anything (I've sat through a few of these threads and just about any innovation Halo fans come up with, someone can find an earlier FPS game that used it), but they assembled a lot of lesser-used elements and created something a bit different from other titles at the time. So as much as I dislike the series, I don't think the original has anything to be ashamed about on this front. They were ahead of the curve on a number of things and have popularized a fair number of good additions.

can you please name some halo innovations which are not really innovations, perhaps in bullet point form

 

[Shadowsafter]

Generic shooter? ************ the REASON its generic is because it made so much money and so the, to paraphrase Yahtzee 'soulless men in suits who have coin operated thought machines instead of emotions' ordered all of their haggered devs t instantly copy it as quickly as possible.
Thus the majority of games became about space marines in power armour and halo was forced into the generic corner.

 

[Netrigan]

It's only generic because every FPS has tried to copy it since Halo: CE.

Apart from the vehicles and the control scheme (the melee, grenade additions), it's well within the FPS norm for games before it. The game it most reminds me of is Unreal, focusing on fairly lush outdoor environments and the AI of the tougher foes. It also does the same old space marine thing which everyone has been ripping off from ALIENS since Doom. Even got its own Facehugger ripoff: little creatures that infect humans (main character excluded) turning them into baddies.

Only the vehicle sections make it stand out from what came before. But, it like just about every other significant FPS of its generation (Half-Life series included) is building on what came before, adding a few tweaks to keep it from just being just another generic shooter. Once you get past a handful of early titles, the FPS genre haven't been known for its game play innovations.

As far as true innovations... I'm not sure Halo actually lays claim to anything (I've sat through a few of these threads and just about any innovation Halo fans come up with, someone can find an earlier FPS game that used it), but they assembled a lot of lesser-used elements and created something a bit different from other titles at the time. So as much as I dislike the series, I don't think the original has anything to be ashamed about on this front. They were ahead of the curve on a number of things and have popularized a fair number of good additions.

can you please name some halo innovations which are not really innovations, perhaps in bullet point form

Recharging health... easy difficulty of Serious Sam.
Grenade button... Team Fortress
3rd Person Vehicle mode seamlessly mixed with foot action... Tribes 2.
Melee button... Duke Nukem 3D

Those are the major ones. But every thread I've seen where someone has listed Halo's innovations, someone eventually finds a game that did it before Halo. Although often the innovation becomes "they did it on a console first", which I find hard to accept as "innovation", such as the frequent claim that they innovated internet multi-play, despite this being mandatory on PC games long before Halo.

But they pulled together a lot of these infrequently used elements into a package unlike other games of its time... which I think is about the best a shooter can hope to achieve.

Halo is certainly the most influential shooter of recent memory, because so many have adopted these elements, but said elements were already around. They just found a really good recipe.

 

[Twilight_guy]

It was less generic when it was made. Lots of various bits become popular after it and things started looking more like Halo and thus made it look more generic, or so I've been told.

 

[Netrigan]

As far as I know, Halo was the first game to incorporate entering and exiting vehicles dynamically into a campaign mode. This isn't what you'd call an invention, but it is an innovation.

As long as we totally ignore GTA III released the year before, because it's a third person shooter

Regardless, I wasn't talking only about the vehicles. I was also referring to the wide-open exterior portions. Previously terrains like this were limited multiplayer settings as in Battlefield or Tribes, Halo implemented them in a campaign.

Again, ignoring GTA III, look no further than the huge level design of Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, Unreal, and Serious Sam. Croteam used to brag about the number of square miles in their game levels. All of them used to love having some speck on the horizon being your ultimate destination and getting there without a game loading screen.

Mostly this was a limitation of game engines. id's game engines tended to only be able to handle small areas and they were the most frequently licensed game engine. A limitation not shared by the Unreal engines, which led to some rather epic levels in games like Deus Ex.

 

[Artina89]

The first one was fun, but when I played the others they were really boring and I found them hard to get into.